prising that ?fcffe -numeroushluminations'' of the manuscript before us'lSmgist
chiefly of battle scenes, varied now' and then with tournaments. latter
are • always accompanied by; numerous figures of ladies,- as spectators, and
have> furnished us with" the greater part of-the shbjeg,ts-of pur plate. From-
•one of the battle scenes we give the wood-cut on the^-present page,^Fe^reseptaflg
â group of” warriors carrying-off the' body of their king, who? has. been slain.
The pictures in this volume are interesting to the artist a$; being ,in various
states of. progress, some only half ^finished, while' ptheis are merely sketched
in o u fm ^ f This is'-not an uncommon occurrence in old illuminated manuscripts.
Hère and there other subject^ of interest are represented )' ^particularly
Some views of towns, and a curious group-of cardrplayers;1 which is of
importance as-being the earliest known drawing repres.enti^grbbopbè splaying
at cards." We know from various authorities, that tKey_werë;in'
time, as they are mentioned inr conjunction with ' other-games about,' Qgàbôn
after, the middle of the fourteenth century ; but they~cannot traced, even
by the allusions in old writers, to an earlieriperiod. . N
Our initial letter is taken from a manuscript‘in the British Wffieunx -(Jpg*
,Eeg. 13E. ix), written towards the end of the fourteenth çè^$u|||lp