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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029785742 
 
Only 250 Copies printed. 
 No....... 
 
THE BECKFORD FAMILY. 
 
Printed at 
 the "Bath Chronicle" Office. 
 
 1S98. 
 
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%\t §*rftfor& jfamilg. 
 
 
 
 REMINISCENCES 
 
 OF 
 
 FONTHILL ABBEY 
 
 AND 
 
 LANSDOWN TOWER. 
 
 COMPILED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES 
 BY W. GREGORY, 
 
 Author of "Ralph Alien and Prior Park," 
 
 "John Wilkes, a Political Reformer of the Eighteenth 
 
 Century," etc. 
 
 " Despise not any man and do not spurn any thing. 
 For there is no man that hath not his hour, nor is there 
 any thing that hath not its place." 
 
 SECOND EDITION — REVISED AND ENLARGED. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd., 
 Paternoster Row, E.C. 
 
 BATH: 
 
 The "Bath Chronicle" Offices, 
 
 Kingston Buildings, 
 
 And all Booksellers. 
 
 1898. 
 All rights reserved. Entered at Stationers' Hall. 
 
John Stone, Esq. 
 Town Clerk for the City of Bath. 
 
TO 
 
 JOHN STONE, ESQUIRE, 
 
 WHO FOR 
 
 THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS HAS FILLED THE 
 
 OFFICE OF 
 
 TOWN CLERK OF BATH, 
 
 WITH HONOUR TO HIMSELF AND 
 
 BENEFIT TO THE CITY, 
 
 THESE REMINISCENCES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BECKFORD FAMILY 
 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY 
 HIS OBEDIENT SERVANT, 
 
 WM. GREGORY. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the preface to the first edition of this work, 
 published some ten years since, the Compiler ex- 
 plained that he did not prete?id to much o? iginality 
 of matter. He had simply collected from various 
 sources particulars a?id reminiscences of the Beckford 
 Family, and given them a coherent whole. His 
 object was to present the chief members of the 
 Family in a different light to that chosen by 
 certain critics, who, he believed, had misunderstood 
 and misrepresented them. Fresh materials having 
 been collected in the interval, these have been 
 incorporated in the present edition, and, with the 
 portraits and illustrations also added, the Compiler 
 hopes that it will be even more acceptable to the 
 public than its predecessor, which was soon out 
 of print. As he will soon enter upon his eighty- 
 second year, this brochure must be received as " the 
 gathering of the last fruit from an old tree." 
 
 The thanks of the Compiler are due to Mr. A . 
 F Walbrook, Proprietor of the "Bath Pictorial" 
 for his courtesy in supplying many of the Illustra- 
 tions used, and also to the Controller of the 
 Guildhall, London, for kindly permitting the 
 London Stereoscopic Company, Cheapside, to photo- 
 graph the Statue of Alderman Beckford in the 
 building specially for this Work. 
 
 ii, George Street, Bathwick, fan., i8q8. 
 
" Every man has in himself a continent of 
 undiscovered character." 
 
 ' Believe not each aspersing mind, 
 
 As most weak persons do, 
 But still believe that story false 
 That ought not to be true." 
 
 " HONI SOIT QUI MAI, Y PENSE." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. page. 
 
 Genealogical — Alderman Beckford . . i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 William Beckford .. .. ..12 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The New Fonthill • • . . . . 21 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 A Frenchman's Description . . . . 26 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Visit of Eord Nelson and Lady 
 
 Hamilton . . 34 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Fonthill Abbey Finished . . • • 43 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Visit of the Duchess of Gordon to 
 Fonthill • • • • • • . . 53 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Sic Gloria Transit Mundi . . . . 56 
 
CHAPTER IX. pagb. 
 
 Lansdown Tower • • • • . . 64 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Late Sir J. Murch's 
 
 Reminiscences . . . . 98 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Death and Funeral of Mr. Beckford 103 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Sale of Lansdown Tower and its 
 
 Contents . . . . . . 1 10 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Consecration of Lansdown Tower . . 120 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Beckford and Edgar Allen Poe — 
 
 A Comparison . . . . . . 124 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A Contemporary Tribute . . . . 138 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Lecture by an Anglo-American . . 144 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Conclusion and Poetry . . . . 154 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS. 
 
 Medallion of Wm. Beckford 
 
 Portrait of John Stone 
 
 Annorial Bearings 
 
 Portrait of Alderman Beckford 
 
 Statue of Alderman Beckford in the 
 London 
 
 Beckford (by Sir Thos. Lawrence) 
 
 View of Fonthill 
 
 Grand Entrance to ditto 
 
 View of Lansdown Crescent 
 
 Tomb of Beckford 
 
 View of Lansdown Tower 
 
 Portrait of Sir Wm. Holburne, Bart. 
 
 The Grenville Monument 
 
 Portrait of Sir Jerom Murch 
 
 Facsimile of Beckford's Writing . . 
 
 The Cemetery 
 
 Entrance to Cemetery 
 
 Portrait of Sir Isaac Pitman 
 
 Portrait of Wm. Gregory 
 
 Facsimile of Sir Isaac's Writing . . 
 
 Portrait of Rev. Wm. Jay 
 
 Guildhall. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 iii. 
 i 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 33 
 43 
 48 
 64 
 84 
 S5 
 86 
 
 95 
 9 S 
 
 102 
 120 
 
 123 
 142 
 
 143 
 143 
 l6o 
 
Armorial Bearings of the 
 Beckford Family. 
 
 Page 1 . 
 
THE BECKFORD FAMILY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Genealogical — Alderman Beckford. 
 
 *T is not the intention of the compiler to give 
 the Genealogical History of the Beckford 
 family, although it was a subject which 
 must have occasioned great research and exer- 
 cised much influence over Mr. Beckford's mind. 
 In Britton's History of Fonthill Abbey will be 
 found elaborate genealogical tables of the house 
 extending from the 13th to the early part of the 
 19th century. 
 
 Sir William Beckford appears amongst the 
 principal adherents of Richard III., who attended 
 him to Bosworth Field, and probably shared the 
 fate of his sovereign ; as the public records of 
 the succeeding dynasty are silent upon the 
 subject of his attainder. 
 
 The consequence of the family, thus eclipsed 
 by the fortunes of war, was destined to be 
 revived under the same powerful agency. The 
 Conquest of Jamaica in 1656, afforded a brilliant 
 opening to enterprise and talent ; and among the 
 many gallant persons who availed themselves of 
 
2 The Beckford Family. 
 
 it was Colonel Peter Beckford, who by singular 
 address and ability in the conduct of military 
 and civil affairs soon became the most distin- 
 guished of the new colonists. He raised himself 
 during the reign of the restored monarch Charles 
 the Second to the high station of President of the 
 Council ; obtained several important grants, and 
 was at length, by William the Third, appointed 
 Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief 
 of the Island. He died in 1710 possessed of an 
 immense extent of property. 
 
 Peter Beckford, Esq., his eldest son and heir, 
 filled the office of Speaker of the Assembly, and 
 died in 1735, leaving by Bathshua his wife, 
 daughter and co-heir of Julines Hering, Esq., a 
 colonel in the army, a numerous progeny. Peter 
 Beckford, Esq., his eldest son and heir, dying in 
 1737 unmarried, the inheritance devolved upon 
 his next brother — Wm. Beckford, Esq. This 
 distinguished person, who acquired the estate of 
 Fonthill, was twice Lord Mayor and one of the 
 representatives in Parliament for the City of 
 Eondon. He married Maria, daughter and at 
 length co-heir of the Hon. George Hamilton, 
 M.P. for Wells, second surviving son of James 
 the sixth Earl of Abercorn, and died in 1770, 
 leaving his only son and heir, the late Wm. 
 Beckford, Esq., of Eansdown celebrity, who 
 married Eady Margaret Gordon, only daughter of 
 Charles the Fourth Earl of Aboyne ; he had issue 
 two daughters — 1, Margaret Maria Elizabeth, 
 
Alderman Beckford. j 
 
 who married Major-General James Orde, and 
 died in 1818, leaving two daughters; 2, Susanna 
 Euphemia, who married her cousin, Alexander, 
 Duke of Hamilton and Brandon. 
 
 Alderman Beckford was a celebrated personage 
 in the early years of George the Third's reign. He 
 was on intimate terms with the Earl of Chatham 
 and other advanced politicians of this time. 
 
 The following extract is from the Court 
 Magazine for October, 1 769 : — ' ' September 30th. — 
 Yesterday at 1 o'clock in the afternoon came on 
 the election of two persons to be returned by the 
 Livery to the Court of Aldermen, for the Alder- 
 men to choose one of them to serve the office of 
 Lord Mayor of the City of London for the year 
 ensuing. The Common-Sergeant insisted that 
 Mr. Beckford was ineligible; that according to 
 an old Act of Parliament seven years must elapse 
 between the first and second election. On 
 October 7th a poll was demanded by the citizens. 
 The numbers were : for William Beckford, 1967; 
 for Barlow Treco thick, 191 1 ; for Sir Henry 
 Bankes, 676. The decision finally took place by 
 the Court of Aldermen. Mr. Beckford pleaded 
 his age and infirmities, and made many excuses 
 for declining to serve the office of Lord Mayor, 
 but the Livery persisted in their refusal to listen 
 to any excuse. Mr. Beckford, assist to save your 
 country ! was echoed from every side of the hall. 
 Alderman Beckford said he must have time to 
 consider the matter. — Friday, October 13th. — 
 
4 The Beckford Family. 
 
 Messrs. Townsend and Sawbridge went to trie 
 Half Moon Tavern, in Cheapside, where being 
 joined by Mr. Lovell and about fifty of the 
 Livery, they formed a handsome procession of 
 fourteen coaches, preceded by the Sheriffs in 
 their State chariots, to wait on Mr. Beckford at 
 his house in Soho-square, where the gentlemen 
 met with the most polite and cordial reception. 
 Mr. Lovell, in the name of the Livery, in the 
 strongest terms of respect, solicited, with much 
 importunity, that Mr. Beckford would, at this 
 important crisis, serve the office of Lord Mayor 
 for the year ensuing, to which dignity he had 
 been a second time elected. Mr. Beckford yielded 
 to the earnest request ; and told them that, not- 
 withstanding his advanced years, with all his 
 attendant infirmities, and giving up of his ease 
 and repose, he would devote himself to the 
 service of the Metropolis, as well as of the nation 
 in general, hy accepting the office ; and that he 
 would go to Fonthill for eight days to settle his 
 private affairs, that he might give up his whole 
 time to the execution of the important trust 
 reposed in him. Mr. Beckford then withdrew 
 for a short time, and returned with the following 
 letter, which he requested the Sheriffs to present 
 for him to the Lord Mayor : — 
 
 'Soho Square, Oct. 13, 1769, 
 
 ' My Lord Mayor, — 
 
 ' I cannot resist the importunate request of 
 
 my fellow citizens ; their desires have over- 
 
Alderman Beckford. 
 
 Twice Lord Mayor of London. 
 Died June 21st, 1770. Aged 63 years. 
 
Alderman Beckford. 5 
 
 come resolutions that I once thought were 
 
 fixed and determined. 
 
 ' The feeble efforts of a worn-out man to 
 
 serve them can never answer their sanguine 
 
 expectations. 
 
 ' I will do my best, and will sacrifice ease 
 
 and retirement, the chief comforts of old age, 
 
 to their wishes ; I will accept the office of 
 
 Iyord Mayor. 
 
 ' I shall hope for the assistance of your 
 
 Lordship, and my brethren of the Court of 
 
 Aldermen. The advantage and good effects 
 
 of their advice were experienced on many 
 
 occasions in my late Mayoralty. 
 
 ' By your Lordship's most obedient and 
 ' Faithful Humble Servant, 
 
 WiivL. Beckford." 
 
 Chatham, as well as Alderman Beckford, was 
 annoyed in consequence of John Wilkes not 
 being allowed to sit as Member for Middlesex, 
 he having polled 1,143 votes against the 296 of 
 his opponent, Colonel I/uttrell. He said this 
 arbitrary conduct on the part of the Government 
 was flying in the face of all law and freedom — • 
 robbing the freeholders of their liberty and 
 making a mere farce of the birthrights of English- 
 men. Lord Mansfield contended that the House 
 had no right to interfere with the decision of the 
 Commons, and that those decisions were strictly 
 legal — that in consequence of previous votes and 
 sentences, Wilkes was nobody in the eye of the 
 
6 The Beckford Family. 
 
 law, and that though the freeholders gave their 
 votes, it was for the House of Commons to judge 
 as to the point of qualification. This, and matters 
 in connection with the American dominions caused 
 great excitement and strong political feeling, 
 and on the 14th of May Lord Denbigh issued 
 written orders to the doorkeepers of the House 
 to admit on no account whatever any person but 
 peers' sons and members of the House of Com- 
 mons. The pretext was that it was dangerous 
 to increase the popular excitement by the dis- 
 closure of their measures and debates, and the 
 stirring harangues of the Opposition. At this 
 time the Earl of Chatham moved, " That an 
 humble address be presented to his Majesty, 
 most dutifully and earnestly beseeching his 
 Majesty that in the dangerous state wherein his 
 kingdoms are involved, from the high dissatis- 
 faction generally prevailing at home, and from 
 the most alarming disorders which have un- 
 happily manifested themselves in his American 
 dominions, his Majesty will, in his great wisdom 
 and necessary care to prevent more fatal mis- 
 chiefs, be graciously pleased to take the recent 
 and genuine sense of his people, by dissolving 
 this present Parliament, and calling with all 
 convenient dispatch a new Parliament." On the 
 same day the Common Council of London carried 
 a vote of thanks to the orator for the zeal he had 
 shown in support of their most valuable and 
 sacred privileges, the right of election and the 
 
Alderman Beckford. 7 
 
 right of petition. On the 19th the King put an 
 end to the Session by prorogation. On the 23rd 
 the L,ord Mayor Beckford and some Aldermen, 
 in their formalities, and with a very numerous 
 train, went up once more to St. James's with 
 another petition, complaining of his Majesty's 
 former answer from the throne. His Majesty 
 replied that he should have failed in his duty if 
 he had not expressed his dissatisfaction at their 
 last address ; that his sentiments on that subject 
 continued the same. Upon this Beckford adopted 
 the unpredecented course of asking leave to add 
 a few words from himself ; and his request 
 having been assented to in the confusion of the 
 moment, the bold citizen proceeded to harangue 
 and lecture his Majesty. " What I spoke in the 
 King's presence," said Beckford, reporting the 
 business to Chatham, " was uttered in the 
 language of truth, and with that humility and 
 submission which becomes a subject speaking to 
 his lawful king ; at least I endeavoured to behave 
 properly and decently ; but I am led to believe I 
 was mistaken, for the language of the Court is 
 that my deportment was impudent, insolent, and 
 unprecedented. God forgive them all." It is 
 said that the k-ord Mayor was too warm to be 
 polite, and that his tone was much louder than 
 the etiquette of the place allowed. His Majesty 
 showed his anger by issuing, through the medium 
 of the Iyord Chamberlain, a positive order that 
 lord mayors should in future confine themselves 
 
8 The Beckford Family. 
 
 to delivering their papers, and not presume to 
 deliver speeches. Chatham, on the other side, 
 hastened to applaud Beckford for asserting the 
 rights of the city with weight and spirit. Wilkes, 
 who had contrived to get himself made an alder- 
 man, even while he was a prisoner in the Bench, 
 and who was now wearing the civic gown, not- 
 withstanding the charges of sedition, impiety, 
 and blasphemy, did what he could to keep up 
 the storm in the city. 
 
 On the i st of June, 1770, three days after 
 presenting the compliments on the birth of a 
 Princess, Beckford, with a numerous deputation 
 of the Corporation, went down to Hayes and 
 presented the vote of thanks to his friend 
 Chatham. This was the great Lord Mayor's last 
 public performance. On the 1 5th it was announced 
 that Beckford was in a very alarming state, and 
 on the 2 1 st he died in the 63 rd year of his age. 
 His political opponents said the cause of his 
 death was a fever into which his blood was 
 thrown by his late intemperate behaviour ; others 
 from a cold caught by riding from London 
 to Fonthill. His loss was a serious blow to the 
 cause of Opposition, for although the election 
 for a new Mayor fell upon Alderman Trecothick, 
 a steady Whig and an excellent debater, there 
 was no one to furnish the weight of Beckford' s 
 wealth and munificence, or to supply his ardour 
 and fearlessness. The city voted that the deceased 
 magistrate should be honoured with a statue in 
 
(Photographed by special permission for this Work). 
 
 Alderman Beckford's Monument in the 
 
 GUIEDHAEL, IyONDON, 
 
 Representing him, when Lord Mayor, in the act of addressing 
 his celebrated speech to King George the Third. 
 
THE CITY OF LONDON 
 MONUMENT TO AEDERMAN BECKEORD. 
 
 The following is a copy of the Inscription on 
 the Monument in the Guildhall as shown on the 
 Illustration opposite : — 
 
 WIEEIAM BECKFORD, ESQ., 
 
 Twice Lord Mayor, 
 
 HIS SPEECH TO HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE THE III. 
 On the 23d of May, 1770. 
 
 A/TOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN.— Will your Majesty be 
 pleased so far to Condescend as to permit the Mayor of your 
 loyal City of London to declare in your Royal Presence, on be- 
 half of his Fellow-Citizens, how much the bare Apprehension of 
 your Majesty's Displeasure would at all times affect their minds. 
 The declaration of that displeasure has already filled thern with 
 inexpressible Anxiety and with the deepest Affliction. Permit 
 me, Sire, to assure your Majesty that your Majesty has not in 
 all your Dominions any Subjects more Faithful, more Dutiful, 
 or more Affectionate to your Majesty's Person and Family, 
 or more ready to Sacrifice their lives and fortunes in the 
 maintenance of the true Honour and Dignity of your Crown. 
 
 We do, therefore, with the greatest Humility and Submission, 
 most earnestly Supplicate your Majesty that you will not 
 dismiss us from your Presence without expressing a more 
 favourable Opinion of your faithful Citizens and without some 
 Comfort, without some Prospect, at least, of Redress. 
 
 Permit me, Sire, further to observe that whoever has already 
 dared, or shall hereafter endeavour by false Insinuations and 
 Suggestions, to alienate your Majesty's Affections from your 
 Loyal Subjects in general, and from the City of London in 
 particular, and to withdraw your Confidence in and Regard for 
 your People, is an enemy to your Majesty's Person and Family, 
 a Violator of the Public Peace, and a Betrayer of our Happy 
 Coustitution as it was Established at the Glorious Revolution. 
 
Alderman Beckford. q 
 
 Guildhall, and that the speech he had delivered 
 to the King should be engraved on the pedestal. 
 It represents the Alderman in the act of delivering 
 the following celebrated address, and at the 
 angles are two female figures, Liberty and Com- 
 merce, mourning for him : — " Permit me, sire, to 
 observe that whoever has already dared, or shall 
 hereafter endeavour by false insinuations and 
 suggestions to alienate your Majesty's affections 
 from your loyal subjects in general, and from the 
 City of London in particular, and to withdraw 
 your confidence in and regard for your people is 
 an enemy to your Majesty's person and family, a 
 violator of the public peace, and a betrayer of 
 our happy constitution as it was established at 
 the glorious and necessary Revolution." Chatham 
 was deeply moved by his death, and continued 
 his affection for his son and heir, then a boy full 
 of promise and of fire, and afterwards distin- 
 guished by his splendid living, taste, and 
 literary productions. 
 
 Lament at the Decease of Alderman 
 Beckford. 
 
 From the Political Register of 1770, Thursday, 
 June 21st : — 
 
 " At five o'clock this morning (a day which 
 will be ever mournfully recollected, not only by 
 the citizens of this metropolis, but by the lovers 
 of liberty wherever dispensed) died the Right 
 
io The Beckford Family. 
 
