By C. Penruddocke. 289 
: At Narford Hall, Swaffham, the residence of 
Information, ; 
Mr. Algernon Mr. Fountaine, is a fine portrait, said to be that of 
Ee oeaeaane. Mrs. Lane, wife of Colonel John Lane, of Bentley, 
painted on canvas by Mary Beale, and in the muniment room is the 
Royal grant by King Charles II. of £1000 to each of Colonel John’s 
six unmarried daughters as a marriage portion. The grant is signed 
the 28th of June, 1669, and the names given of the six ladies are 
Grace, Lettice, Elizabeth, Jane, Dorothy, and Francis. I am in- 
debted to Mr. W. Amhurst, T. Amherst, for an excellent photo- 
graphic copy of this deed, taken by his daughter. 
Sir E. Landseer has painted a romantic picture of the start from 
Bentley. The grouping of the “dramatis persone” from the 
elegant figure, in her riding habit, of Jane Lane, down to the 
kennel-boy coupling up his hounds, is poetically treated. Lady 
Warde—herself a Jane Lane—has been kiad enough to present me 
with an admirable tinted photograph of this in an oak frame. 
A picture of Bentley Hall as it stood at this time is preserved in 
: 2 both Plot and Shaw, writers on county history, and 
pyiimors'« Hist. 2 small portion of the original remains encased by 
the present building, which was erected, it is said, 
out of the royal grants allowed to the Lane family. So late as 
1735 Bentley Park was stocked with deer. 
The family bible, in which is the entry of the marriage ‘between 
Pt iiation, Mistress Jane Lane and Sir Clement Fisher, came 
Countess of into the Fisher family from the library of Robert 
eapetonl. Dudley, Earl of Leicester. It is bound in calf, 
with his arms on the sides, and the ragged staff introduced as an 
ornament on the sides and the back, with brass clasps and corners, 
My paper may seem to be discursive, but I trust this word may 
be used in the sense of working up to a point. I have endeavoured 
to depict both Jahe Lane and the King in the light in which they 
appeared at the time, and from all the information (obtained by 
considerable research) which I have been able to collect, I am sure 
that King Charles II., with all his faults, had the highest respect 
for Mistress Jane Lane. 
