MRS. GRUNDY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19865, 13 June 1927, Page 10

MRS. GRUNDY

NOT A MYTHICAL PERSON HER “PICTURE GALLERY” Tt is perhaps not generally known that there really was a Mrs Grundy. The term, still decidedly current in Lhe world, originated in. a comedy by Thomas Morton called “Speed the Plough,” written in 1800 ar.id first produced at the Theatre Royal, Covcnt Warden, Lon-don. In this play one of the characters was a Farmer Grundy, of whoso wife a neighbouring farmer’s wife was always remarking: “What wouk4 Mrs Grundy say?” Mrs Grundy did not actually appear upon the boards at. all; but the phrase caught on and lived. The old play was revived not long since in a London theatre, and the London Timos published an oty'torial about Mrs Grundy. After that Mr Ernest Law, whose address is The Pavilion, Hampton Court Palaeo, wrote in to say that this celebrated lady was, as a matter of. fact, “ embodied in the housekeeper of that name at Hampton Court Palace in the late ’4os ami early ’sos of last century.” It seems that this Mrs Grundy in •the flesh ideally lived up to the requirements embodied in the “Airs Grundy” legend. “Her fame.” communicates Mr Law, “is perpetuated in a dark space—one of the mystery chambers of the palace—the door of which is rarely opened, and- which still is known as ‘Mrs Grundy’s Gallery.’ Here she impounded any picture or sculpture which she considered unfit for exhibition in the state room: and hero she kept them under lock and key, in defiance of the authority and protests of the Queen’s Surveyor of Pictures.”

Tn that mysterious and well-locked chamber w r e may visualise Mrs Grundy housekeeper of the palace surrounded with all the shocking specimens her eagle eye had alighted upon "in its search for objects that might corrupt tne immaculate morals of the day. There are sure to have been plentv of undraped Venuses —in fact Cariani’s “Venus Recumbent” was later found there and rescued from censorious oblivion. together with a lend statue of that goddess that had been sent over from Windsor Palace and was prompth pounced upon by the vigilant lady, however, until after the virtuous lady's death.