composition and colouring, and a portion of it might be worth copying.
There is a pretty illumination of two women sitting down. A table cloth,
with dinner upon it, is spread upon the grass between them:--a bottle is
plunged into a running stream from a fountain, with an ewer on one side in
the fore-ground. One woman plays upon the guitar while the other eats her
dinner. The second volume has a fine illumination divided into four parts,
with a handsome border--not quite perhaps so rich as the preceding. Among
the subjects, there is a singular one of Lancelot du Lac helping a lady out
of a cauldron in a state of nudity: two gentlemen and a lady are quietly
looking on. The text appertaining to this subject runs thus: "_Et quant
elle voit lancelot si lui dist hoa sire cheualiers pour dieu ostes moy de
ceste aure ou il a eaue qui toute mait Et lancelot vint a la aure et prent
la damoiselle par la main et lentrait hors. Et quant elle se voit deliure
elle luy chiet aux pies et lui baise la iambe et lui dist sire benoite soit
leure que vous feustes oncques nes, &c_." The top of the last leaf is cut
off: and the date has been probably destroyed. The colophon runs thus:

_Cy fenist le livre de tristan et de la
royne yseult de cornouaille et
le graal que plus nen va_.

The present is a fine genuine old copy: in faded yellow morocco binding--
apparently not having been subjected to the torturing instruments of De
Rome.

LE ROY ARTUS. No. 6963. Folio. I consider this to be the oldest illuminated
MS. of the present Romance which I have yet seen. It is of the date of
1274, as its colophon imports. It is written in double columns, but the
illuminations are heavy and sombre;--about two inches in height, generally
oblong. There are grotesques, attached to letters, in the margin. The
backgrounds are thick, shining gold. At the end:

_Explicit de lanselot. del lac[41]
Ces Roumans fu par escris. En lan
del Incarnation nostre Segnor. mil
deus cens et sixante et quatorse le
semedi apres pour ce li ki lescrist_.

It is in a fine state of preservation. Mons. Meon shewed me a manuscript of
the ST. GRAAL, executed in a similar style, and written in treble columns.

LE MEME. This is a metrical MS of the XIIIth century: executed in double
columns. The illuminations are small but rather coarse. It is in fine
preservation. Bound in green velvet. Formerly the outsides of this binding
had silver gilt medallions; five on each s