Wallace Collection the largest, most important and extant collection of French 18th-century decorative arts in the world, rivalled only by the triumvirate of the Musée du Louvre, Château de Versailles and Mobilier National in France. The Wallace Collection is a non-departmental public body and admission is free. The Wallace Collection is a museum which displays the works of art collected in the 18th and 19th centuries by five generations of a British aristocratic family – the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess. In the 19th century, the Marquesses of Hertford were one
Marquess of Ely previously represented County Wexford in both the Irish and British Parliaments. On his death the titles passed to his eldest son, John, the third Marquess. He briefly represented Woodstock in Parliament in 1845. This line of the family failed on the early death of his son, John, the fourth Marquess, in 1889. The late Marquess was succeeded by his first cousin John Loftus, the fifth Marquess. He was the eldest son of Reverend Lord Adam Loftus, third son of the second Marquess. The fifth Marquess died childless in 1925 and was succeeded by his youngest brother, George, the sixth Marquess.