During the 4th Duke's time, this room was used as a library and in 1770, the year before his death, it was redecorated with an exquisitely painted ceiling by Cipriani.
Today, as a dining room it is still very much part of family life, used whenever there are more than six guests to dinner.
It contains the fine collection of Venetian views by Canaletto (1697-1768) which the 4th Duke, John, commissioned when he visited Venice on the Grand Tour in 1731. Over the next few years these magnificent paintings arrived at Bedford House in London, where they remained until it was demolished in 1800.
The paintings were then moved to Woburn and have been here ever since. One of the family’s favourites is the "The Entrance to the Arsenal", where the great fleets of the Republic were built. If you were to visit Venice now you would find this view virtually unaltered since the eighteenth century.