TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
Red Lion Square, 25th July 1851. The late Duke of Bridgewater gave his pictures to be held as heirlooms by the persons taking his estates. Many of your readers will recollect the liberality with which the public were admitted to visit this collection at Stafford House. When this mansion was pulled down to make way for Bridgewater House, the pictures were removed to the private residence of Lord Ellesmere, then entitled to the Bridgewater estates, and this house did not afford the necessary convenience for the admission of the public. Even here, however, though anything like free exhibition was impossible, measures were taken to meet individual applications. Foreigners were rarely at any time refused admittance ; and when the family were not resident, the collection was open to many hundreds of persons, by tickets procurable at Mr. Smith's, of Bond Street. A silly notion which I cannot trace to its origin, but which has probably derived its prevalence from the very liberality which it de- preciates and impugns, has long and generally prevailed, viz, that the holder of the estates is bound to allow the public to have free access to the pictures. Now, being concerned professionally for the trustees of the late Duke of Bridgewater, I am enabled to state distinctly that there is not one word in the will, or any other document, which imposes any condition what- ever relating to the exposition of the pictures; and therefore, whatever has been done by the Earl of Ellesmere and the late Duke of Sutherland has been entirely of their own free will. Indeed, I have heard that the late Duke of Sutherland, to prove the groundlessness of the notion, ordered the collection to be shut up for a time.
Previous page