 Honourable William Beckford, Esq., Lord Mayor 
 of the City of London. 
 
 " Most public personages have had some shades 
 in their characters, which the invidious finger of 
 malice has occasionally marked; but in whatever 
 point of view this excellent person may be looked, 
 he rises to our astonishment the perfect, the 
 finished character. 
 
 " As a citizen, he was eminently decorated 
 with the virtues of humanity and affability ; as 
 a senator, watchful over the rights and liberties 
 of the people ; and as a magistrate, unremittingly 
 active in seeing those rights and liberties legally 
 executed. If his lordship's character could want 
 an}' additional lustre it was the manner of his 
 death, for notwithstanding his having a heavy 
 cold on him (which he acquired by walking in 
 his garden at Fonthill the day before), so atten- 
 tive was he to discharge the important duty 
 committed to his trust as a chief magistrate of 
 this city that he travelled a hundred miles in one 
 day, which increased his cold to a rheumatic 
 fever, and thereby terminated the life of a man 
 whose character will ever be held in the most 
 honourable and grateful remembrance. 
 
 " No man ever left the Mayoralty chair with 
 such universal regret, nor filled it with more 
 honour and dignity ; nor did ever a citizen act so 
 disinterestedly for the welfare of the City of 
 London and the rights of Englishmen in general. 
 He lived, the glory of his time, and with an 
 
Aldermaji Beckford. n 
 
 unshaken intrepidity opposed the wicked machi- 
 nations of a profligate Minister, and shewed 
 himself the steadfast friend of his King and 
 country, and with firmness and humility. He 
 was the only man of his time who durst tell a 
 king upon his throne, surrounded by his flatterers, 
 the plain and honest truth. Thus, in the sixty- 
 third year of his age and the second of his 
 Mayoralty, he expired with a prayer for the 
 welfare of England, regretted and lamented by 
 even- virtuous character in the kingdom." 
 
12 The Beckford Family. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 William Beckford. 
 
 "iEEIAM BECKFORD, only son of 
 Alderman Beckford, was born in 
 '•f-" September, 1760, and succeeded to 
 the vast property of bis fatber, said to be worth 
 a hundred thousand a year, while only ten years 
 of age. He was placed at his father's death under 
 the care of his godfather, the first Earl of 
 Chatham. His education was all that could be 
 required for bringing such faculties as his into 
 the highest state of perfection. He became 
 proficient in the knowledge of the classical 
 languages, and, besides, acquainted himself with 
 five of those of Modern Europe, in three of which 
 he could write like the most refined native. He 
 studied music under Mozart, architecture under 
 Sir Wm. Chambers, and drawing under one of 
 the first artists of his day. 
 
 The strong individuality of his future life was 
 shadowed forth by various decided tastes, notably 
 a love of Eastern fiction, so absorbing that by 
 the advice of Lord Chatham the " Arabian 
 
William Beckford. ij 
 
 Nights " were hidden from him. Another inci- 
 dent also indicates a favourite study. When he 
 was in his fifteenth year he spent a month with 
 Ivord Chatham at Burton Pynsent, in Somerset- 
 shire. The evening family parties included the 
 future statesman, William Pitt, then of the same 
 age as William Beckfcrd, and those parties were 
 enlivened by recitations. On one occasion 
 Beckford was asked to recite a speech of con- 
 siderable length which he had translated from 
 Thucydides and learnt by heart. He obeyed 
 with great readiness, excelled both in action and 
 emphasis, and delighted his venerable host, who 
 laid down his crutch (having then a fit of gout) 
 and embraced him, saying to his son, " May you, 
 my boy, some day make as good a speaker." 
 What his son became all the world knows, how 
 brilliant in the Senate, how commanding in the 
 Cabinet ; but it is said of the two youths at this time 
 that while quietness, discernment, and accuracy 
 were with Pitt ; genius, imagination, and energy 
 were with Beckford. Fortunately for the young 
 orator he was not always flattered. In the same 
 year he visited his relations, the Duke and 
 Duchess of Queensbury, in Wiltshire. There 
 also he displayed his oratorical powers, but the 
 Duchess — a very stately old lady — thought him 
 deficient in etiquette. Once he failed so lament- 
 ably that her Grace rang the bell and ordered the 
 servant to bring the family Bible, where she 
 found a passage applicable to the case, which she 
 
14 The Beckford Family. 
 
 requested him to read, saying, " There it was, 
 young man, that I learnt my manners." 
 
 Mrs. Beckford having a prejudice against the 
 English Universities, sent her son for his further 
 education to Geneva. He lived there with her 
 relation, Colonel Hamilton, his studies being 
 still directed by the wise tutor who had been 
 with him from the beginning. In addition to a 
 course of lectures on civil law, mention is made 
 of some lessons in riding and fencing. But the 
 chief good of his residence in Switzerland was in 
 the companionship of a few able and eminent 
 men. He learnt much from Saussure, one of the 
 earliest Alpine explorers, and from Bonnet, the 
 great naturalist. With a literary family named 
 Huber, who were fond of falconrj-, he contracted 
 a great intimacy. Noteworthy visits of the period 
 were to the Grande Chartreuse, of which he wrote 
 an admirable account, and to the philosopher of 
 Ferney, then in his eightieth year. Voltaire, of 
 whose ghastly, skeleton-like aspect he had the 
 most vivid recollection, he describes as a very 
 dark-complexioned, shrivelled, and thin man, 
 hardly above the middle height. The aged 
 philosopher laid his hand on his head at parting ) 
 saying, " I give you the blessing of a very old 
 man." In 1780 he again visited the Continent, 
 and spent a year in rambling through Flanders, 
 Germany, and Italy, and in 1782 he travelle'd 
 a second time in the latter country. 
 
 About this time he printed, but did not publish, 
 
William Beckford. ij 
 
 a work which he called " Dreams, Waking 
 Thoughts, and Incidents, in a Series of Letters 
 from various parts of Europe." His first pub- 
 lished literary effort was a jeu d' esprit, entitled 
 " Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters." Having 
 overheard the old housekeeper at Fonthill making 
 the strangest blunders in describing the pictures 
 to visitors, he thought of drawing up a sort of 
 catalogue embodying, or rather exaggerating, 
 her absurdities, and this for the purpose of being 
 used as a guide by strangers, not one of whom 
 had the slightest acquaintance with the names 
 of the real artists. To quote himself, " The book 
 was soon on the tongues of all the domestics." 
 Many were the quotations current upon the 
 merits of Og of Basan and Watersouchy of 
 Amsterdam. Before a picture of Rubens, or 
 Murillo, there was often a charming dissertation 
 upon the pencil of the Herr Sucrewasser of 
 Vienna, or that great Italian artist, Blunder- 
 bussiana of Venice. " I used to listen," says 
 Mr. Beckford, " unobserved until I was ready to 
 kill myself with laughing at the authorities 
 quoted to the squires and farmers of Wilts, who 
 took all for gospel." 
 
 He was but twenty-two years of age when he 
 composed his wondrous tale of " Vathek " in 
 French. This was written " at one sitting of 
 three nights and two days. I never took off my 
 clothes the whole time," says Mr. Beckford. 
 The beauty of some of the descriptions in this tale 
 
it The Beckford Family. 
 
 and the dreary grandeur of its close in a hall of 
 everlasting torment, stamp it as a production of 
 the highest genius. It seems strange that one 
 who could write so well should have written no 
 more in the same style. The work was never- 
 theless little known to the English public till a 
 translation was published in London in 1815. 
 We have the author's own authority that the 
 composition of " Vathek," performed as it was 
 without intervening sleep, and productive as 
 it must have been of extraordinary excitement, 
 made him extremely ill. The style seems formed 
 from that of Voltaire and Count Hamilton ; there 
 are, however, passages in it of a higher order of 
 conception than are found in either. The 
 description of the Hall of Eblis is one of these. 
 On its being said to Beckford that nothing in the 
 Eastern works of fiction was like it, he said that 
 he took it from the hall of Old Fonthill, the 
 largest probably in any private house in England. 
 " It was from that hall I worked, magnifying and 
 colouring it with Eastern character. All the 
 female characters were portraits drawn from the 
 domestic establishment of old Fonthill, their good 
 or evil qualities ideally exaggerated to suit my 
 purpose." " Vathek " was translated into English 
 sometime after its appearance ; Beckford never 
 knew by whom, but he praised the translation. 
 Mr. Beckford was perhaps too much a student to 
 be an active author. He gave himself almost 
 entirely up for years to reading and the cultivation 
 
William Beckford. ij 
 
 of his taste for works of art. The effects of years 
 devoted by a powerful mind to constant study 
 were most remarkable. He seemed to be 
 acquainted with all the principal authors that 
 ever wrote, and of his own vast collection of 
 books scarce one but what contained remarks 
 written by him. 
 
 At an early period of life Mr. Beckford married 
 I,ady Margaret Gordon (whom he first met at a 
 ball in Bath), daughter of the Earl of Aboyne, by 
 whom he was left a widower at twenty-six with 
 two daughters. He formed no other alliance. 
 His wife, L,ady Margaret, died at the Chateau de 
 la Tour just after her confinement. He is said 
 to have vowed he would be faithful to her 
 memory and never marry again, and to have 
 spent hours at this spot dreaming of all that had 
 been lovely to him, and of which he had been 
 deprived. Much of this period of his life was 
 spent in France, with most of whose contem- 
 porary great men he became acquainted. Italy, 
 Spain and Portugal also shared in his affections. 
 His observations on these countries were pre- 
 served in a series of letters which were published 
 near the end of his life. At Cintra, in Portugal, he 
 for some time established his residence, building 
 in one of the loveliest spots of that beautiful 
 region a fairy palace, the first of his wondrous 
 creations in stone and lime. Byron alludes to 
 this beautiful but now ruined mansion in his 
 "Childe Harold:" 
 
i8 The Beckford Family. 
 
 There thou too, Vathek ! England's wealthiest 
 
 son, 
 Once found thy paradise, as not aware 
 When wanton Wealth her mightiest deeds 
 
 hath done, 
 Meek Peace voluptuous lures was even wont to 
 
 shun. 
 
 Here didst thou dwell, here schemes of 
 
 pleasure plan 
 Beneath yon mountain's ever beauteous brow : 
 But now as if a thing unblest by man 
 Thy fairy dwelling is as lone as thou ; 
 Here giant weeds a passage scarce allow 
 To halls deserted, portals gaping wide ; 
 Fresh lessons to the thinking bosom, how 
 Vain are the pleasaunces on earth supplied 
 Swept into wrecks anon by Time's ungentle tide. 
 
 During the troubles in the Peninsula Mr. 
 Beckford abandoned his residence at Cintra and 
 returned to England, where he soon applied him- 
 self to the business which of all others he most 
 loved, that of building, furnishing, and planting. 
 He was engaged the better part of twenty years 
 in rearing and fitting out his palace at Fonthill. 
 This estate had been purchased by his father. 
 Beckford hearing one day of the conflagration 
 of the old mansion, coolly said, " Well, let it be 
 rebuilt," and this was done at the enormous 
 expense of ^240,000. The luxurious " Vathek," 
 dissatisfied with the site, which was low, 
 
William Beckford. iq 
 
 determined to abandon it, and rebuild upon one 
 more elevated. When this was effected the 
 costly old mansion was sold for the value of the 
 materials — nine thousand pounds. 
 
 Yet it was long regarded as the most attractive 
 and splendid seat in the West of England. It 
 was a handsome, uniform edifice, consisting of 
 a centre of four stories and two wings of two 
 stories, connected by corridors, built of fine 
 stone and adorned with a bold portico, resting 
 on a rustic basement, with two sweeping flights 
 of steps. Its apartments were numerous and 
 splendidly furnished. They displayed the riches 
 and luxury of the Kast, and on particular occa- 
 sions were superbly brilliant and dazzling. 
 Whilst its walls were adorned with the most 
 costly works of art, its cabinets presented a 
 gorgeous combination of gold, silver, precious 
 metals, and precious stones, arranged and 
 worked by the most tasteful and skilful artists 
 and artisans. Added to these splendours, these 
 dazzling objects, apparently augmented and 
 multiplied by large and costly mirrors, was a 
 vast, choice and valuable library. The entrance 
 hall was eighty-five feet ten inches in length, 
 thirty-eight feet six inches in breadth. Its roof 
 was vaulted and supported by large stone piers. 
 Splendid, however, as it was, and presenting as 
 it did such fascinations, it was placed in a low, 
 damp, and unhealthy situation on the margin of 
 a broad lake, and at the base of a hill covered 
 
20 The Beckford Family. 
 
 with woods. Dissatisfied with, this situation, its 
 proprietor doomed it to destruction, and nearly- 
 all its contents were dispersed. Such is a short 
 account of Fonthill-house that belonged to 
 Alderman Beckford. 
 
The New Fonthill. 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The New Fonthiix. 
 
 JHE construction of the new edifice was 
 conducted by the solitary and self- 
 absorbed enthusiast with an energy 
 highly characteristic. Determined to produce 
 an edifice uncommon in design and adorn it with 
 splendour ; knowing and properly appreciating 
 the insatiable curiosity of the English, and that 
 no common means would restrain it from break- 
 ing in upon domestic privacy, and encroaching 
 on the regular occupation of artificers and work- 
 men, Mr. Beckford commenced his work by 
 raising a high wall around a track of land above 
 six miles in extent. This was guarded by pro- 
 jecting railings on the top, in a manner of 
 chevaux de /rise, and thus constituted a sort of 
 fortified barrier. I^arge and strong gates, or 
 rather double gates, were provided in this wall 
 at the different roads of entrance to the interior. 
 At these gates were stationed persons who had 
 strict and rigid orders not to admit a stranger. 
 The following is the explanation for privacy 
 
22 The Beckford Family. 
 
 given by Mr. Beckford to a literary friend, who 
 was in his confidence, at his residence, in I^ans- 
 down Crescent, Bath : — 
 
 " Some persons say that I built the wall before 
 I began the house to cut myself wholly off from 
 mankind. Why, I had always one, sometimes 
 two hundred workmen with me. I built the 
 wall because I would not have my grounds 
 intruded upon by sportsmen. In vain were they 
 warned off. Your country gentlemen will trans- 
 port a pauper for taking a few twigs from a 
 hedge which they will break down without cere- 
 mony. They will take no denial, when they go 
 hunting in their red jackets to excruciate to 
 death a poor hare. I found remonstrances vain, 
 so I built the wall to exclude them. I never 
 suffer an animal to be killed but through neces- 
 sity. Early in life I gave up shooting because I 
 consider we have no right to murder animals for 
 sport. I am fond of animals. The birds of 
 Fonthill seemed to know me — they continued 
 their songs as I rode close to them — the very 
 hares grew bold. It was exactly what I wished." 
 Resuming, he said, " A story has been circulated 
 that some one came in over the wall, and mis- 
 taking the master for the gardener was shown 
 the grounds, and was at night desired to find his 
 way out as he got in. I will tell you the origin 
 of the story. Vulgar curiosity was so excited by 
 the edifice I was constructing, but more by the 
 falsehoods told of myself, that even ' gentlemen ' 
 
The New Fonthill. 23 
 
 disguised themselves in workmen's dresses, and 
 got in to see what was doing. It was not pleasant, 
 being among the workmen continually, to be 
 looked in the face all day long by intrusive 
 people who had no business there. I never 
 refused strangers at proper seasons the satisfac- 
 tion of their curiosity. The circumstance to 
 which you allude has foundation in fact. I was 
 coming out of the hall, going towards the planta- 
 tion, when a stranger addressed me — ' Can I see 
 Fonthill ?' My reply was, ' It is not shown.' 
 ' Might I see the gardens then, you can show 
 them, I dare say ?' I thought I would follow out 
 the joke, as the stranger was of gentlemanly 
 address. I led him into the gardens, showed 
 him the grounds, and lastly took him into the 
 house. Here I imagined he began to suspect 
 I was not what I pretended. I know not to this 
 day who he was, but I thought him one of the 
 pleasantest men I had ever conversed with, 
 deeply read, sensible, and perfectly well bred. 
 When I had shown him the principal apartments 
 I knew that dinner was serving up. I begged 
 him to walk with me into a room he had not 
 seen, and instantly led the way to the dinner 
 table, telling him of his mistake, of which by 
 this time there was little need. I would take no 
 denial ; he dined with me. We conversed on a 
 variety of subjects— he was at home in all. When 
 he rose to go away I rung for a servant as it was 
 dark, thanking him for his society. I asked if 
 
24 The Beckford Family. 
 
 he had any conveyance. He only expressed a 
 wish to be shown the park gate. We parted, and 
 I never saw him more. As to my treating one of 
 the most agreeable strangers I ever saw in my 
 life with rudeness — one who had eaten my salt — 
 it was impossible. I hope I am a gentleman." 
 
 The foundation of the new Fonthill was laid 
 in the year 1795. A vast number of mechanics 
 and labourers were employed to advance the 
 works with rapidity. The neighbouring villages 
 were thronged with inhabitants, and a new 
 village or hamlet was built to accommodate 
 some of the new settlers. " At one time every 
 cart and wagon in the district were pressed into 
 the service, though all the agricultural work of 
 the country stood still. At another even the 
 royal works at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, 
 were abandoned that four hundred and sixty 
 men might be employed night and day on 
 Fonthill Abbey. These men were made to 
 relieve each other b} r regular watches ; and 
 during the longest and darkest nights of winter 
 the astonished traveller might see the tower 
 rising under their hands, the trowel and torch 
 being associated for that purpose." This must 
 have had a very extraordinary appearance ; and 
 we are told that it was another of those exhibi- 
 tions which Mr. Beckford was fond of contem- 
 plating. He is represented as surveying the 
 work thus expedited, the busy bevy of masons, 
 the high and giddy dancing of the lights, and 
 
The New Fonthill. 25 
 
 the strange effects produced upon the architec- 
 ture and woods below, from one of the eminences 
 in the walks, and wasting the coldest hours of 
 November and December in feasting his sense 
 with this display of almost superhuman power. 
 
2b The Beckford Family. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A Frenchman's Description. 
 
 distinguished Frenchman, Henri Meistre, 
 paid two visits to England at the close 
 of the eighteenth century, and published 
 his impressions in a series of entertaining letters. 
 On the second occasion he made the acquaint- 
 ance of Beckford, who drove him from Eondon 
 to Fonthill, of which he gives a graphic descrip- 
 tion. The mansion, he says, stands in the 
 middle of a plain of considerable extent, which 
 is surrounded by several hills, the summits 
 of which are some more distant than others, 
 but all of easy ascents. One of these pleasant 
 hills, cloathed with the thickest verdure, com- 
 mands a wing of the house, and protects it 
 from the westerly winds. The lovely green of 
 the foliage unites with, and sets off in a very 
 agreeable manner, the extreme whiteness of the 
 stone with which this vast edifice is built. The 
 other wing is bounded by a noble river, which 
 winds slowly on, and having traced a number of 
 meanders along the verdant plain, which it 
 
A Frenchman's Description. 27 
 
 plentifully waters, forms a cluster of little islands 
 covered with the most beautiful shrubs, and is at 
 length lost in a thick forest, through which 
 certain vistas discover the distant prospect of a 
 chain of richly cultivated hills. 
 
 You are not fond of descriptions of palaces, 
 and fine houses ; I shall not, therefore, give you 
 any further account of this, though I know 
 nothing of the kind in France of superior gran- 
 deur. I shall not say a word of the elegant and 
 rich apartments it contains, nor of the beautiful 
 proportions of the gallery, the saloon, and the 
 eating room ; nor take any notice of the paint- 
 ings and statues which ornament them. I shall, 
 however, accommodate myself to your taste by 
 remarking that the fire-places have all of them 
 noble jars of the rare old Japan china, filled with 
 all the ga3'est flowers of the season, which 
 entirely occupy the vacant space. As the 
 weather was very warm we passed great part of 
 the day on the ground floor, in a kind of Egyp- 
 tian labyrinth, the recesses of which, ingen- 
 iously ornamented, contained besides other riches 
 collected from every region of the known world, 
 one of the most curious libraries I ever met with, 
 furnished not only with the best books, but the 
 best editions of those books, and, I may say, the 
 best and rarest copy of those editions. 
 
