PASSAGE—FIRST FLOOR.

SOUTH WALL.

No. 2. MALE PORTRAIT. UNKNOWN.

Round black velvet hat. Long hair. Black velvet coat. Brown vest cut square. Chain and medallion. His right hand on baluster, holding a paper roll.

By Philip De Koning.

No. 4. ORLANDO BRIDGEMAN, ESQ., AFTERWARDS SECOND BARON AND FIRST EARL OF BRADFORD, 1815.

BORN 1762, DIED 1825.

As a youth. Light-coloured dress. White under sleeves. Lace collar with tassels. Long hair. Cloak, same colour as dress, over right shoulder.

No. 5. GEORGE BYNG, FOURTH VISCOUNT TORRINGTON.

As a boy. Buff coat. White collar.

DIED 1812.

By Ramsay.

THE eldest son of the third Viscount by Miss Daniel. He married in 1765 the Lady Lucy Boyle, the only daughter of John, Earl of Cork and Orrery, by whom he had four daughters, the eldest being the Countess of Bradford.

No. 6. SECOND SIR ORLANDO BRIDGEMAN, FOURTH BARONET.

Claret coat. Powder.

By F. Cotes.

NELL GWYNNE.

Oval. Purple and white dress. Green and red bow on left shoulder.

Pearl necklet.

DIED 1687.

By Mrs. Beale.

SHE first attracted notice by her beauty and arch demeanour when selling oranges in the taverns and theatres. She studied acting under the elocutionists Hart and Lacy, both very much esteemed in the dramatic profession at the time. Her talents soon made her distinguished on the stage, but she seldom attempted tragedy. Her sprightliness and grace soon attracted the attention of the King, and before this period she was said to have counted the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Dorset among her admirers. The enemies of the Duchess of Cleveland were glad of an opportunity of recommending pretty Mistress Nell as a rival to the haughty beauty, to whom she stood in strange contrast, both in appearance and good-humour. In 1663 she was still a member of the King’s company at Drury Lane, and was supposed to have quitted the stage about 1672. Pepys, in speaking of her in 1665, calls her ‘pretty witty Nell,’ and in 1666 he mentions that he went with his wife to see ‘The Maiden Queen’ by Dryden, in which there is a comical part taken by Nell that ‘I never can hope to see the like done again by man or woman.’ Also in the character of a mad girl and a young gallant, both admirable. But when she attempted such a part as the Emperor’s daughter, good Samuel confesses she does it ‘most basely.’ Burnet designates her as the ‘indiscreetest and wildest creature that ever was in a court.’ Charles gave her a house in Pall Mall, in which we are told there was one room on the ground-floor of which the walls and ceiling were entirely composed of looking-glass. An anecdote is given of her, that, on one occasion when driving in a superb coach up Ludgate Hill, she met some bailiffs hurrying a clergyman to prison for debt. Inquiring as to the sum, she paid it on the spot, and later on procured preferment for him. Her son, afterwards Duke of St. Albans, was born in 1670 before she left the stage.

Dryden was a great admirer of pretty Nell, and wrote a prologue for her, which she spoke under a hat of such enormous dimensions as almost to conceal her small figure. The audience were convulsed with laughter, and Charles was almost suffocated.

Nell called his Majesty her Charles the Third, as she had had two protectors before who were his namesakes. Although thoughtless and reckless, she was a good friend to Charles in some respects, urging him constantly to pay more attention to public affairs, and interceding with him for objects of charity; she took a great interest in the foundation of Chelsea Hospital, and persuaded the King to hasten its completion. ‘How am I to please my people?’ he asked of her one day. ‘There is but one way,’ she replied: ‘dismiss your ladies and attend to your business:’ neither of which injunctions was obeyed. Nell Gwynne died at her house in Pall Mall in 1691, having survived the King some years, who, it will be remembered, in his last moments recommended her to the care of those who stood beside his bed. Dr. Tenison, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, preached her funeral sermon at the church of St. Martin’s in the Fields, where she lies buried. There is little doubt she died a penitent.

No. 9. PORTRAIT OF A LADY. UNKNOWN.

By G. Morphy.