LOST IN THE MIST OF AGES.

(_EXTRACTS FROM A CRITIQUE ON AN EXHIBITION TO SUCCEED THE GUELPHIAN,
IN_ 19--.)

_No_. 76. _Portrait of a Warrior_. This picture is described in the
Catalogue as the Duke of WELLINGTON, who, it will be remembered, won,
in the early part of the last century, the Battle of Waterloo, and
invented a new kind of boots. The face is adorned with long black
whiskers and moustaches, and an eyeglass not unlike the traditional
portrait of the great W.E. GLADSTONE, Second Earl of BEACONSFIELD, as
depicted by a now nearly forgotten artist, called DUNDREARY SOTHERN,
or SOTHERN DUNDREARY. The Duke (if, indeed, it be the Duke) is wearing
the uniform of the 3rd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers, a corps that
was raised some ten years after His Grace's death, a fact that would
argue that the painting was either a posthumous work, or intended
to represent someone else. Accepting the alternative suggestion, the
picture may hand down to posterity the features of BURDETT COUTTS
(husband of the Baroness of that name), J.L. TOOLE, the popular
Comedian, HENRY IRVING (his friend), the Rev. C.H. SPURGEON, or (and
this is the most likely hypothesis) PRINCE GEORGE of Wales.

No. 102. _Miniature of a Lady Unknown_. It is impossible at this
lapse of time to identify the original of this portrait. No doubt
she belonged to a short-lived and somewhat degraded class known as
"professional beauties." In one hand she holds an instrument called an
opera-glass, which was used in the last century at trials for murder
at the Old Bailey. The hair she wears on her head is evidently false,
and has been supplied from some foreign peasantry. Her hat is adorned
with a stuffed bird, suggestive of the cruelty of her nature. As she