 Towards the close of the day we were attended 
 by curricles drawn by little horses, and driven 
 by young postillions of a suitable size to the 
 
28 The Beckford Family. 
 
 horses. These carriages waited for us at the 
 bottom of the great steps, and seemed to be 
 proper equipages for the Queen of Sylphidia. 
 They conveyed us rapidly along the roads of this 
 maze of hill and wood ; one-while descending 
 with us into a deep valley ; another time, mount- 
 ing us up high hills from whose tops we descried 
 immense prospects, extending over several coun- 
 ties, and bounded either by the sea or sky. 
 These views were continually changing to a new 
 country, and I thought myself by turns in 
 Switzerland, in France, in England, and in 
 America ; now I fancied I saw a charming land- 
 scape by Paul Potter, another time a noble view 
 by Claude I^orraine. 
 
 Having traversed a wood most beautifully 
 rustic, our conductors made a stop at a rural 
 gate which opened to us the moment we set foot 
 on ground ; and, in reality, I thought myself 
 introduced into Julia's Elysium. Following a 
 path covered with moss, and bordered with beds 
 of flowers intermixed with clumps of the most 
 delightful shrubs, and of the wild laurel, the 
 verdure of which is so pleasant to the sight, we 
 arrived at a small dome, which served as an 
 entrance to a spacious grotto that had its princi- 
 pal front towards the river. At the end of this 
 grotto which has none of the trifling ornaments 
 of shell-work, but seems constructed by large 
 masses of rock piled together in a picturesque 
 confusion, a fountain throws out its chrystal 
 
A Frenchman' s Description. 2g 
 
 streams, which, falling with a gentle murmur 
 into a rustic bason, is conveyed under the rock 
 and mingles with the waters of the river. As 
 air is continually passing through the two domes 
 that serve as entrances, the grotto is as dry as 
 the best ventilated room. To increase our sur- 
 prise, on enteiing upon this enchanted scene, we 
 found a table covered with pine apples, grapes, 
 and other refreshments, in gold and china vases, 
 of the most exquisite shapes and workmanship. 
 
 At a small distance from this grotto is a large 
 cave, in which nature or art, for it is not easy to 
 discover which, has formed several deep fissures, 
 some having the appearance of cells, and others 
 answering the purposes of baths. The middle of 
 this cavern is entirely open on the top, except 
 that a sort of covering is formed by the shrubs 
 which have planted themselves in the crevices of 
 the rock, and a fine tree that seems to be planted 
 by the hand of a magician in the centre of this 
 retreat, springing out of a bed of violets bordered 
 with green turf. 
 
 We entered, in our walk, temples consecrated 
 to various deities. That which is dedicated to 
 Hercules, is built on a small eminence almost 
 disjoined from the other hills. The temple of 
 the Naiad, the guardian of this beautiful valley, 
 is in a secret cavern, ornamented in the Etruscan 
 taste, on the banks of the river with whose 
 stream she waters it. The temple of Jesus 
 Christ is at a distance from the boundary of these 
 
jo The Beckford Family. 
 
 vast domains. But I cannot help telling you, 
 Madam, that these several buildings, without 
 partiality to any one divinity, are greatly neglec- 
 ted. The owner of this spot pays more attention 
 to the remains of an ancient ruined tower, which 
 has two caves of the most romantic appearance ; 
 one of them overgrown with ivy and vine trees, 
 seems to be dedicated to the rites of Bacchus ; 
 the other is more awful and striking in its aspect; 
 and, as it should seem, intended to celebrate the 
 sublimest mysteries of the institutions and 
 wisdom of Fairy- L,and : but whether these mys- 
 teries are of a pleasing, or terrific nature, I am 
 not able to inform you. 
 
 Here, methinks, you stop me, and desire to 
 know what extraordinary being it is that inhabits 
 the spot I have been attempting to describe. 
 You cannot ask me a question which can puzzle 
 me so greatly to reply to. The shortest answer 
 I could make would be to tell you that it is the 
 mansion of an enchanter. And this, indeed, seems 
 at first to be the best reply that could be made ; 
 but then you would scarcely give credit to it. In 
 the first place, I must needs own I never saw a 
 being possessed of so great a share of wit ; but to 
 wit, none of the Genii, you have ever heard of, 
 have any pretensions. In the next place, no 
 being can be more amiable or intelligent ; and 
 these too are distinctions for which this race is 
 not remarkable, because their power renders 
 these qualities unnecessary. When he touches 
 
A Frenchman's Description. ji 
 
 the harpsichord, you fancy you hear Piccini, 
 Gluck, or Orpheus himself playing on it. If he 
 expresses himself in our language, he does it 
 with all the genius and glow of Diderot, and the 
 graces of Hamilton. If he writes English, you 
 would suppose it the only language he was 
 acquainted with. When he pleases to be elo- 
 quent, he has at command all the rhetorical 
 powers of the English House of Commons, and 
 all the artifice of persuasion which the speakers 
 in your Convention possess. As an actor, 
 Thiemet and d'Albaret have scarcely greater 
 talents. With all these endowments, with all 
 that wealth is able to procure, I can assure you 
 my enchanter is not a happy man. An air of 
 melancholy and regret obscures the splendour 
 which the graces of his person, and the gaiety 
 of his temper throw around him. I know well 
 he has reason to complain of mankind, and I 
 think he has cause of complaint against himself. 
 With the best disposition, and the most un- 
 common talents, spoiled by the gifts of nature 
 and of fortune, his fancy must necessarily have 
 become early vitiated. Being endowed with 
 great strength and activity of mind, objects were 
 not easily found sufficiently interesting, and his 
 imagination was taxed with forming such as 
 were dissimilar to what fortune had lavishly 
 bestowed, and his most common notions became 
 either terrific or whimsical ; and were it not that 
 his taste was just and refined, they would become 
 
32 The Beckford Family. 
 
 more gloomy and fantastical.— Of the many in- 
 consistences with which he is charged, I have 
 only remarked two, because they are such as suit 
 least with my taste. The first is, that he suffers 
 flocks of geese and ducks to cackle and quack 
 up and down that fine river, which ought to be 
 occupied solely by swans. The other, that he 
 permits whole tribes of rooks and crows to 
 blacken over the beautiful green lawn, on which 
 are straying the peacocks that seem in waiting to 
 be harnessed to the car of their divinity. 
 
 I do not know if my relation of the enchant- 
 ments I have been under, have wrought any 
 effect upon you, Madam ; but it is high time that 
 you were informed, I have been labouring to 
 give you a description of the magnificent seat of 
 Fonthill, in Wiltshire. Fully to describe all its 
 beauties, it would have been necessary to have 
 invoked the shade of Gessner, or the genius of 
 Paul and Virginia, in one of the rural and poetic 
 caves I have before noticed. The owner of this 
 noble estate is Mr. B — , one of the richest 
 individuals in Europe. The immense fortune 
 which he is in possession of is derived from one 
 of his ancestors, who shared the glory of the 
 conquest of Jamaica, which Columbus had made 
 the magazine of all the riches he brought from 
 the new hemisphere he had discovered, whether 
 for the advantage or disadvantage of the human 
 race, I shall not determine. What he possesses 
 in that island only, will, this year produce to 
 
Wm. Beckford, Esq., 
 
 When about 25 years of Age. 
 (From a Painting by Sh Thos. Lawrence.) 
 
A Frenchman' s Description. jj 
 
 him, upwards of one hundred thousand pounds. 
 The land about Fonthill, which is only a small 
 part of what he owns in the adjoining county of 
 Somerset, is laid out entirely in a pleasure- 
 ground, containing from sixteen to eighteen 
 hundred acres. Mr. B. is very sensible that 
 great land-holders like himself are prejudicial to 
 a country, he endeavours, therefore, to com- 
 pensate for the injury fortune forces him to do, 
 by furnishing constant employment for four or 
 five thousand labourers, who are all in his pay. 
 He is the proprietor of the town of Hindon, which 
 sends two members to Parliament, the choice of 
 which, you undoubtedly guess, is regulated by 
 him. At the last election, one of the members, 
 willing to shew his gratitude for the loud accla- 
 mations of the electors, began an eloquent 
 harangue, which was interrupted by one of the 
 electors, who entreated him to spare himself the 
 trouble of returning thanks : " for," added he, 
 " if the squire had sent his great dog to us, we 
 " should have chosen him, as we have done you." 
 The mental powers which Mr. B. is possessed 
 of as much exceed, perhaps, all example as does 
 his fortune. Wonderful as his genius appears, it 
 is a question, whether, from indolence, or from 
 whatever other secret cause, he has advanced to 
 the midway of that excellence which nature 
 seems to have designed him to attain : besides, 
 he is not more than three-and- thirty years of 
 age. 
 
34- The Beckford Family. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Visit op Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton. 
 
 '[HE cause of the extraordinary exertion and 
 activity noticed in the previous chapter 
 was the visit of Lord Nelson, with Sir 
 William and Lady Hamilton, Dr. Wolcot (Peter 
 Pindar), etc., to Fonthill. The " Hero of the 
 Nile," as he was then called, and Lady Hamilton, 
 had excited great notoriety ; the one by his 
 courage, naval skill, and conquests, and the 
 other by her personal attractions and abilities. 
 Mr. Beckford having invited them, with several 
 other friends, to his splendid seat, first received 
 and then treated them in an extraordinary 
 manner, for the accomplished author of " Vathek" 
 had determined to exemplify by practical illustra- 
 tion some of the theories of that original romance. 
 If he had not five wings to his palace, or " five 
 other palaces, for the particular gratification of 
 each of the senses," he had concentrated within 
 his own walls, and around his mansion, the most 
 delightful blandishments of art, the fascinations 
 of talent, and the choicest luxuries for the palate, 
 
Visit of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton. 35 
 
 besides the most rare and delicious viands, fruits, 
 and wines, with odoriferous plants, flowers, and 
 essences ; some of the first vocal and instru- 
 mental performers were engaged, a military band 
 was provided, the Fonthill volunteers were pre- 
 pared and disciplined, the house was fitted up 
 with increased splendour, and on the 20th of 
 December, 1800, a large cavalcade was intro- 
 duced to the mansion. In passing through 
 Salisbury l,ord Nelson was escorted into and out 
 of that city by the yeomen cavalry, and was 
 presented with the freedom of Sarum by the 
 Mayor and Corporation in their Council-house 
 assembled. The festivities at Fonthill continued 
 for some days, and the company consisted of 
 persons of distinguished talents and qualifica- 
 tions. The Abbey, or monastic, fete on the 
 evening of the 23rd was the most remarkable 
 period of this gala. A procession of carriages, 
 horses, soldiers, etc., moved from the old house 
 to the Abbey in the evening. Flambeaux, 
 torches, and many thousand lamps were dis- 
 tributed on the sides of the roads among the 
 woods ; whilst bands of music and files of soldiers 
 were stationed in different places to greet and 
 charm the company as they passed. Everything 
 indeed was provided to steal upon the senses, to 
 dazzle the eye, and to bewilder the fancy. After 
 passing through a long, winding, umbrageous 
 avenue, after hearing the sounds of distant, near 
 and varied instruments, with their reverberations 
 
j 6 The Beckford Family. 
 
 among the woods and dells, and contemplating 
 the vivid and solemn effects of bright flitting 
 lights and deep shadows, the company was con- 
 ducted to the Abbey, where a new, impressive, 
 and mystical scene, or succession of scenes, were 
 presented. For an account of this I quote a 
 letter written at this time: "After entering a 
 groined Gothic hall through a double line of 
 soldiers, the parties were received in the great 
 saloon called the cardinal's parlour, furnished 
 with rich tapestries, long curtains of purple 
 damask before the arched windows, ebony tables 
 and chairs studded with ivory of various but 
 antique fashion ; the whole room in the noblest 
 style of monastic ornament, and illuminated by 
 lights on silver sconces. At the moment of 
 entrance they sat down at a long table occupying 
 nearly the whole length of the room (fifty-three 
 feet) to a superb dinner, served in one long line 
 of enormous silver dishes, in the substantial 
 costume of the antient Abbeys, unmixed with 
 the refinements of modern cookery. The table 
 and sideboard glittered with piles of plate and a 
 profusion of lights, not to mention a blazing 
 Christmas fire of cedar and the cones of pine, 
 which united to increase the splendour and 
 improve the coup d'ceil of the room. It is need- 
 less to say that the highest satisfaction and good 
 humour prevailed, mingled with sentiments of 
 admiration at the grandeur and originality of 
 the entertainment. Dinner being ended the 
 
Visit of Lord Nelso?i and Lady Hamilton. 37 
 
 company moved upstairs to the other furnished 
 apartments of the Abbey. The staircase was 
 lighted by certain mysterious living figures at 
 different intervals, dressed in hooded gowns and 
 standing with large wax torches in their hands. 
 
 "A magnificent room hung with yellow damask 
 and decorated with cabinets of the most precious 
 Japan received the assembly. It was impossible 
 not to be struck among other objects with its 
 credences (or antique buffets) exhibiting much 
 treasure of wrought plate, cups, vases and ewers 
 of solid gold. It was from this room that the 
 company passed into the library, fitted up with 
 the same appropriate taste. The library opens 
 by a large Gothic screen into the gallery, which, 
 when finished, will be more than two hundred 
 and seventy feet long. About half that length is 
 now filled up and furnished in the most impres- 
 sive monastic style, a superb shrine, with a 
 beautiful statue of St. Anthony in marble and 
 alabaster, the work of Rossi, placed upon it, 
 with reliquaries studded with brilliants of 
 immense value, the whole illuminated with a 
 grand display of wax lights on candlesticks and 
 candelabras of massive silver gilt, exhibited a 
 scene at once strikingly splendid and awfully 
 magnificent. The long series of lights on either 
 side of the room, resting on stands of ebony, 
 enriched with gold, and those on the shrine all 
 multiplied and reflected in the great oriel oppo- 
 site from its spacious squares of plate glass, while 
 
jS The Beckford Family. 
 
 the whole reflection narrowed into an endless 
 perspective as it receded from the eye, produced 
 a singular and magic effect. 
 
 " As the company entered the gallery solemn 
 music struck the ear from some invisible quarter, 
 as if from behind the screen of scarlet curtains 
 which backed the shrine, or from its canopy 
 above, and suggested ideas of a religious service, 
 ideas which, associated as they were, with so 
 many appropriate objects addressed to the eye, 
 recall the grand chapel scenes and ceremonies of 
 our ancient Catholic times. After the scenic 
 representation a collation was provided in the 
 library, consisting of various sorts of confection- 
 ery, served in gold baskets, with spiced wines, 
 etc., whilst rows of chairs were placed beyond, 
 which had just received the company above 
 stairs. A large vacant space was left in front of 
 the seats. The assembly no sooner occupied 
 them than Lady Hamilton appeared in the 
 character of Cleopatra, bearing the ashes of 
 Germanicus in a golden urn, and as presenting 
 herself before the Roman people with the design 
 of exciting them to revenge the death of her 
 husband ; who, after having been declared joint 
 Emperor with Tiberius, fell a victim to his envy, 
 and is supposed to have been poisoned by his 
 order at the head of the forces which he was 
 leading against the rebellious Armenians. I^ady 
 Hamilton displayed with truth and energy every 
 gesture, attitude, and expression of countenance 
 
Visit of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton. 39 
 
 which could be conceived in Cleopatra herself, 
 best calculated to have moved the passions of the 
 Romans in behalf of their favourite general. The 
 action of her head, of her hands and arms, in the 
 various positions of the urn, in her manner of 
 presenting it before the Romans, or of holding it 
 up to the gods in the act of supplication, was 
 most classically graceful ; every change of dress 
 principally of the head, to suit the different 
 situations in which she successively presented 
 herself, was performed instantaneously, with the 
 most perfect ease, and without retiring, or 
 scarcely turning aside a moment from the 
 spectators. In the last scene of this beautiful 
 piece of pantomime, she appeared with a young 
 lady of the company who was to personate her 
 daughter. Her action in this part was so 
 perfectly just and natural, and so pathetically 
 addressed to the spectators as to draw tears from 
 several of the company. It may be questioned 
 whether this scene without theatrical assistance 
 of other characters and appropriate circum- 
 stances, could possibly have been represented 
 with more effect. The company, delighted and 
 charmed, broke up and departed at eleven 
 o'clock, to sup at the mansion house at Salisbury. 
 " On leaving this strange nocturnal scene of 
 vast buildings and extensive forest, now rendered 
 dimly and partially visible by the declining 
 lights of lamps and torches, and the twinkling of 
 a few scattered stars in a clouded sky, the 
 
^o The Beckford Family. 
 
 company seemed, as soon as they had passed the 
 sacred boundary of the great wall, as if waking 
 from a dream, or just freed from the influence of 
 some magic spell. The enlargement of the Abbey 
 was continued for some years after this fete ; it 
 was made at least four times larger before the 
 workmen were dismissed," 
 
 Beckford's graphic description of his dis- 
 tinguished visitors, as he related it to a friend a 
 few years previous to his decease, is as follows : — 
 " Sir William Hamilton I first knew at Naples. 
 I was not more than twenty years of age then. 
 Sir William came home to retire from his duties 
 after thirty-six years of service. He rode the 
 antiquarian hobby, but he understood his role. 
 What a house his was at Naples ! There were 
 all the clever people, the artists, the antiquaries, 
 the musicians, the beauty, and gaiety of the city. 
 It was my home. Lady Hamilton was a charming 
 creature ; I do not mean the Nelson. The dawn 
 of life was then as bright as the bay in which I 
 looked every morning, and making allowance for 
 its vivid feelings, I say truth when I speak of 
 Lady Hamilton as an angel of purity. She lived 
 uncorrupted in the midst of the Neapolitan 
 Court. You must have known what the Court 
 was to comprehend this in its full meaning. I 
 never saw so heavenly-minded a creature. Her 
 power of musical execution was miraculous, so 
 sweetly soft was her touch — she seemed as if she 
 threw her own essence into the music. I used 
 
Visit of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton. 41 
 
 to listen to her like one entranced. She died in 
 1782. But I go from the point. Sir William 
 Hamilton was nearly seventy when he came 
 home. I invited him to Fonthill. He had 
 married the too-famous L,ady Hamilton, who 
 survived him. She was nobody knew who. She 
 came with Sir William. L,ord Nelson and 
 Wolcot arrived together. I,ady Hamilton figured 
 there before L,ord Nelson, much to her own 
 satisfaction, in the character of Cleopatra. She 
 represented the character well ; I must do her 
 that justice. Perhaps Nelson inspired her.* 
 Wolcot enjoyed the scenes greatly, and enter- 
 tained everybody with his conversation. A 
 pressing engagement called him away after a 
 week's visit, and I never saw him again. How 
 well he wrote, how original his style and humour ! 
 He understood character thoroughly, he played 
 with human foibles. He repeated the following 
 
 * In answer to a question if he thought Lady Hamilton 
 a fascinating woman, Beckford's reply was, " I never 
 thought her so ; she was somewhat masculine, but sym- 
 metrical in figure, so that Sir William called her his 
 Grecian. Her countenance was agreeable — certainly not 
 beautiful. She affected sensibility but felt none — was 
 artful ; and no wonder, she had been trained in the Court 
 of Naples — a fine school for an Englishwoman of any 
 stamp. It was a hell of corruption. Nelson was in- 
 fatuated. She could make him believe anything — that 
 the profligate Queen was a Madonna. He was her dupe. 
 She persuaded him at last that she had a daughter — a 
 Nelsoness. She never had a child in her life, in the 
 opinion of those who knew something about her. Sir 
 William Hamilton, my old friend, died two or three years 
 after this visit. Some of his finest antiquities are in the 
 museum." 
 
