Note (return) — Replies.

Now, in the seventeenth century there existed at Haarlem three Societies of Rhetoricians. One, the Oude Kamer[2], erected in 1503, had chosen for its motto, Trou moet blÿcken; and for its symbol, the pelican or speelkoornen; whilst her shield was emblazoned as follows,—in the middle our Saviour crucified, and, behind the cross, Æneas bearing his father. To this Kamer the painting alludes, of which Dr. James H. Todd says, "That nearest the fire-place is oval, representing the crucifixion. There is a white scroll across the picture, containing words which I cannot make out." Had the sentence not been obliterated, the querist would have read, Trou moet blÿcken. The second allegory, with illegible subscription, cannot be anything but the ensign of the so-called Jonge Kamer at Haarlem, de Wÿngaertrancken, with the symbol, Liefde boven al (Love above all). I presume this on account of the framework of the painting, ornamented on each side with bunches of red grapes (vine-branches) dependent from below. These bunches have been figured in the identical way on a scutcheon of the same Kamer, which is still preserved in the council-hall of Beverwÿk: there also we see, to the right, a female statue representing Faith; and, on the upper part, in the middle, another with a burning heart in her hand, and two (not three) children at her side, representing Charity, who thus has been placed above all the rest, conformably to the motto of the Society. But, in lieu of the third child, stands immediately under her on the Beverwÿk blazon another woman, Rhetorica; and to the left, instead of the man with the hawk (?), another female representing Hope, and completing, in this manner, the Christian trilogy (1 Cor. xiii. 13.). Besides, in the middle compartment, not John Baptist but our Lord is seen, standing as victor over Hell, in which Satan is conspicuous. However, notwithstanding these deviations, I think the resemblance too striking not to consider the painting on the wall as the ensign of the Jonge Kamer. The third or last picture, representing the marriage of Christ with the Church, is the well-known blazon of the third Rederÿkerkamer at Haarlem, surnamed de Flaamsche (the Flemish), which bore the Witte Angieren (white stock-flowers, not lilies), with the motto, In liefd getrouw. This shield too is still preserved in the town-hall at Beverwÿk.