Who buys the "old masters" stolen from great houses and famous collections? It seems clear that an expert gang of thieves of these treasures are at work and they certainly would not be unless they were sure of their market. The night before Shillinglee Park, the Sussex home of Lord Winterton (who will be remembered as the first Chairman of the House of Commons China Committee and President for two years of the China Association), was broken into while he and Lady Winterton were away, and a portrait of the first Earl Winterton painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1764, was stolen. The thieves knew "what they were about, as they took two other portraits from their frames, which might from general appearance have been the one wanted, before they found Reynolds's signature on the back. They also took a valuable miniature, a snuff-box set with diamonds and some gold coins.
This is the fourth picture robbery in the past nine months. Last November thieves broke into Lord Harrowby's house near Stafford and Snuff has never quite gone out. At the dinners of City Companies and other old institutions it is always handed round before dessert, partly at least as a means of clearing the head from the torpor induced by heavy food and wines. The difficulty is to know how much to take and how. In the 18th century snuff-taking was an art. If the habit really revives, we may confidently have a further rise in the education rate to pay for classes in Snuff-taking in ihe national schools,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.