42 The Beckford Family. 
 
 epigram on his setting a nightcap on fire that he 
 had borrowed of Lord Nelson while sitting up 
 reading ; — 
 
 ' Take your nightcap again, n^ good lord, 
 I desire, 
 For I will not keep it a minute ; 
 What belongs to a Nelson where'er there's 
 a fire 
 Is sure to be instantly in it.' " 
 
 Wolcot had lashed Sir William for his antiquarian 
 enthusiasm in some of his odes several years 
 before. 
 
 When Nelson was at Fonthill, Beckford pro- 
 posed to give him a drive through his grounds. 
 He had a road from fifteen to twenty miles in 
 extent through his plantations. Nelson took a 
 place by his side, but observing the horses a 
 little lively he became so nervous and uncom- 
 fortable, in a few moments he requested his host 
 to " pull up," he could not bear it any longer. 
 This is a singular instance of the effect of habit 
 on a brave man of whom a battery of cannon 
 quickened the courage, and who dreaded no foe 
 sword in hand. 
 
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Fonthill Abbey Finished. 43 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Fonthiix Abbey Finished. 
 
 °N 1807 (seven years after Nelson's visit to 
 Fonthill) the mansion was sufficiently far 
 advanced to accommodate its founder. Now 
 
 it was that England's wealthiest son seemed 
 
 entitled to say — 
 
 " Yon palace, whose brave turret tops 
 Over the stately wood survey the copse, 
 Promiseth, if sought, a wished-for place of rest." 
 
 The park and pleasure grounds were laid out 
 with consummate art, in order to constitute, 
 either by themselves or in connection with the 
 Abbey, landscapes of the most delightful descrip- 
 tion. The avenue you entered on passing through 
 the entrance gate, consisted of a narrow carriage- 
 way with a greensward path on each side bounded 
 and shut in by a thick plantation, chiefly con- 
 sisting of firs, larches, and pines, the spaces 
 between the pillar-like stems of which were filled 
 by a variety of flowering shrubs and wild under- 
 woods, so that you could not judge of its extent 
 except by the almost impenetrable darkness 
 
44 The Beckfoj-d Family. 
 
 which pervaded when you attempted to look 
 through. This road was above a mile in lengthy 
 and wound round perpetually, so that you could 
 never see a hundred yards before you ; and then 
 the delightful carpet on each side of the road — -it 
 was rarer than that which was produced from the 
 looms of Persia — as your feet pressed upon it, it 
 sprang up from under them as if it were not made 
 or accustomed to be trod upon. It was composed 
 of a thick elastic body of various kinds of ever- 
 green moss, low ground fern almost like moss, 
 wild thyme, and numerous sweet-smelling ground 
 flowers ; the whole matted and interlaced to- 
 gether by a network of wild strawberries ; their 
 innocent little flowers peeping out here and there 
 as if afraid, yet anxious to be seen. To notice 
 the numerous roads, paths, ridges, dells, knolls, 
 woods, and lawns within the enclosed area of the 
 Fonthill grounds would I fear be tedious and 
 prolix to the reader, but we must not omit to 
 notice the American plantations, for here grew in 
 apparent native wildness almost every kind of 
 the American flowering shrub and tree. The 
 mangolia, azalea, rhododendron-ponticum, coc- 
 cinea-aurantina, coccinea-major-fiammea, rosa- 
 carolinensis, calicanthus-fioridus, angelica, ro- 
 binia-latifolia, with different species of andromeda 
 abounded here ; and in the flowering season 
 perfumed the air with their spicy effluvia : 
 " While groves of Eden, vanished now so long, 
 I4ve in description, and look green in song." 
 
Fonthill Abbey Finished. 45 
 
 The luxuriance of the shrubs and trees in this 
 part of the grounds, the wildness of some spots 
 contrasted with the smoothness and softness of 
 others, the shape and undefined borders of the 
 lake, all conspired to render it interesting to 
 every person, but more peculiarity to the artist 
 and botanist. A profusion of English and foreign 
 heaths were planted on the sides of the paths. 
 In a deep hollow, apparently the crater of a 
 volcano, was a lake, which though of small 
 extent, was a fine feature of the grounds, whether 
 viewed from the Abbey, from various stations 
 among the woods, or from different parts of its 
 banks. The latter were skirted and fringed with 
 woods, whose pendant branches hung over, were 
 reflected in, and kissed the rippled wave. Flocks 
 of wild ducks, cootes, &c, with the long-necked 
 heron, abounded in all seasons, and served at 
 once to diversify and give interest to the scene. 
 In a narrow dell at the southern extremity of 
 this lake was a large wheel with attached 
 hydraulic machines for forcing water up the hill 
 to supply the house. 
 
 The site of the Abbey was a lofty terrace, 
 having an abrupt descent to the south, a con- 
 tinued but irregular surface to the east and west, 
 and terminating each way with a high knoll and 
 steep ridge. Northward the ground sloped 
 more gently ; but from the natural height of 
 situation and the altitude of the edifice it was 
 seen from a considerable distance in every 
 
4b The Beckford Family. 
 
 direction. Its towers commanded very extensive 
 and diversified views ; — to trie south were seen 
 the woods and buildings of Wardour Castle, 
 terminated by a long bare ridge of the plain, or 
 downs ; south-westward the eye ranged over the 
 rugged, sandy knoll of Donhead ; beyond was 
 seen the tower of Shaftesbury, and an extensive 
 tract of Dorsetshire. Immediately to the west 
 were descried the irregular grounds of East and 
 West Knoyle, also the town of Mere, backed by 
 the fine woods of Stourhead. A little to the 
 northward the eye embraced an extensive range 
 of Somersetshire, with the vast woods about 
 Eongleat. Directly to the north was seen the 
 borough of Hindon,* with extensive but flat 
 tracts of down country, contrasted to which, 
 looking eastward, the eye dwelt with delight on 
 a broad fertile valley, abounding with woods, 
 enlivened with seats and villages, and enriched 
 with the manufacturing town of Wilton and the 
 interesting city of Salisbury. Such were the 
 general objects and features surrounding, but at 
 some distance from the Abbey. 
 
 " Crowning a gradual hill the mansion rose 
 In antient English grandeur : turrets, spires 
 And windows, climbing high from base to roof 
 In wide and radiant rows, bespoke its birth 
 Coeval with those rich cathedral fanes 
 
 * In 1784 Beckford sat in Parliament for Wells and in 
 1790 for Hindon. 
 
Fonthill Abbey Finished. 4.7 
 
 (Gothic ill-named) where harmony results 
 From disunited parts ; on shapes minute, 
 At once distinct and blended, boldly form 
 One vast majestic whole." 
 
 Mason's English Garden. 
 
 The Abbey consisted of five distinct portions — 
 1st, the hall ; 2nd, the central tower ; 3rd, the 
 north wing ; 4th, the eastern portion ; and 5th, 
 the south wing. The exterior measurements 
 were three hundred and twelve feet from north 
 to south, two hundred and seventy feet from east 
 to west, the central tower two hundred and 
 seventy-six feet high from the floor to the top of 
 the pinnacles. It may be easily supposed that 
 Beckford, with a vivid fancy, a mind stored with 
 information from extensive travel, would not be 
 satisfied with anything of common-place or even 
 usual character. He would require novelty, 
 grandeur, complexity, and even sublimity ; and 
 it may be safely asserted that no style or class of 
 architecture is so well adapted to effect these 
 purposes as the Gothic or ecclesiastical. 
 
 The entrance hall, or grand vestibule, was a 
 large and lofty apartment ; it was entered by a 
 spacious doorway, with a pointed arch, to which 
 were attached a pair of folding doors, with a 
 small door inserted. These doors were thirty 
 feet high, divided by ribs or mouldings, studded 
 with nails and supported by ponderous metal 
 hinges. The hall measured sixty-eight feet long, 
 
j$ The Beckford Family. 
 
 twenty-eight feet wide, and seventy-eight feet in 
 height. Three tall windows on the south side, 
 with stained glass by Eginton, served to give 
 light to the interior, and a small window with 
 stained glass was inserted near the top of the 
 gable. The ease with which the ponderous doors 
 turned on their hinges was not the only merit to 
 be ascribed to them. Arched like the gates of 
 monarchs, they were 
 " Arch'd so high that giants may get through, 
 And keep their impious turbans on." 
 
 Ascending by a flight of twenty-two steps, 
 guarded by a stone balustrade on each side, you 
 approached, through a small but lofty vestibule, 
 "Cat octangular apartment, saloon, or louvre, beneath 
 the central tower. This presented a magnificent 
 and imposing scene, or, rather, series of scenes, 
 and was on a scale and in harmony with the 
 spacious entrance hall. Four arches to the east, 
 west, north, and south communicated to the 
 dining-room, the hall, Edward's gallery, and St. 
 Michael's gallery. Edward's gallery was so 
 named from a series of splendid emblazonments 
 which marked the numerous descents of Mr. 
 Beckford and Lady Margaret Gordon from 
 Edward III. A full-length portrait, copied from 
 one at Windsor, and seventy-two emblazoned 
 shields round the frieze of knights companions 
 of the most noble Order of the Garter, and from 
 whom Mr. Beckford and his lady are lineally 
 
Grand Entrance to Fonthiix Abbey. 
 
Font hill Abbey Finished. 49 
 
 descended, were parts of the adornments of this 
 splendid gallery. In the recesses of the eastern 
 wall were six bookcases, and in the centre a fine 
 alabaster chimney-piece; opposite to, and cor- 
 responding with which, were seven pointed 
 windows with stained glass. The corridor, or 
 approach to the oratory, was a continuation of 
 the Edward's gallery, and was designed to 
 produce a solemn and gloomy effect. Three 
 perforated bronze doors on each side communi- 
 cated with mysterious recesses, somewhat re- 
 sembling monastic confessionals. A doorway 
 from the eastern recess led to the Lancaster 
 staircase tower, which formed an approach to an 
 upper gallery, and led to bedrooms in the tower 
 above. North of the tower was a square apart- 
 ment, called the Sanctuary. This room was 
 peculiarily beautiful and impressive ; it prepared 
 the eye and mind to approach and appreciate the 
 oratory. A richly- chased gold lamp was sus- 
 pended from the ceiling. At the east end rose 
 an altar spread with a Persian carpet of figured 
 silk, on which stood a marble statue of St. 
 Anthony of Padua, executed by Rossi. On each 
 side of the altar were placed lofty candelabra, 
 supporting tapers of extraordinary size ; whilst 
 two small lancet windows, filled with stained 
 glass, admitted a glimmering, many-coloured 
 light. The union of beauty and solemnity, of 
 softness, repose, and harmony which pervaded 
 this part of the building cannot be adequately 
 
jo The Beckford Family. 
 
 described. When dimly illumined by the rays 
 of its own simply elegant lamps, which 
 " through the room 
 Teach light to counterfeit a gloom," 
 
 whilst the windows of the adjoining galleries 
 were shrouded by their crimson, purple, and gold 
 draperies, the soft solemn organ sending its 
 mellow tone through the echoing galleries, whilst 
 the odours of eastern perfumes contributed their 
 fragrance to feast another sense, it is more easy 
 to fancy than to depict the seraphic influence of 
 such a scene. 
 
 Ascending by the Lancaster tower you were 
 conducted to a floor over the Edward gallery, 
 consisting of a state bedroom, a gallery crowded 
 with curious enamels and pictures by early 
 masters, and a Tribune; this was a square apart- 
 ment having a handsome oriental alabaster 
 chimney-piece, a large oriel window facing the 
 west, and an ebony bedstead with furniture, part 
 of which belonged to King Henry the Seventh. 
 — The Tribune was filled with pictures, cabinets, 
 etc., and opened by a very picturesquely enriched 
 balcony into the great octagon. Near the great 
 octagon was a circular staircase which com- 
 municated to a suite of apartments, over the 
 gallery, and which Mr. Beckford occupied as a 
 private sitting-room, library, bedroom, and 
 dressing-room. 
 
 In the St. Michael gallery were six curious and 
 interesting ebony chairs which formerly belonged 
 
Fonthill Abbey Finished. 5/ 
 
 to the magnificent and haughty Wolsey and were 
 part of the splendid furniture of Esher Palace. 
 The cabinets of Kings and Princes at home and 
 abroad were ransacked to supply the collection 
 of rarities at Fonthill. Vases of exquisite work- 
 manship, cups, salvers, and other articles wrought 
 in precious metal ; carvings in ivory ; sculptured 
 gems, etc., etc. Here was to be seen a mounted 
 Nautilus upon an ivory plinth carved by 
 Benvenuto Cellini ; a vase of single Hungarian 
 topaz, intended as a marriage present by the 
 same artist ; a hookah set with precious stones, 
 formerly the property of Tippoo Saib ; a crystal 
 cabinet that had belonged to Pope Paul V. It is 
 said his collection of old china was more 
 extensive than valuable, one room containing 
 2,400 dishes of foreign china. It would be tedious 
 to give a description of the various paintings 
 that adorned the walls : one, a Madonna by 
 Raphael, was purchased by the trustees of our 
 National Gallery for five thousand guineas. His 
 anxiety to possess first-rate specimens of art was 
 shown when he offered M. Angerstein ^20,000 for 
 a picture, now in the National Gallery, painted 
 by Del Piombo. When asked which of Raphael's 
 pictures he liked best he replied, " The Madonna 
 del Spesimo at Madrid — it produced more strik- 
 ing effect upon me than any other picture I ever 
 saw. What religion there is in his paintings — 
 they breathe all they represent — there is an 
 atmosphere of piety about them. His pencil was 
 
^2 7 he Beckford Family. 
 
 baptised in the fires of devotion as that of no 
 mortal ever was. One must become half-Catholic 
 to enter fully into the glories of Italian art. 
 Religion with us is a cold, reluctant duty. We 
 acknowledge God but fear to love Him. We are 
 afraid of anything that fits our minds for devotion. 
 We are too apt to make religion a duty, not an 
 affection, and when the formality of worship is 
 over we have done. The true spirit, superstition, 
 devotion, or whatever you like to call it, was in 
 the heart of the Italian artist — it oozed out at the 
 end of his pencil, bathing his work in the beauty 
 of holiness." Every one who trafficked in first- 
 rate paintings knew Beckford well. No dealer 
 offered him any fine work of art of which he 
 could not tell the exact value. He was often 
 tendered a rarity for no other purpose than to 
 ascertain its real worth. If he offered a price for 
 a picture he never gave more, but if the offer 
 were declined, he uniformly abandoned the 
 purchase. If what he sought to purchase was 
 really good, he was not niggardly in his tender, 
 though the sum was his ultimatum. 
 
Visit of the Duchess of Gordon to Fonthill. 53 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Visit of the Duchess of Gordon to 
 Fonthill. 
 
 R. Beckford in his early years appears to 
 have been fond of a joke. The following 
 is copied from " Chambers's Book of 
 Days " :— 
 
 " I once shut myself up at Fonthill to be out 
 of the way of a lady — an ungallant thing to any 
 lady on earth but with her to whom it occurred. 
 The late Duchess of Gordon, who was the con- 
 tinual talk of the town for her curious mercenary 
 ways and mode of entrapping men with her brood 
 of daughters. I could have served no other lady 
 so I hope. I never enjoyed a joke so much. At 
 that time everybody talked of Mr. Beckford's 
 enormous wealth, everything about me was 
 exaggerated proportionately. I was in conse- 
 quence a capital bait for the Duchess — so she 
 thought ; I thought very differently. She had 
 been told that even a dog kennel at Fonthill was 
 a palace — my house a Potosi, what more on 
 earth could be desired by a marrying mother for 
 
jy The Beckfoid Family. 
 
 a daughter? I might have been aged and 
 imbecile — no matter, such is fashion's philosophy. 
 I got a hint from town of her intention to surprise 
 me with her hard face at Fonthill — a sight I 
 would gladly dispense with. I resolved to give 
 her a useful lesson. Fonthill was put in order 
 for her reception, with everything I could devise 
 to receive her magnificently — not only to receive 
 her, but to turn the table upon her for the pre- 
 sumption she had that I was to become the 
 plaything of her purposes. The splendour of 
 her reception must have stimulated her in her 
 object. I designed it should operate in that 
 manner. I knew her aim, she little thought so. 
 My arrangements being made I ordered my 
 Major-domo to say on the Duchess's arrival, that 
 it was unfortunate — everything being arranged 
 for her Grace's reception, Mr. Beckford had shut 
 himself up on a sudden, a way he had at times, 
 and that it was more than his place was worth to 
 disturb him, as his master only appeared when he 
 pleased; forbidding interruption, even if the King 
 came to Fonthill — I had just received a large lot 
 of books — nothing could be more opportune. I 
 had them removed to the rooms of which I had 
 taken possession. The Duchess conducted her- 
 self with wonderful equanimity and seemed much 
 surprised and gratified at what she saw, and the 
 mode of her reception — just as I desired she 
 should be, quite on tiptoe to have me fcr a son- 
 in-law. When she got up in the morning her 
 
Visit of the Duchess of Gordon to Fonthill. jj 
 
 first question was ' Do you think Mr. Beckford 
 will be visible to-day ? ' 
 
 " ' I cannot inform your Grace — Mr. Beckford' s 
 movements are so very uncertain — it is possible. 
 Would your Grace like to take an airing in the 
 park — a walk in the gardens ? ' Everything 
 which Fonthill could supply was made the most 
 of, whetting her appetite to her purpose still 
 more. My master of the ceremonies to the 
 Duchess did not know what to make of his 
 master, the Duchess, or his own position. 
 " Perhaps Mr. Beckford will be visible to- 
 morrow ? " was the Duchess's daily consolation. 
 To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow came 
 and went — no Mr. Beckford. I read on, deter- 
 mined not to see her. Was it not serving a 
 woman of such a coarse nature quite right ? 
 
 " She remained seven or eight days, magnifi- 
 cently entertained, and then went away without 
 seeing me. She was very angry, and said in her 
 rage things too scandalous to have escaped any 
 woman's lips but her own. Think of such a 
 woman's vengeance — such a woman as the 
 Duchess was, who never suffered anything to 
 stand in the way of her objects ! 
 
 " The splendour and wealth she saw dispensed 
 at Fonthill no doubt increased her disappoint- 
 ment, and enhanced the bitterness of the 
 contumely she afterwards heaped upon me." 
 
j6 The Beckford Family. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Sic Gloria Transit Mttndi. 
 
 OF'R. Beckford, for about 14 years, must have 
 
 K revelled in the exquisite scenery around 
 ^ Fonthill, and the valuable and luxurious 
 contents of the interior ; but about this time " A 
 change came o'er the spirit of the dream." In 
 1 82 1 in consequence of extraordinary deprecia- 
 tion of West Indian property and produce, 
 whence Mr. Beckford had derived the greater 
 part of his income — having expended immense 
 sums of money in building Fonthill Abbey — 
 also the unfavourable decision of a law-suit — 
 induced Mr. Beckford to offer a considerable part 
 of the contents for sale. Mr. Beckford says, "the 
 Chancellor took from me by a decree, in the 
 course of what the lawyers call justice, two large 
 estates that had been sixty and more years in my 
 family — you may imagine their importance when 
 I tell you that there were fifteen hundred slaves 
 upon them. This decree, too, the Chancellor 
 accompanied with the reflection that ' Mr. 
 
Sic Gloria Transit Mundi. 57 
 
 Beckford had plenty of property left.' That was 
 my reason for quitting Fonthill. I was sorry to 
 throw many poor people out of employ, and to 
 stay further improvements, but I had no choice 
 — living there would have been too expensive." 
 His attention having been called to a paragraph 
 in the Times which stated that Fonthill had cost 
 him a million of money his reply was — " The 
 love of the world for anything but the truth is as 
 great as ever. Now I will tell you what it did 
 cost, within a thousand pounds. My whole out- 
 lay on Fonthill was ^273,000, some hundreds 
 over that sum it may be, no more." When asked 
 if it caused him much pain to leave Fonthill, his 
 reply was "Not so much as you think. I can bend 
 to fortune. I have philosophy enough not to cry 
 like a child about a plaything." 
 
