Note 27 — THE CASTLE OF CHEPSTOW, Monmouthshire.

Here follows a disquisition on the genuineness of the picture, which concludes:—“Such is the account attached to this picture, which, after what has been said, does not positively prove it to be the portrait of Henry Marten; but I am the more inclined to assent to the traditionary evidence, because it has all the character of such a man. It further seems to have been taken while he was in the army, from his wearing armour, being Cromwell’s major-general over the county of Surrey, in which command his conduct was marked by the most flagrant rapacity; so that the picture must have been brought to St. Pierre, and not painted during his residence in Monmouthshire. If, therefore, the picture must be received as the portrait of Harry Marten, I am led to believe that, when his family came to share in his confinement, they brought it with them to Chepstow, and, after Marten’s decease, gave it to Mr. Lewis’s ancestors. It is in the finest preservation.”