The 115ft Picture Gallery is hung with a succession of portraits culminating in Van Dyck's masterpiece, War and Peace. The room was originally conceived for Elizabethan ladies to take exercise in on wet days to prevent their long dresses from getting dirty in the mud. Many paintings are by Sir Peter Lely. He is said to have rarely painted an entire portrait himself, usually he worked only the face and some of the body. The rest would be finished by his studio which accounted for his prolific output. At the north end is a full length portrait by the Frenchman, Porbus the Younger. Dating from approx. 1590 it is perfectly preserved. The "Talbot" hound that stares so fondly at his master, however, has since become an extinct breed.
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