44 TEE MODEL MERCHANT 



S.S.'' was introduced by Henry the Fourth, in 1407, as his livery; and 

 that the red rose was the distinguishing badge of the Lancaster family, 

 of which Henry IV. was a member ; indeed Dallaway says that it was his 

 cognizance. There was in possession of the late Horace Walpolc, Earl of 

 Orford,' a picture of Henry the Fifth and his family, in which appeared 

 the roses and portcuUis. Lord Orford, therefore, presumed that it must 

 have been painted in a later reign ; this, however, might or might 

 not have been the fact, and it would be difficult to decide, unless we could 

 positively assign a date to the introduction of these ornaments. If, 

 however, "Whittington sat for his portrait the year previous to his 

 death, as is very probable, Henry the Sixth had then begun to reign, 

 the known badge of whose family was the Eed Eose : but supposing 

 that these were trifling anachronisms, I don't think they would afiect 

 the case. Elstrack had to represent Whittington to the public in the 

 robes by which he would be known to them as Lord Mayor of London, 

 such as they were acquainted with. Painting in oil had not been 

 invented above two years at the time when Whittington died. John 

 Van Eyck, the inventor of that art, was then painting in Germany, but 

 it is questionable whether there were any painters in oil at that time in 

 England, and Elstrack may have been obliged to draw somewhat on 

 his fancy, for the embellishments of his portrait , not indeed, for the 

 likeness, for fortunately we do possess a contemporary likeness of him 

 on his death bed, illuminated * on the deed of the Ordinances of his 

 Alms Houses, of which I shall have to speak by and bye. Now on 

 comparing Elstrack' s print with that drawing, the likeness is as 

 identical as can possibly be, considering the circumstances, — one being 

 represented in health and the other on a death bed. But it is not at 

 all improbable that there had been another original likeness from which 

 Elstrack made his engraving ; for John Carpenter, Whittington's noble 



h Tromptorium Parvulorum, published by Camdon Society, in Note, p. 87. 

 Sec also Fosbrokc's EncyclojiacUa of Antiquities, p. 293. 



i Walpole's Anecdotes, vol. 1, p. 55. 



k Dr. Ilcnry {History of Great Britain, vol. 10. p. 213.) says the illuminators 

 of books supplied the place both of historians and portrait painters at that period. 

 They canicd their art to great perfection, and give us a view not only of the 

 persons and dresses of our ancestors, but also of their customs, manners, and 

 employments. 