 In the year 1822 the contents of Fonthill 
 Abbey were advertised to be sold by public 
 auction. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 
 October appeared the following remarks : — " The 
 pleasing vision is now passed, and the noise of 
 the Auctioneer's hammer will now be heard — 
 silence pervades the long-drawn aisles, the lofty 
 portal is closed, and the Abbot has returned to 
 his cloister." A day or two previous to the 
 appointed commencement of the auction it was 
 publicly announced that Fonthill Abbey, with 
 the estate, was collectively sold to John Farquhar, 
 Esq., a gentleman who had realised a large 
 fortune in India, for the sum of ^330,000. In 
 
j8 The Beckford Family. 
 
 the summer of the following year " the splendid 
 effects " were again announced to be sold by 
 auction by Mr. H. Phillips, and the grounds, 
 house, and contents were again exhibited to 
 visitors. Thirty-three days were occupied on 
 the disposal of the contents. Beckford says, 
 " I sold but little of what I valued at Fonthill. 
 I had not room enough for all the books I 
 possessed in any other place. Do not suppose 
 more than half of what w 7 as sold at Fonthill was 
 mine. I disposed of my superfluous furniture, 
 for which I had no use, and also of some costly 
 things not of much utility — suitable there only. 
 I would not disgrace my house by Chinese 
 furniture — that was not mine — it was put in by 
 the auctioneer." The sale created an excite- 
 ment throughout the nation, and during its 
 continuance such was the influx of visitors that 
 not a lodging was to be had for many miles 
 round. It is recorded that between seven and 
 eight thousand catalogues were sold at a guinea 
 each. 
 
 At this time Mr. Beckford wrote several poems, 
 far inferior to his prose it is true, but proving 
 his sincere love of country life. In some lines 
 on leaving Fonthill, after describing the changes 
 of the seasons and various rural objects, he says : 
 
 " But though the scenes you now deplore 
 With heart and eye be your's no more, 
 Though now each long-known object seem 
 Unreal as the morning's dream ; 
 
Sic Gloria Transit Mundi. 59 
 
 Yet still with retrospective glance 
 Or rapt in some poetic trance, 
 At will may every charm renew, 
 Each smiling prospect still review ; 
 Through memory's power and fancy's aid 
 The pictured phantoms ne'er shall fade." 
 
 Mr. Beckford must have considered himself 
 very fortunate in disposing of the Fonthill estate, 
 for in three years after the sale the tower fell 
 with an awful crash (December 21, 1825) destroy 
 ing in its fall a considerable part of the edifice 
 below. His statement was that he paid the 
 architect nearly twenty thousand pounds for his 
 part of the work, and that it was arranged to be 
 built on an arched foundation. Mr. Redding 
 mentions with this a curious circumstance : One 
 of the persons employed in the building found 
 himself d3dng, and in a feeling of remorse sent 
 for Mr. Beckford to communicate the fact that 
 there was no arch. "It is built on the sand and 
 some day will fall down." Mr. Beckford com- 
 municated this to Mr. Farquhar, who replied it 
 would last his life time. It fell soon afterwards. 
 Happily no one was hurt by the accident. It is 
 reported that when news of what had happened 
 was taken to Beckford he replied with a sangfroid 
 worthy of his father : " Well, the tower has paid 
 its possessor a greater compliment than it ever 
 did to me. I had it for nearly twenty years, and 
 during all that time it neither bowed nor 
 curtesied." Fonthill from this time was destined 
 
bo The Beckford Family. 
 
 to undergo greater changes. "We read in the 
 Xew Monthly Magazine, Feb., 1826 : — " Mr. 
 Farquhar has disposed of the fine domain sur- 
 rounding Fonthill Abbey, comprising some of the 
 best game preserves in the West of England, 
 together with the Abbey itself and above 500 acres 
 of Flower Garden" ; and in March, 1826, "Fonthill 
 Abbey is at length uninhabited : it is stript of 
 the whole of its costly furniture and most of the 
 principal windows are taken out But a few 
 months since it was little expected that this 
 princely mansion would so soon go to ruin and 
 become a place of shelter for the feathered tribe; " 
 April, 1 S26. " The Abbey has become a ruin and 
 the grounds are divided. J. Bennett, Esq., M.P. 
 for Wilts, has purchased to the amount 0^130,000, 
 taking also the Abbey in its present state as 
 building materials. Earl Grosvenor purchased 
 another portion for ^45,000. Mr. W. King 
 another portion for ,£20,000. Mr. G. Mortimer 
 another portion for ^30,000, and now what 
 remains ? 
 
 The baseless fabric of a vision 
 Leaving but a wreck behind : 
 about sixty feet of the tower and a small part of 
 the building, which is used as a cottage and is in 
 the occupation of some of the employes of the 
 estate." Some 38 years ago a mansion was 
 erected about half-a-mile from the Abbey by the 
 late Marquis of Westminster. It is now in the 
 possession and occupation of Sir Michael Shaw 
 
Sic Gloria Transit Mundi. 01 
 
 Stewart, Bart., who married a daughter of the 
 late Marquis and sister of the present Duke of 
 Westminster. 
 
 Mr. Beckford appears to have had a fearful 
 looking forward to casualities at Fonthill ; he 
 told a friend in after life that he apprehended he 
 might be crushed like a lobster in his shell. The 
 thought (or something like it) " that man's life is 
 a tower, with a staircase of many steps, that as he 
 toileth upward crumble successively behind him," 
 must often have entered his contemplative mind. 
 The tower at Fonthill, Mr. Beckford said, was a 
 source of continual anxiety — ' ' I felt like Damocles 
 with the sword over my head." The foreman of 
 the building had informed him that the tower 
 was very insecure. "Good heaven!" said I, 
 " what is to be done ? Cannot any means be 
 adopted to render it safe — we might buttress up 
 the foundation in some way?" The answer was, 
 ' No, nothing but taking down and rebuilding it 
 from the foundation will do.' This was un- 
 welcome news. The architects had been not 
 only negligent but obstinate. Previous to any 
 information having been given me that the tower 
 was insecure I went outside a window where a 
 stone balustrade had been erected contrary to my 
 wish. This annoyed me a good deal. I put on 
 a pair of thick boots, and planting my back firmly 
 against the inside of the passage, I kicked with 
 all my might against the top of the balustrade 
 again and again. Soon loosening the stones, 
 
62 The Beckford Family. 
 
 down they went a hundred feet crash upon the 
 floor beneath, covering the furniture with broken 
 rubbish. The balustrade was then replaced with 
 shields and more suitable designs I gave them 
 a lesson." 
 
 We conclude that Mr. Beckford must have 
 made known to Mr. Farquhar his views as to the 
 instability of the building, and must have sold it 
 for a consideration with all its faults, risks, and 
 blemishes. Considering the enormous amount 
 of valuable land connected with the estate and 
 the amount of money it realised when Mr. 
 Farquhar disposed of it, the Abbey could not 
 have been reckoned of much more value than the 
 material of which it was composed. The proba- 
 bilities are that in concluding the sale of the 
 Fonthill estate the Abbey was thrown into the 
 scale as a sort of make weight* This would have 
 been quite characteristic of Mr. Beckford. There 
 being no surprise or alarm exhibited, and the 
 cool manner in which Mr. Farquhar received the 
 
 * Mr. Farquhar was a Scotchman by birth of very penu- 
 rious habits who had made a vast fortune in India, but 
 who continued to dress and live in the meanest style. He 
 bought the palace and park, not because, like old Scrooge, 
 a dream had induced him to rush from grinding parsi- 
 mony to open-hearted benevolence, but because it 
 appeared a good opportunity for increasing his store, 
 aided by the experience and talent of the Bond-street 
 auctioneer. It is true he took up his abode in it for a 
 time, but he bought it not to inhabit but to sell, and 
 accordingly it was announced in the following year that 
 the whole, as the phrase is, was to be brought to the 
 hammer. — Mirror, May n, 1844. 
 
Sic Gloria Transit Mundi. 63 
 
 information, appears to justify this supposition. 
 We have no record of the Abbey being refurnished, 
 or of any large number of retainers being kept on 
 the premises. Two years after the sale of the 
 contents, as stated, the tower fell, and in about 
 four years was a ruin. 
 
64 The Beckford Family. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Lansdown Tower. 
 
 " The palace termed trie ' Delight of the Eyes ' was one 
 entire enchantment. Rareties collected from every 
 corner of the earth were there found in such profusion as 
 to dazzle and confound, but for the order in which they 
 were arranged." Vathek. 
 
 *HEN Mr. Beckford had sold and quitted 
 Fonthill in 1823, he took up his resi- 
 dence at Eansdown Crescent, Bath, he 
 then being sixty-three years of age. Scarcely 
 was he known as a resident before a beautiful 
 tower, planned in the purest taste, suddenly 
 appeared on the summit of the highest eminence 
 in the vicinity. Half an extensive hillside was 
 enclosed. Massive stone portals uprose here and 
 there as if by magic, their erection being super- 
 intended by Mr. Beckford in person. He thus 
 preserved his health by devoting a large portion 
 of his time in the open air, and did great good in 
 expending large sums with mechanics and work- 
 people. The following account is from the Bath 
 and Cheltenham Gazette of July 23rd, 1827 : — 
 

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 W 
 
 
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 2; 
 
 a 
 
 ■~ 
 
 CO 
 
 Q 
 
 td 
 
 '/; 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 h4 
 
 P5 
 
 
 b/i 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
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 ■J. 
 
Lansdown Tower. 65 
 
 " We have the pleasure of announcing that the 
 imposing structure which Mr. Beckford has 
 erected on the brow of Tansdown, near this city, 
 is now completed as far as regards the masonry 
 work. The building is square, to an altitude of 
 130 feet from the foundation ; it then assumes an 
 octagonal form for 12 feet more ; and this is 
 crowned by 12 feet of octagonal wood-work of a 
 lantern shape, which will be protected by an iron 
 pillar at each angle, and these pillars will be gilt. 
 This will constitute the apex of the tower. From 
 it the spirited proprietor will have the gratifica- 
 tion of viewing a prospect of rich and varied 
 extent, as we understand the summit presents to 
 the eye of the spectator the meanderings of the 
 Severn, the sailing of the steam packets from 
 Bristol, the immense track of Salisbury Plain, 
 and even Mr. Beckford's former residence, 
 Fonthill. The tower reflects great credit on Mr. 
 Goodridge, the architect, and the opulent pro- 
 prietor has the satisfaction of knowing that while 
 he has been pursuing an object intended to 
 gratify his own particular taste, he has at the 
 same time conferred the most substantial benefits 
 on the operative and labouring classes. We 
 cordially wish Mr. Beckford many years' enjoy- 
 ment of his favourite projects." 
 
 A similar report also appeared in the Bath 
 Journal of July 30, 1827. 
 
 It is generally reported that Mr. Beckford, 
 whilst looking through a telescope from his 
 
66 The Beckford Family. 
 
 tower at I^ansdown, reported the circumstance 
 of the fall of Fonthill Tower before the news had 
 reached Bath. The following paragraph has 
 been recently reprinted in a local history : — 
 
 "Each morning as Beckford passed into the 
 south chamber of the L,ansdown Tower he 
 directed his telescope to the distant one at Font- 
 hill, once his own. On the morning after it fell 
 it would have been curious to note the expression 
 on that proud face as he laid down the glass 
 which no longer brought within view of his usual 
 observation the familiar object which had now 
 disappeared."* 
 
 Living in accustomed seclusion, the author of 
 "Vathek" was spoken of as the mysterious, 
 haughty gentleman who lived in I,ansdown- 
 crescent. Some there were who thought he 
 passed his time in working incantations, like his 
 •own Caliph. Surmises were current about a 
 brood of dwarfs that vegetated in an apartment 
 built over the archway connecting his two houses. 
 The vulgar, poor and rich alike, gave a sort of 
 half credit to cabalistical monstrosities invoked 
 in that apartment. In a place of fashionable dis- 
 sipation — picture galleries, a noble library, fine 
 gardens, and the resources of intellect, to say 
 nothing of a large domain of hillsides — were no 
 
 * Remembering that the tower of Fonthill fell down in 
 1825 and that the masonry work at Lansdown was not 
 completed till 1827, this statement must be received with 
 .caution. 
 
Lansdown Tower. by 
 
 accountable means of passing time without a 
 participation in the reigning frivolities of the 
 hour ; astrology and the supernatural vocation of 
 the Giaour were indispensable to make up the 
 imaginary deficiency. The per contra arguments 
 were the presence of the "Author of Vathek" 
 at the floral shows in the city before the crowd 
 attended, his intercourse with a few intellectual 
 and professional men, and his being seen riding 
 through the streets on a cream-coloured Arabian 
 — not unfrequently with the Duke of Hamilton. 
 Mr. Goodridge, the ingenious architect, had per- 
 mission from Mr. Beckford to issue tickets for 
 the purpose of viewing the grounds and the 
 tower ; but, for reasons which he considered 
 perfectly satisfactory, the permission had been 
 withdrawn ; still he had only to ask lor a ticket 
 and he received it. The tower stood upwards of 
 a mile from his residence in Dansdown-crescent, 
 and is 800 feet above the level of the Avon. In 
 the tower was one long, narrow room, fitted up 
 as an oratory ; it was lit by small domes in the 
 roof, which the architect had so contrived as to 
 throw down a soft, subdued, harmonious light 
 upon marble figures of the Virgin and Child at 
 the end, opposite the entrance. The repose 
 which reigned in the room, through the soothing 
 effect of the light, was peculiarly impressive. 
 "That is the true light of devotion," Mr. 
 Beckford observed. "It is an excitement in 
 itself to solemn thought and prayer — the dim 
 
68 The Beckford Family. 
 
 religious light of the sanctuary — the Bath Abbey- 
 church is of the later Gothic — too light for such 
 an effect." The room at the top of the tower was 
 of cast iron, copied from the Choragic monument 
 of Iyysicrates at Athens, resting upon a square 
 base, joined by the walls of the tower. The 
 tower, up to the lantern, gracefully diminishes 
 from the foundation. The appearance of hill top 
 after hill top on the Somersetshire side of the 
 Avon, has a novel and beautiful effect ; on every 
 side the view is striking. All the southern shore 
 of the Avon is visible. In the North-west 
 direction, the sight, often ranging over the barren 
 table-land of the down, unadorned with a single 
 tree, is arrested by the solitary monument of Sir 
 Beville Grenville, who fell in the battle of Ivans- 
 down. This view, naturally tinctured with 
 melancholy, is still more saddened by the monu- 
 ment and its associations. 
 
 Mr. Beckford had extraordinary sight, nearly 
 to the close of his life ; when he was upwards of 
 80 years of age, he could read without spectacles. 
 At seventy-five his activity was so great he could 
 mount rapidly to the top of the tower without 
 halting — no small exertion for many who were 
 fifteen or twenty years younger. The windows 
 in the lantern were of plate-glass, moving in 
 perpendicular grooves. The wind at that eleva- 
 tion being exceedingly violent, great strength of 
 material was required. Warm air from below was 
 conveyed by heated tubes to the lantern, that the 
 
Lansdown Tower. bq 
 
 damp might not be injurious to the woodwork. It 
 delighted him to view a long extended landscape. 
 "I must," he said, "elevate myself to do this, 
 even on I^ansdown. The tower at I^ansdown was 
 as necessary an appendage to such a structure, 
 as it would have been to a real abbey. I love 
 building, planting, gardening, whatever will 
 keep me employed in the open air. I like to be 
 among workmen; wishing to have something 
 besides a study on the summit of the hill, where 
 the view is so extensive I determined upon 
 erecting the tower." Mr. Beckford, with his 
 head gardener, Vincent, overlooked every opera- 
 tion, there was not a plant or flower there with 
 which they were unacquainted. His custom in 
 fine weather was to rise early, ride to the tower, 
 walk back and breakfast, and then read until 
 a little before noon, generally making pencil 
 notes in the margin of the book ; transact 
 business with his steward afterwards until two 
 o'clock, continue to read or write, and if the 
 weather was fine, ride out for exercise. He was 
 never idle. When planting or building, he 
 passed the larger part of the day where the work 
 was proceeding. One evening, a friend accom- 
 panying Mr. Beckford through his grounds, after 
 a visit to the tower, was curious to learn what 
 reconciled him so perfectly to the locality of 
 I^ansdown after the vastness of Fonthill, with its 
 extensive gardens and groves of almost Oriental 
 beauty. In putting the question it was felt with 
 
yo The Beckford Family. 
 
 what courtesy and candour it would be answered. 
 Extending his arms and elevating his voice, as if 
 excited by " the poet's fire," he exclaimed — 
 "This ! This ! ! The finest prospect in Europe ;" 
 pointing to the vast panoramic view around, to 
 the countless hills near, the far Welsh mountains, 
 the blue fading distance, and then to the most 
 beautiful of our ancient cities, which, at the 
 moment, slept beneath, enveloped in the rich 
 purple mist of a summer sunset. " This " he 
 repeated. At that moment a prospect more 
 enchanting, even in a Southern climate, could 
 scarcely have been presented to the view. The 
 judgment exhibited in the treatment of the 
 grounds shewed that here, as at Fonthill on a 
 gigantic scale, the same mind could select what- 
 ever was most perfect in adaptation to local 
 circumstances. 
 
 Beckford was of an impatient disposition, 
 furious when in anger, but soon pacified, and 
 then hardly knew how to make sufficient resti- 
 tution. One day he told his head gardener. 
 Vincent, to shift some seats in the grounds, 
 which he called toad-stools, because they con- 
 sisted of a round seat fixed to a stake driven into 
 the ground. Vincent, wishing his master should 
 be satisfied with the spot himself to which they 
 were removed, placed the tops loosely upon the 
 stakes to have his opinion as to the site chosen. 
 Going into his grounds one morning and seeing 
 the seats he at once seated himself on one of 
 
Lansdown Tower. yi 
 
 them, and fell sprawling on the turf, seat and 
 all. He sprang up in a furious passion, his 
 dignity was offended — his cane was in his hand 
 and he struck at Vincent with it, who speedily- 
 retreated among the young trees, his master 
 after him in a rage. It was a curious thing to 
 see two persons both beyond seventy pursued 
 and pursuing. It came to nothing more than a 
 short race, Vincent dodged among the trees and 
 his master, recollecting himself, ceased the pur- 
 suit. The next morning he sent five pounds to 
 Vincent, who said he should like such a race 
 every day upon the same terms.* Another 
 anecdote is still remembered by others beside 
 myself who used to see him riding and walking 
 around our city. He entered the gravel walk, at 
 the end of Brock-street, where was a man with a 
 broom in his hand soliciting alms. Beckford 
 threw half-a- crown to him. The beggar seeing 
 him wending his way towards Weston turned off 
 to a gate and there waited his approach, thinking 
 there was a chance of receiving further backsheesh. 
 Beckford recognised him as a beggar he had so 
 recently relieved — he dropped his stick across 
 his shoulders in good style for what he con- 
 
 * Mr. Beckford would speak harshly, or more than 
 speak, to a servant or villager that came in his way, but 
 soon relenting it was his care nobly to recompense the 
 party he had outraged. It was shrewdly suspected that 
 some of those who experienced the throb of his impetuous 
 anger had artfully put themselves in the way of it, for the 
 sake of the healing donation which was likely to follow. 
 — Miiror, May II, 1844. 
 
