25 OCTOBER 1919, Page 14

POPE AS A PAINTER.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Si ,—Will your correspondent. " D. R. B." kindly give a reason for asserting that the Mansfield portrait of Betterton is " authenticated" ? Dr. Johnson said that it was " supposed to be" by Pope, and that if taken from life it must have been before the poet put himself under the tuition of Jervas, as Betterton was then dead. The first Earl of Mansfield, when a young man, was a friend of Pope, and it would be interesting to know if the present Earl has any documentary evidence authenticating the picture.—I am, Sir, &c., New Maiden. S. B. BARRETT.