rtittr5 tu tJI (biter.
THE picramts AT WOBUBN ABBEY.
Woburn Abbey, 9th May 1854.
Bra—The extract with your remark in your paper of the 29th of April from Dr. Waagen's work, is calculated to produce an impression that access to the pictures at Woburn Abbey is a matter of difficulty. You will perhaps permit a few words in explanation.
Dr. Waagen, according to his statement, arrives without any previous notice, and certainly not furnished with a proper introduction to attain the object he had in view ; and then informs us that a hurried hour's inspection enabled him to describe the pictures. The late Duke of Bedford was, it is well known, most courteous to all, and particularly anxious in promoting the welfare of the fine arts. If Dr. Waagen had applied, he would have had a proper introduction, and the rooms opened for his convenience. Having neglected to do this, he has no right to complain that, arriving on an irregular day, the servants were not put in motion immediately to perform the long operation of opening the shutters, and that the housekeeper was a little brusque in her manner, being called upon so suddenly without any previous notice. Dr. Waagen's observation, which he has thought worthy reprinting, would have been passed over, now, as on the former occasion, unnoticed, had there not been some time ago a complaint by visitors, in your paper, as to the arrangements which must necessarily be laid down in a private es- tablishment, and which if not consonant to their views and convenience, they seem to feel at liberty to condemn, as if the houses of our nobility, .courteously thrown open, were public property.
I am, Sir, JOHN MARTIN, Librarian. It is perhaps hardly necessary to say that the same liberal facilities for the artist and visitor which were afforded by the late Duke are still continued by the present noble owner.
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