What they have said, over the ages, about the Bridgewater Collection William Hazlitt, writer and philosopher, in 1797/98: "I was staggered when I saw the works, and I looked at them with wondering and with longing eyes. A new sense came upon me, a new heaven and a new earth stood before me."

What they have said, over the ages, about the Bridgewater Collection

William Hazlitt, writer and philosopher, in 1797/98:
"I was staggered when I saw the works, and I looked at them with wondering and with longing eyes. A new sense came upon me, a new heaven and a new earth stood before me."

Lucian Freud, painter, in 2001:
"I used to drive into Edinburgh almost every day to look at Titian's two paintings...since then they've been among my absolute favourites. To me, these are simply the most beautiful pictures in the world."

Ellis Waterhouse, director of the National Gallery of Scotland in 1960:
"They transport us into a world of visionary reality much more consistent than the world we live in....coming suddenly upon something which astonishes and absorbs our whole attention."

Harold Wethey, art expert, in 1975:
"In the Diana and Actaeon, the sheer beauty of the drawing and the painting of the female nudes is virtually incomparable even in Titian's own work and indeed in the entire history of art."

Peter Humfrey, professor of art history at the University of St Andrews, in 2004:
"These two mythologies rank among the supreme poetic creations of the Italian Renaissance."

A Commission which formally submitted a report on the Bridgewater Collection to the Prime Minister's office in 1973:
"The works are of such outstanding quality that they should not under any circumstance be allowed to leave the country."