A man of "acknowledged taste and judgment"; Hick's private collection built over a period of 30 years "valuable, well known and much admired", comprised works of the Italian, Flemish, Dutch and British Masters. He was regarded as "one of the most liberal of the provincial patrons of Art", generous in his support of the British school, in particular a friend of Henry Liverseege who painted several works for Hick, and "on terms of intimacy" with many artists. The collection consisted of antiques, bronzes, engravings by George Thomas Doo, John Henry Robinson and foreign engravers, marbles, paintings and watercolour drawings.