him. The whole figure is full of youthful buoyancy, and the countenance of grace and nature.

Tapestry Room.-Full-lengths of William and Mary: William IV., by Sir Thomas Lawrence: Edward VI., by Holbein, an excellent portrait: Sir Henry Sidney, the president, in a black velvet cap and robe; a portrait in keeping with his character as a high-minded gentleman.

The most curious painting in this room is however, perhaps, one containing the portraits of the two celebrated sisters, Lady Dorothy Percy, Countess of Leicester, and Lady Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlisle. These ladies, daughters of the Duke of Northumberland, so well known in their own day, are well known too by their portraits in Lodge. Here they are given together, and the variation of their characters is obvious in their persons. The Countess of Leicester is a woman of that bold beauty which answers to what we know of her; a woman who seemed born to command and to be admired. She had quick passions and a strong will, but she knew both her own nature, and was quick to see that of all who came about her. She had great selfcommand, and could fascinate, or repel by a cool air of dignity, at her pleasure. Her husband has left us in his letters, a very touching account of her death-bed farewell of him. She was the mother of Algernon Sidney, and looking on her fine, but firm, and high-spirited face, we recognise at once the source of his lofty and unbending qualities.

The Countess of Carlisle was a woman of similar character in many points, but more devoted to political intrigue. "Lady

Carlisle," says Miss Aikin in her Memoirs of the Reign of Charles I., "was a distinguished beauty, wit, and political intriguer, nor is her memory free from the suspicion, at least, of gallantry; no court lady of her time was equally celebrated or conspicuous. She was flattered in French by Voiture, and in her native tongue by almost all the contemporary wits and poets, and more especially by Waller in verse, and in prose by that singular and mysterious person Sir Toby Matthew; who composed an elaborate character of her, which is sufficiently hyperbolical to wear some appearance of irony, especially in the eulogium which he seems to bestow upon that arrogant scorn with which it was her practice to treat persons of every rank. . . She was early appointed to a high office in the household of the queen; and notwithstanding occasional quarrels, such as could scarcely fail to arise between two ladies so distinguished for high spirit, she long enjoyed and singularly abused the favour and confidence of Henrietta." Wentworth is supposed at one period to have stood high in her good graces, and even Laud paid homage at her shrine.

Here are besides, heads of William and Mary: Nell Gwynn, by Lely, as a Venus lying on a couch with a child standing by her; a strange picture, but beautifully executed. Some family pictures: a sea-piece, by John Tennant, a fisherman looking out with a spying-glass: a curious old piece, a music party: a head of a female, by Giorgione, full of strong character; and St. Peter delivered out of Prison, by Steenwick. There are on the walls two large pieces of Gobelin tapestry; Eolus unbarring the

winds; and the triumph of Ceres. A card table stands here, given by Queen Elizabeth, the middle of which is covered with needlework embroidery of the very kind now so much worked by our young ladies.

Picture Closet.-Algernon Percy as high-admiral of England: Titian's Mistress, by himself; a soft, fattish woman with yellow hair, but beautifully painted: Madonna and sleeping Christ, by Guido; the face of the Madonna full of expression, and the light thrown upon it with fine effect: head of a Saint, by Giorgione, in a praying attitude with clasped hands, the colour of the flesh is of a rich deep yellow, as if the saint were the inhabitant of a sultry country: a Crucifixion: Bandits, by Spagnoletto; and various small pieces by good masters.

The Gallery. A Flemish Woman, by Peter Thoue, 1560, with fruit, very good: a curious old piece, a Madonna and Child, probably brought from some ancient shrine: full-length of Lady Mary Dudley, wife of Sir Henry, and mother of Sir .Philip Sidney, with a guitar, and in a rich embroidered gown and Elizabethan ruff, her hair frizzled close to her head: the original portrait of Algernon Sidney, by Verres: Languet, Sir Philip Sidney's friend: Bacchanals, by N. Poussin piece on marble, a Woman with her Distaff, and a Shepherd playing on his pipe, with sheep and cattle about: James Stuart, Duke of Richmond, by Vandyke: Dying Mother, probably copied from Murillo: Abraham offering up Isaac, a large piece, by Guercino da Cento: a Procession, by Rubens, evidently a piece full of life and grace from what little can be seen of the

figures, but nearly invisible from want of cleaning: Telemachus in the island of Calypso.

Dorothea, Countess of Sunderland, by Hoskins, that is, Saccharissa after her marriage: on the other side of the gallery is Saccharissa before her marriage-Dorothea Sidney, by Vandyke. She is represented as a shepherdess in a straw hat, the brim of which is lined with blue satin, her hair is disposed in ringlets on each side of the face, leaving the crown of the head smooth and round in the favourite fashion of the time. Like that of the Sidneys in general, it has a ruddy, or in her case, rather golden tinge. For beauty, the portrait of Hoskins, done after her marriage, has the highest claim; but though there is great softness of figure and complexion about this lady, we are led by the praises of Waller, to look for more striking charms than we immediately perceive in Saccharissa. As in Sir Philip Sidney, so in this celebrated female of his race, there were undoubtedly those fascinations of manner and spirit, which, though visible to all beholders, have escaped the hand of the painter.

Virgin, Child, and St. John, said to be a copy from Rafaelle, but admirably painted. Joseph's wrinkled face, full of admiring devotion, and the brunette beauty of Mary, are equally excellent; the dark eye and rich lips of the Madonna, are full of maternal satisfaction, and deep holy joy: Maleager and Atalanta, a large piece, indistinct from want of cleaning: the scourging of Christ, by Spagnoletto, the same: Holy Family, by Bassano, the same: a boy's head, by Carracci: Christ crowned with thorns, a large piece, of great merit, but artist not

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named: a very large family-piece of the Perrys, including the wife of Bysshe Shelley, and mother of Sir John Shelley Sidney: head of Thomas, Earl of Surrey: Ann Percy, Lady Stanhope, by Nestcher: Bacchanals, by N. Poussin: Endymion, by Bartolomeo: a modern country coquette, by Wyatt: Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury: T. Fitzallen, Archbishop of Canterbury, a curious old piece: Thomas Wentworth, constable of Queenborough Castle in the first of Richard III.: a drunken gondolier, by Rubens: Apollo and the Muses, after Vandyke. In this part of the gallery stands an ebony cabinet, with small brass figures in little niches and paintings on the panels, which was given by James I. to the first Earl of Leicester.

Head of William Paulet, Marquis of Winchester, a very old man: Sir William Sidney, to whom Penshurst was given by Edward VI., by Lucas de Héer: Madonna and Christ, by Andrea del Sarto. The most curious piece in the gallery, and indeed in the house, is one of Sir Philip Sidney, and his brother Robert, afterwards first Earl of Leicester of this line. Sir Philip, a youth of perhaps sixteen, is standing arm in arm with Robert, a boy of about thirteen or fourteen. They are in a court dress, both exactly alike, a sort of doublet and collar. The collar is just the boy's collar of the present day, except that it is fringed with lace. The doublet is buttoned down the front with close set buttons, it is fitted exactly to the body with very close sleeves, and turned up with lace cuffs. The colour of the doublet is French grey. They have trunk-hose, very full indeed, of crimson figured satin, stockings and garters of the same colour