72 The Beckford Family. 
 
 sidered his unrighteous solicitation. Even in 
 his almsgiving Beckford had his peculiarities.— 
 " One day, as he was riding near Bath, he was 
 struck by seeing a miserable object in the road 
 who had lost both legs. The man did not beg, 
 perhaps from fear of one of those laws so little 
 creditable to legislative humanity — that as the 
 quantum of misery increases deems it good 
 policy to sharpen its intensity. He pulled up 
 his horse, not knowing he was observed but by 
 his groom. ' Poor fellow, you must be miserable 
 indeed.' Then, putting his hand into his pocket 
 and flinging down to the dismembered man 
 whatever money met his grasp, without looking 
 at it — sovereigns and silver together — he rode 
 onwards."* 
 
 When walking with a friend in his garden he 
 came across his favourite gardener, Vincent. 
 He exclaimed, "Here is my old gardener, almost 
 as old as myself — equally uncomfortable as 
 myself if idle. Well, Vincent, what is it you 
 want — do } r ou want a job ?" "Yes, your honour, 
 I want to plant some trees between the two 
 gardens. The sun shines dreadfull} 7 hot there 
 in summer — if that were done j^ou might walk 
 in the shade all the way up." " Nonsense, 
 Vincent. Before trees can grow up there where 
 will you and I be ?" " Don't say that, sir," said 
 
 * More substantial illustrations of Mr. Beckford's 
 liberality will appear in a forthcoming chapter. 
 
Lansdown Tower. yj 
 
 Vincent, " you can trust my word — you shall 
 walk up there under the shade of your own trees 
 in the spring — next spring — every tree twelve 
 feet high. If you, sir, find the money, I will 
 find the trees. It is the first week in October, 
 the time to set about it." " Well, Vincent, I 
 will find the money, get to work, get the trees." 
 " I was out with the work people from morning 
 till night planting. In another year the trees 
 were all we could desire for shade. I have often 
 heard since the spring songs of the birds there, 
 on that hill where there was only turf so lately. 
 How fond I am of the lark's song, the warble as 
 it mounts in the air, it is more delightful to me 
 than the song of any other bird. There is a 
 particular gleesomeness in the lark's song. It 
 is the song of a glad, innocent heart on a sunny 
 day. I hear it on I^ansdown with as much 
 pleasure now as ever I did in my life. Nature 
 never lets us tire, we never forget the love to 
 our mother. Abroad or at home I always gave 
 some time to solitude. I have sometimes felt 
 unable to separate myself without great difficulty 
 from certain spots that fixed my attention. 
 Night has joined me in my noonday resting- 
 place, too far sometimes from the halting place 
 of my attendants ; carriage, friends, servants, if 
 with me, I have suffered to proceed, and feeling 
 the inclination irresistible have mounted an 
 attendant's horse and rode, my heart exulting, 
 into some romantic mountain gorge, got off, 
 
7y The Beckford Family. 
 
 flung myself upon a bed of verdure on the banks 
 of a sparkling stream, and wished the moments 
 I spent there, and the sensations I experienced, 
 to be eternal — sensations with which, I suppose, 
 the couple in Paradise filled their measure of 
 happiness. To me, nothing can surpass in at- 
 traction a hillock in a vineyard at sunset — a 
 peasant's vineyard among the Appennines near a 
 gushing stream of water. I can call such a spot 
 to my recollection at this moment. Give me my 
 books and, if circumstances required it, I could 
 retire to a cottage and leave my palace without 
 a pang. In my early youth I disliked large 
 companies. I could not think ; it confused my 
 ideas. I have lived in Switzerland among the 
 Alps ; at twenty-six, under a bitter domestic 
 calamity, I found their solitude soothe me as 
 nothing else would — I have loved solitude ever 
 since. I had inexhaustible animal spirits, but 
 they never prevented my stealing into temporary 
 peace, beyond the dissipation in which I might 
 be figuring — my letters on Portugal show that — 
 you have read my running away from the gluttons 
 of Batalha and their pampered dinners. What a 
 ride I had that day. Massena, and the French 
 burned that superb monastery — it looks well as a 
 ruin I dare say — I should like to see it now — 
 what a lesson it would be to the recollection of 
 former pomps and vanities. Time takes all from 
 us but his hard lessons. Wits are said to be great 
 diners — dining much in company ruins health. 
 
Lansdown Tower. 
 
 75 
 
 When the stomach goes, the man dies — beware 
 of dinners." 
 
 He was so passionately fond of old and rare 
 books that it was a greater treat to him to be in 
 their company than in the society of the noblest 
 men and women in England. 
 
 " I want to be alone, to find some shade, 
 Some solitary gloom ; there to shake off 
 These harsh tumultous cares that vex my life — 
 This sick ambition on itself recoiling ; 
 And there to listen to the gentle voice, 
 The sigh of peace — something I know not what, 
 That whispers transport to my heart." 
 
 — Thompson. 
 
 "1840 — Warm summer morning in August — 
 Time 6 a.m. After a feverish slumber (writes 
 Mr. Cyrus Redding) I mounted Iyansdown Hill, 
 at the foot of which I had taken up my quarters. 
 The atmosphere on the hill-top was deliriously 
 fresh. Not a cloud sullied the blue serene ; the 
 sun had attained but a trifling elevation. The 
 western shadows were projected long and gaunt 
 from tower and tree ; the herbage glistened with 
 the dew, and the lark with hurried wings — 
 
 Singing she mounts ; her airy wings out- 
 stretched 
 
 Towards heaven, as if from heaven her notes 
 she fetched. 
 
 "On a sudden the resonance of a church bell 
 announced the hour of seven. I began to descend 
 
j6 The Beckford Family. 
 
 towards the population beneath that had not yet 
 made itself visible. Around me the bees more 
 wakeful were humming in beguilement of their 
 tiny toils, and the butterflies all gaiety of plumage 
 emulated the belles not far off in the rainbow- 
 hued robes, which the last had doffed from the 
 ball of the previous night. 
 
 "On coming to a mass of lofty buildings in my 
 descent, behind which a road pointed to the 
 right that might lead into the city by another 
 route than that I had before traversed, I turned 
 aside. After following the new direction for 
 some distance between stone walls an archway 
 appeared on the left connecting two large houses. 
 Through the opening thus afforded, still tinged 
 with the gray vapour of the morning, was seen 
 uprising the most beautiful of cities. Trees, 
 gardens, towers, and architectural magnificence, 
 backed up by abrupt eminences, studded with 
 villas, and dotted with groves worthy of Arcadia, 
 enlivened the landscape. Opposite the arch a 
 road pointed upward between walls, over which 
 fruit hung thickly clustering. Some little way 
 further on a door wide open disclosed extensive 
 gardens. On the north side stretched double 
 walls one above another. Parallel with the 
 highest ran a wall leading to an antique gateway 
 embattled, machicolated, and nearly buried in 
 trees. I never saw such a prodigality of fruitage 
 in every variety. The walls were in a blush with 
 the warm tints of the peach and other wall fruit, 
 
Lansdown Tower. 
 
 77 
 
 glowing freshly in the bright morning sun. I 
 was tempted to enter, expecting to find some one 
 to whom, apologising for my intrusion, I might 
 inquire who was the owner of so prolific a spot. 
 No one appeared — all was silence. I walked 
 along the principal path, overlaid with glittering 
 quartz. ' My spirits fled to my heart in fear.' 
 The place seemed to be under the spell of en- 
 chantment. I lingered within the charmed pre- 
 cincts, but no creature appeared to warn or 
 welcome. Here were long espaliers that groaned 
 beneath their precious products of apple and 
 pears, there huge pendant plums of all colours 
 and sizes. In front a flight of steps led to a 
 terrace. These I mounted, traversed a terrace 
 almost Italian in appearance, and reached the 
 embattled gate, which I found unlocked, pushed 
 gently open, passed out and closed — the work of 
 a moment. I was not displeased at finding 
 myself beyond the garden in which I had 
 trespassed. I now trod a field of some extent, 
 bordered by hedgerows of thorn cut in irregular 
 clumps, apparently to avoid the sameness of stiff 
 clipping in the monotonous mode customary. I 
 was on the ascent of the hill, the higher side of 
 the field being bounded by palisades, beyond 
 which a public path crossed, a second row of 
 palisades intervened, and then another enclosure 
 appeared, which I entered, and afterwards 
 another. An irresistible desire to explore the 
 domain on which I had so trespassed spurred me 
 
j8 The Beckford Family. 
 
 forward. It was better to be met, I thought, in 
 an open field by the owner than in a walled 
 garden filled with choice fruit- I did not fear 
 being taken for a Nebuchadnezzar, and punished 
 for the theft of animal sustenance— the garden 
 was a different thing ; a repository of every 
 species of fruit that could lead to temptation 
 might give well-grounded suspicion of furtive 
 intention. 
 
 " I next arrived at a plantation, having a turf 
 walk curving along the hillside. At short inter- 
 vals, on each hand, beds of thyme, marjoram, 
 and all kinds of scented and aromatic herbs were 
 introduced, as if they had sprung up naturally, 
 perfuming the air with their sweets. Rude seats, 
 formed of the blocked section of a felled tree, 
 were seen in manifold situations. In one place, 
 where there was an elbow in the road, on turning 
 suddenly round I beheld one of the most beauti- 
 ful views that could delight human sight. The 
 elevation was considerable. Far beneath in 
 snaky curves a bright stream shone like liquid 
 silver,* tower, hamlet, grove, meadow, hill, 
 mansion, and villa, were seen under a variety of 
 aspects, until, blending in the landscape, they 
 composed the indistinct distance. I flung myself 
 supinely upon a bed of camomile, that exuded its 
 well known aromatic perfume. A gentle breeze 
 had arisen, tempering the sun's heat, and keeping 
 
 * The river Avon flowing from Bath towards Bristol. 
 
Lansdown Tower. 79 
 
 the distant promontories in haze. I lingered on 
 the spot, comforting myself that if seen by some 
 surly gamekeeper, I might still escape with no 
 other injury than the infliction upon the ear of 
 some vulgar adjuration. I had neither gun nor 
 snare in my possession. These reflections were 
 of no moment for no intruder upon my intrusion 
 manifested himself. 
 
 " I now came upon an open space of ground 
 covered with grass-grown mounds, where all was 
 solitary, as if it were the site of a buried city. 
 From hence there was no prospect, the irregular 
 sod being on one hand, and the front view 
 bounded by plantations. On the left, in a wall 
 of rock, yawned cavernous excavations that had 
 been made at some remote time for the excava- 
 tion of stone. The sky above and desolation 
 beneath imparted to the spirit the idea of an 
 utter separation from the rest of the species. 
 
 " Proceeding along the west boundary of this 
 rude spot, seemingly shut out from the world, a 
 gate met my view, leading into a plantation, and 
 passing through, a little way on, a wall with a 
 small door crossed the path. I had gone on so 
 far prosperously ; it was not amiss to tempt the 
 end of the adventure, which seemed now of ' the 
 stuff that dreams are made of. ' I lifted the latch 
 and entered. What was my surprise — my amaze- 
 ment at the transition from the savage to the 
 cultivated — from the deformed to the beautiful ! 
 I found myself at the entrance to a garden of a 
 
80 The Beckford Family. 
 
 thousand flowers — a garden glowing with roses in 
 full bloom, through the centre of which the path 
 led. On both sides the loveliest flowers were 
 blooming, and sending up their odours even to 
 faintness from the intensity of their perfume. 
 They thickened and multiplied as I advanced 
 along an enchanted spot, shut in on all sides, 
 breathing the gales of Araby the Blest. Never 
 did I behold flowers in such profusion — the 
 gardens of Gul could but have rivalled them. 
 Yet no neat parterres, no clipped borders were to 
 be seen. Every species of roses grew at random. 
 Still I stealthily advanced, and still neither the 
 variety nor the quantity appeared to diminish. 
 At length I saw before me a house evidently 
 Italianised. Three arched and narrow windows 
 were seen, over an arch yet larger, spanning the 
 path. There was a foreign and classical air thus 
 given to the building impossible to be mistaken. 
 Here and there towards the boundary of this 
 delightful floral assemblage, as if in the way of 
 contrast, broad and green, leaped fig trees, set off 
 by their density of colour. Passing under the 
 arch already mentioned, the garden was again 
 continued as brilliant as before. Rich perfumes 
 rose on every side. The disposition of this garden 
 bore no appearance of art — no formality. The 
 path through such a wilderness of sweets 
 terminated in a dark grotto rather abruptly 
 descending, having on the right of the entrance a 
 small pool of water that nourished aquatic plants. 
 
Lansdown Tower. 81 
 
 In a moment the scene altered from the most 
 beautiful of floral assemblages to the subdued 
 light within a subterranean excavation. A 
 change succeeded in another moment by emerg- 
 ing, after a short passage through the grotto, 
 upon a surface bearing no sort of resemblance 
 to that which had preceded. On the right 
 appeared a stone wall, at the foot of which was 
 planted a variety of odoriferous shrubs in a 
 border, bounded by a wall of no great breadth. 
 Outside this an extensive field, covered with 
 short mountain turf, presented itself, on which a 
 few sheep were browsing. These were kept from 
 trespassing on the border by a rough wooden 
 fence. Glancing in a western direction across 
 the turf, unrelieved by a single flower, the eye 
 just became sensible of the elevation or table 
 land, far above the neighbouring hills, the sum- 
 mits of which were seen undulating into the far 
 distance — sinking into the gray tint so distinctive 
 of intervening space. 
 
 " But what was in front across the road, at the 
 distance of a few hundred yards ? What but a 
 beautiful shrubbery, the mass in every shade of 
 green, here and there interspersed with flower or 
 berry bearing trees. Over this irregular line of 
 verdure rose the lofty tower, the exquisite well- 
 proportioned column appearing to wonderful 
 advantage. Shortly, on approaching near the 
 shrubbery, the tower that produced an effect so 
 magical as to attract the vision from every other 
 
8s The Beckford Family. 
 
 object, wholly disappeared. I was too much 
 enchanted to think of retracing my steps. Every 
 quarter of the globe seemed to have been ran- 
 sacked in order to extend the variety of the 
 vegetative kingdom flourishing here. Rock 
 roses of the sunny south were abundant. The 
 Alpine schistus bordered upon bushes of sweet 
 briar in native wildness. The libertine honey- 
 suckle spread its slender branches, entwining 
 amidst and over all in great luxuriance of flower 
 and strength of odour. The pinus arborea 
 assumed the character of a tree. Of the pine 
 genus there were rare specimens ; the spots 
 selected for the growth of the coniferse being, 
 when necessary, carefully sheltered or secluded. 
 The Brazils, the Himalaya, Mexico, and Scotland 
 alike contributed to adorn this sequestered and 
 delightful shrubbery, in which too, patches of 
 dark yew might be seen waving their gloomy 
 boughs in melancholy stateliness. Advantage 
 was taken of every nook where ornament could 
 be introduced without destroying the broader 
 masses or exhibiting marks of care or cultivation, 
 evidently the effect of consummate taste united 
 with experienced judgment. There was a repose 
 and harmony over all bewitchingly attractive. 
 
 " I lingered as if I was spell-bound in some 
 magic garden of the warm East — some dreamy 
 spot that Arabian imaginativeness had created 
 for the hero of one of those immortal stories, 
 which none but the fancies of those who revel in 
 
Lansdown Tower. 83 
 
 the glories of happy climes can embody. In 
 shady places, among stones, and where the 
 roughness of the ground demanded concealment, 
 there grew many varieties of fern. In one spot 
 Osmandi Regale waved its palmy foliage over 
 beds of antirrhinum and carpets of wild thyme, 
 alternated with common turf. Many of the trees 
 and shrubs presented an aspect completely novel 
 in their forms and foliage, imparting a foreign 
 appearance to ' the umbrage. Placing myself 
 upon a stone seat, I began to imagine myself in 
 a distant land, in some Damascene garden, 
 especially as my solitude continued unbroken, 
 except by the sweet harmony of an infinite variety 
 of birds that made the thickets a favourite retreat, 
 if their mellifluous notes were any criterion of 
 their regard for the locality ; a thrush seemed to 
 undo the utmost efforts of his brother tenants of 
 the air, making the charming spot vocal with the 
 richest tones of nature's music. 
 
 "I continued my walk amid hope, fear, and 
 delight, each alternately present in my mind. I 
 wound along the paths ; I imagined a hundred 
 strange day dreams ; continually halting at new 
 beauties of vegetative growth. The sunny 
 warmth, the odours on every side, the silence, the 
 deep shadows and the air of adventure, withal, 
 prepared the mind for Orientalism and magic. 
 Nor was this impression diminished when, 
 coming suddenly upon an open space, silent, 
 solitary, yet green and beautiful, as a place of 
 
84 The Beckford Family. 
 
 death should ever be, I found in a leafy recess on 
 one side a sarcophagus of rose-coloured granite. 
 
 " This receptacle for the dead was eight or nine 
 feet long, nearly six high, and polished up to the 
 brilliancy of a looking-glass.* 'Doubtless the 
 tomb of the genius of the place ' thought I, ' If 
 a genius may die.' How beautiful a bed of 
 repose in so elevated a spot ! Amid such a scene 
 of human ashes we watch by the shadowy prin- 
 ciple that once animated them with the power of 
 memory and judgment, it must be the most 
 pleasant of duties, until time has wrought mani- 
 fold transmutation into unrecognisable atoms, 
 when the spirit no longer able to trace its ancient 
 habitation, wings its final flight to other orbs. 
 Here is a sepulchre worthy the proudest monarch 
 — fit to consume the fleshless forms of pre- 
 Adamite kings. Never to my mind was a more 
 delightful place than the gardens and surround- 
 ings of Lansdown Tower. Surely, thought I, it 
 is something to enjoy the labours of great souls 
 in such a spot as this. The least perishable of 
 mental productions should be tasted where they 
 can be most relished. 
 
 " I was not yet satisfied with what I had seen. 
 ' Things out of hope are often compassed with 
 venturing,' but I stole into the library of the 
 tower before saying adieu to this scene of 
 
 * This tomb, in which are enclosed the remains of Mr. 
 Beckford, and which may now be seen an}' da}- at tans- 
 down Cemetery, cost him upwards of ,£700. 
 
Beckford's Tomb, Lansdown Cemetery. 
 
 Inscriptions. 
 
 "De Dieu Tout." 
 
 "William Eeckford, Esq., 
 
 " Late of Fonthill, Wilts, 
 
 Died 2nd May, 1844, 
 
 Aged 84. 
 
 " Eternal Power ! 
 
 Grant me through obvious clouds one transient gleam, 
 
 Of Thy bright essence in my dying hour." 
 

 .-l: 
 
 I/Ansdown Tower, 
 
 ( The Favourite Resort of Mr. Beckford, ) 
 
 Erected in 1827 ; 130 feet in height. 
 
 It is said that Mr. Beckford could, by means of a powerful 
 
 glass, see Fonthill Abbey from the top of this Tower, also steam 
 
 packets and other ships entering and leaving Bristol Harbour. 
 
Lansdown Tower. 85 
 
 enchantment. Taking down a volume in Spanish 
 I began to read in what the author styled ' The 
 Ivooking-glass of the Soul.' Evidently a monkish 
 production, it was full of matter harrowing to the 
 mind — a mortal in the decay of the grave, 
 conscious of its state and examining its own past 
 frailties. I did not read far. There was some- 
 thing more mild and forgiving about the locality 
 — something impressing me with the belief that 
 the beneficence of the Being that afforded such 
 enjoyment as with every allowance for mortal 
 alloy might be shared here, was not the Being of 
 terror thus represented. I turned to other 
 volumes, that such a solitude could not fail to 
 render productive of more refined associations, 
 tending towards the contemplation of better 
 things than every- day existence affords. I had 
 read but a short time when I heard voices below. 
 My conscience accused me of being on forbidden 
 ground. A guilty conscience needs no accuser 
 but is like a whirlpool drawing in all to itself, 
 which would otherwise pass by. I descended 
 into the entrance-hall ; the individual who had 
 the care of the Tower was conversing with the 
 gardener. ' We saw you though you did not see 
 us ; we knew from your appearance you were one 
 of the very few who might be permitted to 
 trespass, so we left you to yourself.' And now, 
 courteous reader, I must wish you farewell." 
 
