After the death of Samuel Whitbread II in 1815 it was as a politician and a benefactor rather than as a brewer that he was remembered. The editor of The Times described him as 'England's greatest and most useful citizen'; Wilberforce declared that 'there had never existed a more complete Englishman'; and even the Prince Regent, the target of many of Whitbread’s verbal thrusts, is said to have remarked 'Whitbread was an honest man’.

For Samuel Whitbread brewing was a 'tolerably easy source of income without making too many demands on my time'. This attitude confirmed the fears of his father, the founder of the Brewery, who, aware of his son's disinterest in 'the trade', spent the last ten years of his life buying land near his home in Bedfordshire as an insurance for his son’s future. These acquisitions culminated in 1795 with the purchase of Southill from Lord Torrington; it is perhaps ironic that it was the father's concern about the future of the business that was to provide the home for the son’s new collection of British art.

From the Foreword to the book by Sam Whitbread.
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This book is the catalogue of the 1984 exhibition of Whitbread's collection at the Museum of London. It consists of a long essay on Samuel Whitbread II and British Art by Stephen Deuchar, b&w images of all exhibition items and detailed notes on each by Deuchar.