SAMUEL DALE AND THE DALE FAMILY. 51
letter-piece, which shows that it is the fourth volume of some
bulky edition or the works of the great Greek physician Hippo-
crates.
The second portrait (fig. 2) portrays, nearly full-face, a
plump round-faced lady of about the same age, fashionably
attired.
The third portrait (fig. 3) is painted, like the others, within
an oval; but the background, instead of being quite plain,
consists of trees, through which we get a glimpse of a lake,
with mountains beyond. It depicts, about two-thirds length
and almost full-faced, a nice-looking youth, about seven or eight
years of age. A broad dark-blue sash, passing over his right
shoulder, supports at bis lett hip a drum, on which is painted
the Royal Cypher (G.R.) of King George III., surmounted by a
large crown in red and white. The lettering on the drum was
evidently invisible to the camera.
The question naturally arises:—If these portraits do not
present Samuel Dale and members of his family, whom do they
portray?
There is now no possibility of obtaining a conclusive reply,
but there are known facts which justify a pretty confident
conclusion. Thus, the inclusion in the male portrait cf a volume
of the works of Hippocrates is almost sufficient to establish the
fact that the man represented belonged to the medical pro-
fession. Again, there is every reason to believe that all the
three portraits belong to one another. Further, the fact that
the portraits came from Braintree and have been reputed, as
far back as we know anything of them, to represent members
of the Dale family of that town, is fairly-conclusive evidence
that they really do represent members of that family.
These things being as stated, it is natural we should wish
to know which particular members of the Dale family we may
suppose them to represent. In attempting to solve this problem,
I propose to give some information I have recently unearthed.
The life-history of Samuel Dale himself has been investigated
in part by Prof. G. S. Boulger, but there still remains much
that is obscure in connection with both it and the genealogy
of his family.
At or slightly before the middle of the Seventeenth Century,