were attacked by Walpole (Letters, ix. 462, ‘22 March 1796’) and by Mathias (Pursuits of Lit.)
As a connoisseur and authority on ancient art Knight's reputation stood very high. A ‘Quarterly Reviewer’ described him (xiv. 533 f.) as ‘the arbiter of fashionable virtu.’ In 1808 he published two editions of ‘An Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste’ (London, 8vo; 4th edit. 1808; noticed by Jeffrey, Edinb. Rev. May 1811, and censured by Professor Wilson, Essays, 1856, iv. 102). In 1781 he had joined the Dilettanti Society, and with his friend Charles Townley suggested to it the publication of ‘Specimens of Antient Sculpture selected from several Collections in Great Britain,’ vol. i. London, 1809, fol. Twenty-three specimens from Knight's own collection were included in the book, and Knight wrote the text, consisting of concise descriptions and a fairly creditable introduction on the history of ancient art. He was one of the contributors to the second volume of the ‘Specimens,’ edited by W. S. Morritt. Unlike the other dilettanti of the time, Knight cared little for ancient marbles, and his collection included only a few specimens. He chiefly appreciated bronzes, coins, and gems. He told Lord Elgin at a dinner-party that he had ‘lost his labour’ in bringing over the Parthenon marbles (Haydon, Life, i. 272), some of which Knight supposed to be Roman, ‘of the age of Adrian.’ Knight gave evidence in 1816, before a select committee of the House of Commons, against the national acquisition of these monuments, which he said he ‘had looked over.’ The contrary evidence of Haydon was dispensed with, ‘out of delicacy to Mr. Payne Knight.’ Knight's evidence was severely commented on in the ‘Quarterly Review’ (xiv. 533 f.), and Knight himself issued a supplementary ‘Explanation’ of it. He valued the Elgin collection—including coins estimated by him at 1,000l.—at 25,000l. (Ellis, Elgin Marbles, i. 8). In 1814 Knight had written to the ‘Morning Chronicle’ approving the national purchase of the Phigaleian marbles. As a collector of small antiques Knight had good taste and good luck. He used to speak of his ‘jewels in bronze,’ and his collection of bronzes far surpassed any other. Walpole sneered at the ‘Knight of the Brazen Milk-pot.’ Many of Knight's bronzes had belonged to the Duc de Chaulnes, who died at the beginning of the French revolution. Knight sent an agent as far as Russia to hunt up the bronzes from the Paramythia find, one specimen of which had reached England. His collection of Greek coins was no less remarkable, and was especially rich in the money of Sicily and Magna Græcia, beautiful series which he had the good taste to appreciate (cf. Knight's article on Syracusan coins in the Archæologia, xix. 374 f.) He also collected some good gems, though he purchased as an antique, for 250l., from Bonelli, a cameo of Flora (now in the British Museum) which had been made by Pistrucci (Quart. Rev. xix. 539). Knight was vice-president of the Society of Antiquaries, and a member of the Eumelean Club, a literary society which met at Blenheim Tavern in Bond Street, London (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ii. 638). The Latin inscription on the monument erected in 1813 to Sir Joshua Reynolds in St. Paul's Cathedral was written by Knight (Leslie, Reynolds, ii. 637). Knight died at his house in Soho Square, London, on 23 April 1824, of ‘an apoplectic affection’ (Gent. Mag. 1824, pt. ii. p. 185). He was buried in Wormesley Church, Herefordshire, where there is a monument to him, with a Latin epitaph by Cornewall, bishop of Worcester. His Downton estate passed to his brother, Thomas Andrew Knight. He made to the British Museum, of which he had been Townley trustee since 1814, the munificent bequest of his bronzes, coins, gems, marbles, and drawings. The collection was valued at the time at sums varying from 30,000l. to 60,000l. The acquisition of the bronzes and coins immensely strengthened the national collection. The trustees of the British Museum printed and published in 1830 (London, 4to) Knight's own manuscript catalogue of the coins, with the title ‘Nummi Veteres.’ It consists of brief descriptions in Latin and of a few notes. Knight's manuscript catalogue of his gems, ‘Sigilla antiqua,’ is now in the department of Greek and Roman antiquities at the museum. The drawings—273 works by Claude—had been purchased by Knight for 16,000l. (Fagan, Handbook to Dept. of Prints, p. 133; Gent. Mag. 1824, pt. ii. p. 164). The sole condition of the bequest was the appointment of a perpetual ‘Knight family trustee.’ This was arranged by a bill passed on 17 June 1824. A portrait of Knight was painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence in March 1792, and is now the property of the Dilettanti Society, to which it was presented by Knight in 1805 (Account of the Portraits of the Dilettanti Soc. 1885, p. 5, No. 27). He is described (Gent. Mag.) as reserved in his manners, though he was hospitable, and ready to give information on artistic subjects. When at Downton he passed a country gentleman's life, and was a good landlord. He was an insatiable reader, reading, it is said, for ‘ten hours at a stretch.’
