The pictures in the large combination room of Isaac Newton by Thomas Murray, and of Matthew Prior (1664-1721) by Godfrey Kneller are good: the former came to us from a descendant (Mrs Ring) of Newton's favourite niece, and its history is given in a letter from Charles Simeon to Mansel, master of the College at the time of the gift. The other canvasses are too big for a private apartment, but the portraits of the "proud" duke of Somerset (1662-1748) by Nathaniel Dance, the marquess of Granby (1721-70) by Joshua Reynolds, the duke of Gloucester by John Opie, the marquess of Camden (1759-1840) by Thomas Lawrence, the duke of Grafton (1760-1844) also by Lawrence, and the duke of Sussex (1773-1843) by James Lonsdale, are of some repute: to these there was added in 1915 a portrait of Arthur J. Balfour by P.A. Laszlö de Lombros.
Of the peers mentioned above the names of Granby and Somerset are still well known. Granby fought in the Culloden campaign, was colonel of the blues (horse guards) at Minden, 1759; commander of the British contingent in the campaigns of 1760, 1761, and 1762; and in 1766 became commander-in-chief of the army. Delighting in danger, which even when in supreme command he deliberately sought, brave to a fault, an excellent cavalry leader, rich and lavishly generous, he was the idol of the public, and witnesses to his popularity remain in the numerous public-houses scattered far and wide over England which bear his name and arms. Somerset was of a very different type, being a stupid man whose power was chiefly derived from his enormous landed possessions. To the Somerset properties he added, by his marriage with the sole heiress of the earls of Northumberland, the great estates of the Percies. He held the chancellorship of the University for the extraordinary term of sixty years. His title of the "proud duke" commemorates only his arrogance, and was derived from the fact that even to speak to anyone in a menial position was regarded by him as a condescension. His servants were trained to understand his wishes by signs, and numerous footmen surrounded him when in the streets so as to avoid the risk that any people of the lower classes should approach or address him. Perhaps the best known of the stories of his pretensions refers to his remark to his second wife who once called his attention to something by touching him with her fan (or according to another version kissed him without asking his leave), "Madam," said he, drawing himself apart, "my first wife never dared to take such a liberty, and she was a Percy." As another illustration of his character I may add that he deprived one of his daughters of £20,000 because she had sat down in his presence without asking his leave.