Font lookup time under gnome?

[Tom Horsley]

OK, with some helpful hints from private mail I got when this
thread was about emacs startup time, it appears to be the code
to dig up my preferred font that slows emacs startup to a crawl.

So what the devil makes finding a font so slow when running
under gnome? The same emacs startup file finds the same font
on the same system quick like a bunny when I'm not in a gnome
session.