and upon each square was painted by Watson the head of a man or woman, some of antique character, and some of the men wearing helmets and crowns. He could not remember who or what they represented.

I am glad to be able to supply the blank in Dunlap's memory, in the case of one head on those shutters, a pen and ink sketch of which I send you for publication in the RECORD if you think it worthy of a place there. It was made by my grandmother when she was a young lady of eighteen years. She was a native of Perth Amboy, and emigrated to Ohio at about the year 1802. In a letter to my mother, dated at Marietta, in December, 1806, in which she enclosed the sketch, she wrote:

"I remember Watson when he was a feeble old man, and had given up painting. His nephew, Alexander, who had come from Scotland on the promise of becoming his heir, then lived with him; also a niece, a maiden lady quite in years, was his

housekeeper. I often looked with wonder upon the head of a wrinkle-faced old woman painted upon one of the shutters of his house in which he had formerly worked. She had her eyes cast toward heaven, in a sort of extasy, and in her hand she held what appeared to be the top of a lighted torch. One day I made a copy of it with a pencil, and, as you say your little boy is fond of pictures, I have copied the pencil sketch, in this letter, with my pen. I think you may consider it a pretty accurate copy of Watson's picture. Who or what it represents, I know not."

I presume it is a priestess bearing a torch-possibly an oracle of Delphos or some other place. You may be able, better then I, to determine the question. I send you the letter to my mother, with the drawing, which has the merit of being a copy of a picture, by the first painter who pursued his vocation in the Unitel States, or rather within the domain comprised within our Republic.'

s

"Anamaboe 28th Feby 1783. "Gentlemen, this third of mine to you and now I am to Lett you know my proceed'gs sense my last, Dated 3d Jany, & I have Gott 13 or 14 hhds of Rum yet Left a bord & God noes when I shall Gett clear of it. Y Traid is so dull it is actuly a noof to make a man Creasey. My cheefe mate after making four or five Trips in the boat was taken sick & Remains very bad yett: then I sent Mr Tay. lor & he Gott not well & three more of my men has sick. James Dixon is not well now and wors than y' have wore out my small cable also oakam & have been oblige to buy one heare, for I thought the con cequance of y' Intrust on bord this vesiel was Two great to Rusk without a Cable to trust to, therefore I begg you not Blaim me in so doeing. I should be glad I cood come Rite home with my slaves, for my vesiel will not last to proceed farr. We can see day Lite al round her bow under deck. However I hope She will carry me safe home once more, I

need not inlarge. Heare Lyes Captain hamlet, James Jepson, Carpenter, Butler & Lindsay. Gardner is dun. firginson is Gon to Leward. All these is Rum Ships. butler is in a brig with 150 hhds. from Barbados, belongs to Cape Coast Castle. I've

1 The correspondent of the RECORD (who desires anonymity) is right in supposing the picture to be the head of a priestess or devotee. It was doubtless copied by Watson from Montfaucon's " Antiquity Explained" (the English translation was published in 1721), in which the whole figure given, with a description. She is either a priestess of Bacchus or a Manade woman consecrated to Bacchus, who, by voluntary enthusiasm, made herself mad. In the full length figure in Montfaucon's work, she is represented as fully draped from the waist, and sitting upon a round base adorned with pilasters. The object mistaken for a torch is a vase, covered with grape and ivy leaves, and emitting a flame from its mouth. Such was the form of the lamps carried by the leading Egyptian priest in the procession of Isis. Apuleius says, "It gave a strong light, but was not at all like the lamps we use in our feasts at night. It was a golden vase, which let the flame out through a hole in the socket."

The writer has a small pencil sketch of a nude athlete, drawn by Watson, which shows remarkable skill in depicting anatomical developments. Can any reader of the RECORD give any further account of Watson than is related in the first volume of Dunlap's "Arts of Design," or tell where there is one of his pictures in existence?-[EDITOR.]