gad §, No 11, Mar. 15. ’56.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
205 
LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1856, 
A NATIONAL GALLERY OF PORTRAITS. 
At length there is a prospect of England having 4 
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 suflicient 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 
gredtness is acquired. 
The motion, which was supported by the Marquis of 
Lansdowne, Lord Ellenborough, Lord Carnarvon, and the’ 
Duke of Argyll, was carried unanimously; aiid on the 
Friday following Lord Breadalbanhe 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 ; 
bit we have not space for them. We think it right, how- 
ever, that a subject of such importarice 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 tlie building of a New Gallery to 
reedive the portraits, and an anhual outlay of maiiy 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 10002. 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 gallery 
is to be entrusted, that nowhere in the Metropolis could 
80 fitting, so coriveilient, so inexpensive a spot be found 
for the proposed gallery as Westminster Haty. 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 a symbol 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. 
ates. 
SUFFOLK NOTES. 
From the second volume of Proceedings of the 
Suffolk Institute of Archeology 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. 
Books 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. 
HAwstEeD 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 1610, 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: 
Sha 5 J 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. HAwstep 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 Culluth, ‘made a brilliant appeardnee when the 
sun shone, and even by moonlight.’ ”—Zbid., vol. ii. p. 23.5 
art. HAwsTED PLACE. 
Dole Table. —Are these tables at all common 
in any parts of England? In the porch, 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 store slab on the top, and a stone panel on the 
front of it. A panel of stone, let into the wall above it, 
