ABSTRACT
Throughout his adult life, the Duke of Chandos was a dedicated patron of the arts and a collector of pictures, books and manuscripts. He supported artists and architects and, when he had the financial resources, he commissioned and purchased paintings and funded personal and public building projects, for example at Cannons and Cambridge University. Although in his later years, his activities were restricted by financial losses, the Duke was recognised by many of his contemporaries as an important patron. However, not everyone agreed that he was a connoisseur with good taste. The diverging views about him were reflected in a poem by Charles Gildon and the interpretation given to Alexander Pope’s poem Of Taste (see below).2