 " Having heard of the attractions of L,ansdown, 
 I (writes an intelligent observer) resolved 
 
86 The Beckford Family. 
 
 without permission (being in the service of 
 her Majesty) to leave Kew Gardens and see 
 your beautiful city and its surroundings. My 
 old friend the compiler, who is now living in 
 your midst, had opportunities of visiting the 
 Tower many years ago, having written out for 
 his patron, the late Sir Wm. Holburne (about 
 forty years ago), a full description of the various 
 apartments in the Tower, with their contents, 
 which he will give you in a forthcoming chapter. 
 " Lansdown Tower was built by the late Mr. 
 Goodridge, an eminent architect of Bath, in 1827, 
 from designs arranged in accordance with the 
 classic taste of the owner uniting symmetry with 
 beauties of no common order. This beacon for 
 strangers is visible for some miles before entering 
 Bath on the Bristol and Gloucester roads, and is 
 of square form. Proceeding towards the entrance 
 after ascending two or three steps is a sort of 
 entrance-hall, on opening a door on the left was 
 a room in which the prevailing colour was scarlet, 
 a second door, with arched panels of plate-glass, 
 led to the stairs. In this, the hall of entrance, 
 was a small recess on the right hand in which 
 stood a pillar-table of Sienna marble. This table 
 bore three Etruscan vases, and behind them was 
 a mirror in three compartments, having semi- 
 circular tops answering in form to the windows 
 elsewhere. The ceiling border of wainscot was 
 ornamented with gilt cornices. The parallel 
 rafters or beams had their intermediate ceilings 
 
The IyATE Sir Wm. Holburne, Bart. 
 
 A great connoisseur in paintings, antique gold and 
 silver plate. His splendid collection, richly endowed, 
 has since his death been presented to the City of Bath, 
 and is at present placed in a house in Charlotte 
 Street (near the Victoria Park) and is known as the 
 Holburne Museum. 
 
 Page 86. 
 
Lansdown Tower. 8j 
 
 decorated with red panelling at once tasteful and 
 magnificent. Glazed cabinets contained many- 
 articles precious and rare arranged with consum- 
 mate taste. A vase here, almost unique, bore 
 over a ground powdered with gold the represen- 
 tation of a black and bearded Bacchus.* Here 
 was a bronze bust of Caligula having silver eyes. 
 This was once the property of Horace Walpole, 
 and came from Strawberry-hill. It was found at 
 Herculanseum. This bust was supposed to bear 
 a likeness of the Emperor — the workmanship was 
 exquisite. It was once the property of Prince 
 Elboeuf, among whose effects it was sold at 
 Florence. In the apartment on the right of 
 entrance a rich and almost dazzling effect arose 
 from the predominance of scarlet in everything 
 attached to this room. The walls, hangings, full 
 draperies, carpet, were of this colour and black. 
 The arrangement was admirable. Eve^thing to 
 the minutest bit of pearl, engraved crystal, Japan 
 work, and statuary being in the best possible 
 place. The effect was like the regalia of the altar 
 in a place of Catholic worship. The ornaments 
 appeared under a spell which the vulgar habit 01 
 touch would dissolve. 
 
 " Over the mantelpiece was a picture by the 
 noted Hondekoeter, the principal object in which 
 was a splendid game cock in the full glory of his 
 
 * Most of the choice treasures were brought to Ivans- 
 down Tower from Fonthill. 
 
88 The Beckford Family. 
 
 plumage, bright and glossy as nature itself, and 
 of the purest scarlet. It was as if everything 
 in the room was coloured after this beautiful 
 creature into one general harmony of hue. 
 Between the beams of the ceiling the panel work 
 was scarlet with a relief of purple and gold. Yet 
 there was nothing that was tawdry ; all was kept 
 down and subdued into a uniform glow of over- 
 powering elegance, which in no one instance 
 appeared to have been trespassed upon. The 
 fireplace was composed of Brocatelli marble. 
 Under a window opposite was a large table of 
 Egyptian marble, bearing an ivory vase lined 
 with crystal and filled with the richest and 
 freshest of flowers, from among which long 
 pendant sprays of jessamine, sweetbriar, and 
 wild roses, set off by their dark green hues, the 
 richer colours with which they were intermingled, 
 filling the room with the freshest fragrance.* 
 
 On the chimney-piece were two lizard bottles 
 of the rarest kind, seagreen in colour, also some 
 Oriental cups with ornaments on a scarlet ground 
 mostly of gold with which they were lined. 
 Some of the enamels were wonderfully well 
 executed, among them were large dishes of the 
 most costly workmanship. Vases of Italian 
 porphyry, verte antique, Egyptian granite, and 
 Sienna marble here met the view, with carved 
 
 *When Mr. Beckford was at home it was one of his 
 greatest pleasures to arrange personally the flowers and 
 foliage in this vase. 
 
Lansdown Tower. Sg 
 
 oak coffers containing specimens of rare Japan, 
 elaborately inlaid with corals and pure gold. 
 There was also a tripod under the western 
 window, supporting a slab of L,umachelle from 
 the Himalaya mountains. There was no con- 
 fusion from the too great multiplication of 
 similar objects — there was enough and no more. 
 Nothing could be more judicious and tasteful 
 than the arrangement — nothing more approach- 
 ing the faultless. 
 
 Among the pictures was a very pleasing land- 
 scape, by John Both ; an admirable portrait of a 
 Doge of Venice, by Giovanni Bellini ; a landscape, 
 by Cemaroli ; The Thistle, a landscape by 
 Wynants ; The Triumph of the Gods, by Franken; 
 The Tower of Babel, and a landscape by West. 
 
 Over the mantel-piece hung two fine enamels, 
 and a Greek legendary painting of great antiquity, 
 divided into three compartments. In addition 
 to these was a small Breughal of beautiful 
 execution. 
 
 The door leading to the stairs served as an 
 entrance to all the other parts of the tower. 
 Ascending to the upper floor was a noble vase of 
 polished granite having bronze ornamented 
 cornices and four lion's heads protruding from 
 as many openings or cells in the base. Large, 
 elegant, and singularly well placed, this was a 
 very striking object both as a specimen of art and 
 a beautiful ornament. 
 
 A door on the left hand conducted into a room 
 
go The Beckford Family. 
 
 hung with crimson. The hangings, draperies, 
 carpets and walls, were also of crimson. The 
 ceiling purple and crimson, with gold panelling. 
 Against the southern side stood an ebony cabinet 
 of exquisite workmanship, the top a precious slab 
 of green porphyry. This cabinet contained 
 specimens of rare Japan. A coffer here once 
 belonged to the noted Cardinal Mazarin ; it was 
 placed upon a table of Florentine mosaic exceed- 
 ingly beautiful. All the tables were made of 
 valuable Italian marble, made after the most 
 classical designs. Several of the candelabra 
 were of polished granite. On every side were 
 cases of rare china, jasper, chalcedony, agate, 
 cornelian, brocatelli, and similar rare or curious 
 substances, many exquisitely formed and sculp- 
 tured elaborately. Here were hanging cabinets 
 containing books and vases, here was a curious 
 Venetian vase of glass of considerable antiquity. 
 It was enamelled and gilt with figures of knights 
 and combats of chivalry, exciting surprise at the 
 freshness and splendour of its illuminations. 
 Artists must have examined it with wonder. The 
 legend it represented was incomprehensible to 
 the unlearned and a puzzle to those who might 
 hereafter attempt to explain the subject. The 
 bare preservation of such a relic, considering the 
 fragile material of which it was made, did not 
 seem the least singularity attached to it. The 
 glass appeared thin and incapable of sustaining 
 even the smallest degree of violence. 
 
Lansdown Tower. gi 
 
 There were a pair of candlesticks from the 
 Alhambra, with pyramidical bases, bearing all 
 over their surfaces every kind of arabesque 
 ornament, with an infinity of scrolls and inter- 
 secting lines, producing a very rich effect- 
 Another pair of candlesticks here were made of 
 the purest gold, executed by Vuliamay after a 
 design of Holbein. An enamelled salver by Jean 
 Cousin, after Raffaelle, representing a feast of 
 the gods from the Farnesini ; above all, the small 
 but celebrated bronze of John of Bologna, repre- 
 senting a centaur carrying off a female, were 
 among the more striking and precious ornaments 
 of this remarkable room. A fine St. John, by 
 Murillo ; a battle piece, by Bourgonone ; the 
 interior of a Church, by Antony de L/Orme, the 
 figures by Palamedes ; two paintings of Peter 
 Neefs ; the interior of a Church, by Steinwick ; 
 two sweet Italian landscapes, by Herman 
 Swaneveldt, sometimes called the Hermit of 
 Italy, the scholar of Claude L,orrain ; the in- 
 terior of a Palace Saloon, by Bassano ; a head, by 
 AlbertDurer; Tobias and theAngel, byElshemer; 
 and several other choice paintings were here. 
 
 A door in one corner of this room led into a 
 closet having a coved ceiling, the window 
 trellised, and the framework gilded. This 
 delightful little retreat was filled with valuable 
 books, beneath which were costly articles in 
 cabinets, so as to leave no space unoccupied. 
 
 A room adjoining the former, long and narrow, 
 
g2 The Beckford Family. 
 
 was devoted exclusively to the purpose of a 
 library, and literally lined with books. To lovers 
 of rare old books this was truly a place in which 
 a man might take up an everlasting rest.* 
 "Worthy books 
 Are not companions — they are solitudes, 
 We lose ourselves in them, and all our cares." 
 
 The volumes were arranged with great care, so 
 that every advantage was taken of the space. 
 Each book filled its place exactly and closely in 
 the most symmetrical order. Some were in very 
 expensive bindings, many bound in white vellum 
 and gold with appropriate devices, others in 
 every shade of Morocco, a goodly number of 
 which was highly embellished. Illuminated 
 missiles and psalters of regal costliness were not 
 wanting. Some of these contained miniatures by 
 Giulio Clovio, others were gem- clasped and bound 
 in tortoise-shell. Miniature landscapes, flowers 
 and figures, copied from ancient artists and 
 beautiful beyond conception, were to be seen in 
 these volumes. Here were illustrations from the 
 
 * " Except a living man there is nothing more wonder- 
 ful than a book ; a message to us from the dead — from 
 human souls we never saw, who lived perhaps thousands 
 of miles away, and yet these, in those little sheets of 
 paper, speak to us, amuse us, terrify us, teach vis, comfort 
 
 us, open their hearts to us as brothers I say 
 
 we ought to reverence books, to look at them as useful 
 and mighty things. If they are good and true, whether 
 they are about religion and politics, farming, trade, or 
 medicine, they are heavenly messengers proceeding from 
 the Author of all truth." — KlNGSUEY. 
 
Lansdown Tower. 
 
 93 
 
 Lord's Prayer, of the Acts of the Apostles, and of 
 the Old Testament, with many original drawings 
 by artists of celebrity. 
 
 Nor were there wanting manuscripts of various 
 kinds, particularly Persian, Chinese printed 
 columns in the language of Confucius, Oriental 
 tablets, and rarest of all books in Japanese, 
 exceedingly curious. Over the tops of the 
 bookcases were tazzas of precious marbles, 
 with Etruscan vases ; some of these last 
 among those most prized, from being painted 
 on a white ground. Above all, the ceiling 
 shone conspicuous, in gold, purple and scarlet 
 between wainscot beams. This wood, plain 
 and gilded, was used throughout with a neat 
 and uncommon pleasing effect. The librae 
 was approached by a lobby, into which the light 
 was introduced through the roof in a soft, sub- 
 dued tone, falling upon an antique bronze bust. 
 
 That in so small a space so much of elegance 
 and splendour could be introduced was a matter 
 of surprise. Then we come to an apartment 
 devoted to religious uses. Here the light, 
 admitted through dim cupolas of ground glass, 
 was remarkably subdued and soft, producing a 
 very solemn effect as it fell upon a full length 
 figure of St. Anthony, with the infant Saviour 
 smiling in his arms, by Rossi. The marble of 
 yellowish hue was, by the restrained light, seen 
 to great advantage. Nothing was wanting to 
 produce the full effect of one of those little 
 
9^ The Beckford Family. 
 
 chapels seen branching from the dim aisles of a 
 vast Catholic Cathedral, but lighted tapers on 
 each side of the pedestal of the image. This 
 pedestal was of Sienna marble, standing in a 
 niche pannelled with Egyptian porphyry and 
 Mosaic work, having a border of Giallo Antico, 
 and other marbles; it bore the inscription 
 " Dominus Illuminatio mea." That apartments 
 thus fitted up do prepare the mind for the 
 solemn and affecting duties of religion, there 
 cannot be the smallest doubt. The mysterious 
 light thus diffused by art scatters all the intrud- 
 ing feelings of levity, and acts continually as a 
 memento that a beseeming spirit must accompany 
 the act of devotion, and that for a few moments 
 at least this world and its associations must give 
 place to the contemplation of one with which the 
 sense is unacquainted, and of which the mind 
 can only image the shadowy outline. 
 
 Beneath the cupola were three beautiful semi- 
 circular pictures representing the " Temptation 
 in the Wilderness," "The Annunciation," and 
 " Christ's Agony in the Garden," painted by 
 Mr. Willes Maddox,* a celebrated Bath artist, 
 who spent some time in Italy, which country he 
 visited to study art in its noblest achievements. 
 
 These paintings were the last fixed in this 
 room, denominated "The Sanctuary." Besides 
 
 * Mr. Maddox was a native of Bath ; his father was 
 formerly a respectable tradesman in this city. 
 
i d 
 
 tiji 
 
 The Grenville Monument. 
 
 This Monument which is erected at the extreme end of 
 Lansdown (nearly two miles distant from the Beckford 
 Monument), was raised to celebrate the battle between 
 the Royalists and Parliamentarians which occurred Jury 
 5th, 1643. It is erected on the spot where the engage- 
 ment took place — close to an estate called " Battlefields," 
 lately purchased by the late Sir Robert Stickuey Blaine, 
 ex-Mayor of Bath. 
 
 Page 95. 
 
Lansdown Tower. gj 
 
 these there was a Virgin and Child in the style 
 of Raffaelle ; the interior of a Cathedral, by 
 Steinwick; three enamels upon sacred subjects 
 and the entombment, and cabinets. containing 
 books on sacred literature. Other appropriate 
 articles are placed at the sides of this apartment. 
 After leaving the sanctuary and ascending the 
 carpeted stairs, after climbing a pretty long 
 ascent, you entered a square room, the drapery 
 of which was orange coloured. The long arched 
 windows of plate-glass in each front disclosed 
 one of the noblest views on which the eye could 
 expatiate — at a vast distance the horizon view 
 terminates in the blue mountains of Wales. In 
 another direction you can see the sea sparkling 
 and flashing in the sunbeams, here and there 
 carrying a white sail, a mere speck in the far-off 
 part of the landscape. Hamlets, villas, cottages, 
 an almost endless variety of objects basking in 
 light, or reposing in mild shadow strikes the 
 sight with unwonted astonishment. On the 
 north, as before chronicled, a dreary plain, the 
 scene of a bloody combat, marked by the monu- 
 ment of a fallen chief,* stretches away in gloomy 
 monotony. To change from window to window, 
 shifting the scene and returning to where the eye 
 set out, the spectator may well be reminded of 
 Sergeant Talfourd's words, " We are charmed ; 
 not awe struck ; for the beautiful is here — 
 
 * Sir Bevil Granville : see Battle of Lansdown in Wood's 
 History of Bath or in Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. 
 
gb The Beckford Family. 
 
 triumphant." A central staircase from this 
 elevated room, which was denominated the 
 Belvedere, leads still higher into the lantern of 
 cast iron. Here the openings through the orna- 
 mental foliage of the frieze being filled with 
 plate-glass, gave a still more extensive view than 
 can be obtained in the room beneath, though not 
 with the same convenience of easy seats that 
 formerly were placed in the room below for care- 
 less lounging after the toil of the ascent. 
 
 Everything connected with the edifice was in 
 the southern taste, strictly Italian.* Nothing 
 Oriental or Moorish could be traced in the 
 design. Everything necessary in the way of use 
 was rendered conducive to ornament. The 
 trellis work of the windows, made of iron, 
 designed to resist the attempts of depredators,! 
 was of the most agreeable pattern, and in many 
 cases gilded. There was no showy gewgaws, no 
 multiplication of ornament to overdoing. At 
 
 * Lansdown Tower, royal folio, with beautiful coloured 
 illustrations of the various apartments, by Willes 
 Maddox, made under Mr. Beckford's own inspection. 
 
 t Some few j'ears previous to Mr. Beckford's decease a 
 desperate attempt was made by some ART-/a/ miscreants 
 to violate the sanctity of the tower. Possibly these 
 vagabonds may have felt a desire to view a Madonna by 
 Moonlight, or what is more than probable, wished to 
 examine in the quiet and seclusion of their own domiciles 
 the substance and character of a portion of the gold and 
 precious gems that were in the apartments. But the 
 over-curious are not always wise. The bolts and bars 
 proved too mighty an obstacle. Though great efforts were 
 exerted the strength of the workmanship resisted the 
 
Lansdown Tower. qy 
 
 such an elevation the rush of the wind when 
 high, or its soft sighing as it sweeps by the tower 
 on a quiet balmy day, seems to solicit thought- 
 fulness. At the present time to look down upon 
 the sacred dust of so many of our illustrious 
 fellow-citizens who have so often conversed with 
 us, and whose remains are interred in the sod 
 beneath, surely is well calculated to suggest 
 whisperings of joy or sorrow — and to revive 
 scenes of bygone times. 
 
 thieves so long that they were forced to decamp without 
 obtaining their end. The intelligence was communi- 
 cated to Mr. Beckford by the Architect, who was 
 somewhat flurried as he gave the information. The 
 observation in reply was characteristic of the owner who, 
 early in the morning, was throwing bread to a brood 
 of turkeys at the back of his house in Lansdown Crescent, 
 " The tower has been broken into by thieves, sir." " Have 
 they carried off anything — is much injury done ? " 
 inquired Mr. Beckford, calmly. " There is nothing gone," 
 was the reply, "but they have done great injury to the 
 building, they very nearly attained their object." " Mr. 
 
 G , Mr. G , don't be so excited Don't show so 
 
 much emotion. Where will you and I and the tower be 
 
 again 
 
 a few years ? A hundred pounds will set all right 
 in, I dare say — don't be excited." 
 
g8 The Beckford Family. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Late Sir J. Murch's Reminiscences. 
 
 [HE late Sir J. Murch, in his work " Local 
 Celebrities," describes a visit he paid to 
 Lansdown Tower on the invitation of Mr. 
 Beckford. I was (he says) a little disappointed 
 in the plantations around the tower, although if 
 I had known the hill before they were made I 
 might have had a different feeling. A dull, flat 
 piece of ground, open to the west wind ; nothing 
 but a careful selection of trees would have made 
 it interesting or answered the owner's purpose. 
 But the building and its contents were well worth 
 many a visit, showing the most exquisite taste in 
 all respects, as well as the most thorough pro- 
 vision for intellectual enjoyment. It is pleasant 
 to remember the various rooms ; some full of 
 books ; others of vases, pictures, and cabinets ; 
 everything in the best Italian style, harmonising 
 with the architecture. There was a room called 
 the chapel ; bouquets of the loveliest flowers were 
 on the tables, a few choice pictures adorned the 
 walls, while upon a pedestal of Sienna marble, in 
 
Sir Jerom Murch. 
 
 Seven times Mayor of Bath. 
 
 Died May 13, 1895 ; aged 87 years. 
 
