Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/213

 2< S. N 11, MAR. 15. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

205

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 18S6.

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A NATIONAL GALLERY OF PORTRAITS.

At length there is a prospect of England having a National Gallery of Portraits. The pledge which Lord Mahon gave the House of Commons, that he would bring that question before Parliament, he has, as Earl Stanhope, most fully and most successfully redeemed. On Tuesday the 4th, in a speech which was received with marked attention, Lord Stanhope moved an address to Her Ma- jesty, praying Her Majesty to take into consideration the expediency of forming by degrees a gallery of original portraits of persons distinguished in British history by eminence in arts, science, literature, or arms. He thought the opportunity furnished by the establishment of a new National Gallery should be taken to connect with it, as part of the building, a gallery of portraits of eminent men. No country was richer in portraits than England, but at present they were scattered in many different places, and were difficult of access. A very moderate sum would be sufficient to commence such a gallery in a temporary building, or apartments appropriated to it. A series of national portraits thus brought together would be a source of constant popular interest, would give an improving impulse to art, and be an incentive to exertion in those who were toiling in those pursuits by which greatness is acquired.

The motion, which was supported by the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Ellenborough, Lord Carnarvon, and the Duke of Argyll, was carried unanimously; and on the Friday following Lord Breadalbane communicated to the House Her Majesty's answer, announcing " that Her Ma- jesty would give directions for ascertaining how the object which the House had in view could be best at- tained."

We should have been glad to preserve in our columns the speeches delivered upon the present interesting occasion ; but we have not space for them. We think it right, how- ever, that a subject of such importance should be kept before our readers, for we are sure that the more it is con- sidered, the greater favour will the project find in the eyes of the public.

And we have besides one especial object in view. Lord Stanhope has most wisely proposed no grand scheme, which, by its vastness, might dazzle the imaginative, but would be sure, from its attendant costliness, to frighten the more practical members of the Legislature; and, in- stead of suggesting the building of a New Gallery to receive the portraits, and an annual outlay of many thou- sands for their purchase, he declared, and we believe the result will justify his foresight, "that if only a temporary apartment were erected, and only a grant of 1000/. made on the estimates of this year, the whole thing would be done."

We desire, therefore, to point out to Lord Stanhope, and the committee to whom the management of the gallon- is to be entrusted, that nowhere in the Metropolis could so lilting, so convenient, so inexpensive a spot be found

for the proposed gallery as WESTMINSTER HALL. Abound- ing, in that essential for a picture gallery, surface space, dry, well-lighted, thoroughly ventilated, always under the charge of the police, the approach to the Courts of Law, and to both Chambers of the Legislature, that magnificent chamber, at once a monument of the archi- tectural skill of our ancestors, and asj-mbol of the strength and solidity of our Constitution, would receive the only improvement of which it is susceptible by being converted into a NATIONAL GALLERY OF PORTRAITS.

SUFFOLK NOTES.

From the second volume of Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural His- tory, 8vo., Bury St. Edmunds, 1855, I have gathered a little handful of notes illustrative of matters discussed in "N. & Q." I commend the whole volume to the notice of your readers ; it is very interesting, and is carefully compiled. Such of your readers as may not meet with it, will be glad of some of these extracts.

Boohs in Churches.

" On the north side of the chancel is a wooden lectern, on which lie Erasmus's Paraphrase and the Book of Homilies. When Sir John Cullum wrote his History, Bishop Juel's Works was with them." Vol. ii. p. 5., art. HAWSTED CHURCH.

Local Tradition : Epitaph by Dr. Donne.

" Against the south wall of the chancel, by the altar, is the effigy in alabaster of Elizabeth, the beautiful and only daughter of the last Sir Robert and Lady Anne Drury, who died in 1G10, at the early age of fifteen. She is represented all in white, leaning on her elbow; an at- titude which is believed to have originated the tradition of her death being caused by grief, occasioned by her father giving her a box on the ear. The epitaph, 'finely written in gold upon iett,' is ascribed to the pen of Dr. Donne ; who has also celebrated her memory in an elegy, in which these remarkable lines occur :

" ' . . Her pure and eloquent blood, Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, That one might almost say her body thought.' " Ibid., Vol. ii- p. 7., art. HAWSTED CHURCH.

Curious Use of Glass.

" Hawsted House, or Place, was altered in the time of Charles II., when it was plastered over, and thickly spangled with fragments of glass, ' which,' according to Sir John Cullum, ' made a brilliant appearance when the sun shone, and even by moonlight.' " Ibid., vol. ii. p. 23., art. HAWSTED PLACE.

Dole Table. Are these tables at all common in any parts of England ? In the porcli, which is nearly at the western end of the south aisle, of Eye Church :

" Under the west window is a dole table of red brick, with a stone slab on the top, and a stone panel on the front of it. A panel of stone, let into the wall above it,