m ANNUAL REGISTER, I»16. 



mean time, however, the defen- 

 dant having informed some of 

 his friends of iiis prize, one of 

 them hinted, that after all it 

 might not be a genuine picture 

 by Claude, probably without hav- 

 ing seen it, and Mr. Gray imme- 

 diately took the alarm, and re- 

 fused to complete his contract. 

 The plaintiff was consequently 

 under the necessity of bringing 

 this action ; and the principal 

 question was, whether this pic- 

 ture were or were not a Claude? 

 Upon this point the evidence was 

 most decisive 5 for, excepting that 

 the learned counsel could not 

 prove by eye-witnesses that the 

 pencil of Claude, who was born 

 in 1600, had been seen employed 

 upon it, he could adduce the most 

 imequivocal testimony to its au- 

 thenticity : the opinion of those 

 competent to judge was all the 

 law required. 



Mr. James Butt deposed, that 

 he had seen the picture in ques- 

 tion for the first time at Mr. 

 Hill's, and esteemed it a land- 

 scape by Claude Loraine. The 

 witness very much admired the 

 picture ; and knomng that Mr. 

 Gray had been purchasing pic- 

 tures, not very wisely, the wit- 

 ness, from friendship to him, 

 wished to recommend a fine one 

 to him. He in consequence wrote 

 to the defendant in the begin- 

 ning of August last, stating that 

 he had seen a very fine Claude 

 that he thought would suit him, 

 taid if the defendant were dis- 

 posed to inspect it, the witness 

 would call the next day, but that 

 he might take a week to deter- 

 iiiine on the propriety of pur- 

 chasing. The letter also re- 

 ([uested that the defendant would 



consult his friends, and not act 

 merely upon the opinion of the 

 witness. The witness saw the 

 defendant the next day, who 

 agreed to look at the Claude, and 

 asked the price, which the wit- 

 ness refused to name until the 

 picture had been seen : he also 

 declined mentioning to whom it 

 belonged : but said that it might 

 be had cheap, as the owner was 

 much in want of money. The 

 defendant still pressed to be in- 

 formed, and the witness an- 

 swered in joke, " If you think 

 it stolen, you had better have 

 nothing to do with it." The day 

 following the witness understood 

 that Mr. Gray had seen it, and 

 he told him that the price was 

 1,200 guineas : the defendant 

 said it WEis a great deal of money, 

 and added, that Mr. Angerstein 

 had given only 2000 guineas for 

 his finest Claude : the witness 

 knew that that was only a mis- 

 representation, for the sake of 

 reducing the price demanded : at 

 length, in about a week, the de- 

 fendant offered 1000 guineas, 

 which the witness, on his own 

 discretion, considering the neces- 

 sity of the seller, agreed to take 

 for ready money only ; but af- 

 terwards, he said that a week or 

 a fortnight would not be of con- 

 sequence. 



The question being put to Mr. 

 Scarlett, on the other side, he 

 admitted that the defendant had 

 had the picture home, and had 

 returned it to Sir T. Lawrence, 

 at whose house it had been 

 placed. 



Cross-examined. — The witness 

 said, that he was what was com- 

 monly called a merchant, with 

 very little to do : he Was not a 



dealar 



