From the Jerusalem Chamber.

Contributed to the Manchester Exhibition by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. No. 15 of the Portrait Gallery.

the names both of their painters and possessors: memory or a reference to the catalogue must supply the rest. Ruysdael, Hobbema, Cuyp, de Koning, Wynants, Van der Velde, Backhuysen, and Van der Heyden. The contributors were Her Majesty, the Duke of Bedford, Worcester College, Lord Hatherton, Lord Overstone, Mr. Holford, and Mr. Henry Hope. No collection in Europe can display superior pictures by the masters than Ruysdael's Bentheim Castle and Forest Scene from Worcester College, Oxford; † or the two Hobbemas, belonging respectively to Lord Hatherton and Mr. Holford § The Cuyps also were superlatively excellent.

Of the French school, after Janet, the most important masters at Manchester were Nicholas Poussin, with his cold classicalities, and Philippe de Champagne, so sternly true to nature. By the former must be remembered the Triumph of Bacchus, a superb specimen contributed by the Earl of Carlisle from Castle Howard; and a rough sketch of his famous composition, "the Testament of Eudamidas," which is now more particularly mentioned since the original picture is supposed to have been lost, and this even may serve to afford some clue to it. (See the Plate, from the engraving by Pesne from the original, and printed by Mr. Murray's permission, to accompany these pages). Not one picture by Le Seur graced the Exhibition. His works indeed are rare; but if the pictures, at one time proffered by Lord Methuen, had not been withdrawn, a very fine specimen might have been displayed.

The Portrait Gallery was an excellent scheme, devised and conducted entirely by Mr. Peter Cunningham. It commenced with the earliest procurable portraits of our sovereigns, although unfortunately with none anterior to Richard II. But the celebrated Jerusalem Chamber Portrait,¶ once in the south transept of Westminster Abbey, formed a noble beginning. Henry VIII and his descendants were naturally to be seen in extenso. A portrait of Edward VI. as a child with a rattle, by Holbein,* a half-length of Jane Seymour, and a whole-length of Catharine Parr, contributed respectively by Lord Yarborough, the Duke of Bedford and Lord Denbigh were especially note-worthy. So likewise the small picture on canvas from

• No. 708. + No. 711.

No. 15 of the Portrait Gallery.

No. 722. § No. 767. || No. 588. See the accompanying wood-cut drawn by G. Scharf, Jun., from the original at Westminster, for Mrs. Markham's History of England, contributed by Mr. Murray. * Engraved by Hollar.