 He resided many years at Crauwells, Weston, and was interred 
 
 at the Unitarian Cemetery, Lyncombe Vale. 
 
The late Sir J. MurcKs Reminiscences. qg 
 
 a niche panelled with Egyptian porphyry and 
 lighted by a dim cupola, was a delicate piece of 
 sculpture, S. Anthony with the infant Saviour in 
 his arms, and the Oxford motto, " Dominus 
 Illuminatio Dea." All this is gone; no trace 
 remains within the building of what the owner 
 did ; but the view from the top is still as glorious 
 as when he enjoyed it ; reaching to Fon thill in 
 one direction, and the Welsh mountains in 
 another ; the waves of the Severn, some fifteen 
 miles off, sparkling when the sun shone, and the 
 Granville monument close by telling its tale of the 
 Great Rebellion ; all as if to show how enduring 
 nature is, how evanescent the work of man. 
 
 In my conversations with Mr. Beckford he was 
 by no means reticent on topics mutually interest- 
 ing. From the work of planting and landscape 
 gardening we were led to authors on such 
 subjects and thence to other paths of literature. 
 He mentioned the kind of books I should find at 
 the tower, and on my first visit I made myself 
 acquainted to some extent with their general 
 character. Although not numerous they were 
 rare and elegant ; binding, paper and type vying 
 with the contents. Spanish and Portuguese 
 books abounded ; of French authors there were 
 some choice specimens ; and I wondered what 
 many an English Divine would have thought of 
 the theology in all languages. A writer in the 
 Times, after relating how Mr. Beckford's books 
 " followed him from Fonthill to Bath," and how 
 
zoo The Beckford Family. 
 
 they crowded every room of his house, none but 
 the owner knowing where to find them, adds 
 " but he always knew ; his memory was as 
 wonderful as his judgment, and he was a buyer 
 till he died." The book he was then reading 
 was Wisemaris Lectures on Natural and Revealed 
 Religion. It was open on the table at which I 
 sat, and had marginal notes in Mr. Beckford's 
 writing on almost every page. This was the 
 habit of his life. At the sale of Fonthill, in 1823, 
 large prices were obtained for books thus en- 
 riched. And at the Hamilton sale in London, a 
 volume of Beckfordiana, being a transcript of the 
 various notes on margins and flyleaves in his 
 library, sold for ^156. To all book collectors 
 the interest was so great that every work was 
 examined with a view to the discovery of manu- 
 script notes, and any that contained them sold 
 for as many pounds as, if unannotated, they 
 would have produced shillings. 
 
 It has been said that with all Mr. Beckford's 
 lavish expenditure he was not a bad man of 
 business. To what extent this is true of the 
 general management of his property, either 
 English or West Indian, we have few means of 
 judging. With regard to works of art, whatever 
 he did was marked by great decision ; he would 
 not haggle with others, nor would he allow 
 others to haggle with him. That he knew the 
 real value of things may be fairly inferred by his 
 great knowledge and experience ; that he did not 
 
The late Sir J. Murch's Reminiscetices. 101 
 
 hesitate to make a fair profit, especially when he 
 parted with anything he prized, was well-known. 
 His Letters on Italy he sold to Mr. Bentley, the 
 bookseller, for ^500, ^400 in cash and the 
 remainder in a bill. The bill he passed to his 
 agent ; the cash he invested in a sweet picture by 
 Gerard Dow ; but soon, not liking the high finish, 
 he sold it for ^500. His biographer states that 
 the National Gallery paid him ^800 for a 
 Perugino which only cost him 50 guineas. More 
 than forty years ago I received a call from the 
 Marquis of L,ansdowne, who told me he had come 
 to Bath on behalf of the Government to see some 
 pictures in Mr. Beckford's collection. He had 
 in view more particularly the S. Catherine, by 
 Raphael, and the Doge of Venice, by Bellini. 
 There was this remarkable circumstance : the 
 owner had no other specimen by the same 
 masters ; the National Gallery was without one 
 of either. No one, therefore, would blame Mr. 
 Beckford for asking from the Government much 
 larger sums than he gave ; and they were given 
 without any of the long negotiations hedisliked. 
 Knowing now as we do the increased value of 
 such works, there is no doubt that the Govern- 
 ment, on this occasion, made a good investment. 
 Speaking of Mr. Beckford's triple residences 
 in Lansdown Crescent, Sir Jerom adds : — He 
 made openings in the walls of the drawing-room 
 storey which showed a fine vista extending the 
 entire length of the three houses and the arch. 
 
102 The Beckford Family. 
 
 The grandeur of these rooms, quiet as it was, 
 contrasted with the simplicity of others for his 
 private use, especially his bedroom, with its little 
 narrow uncurtained bed, reminding one of the 
 Duke of Wellington's answer at Apsley House 
 with regard to his own ; on hearing the remark 
 that there was no room to turn, he said, "Turn, 
 turn, when one wants to turn, it is time to turn 
 out." Another contrast was of a different kind 
 but not less striking. It was the ugly dwarf, 
 Pero, stationed in the vestibule of the house with 
 no apparent duty whatever. The visitors were 
 admitted by the hall porter and passed on to a 
 servant in the interior, while this wretched 
 looking object sat in his armchair grinning. One 
 explanation of the incongruity was that Mr. 
 Beckford's taste was in many respects Oriental, 
 and that he liked to perpetuate as much as 
 possible the customs of feudal times and ancient 
 families. Among the strange characters in 
 Vathek is the dwarf Bababalouk, a combination 
 of Caliban and Sancho Panza, if such can be 
 imagined, uniting immense conceit with a 
 hideousness of person less than human. 
 
Facsimile of Mr. Beckford's Hand Writing 
 (Reduced). 
 
 1/ -A- .* 
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 Page 102. 
 
Death and Funeral of Mr. Beckford. 103 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Death and Funeral of Mr. Beckford. 
 
 >ECKFORD'S Tower still stands, but its 
 creator is no more. The bouquets of 
 flowers lie daily, before bis breakfast hour, 
 placed in the ground apartment have faded for 
 ever. The tower remains a monument of a mind 
 gifted with acquirements of a rare character and 
 variety ; a genius, sublime, meditative, retiring, 
 proud, seeking among invisible things those 
 which the visible could not unfold, still acquiring 
 knowledge in the bosom of the solitude con- 
 genial to his temper, even after octogenarian 
 years. Bath citizens will ever regard this 
 beautiful object with delight ; the man of letters 
 will renew his wonder at the extent of the 
 founder's acquirements, and the artist will 
 admire the purity of his taste. Certainty wealth 
 might have been lavished upon objects less 
 elevating to the dignity of humanity. 
 
 One of the last events of a gratifying nature in 
 his history was the union of his daughter's son, 
 the Marquis of Douglas, to a sovereign house of 
 
104 The Beckford Family. 
 
 Germany, Mary of Baden. Such an alliance 
 must have been extremely pleasing to one who 
 had so keen a relish for ancestral honours. 
 
 After upwards of sixty years of mature life 
 spent in unlimited indulgence of the highest 
 intellectual tastes, this singular man meets the 
 common fate ; suggesting the verse of Gray — 
 
 "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
 And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
 Await alike the inevitable hour ; 
 
 The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 
 
 Mr. Beckford struggled manfully at first against 
 the fever which carried him off, arising from a 
 cold caught after overwalking himself in a chill 
 easterly wind. When he saw that the struggle 
 was vain, not before, and that the last of life was 
 approaching, he wrote to his affectionate daughter 
 in town his last laconic note — " Come — quick — 
 quick," and expired a day or two after the 
 Duchess's arrival with perfect resignation, so 
 tranquilly that his passing moment was hardly 
 perceptible. 
 
 The following is extracted from the Bath 
 Chronicle and Keene 1 s Bath Journal of May , 1844: — 
 
 "Mr. Beckford, at an early period of his life, 
 was M.P. for Wells, and afterwards for the 
 borough of Hindon several times, but for more 
 than fort}'' years he had relinquished parlia- 
 mentary honours and other public duties, 
 devoting himself to retirement but not unprofit- 
 
Death and Funeral of Mr. Beckford. 105 
 
 ably. His highfy cultivated and ever active 
 mind to the latest period of life directed his 
 splendid fortune to the encouragement of 
 literature and the arts. In this respect the whole 
 nation has felt the influence of his judgment, and 
 genius has been fostered by his encouragement 
 and rewarded by his patronage and the sanction 
 of his approval. His literary productions are 
 few but of the highest character for classical 
 elegance of diction, for truth of feeling, scope of 
 observation, and power of invention. His 
 remains will be deposited in the new cemetery 
 at Widcombe on Thursday next. The mausoleum 
 constructed at Dansdown Tower is to be removed 
 thither for their reception. He directed by his 
 will that his body should be embalmed. This 
 process has just been completed by Messrs. 
 English and Hiscox, surgeons, of Bath. It was 
 intended that Mr. Beckford's remains should 
 have been deposited in Salisbury Cathedral, but 
 the Dean objected to the body being placed in a 
 mausoleum above ground. Another proposition 
 was that the body should be first placed in the 
 Walcot Cemetery and then removed by a faculty 
 to Lansdown Tower, where we understand Mr. 
 Beckford wished to be buried. This, however, 
 was not practicable, as no faculty can be granted 
 for the removal of a body from consecrated 
 ground to that which is not consecrated. The 
 funeral was characterised by an imposing and 
 costly grandeur comporting with the affluence of 
 
10b The Beckford Family. 
 
 the deceased. The coffin was exhibited to the 
 public during Friday at All Saints' Church, 
 where it had been taken from the premises of 
 Messrs. English. It was removed to the house 
 on the same evening for the purpose of receiving 
 the remains of the deceased. Great numbers of 
 persons were admitted to the Cemetery for 
 several days preceding that of the funeral, and 
 towards the last public curiosity for inspecting 
 the tomb continued to increase intensely. 
 During the morning of Saturday the solemn 
 knell from all the churches announced the 
 approaching event. The procession moved from 
 Dansdown Crescent about half-past eleven o'clock, 
 and consisted of ten mourning and nine other 
 carriages. The hearse was preceded by two 
 mourning coaches, the first containing the Rev. 
 S. H. Widdrington, rector of Walcot, and the 
 Rev. T. Eathbury. After the hearse came the 
 coaches containing the noble and distinguished 
 relatives of the deceased as chief mourners, who 
 comprised the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton, 
 Eady Lincoln, the Marquis of Douglas, the 
 Marquis of Huntly, Earl Dunmore, and the Hon. 
 Charles and Captain H. Murray. The remaining 
 coaches were occupied by other attendants. 
 Then followed the carriage of the deceased and 
 those of the Duke and Duchess, while the rear 
 was brought up by a long line of private 
 carriages, among which were those of Colonel 
 Andrews, Capt. G. Blathwayt, Admiral Lysaght, 
 
Death and Funeral of Mr. Beckford. ioj 
 
 the Rector of Walcot, Mr. J. Worthington, Dr. 
 Whetten, and Dr. Bowie. The procession took 
 the route of Lansdown Road, Belvedere, Milsom 
 Street, New Bond Street, Pulteney Street, and 
 Road to the Cemetery. 
 
 ' ' So great was the public interest excited by 
 the sombre scene that the footways in the 
 thoroughfares through which the funeral passed 
 were thronged excessively, and the concourse 
 assembled in the Crescent and its vicinity to 
 witness the departure was immense. The arrival 
 at the Cemetery was about half-past 12 o'clock. 
 Here the crowd congregated previously was 
 much augmented by the numbers of people who 
 came with the procession. A strong body of 
 the police force, under the able direction of 
 Captain Carroll, were in attendance to prevent 
 everything disorderly on the ground and to 
 keep the paths clear for the approach of the 
 mourners and attendants to the tomb. The 
 avenues to the chapel were kept clear and be- 
 coming order was observed throughout the 
 solemn proceedings. The coffin having been 
 borne from the hearse from the carriage road 
 to the chapel, the funeral service was read by 
 the Rev. S. H. Widdrington, who also finished 
 the solemnities at the tomb. The body was then 
 deposited in the tomb, having been a long time 
 constructed and in a small circular spot of 
 ground immediately in front of the Chapel of 
 the Cemetery. The coffin was of a superb and 
 
108 The Beckford Family. 
 
 costly description. It was beautifully made of 
 Spanish mahogany, embellished with superior 
 mouldings and covered with purple Genoa 
 velvet of the purest fabric. The gilded metal 
 ornaments even to the nails were all moulded 
 and cast expressly for the purpose and of a 
 massive and rich appearance. The cover of the 
 coffin was divided into three compartments, the 
 first or head part taking a shield with an in- 
 scription ; in the centre was a gilded electrotype 
 coat of arms in bold relief on a rich marble sur- 
 mounted by a crest. The foot compartment 
 also contained a crest. The sides were adorned 
 with L,atimer crosses and cinque foils alternately 
 disposed, and the massive handles bore each a 
 shield with arms in the centre. 
 
 "Thus closed the tomb upon a man of many 
 and extraordinary claims on public attention. 
 His life, far beyond the average duration, had 
 been one of comparative retirement from the 
 world — of complete retirement from all its 
 ordinary vanities, and of too much, perhaps, 
 from social converse ; but devoted to those pur- 
 suits and pleasures which extend their influence 
 to the arts and sciences, to literature, and to trade, 
 calling talent and industry into requisition, and 
 returning them their due reward. Mr. Beckford 
 was a man of the most refined taste ; of knowledge,, 
 in the best sense of the word, recherche; of a 
 liberal fortune and an equally liberal disposition 
 to answer every suggestion to harmonise all 
 
Death and Funeral of Mr. Beckfard. log 
 
 things about him into unity of elegance and 
 completeness of domestic comfort. Men of for- 
 tune too frequently pursue their own pleasures 
 unmindful of others and in luxurious waste, 
 their lives pass away as ' a tale that is told. 
 Every pleasure of Mr. Beckford was of a rational 
 and refined character, such as dignifies human 
 nature, and excites the mental energies of others 
 to satisfy its requirements. It would be difficult, 
 indeed, to conceive the extent to which the more 
 noble and useful faculties would be called into 
 exercise were all men like him. The man of 
 fortune will be a gentleman by reputation, but 
 if this title means anything of solid worth, it 
 means not merely the advantage of riches, but 
 superiority of intellectual acquisitions. In pro- 
 portion as these attain supremacy, wealth is 
 directed to its noblest purposes ; genius receives 
 its spur to exertion ; and the world makes honour- 
 able advancement. The life of Mr. Beckford in 
 this point of view presents many distinguished 
 features worthy of general imitation." 
 
The Beckford Family. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Sale of Eansdown Tower and its Contents. 
 
 1 HE first public intimation of the disposal 
 of Lansdown Tower and its surroundings 
 was given September 8th, 1845, as 
 follows : — " This splendid structure, with its 
 surrounding grounds, is about to be submitted to 
 public competition by Messrs. English and Son. 
 This will be the most interesting sale that has 
 taken place in the city of Bath for many years. 
 The sale will doubtless be looked forward to with 
 exciting interest and attract visitors from all 
 parts of the kingdom." 
 
 The next week the following advertisement 
 appeared in the Bath Journal : — 
 
 LANSDOWN CRESCENT, BATH ; 
 With its Unrivalled Contents and various Free- 
 holds of the late William Beckford, Esq., in 
 the vicinity of his residence, including Costly 
 Plantations, Gardens, and other Property. 
 MESSRS. ENGLISH & SON 
 Have the honour very respectfully to make 
 known to the Nobility, Gentry, and Public that 
 they have been directed by the Executors of the 
 
Sale of Lansdown Tower and its Contents, in 
 
 late William Beckford, Esq., of Lansdown 
 Crescent, Bath, to offer for 
 
 PUBLIC COMPETITION, 
 Early in November Next, at the Tower on 
 Lansdown, that exquisite monument of its late 
 owner's taste, together with various parcels of 
 Freehold Land, upon the summit and slope of 
 the celebrated eminence upon which that most 
 beautiful edifice rears its commanding elevation. 
 The spot was decorated with lavish expense 
 by the late 
 
 Wi«iamBeckfoed, Esq., 
 
 Whose correctness of taste exhibited here during 
 the later years of his life only confirmed the rare 
 accuracy of that judgment the fame of which, 
 connected with his former residence at Fonthill,. 
 had spread over all the civilized world. 
 
 Lansdown Tower, 
 With its chaste ornamental Gardens and Grounds, 
 consisting of between Six and Seven Acres of 
 Land, is situated about two miles from Bath, 
 upon the summit of Lansdown, its base being 
 800 feet above the Avon. The structure itself 
 rises 130 feet higher, crowned with an elegant 
 cupola and lantern of cast-iron in strict Grecian 
 character, commanding a prospect the very per- 
 fection of picturesque landscape ; the view 
 bounded in one direction by the mountains of 
 Wales commands the counties of Somerset, 
 Wilts, Gloucester, and Worcester, and, across the 
 
ii2 The Beckford Family. 
 
 Severn, Glamorgan, and Monmouth ; smiling 
 vales, and emerald-coloured hills are spread 
 beneath like a carpet of unparalleled richness. 
 
 The Tower, with its symmetrical apartments, 
 refreshed and newly furnished but just before the 
 owner's decease, would form an admirable basis 
 "or Wing" for a Private Residence, being 
 singularly well adapted for the retirement of a 
 man of fortune and pure taste, who would not 
 desire to be too far away from the occasional 
 attractions of a splendid city. The surrounding 
 Garden, that may be said 
 
 To Make Perfection Perfect, 
 Is planted with the choicest trees, capable of 
 being acclimated to such a spot ; collected from 
 all parts of the world without any regard to cost, 
 and remarkably rich in the tribe Coniferae, to 
 which (besides the British Isles) Mexico, the 
 Brazils, and even the Himalayas have been made 
 tributary. It may be pronounced justly that in 
 all England nothing of the same compass 
 
 Outvies this Matchless Spot. 
 The Tower, Garden, and Grounds, extended by 
 a terrace walk to what is called the Tunnel, at 
 which the Dike Garden commences, Messrs. 
 English will have the honour to offer to the 
 Public separately. 
 
 One of the Rarest and Most Costly 
 
 Collections of Vertu, 
 
 Forming the contents of the Tower, will follow 
 
Sale of Lansdown Tower and its Contents, zrj 
 
 next in the order of sale consisting of Furniture, 
 adapted with great care to the character of the 
 building, Paintings, by ancient and modern 
 masters, quantities of matchlesss China, rich 
 Japan, Etruscan vases, rare marbles, specimens 
 of Sculpture, Bronzes of exquisite workmanship, 
 Agate Cups, Mosaic Cabinets, rich Tables, Ivory 
 Carvings, valuable Crystals, and expensive 
 rarities, adorning this most beautiful of all the 
 studies of meditative genius, and every way 
 
 Worthy of the Author op Vathek. 
 
 To expatiate upon the value or interest attached 
 to these objects of vertu, accumulated by Mr. 
 Beckford, by a diffuse expenditure of wealth with 
 the advantage of an unusually long term of 
 existence and discriminating talent, would be 
 useless. Suffice it to say that here, to the 
 individual taste, 
 
 Nothing is Left to be Desired. 
 
 The next parcel of Freehold runs parallel with 
 the turnpike-road and extends nearly as far down 
 the hill as the Hare and Hounds Inn. It is 
 entered at present by the tunnel from the Tower 
 ground, and is known by the name of 
 
 The Dike Garden. 
 
 Reaving the terrace walk and passing through the 
 tunnel the scene changes from open to circum- 
 scribed land, forming a perfect enclosure, in 
 which there stands a cottage, Italianised. There 
 
ii4 The Beckford Family. 
 
 is also a pond of water, with fruit trees, shrubs, 
 and flowers in profusion, the whole in the most 
 complete privacy. This garden is exceedingly 
 well adapted under its existing purpose for the 
 
 Site of a Retired Villa. 
 
 This will be disposed of separately, and is well 
 worthy of attention from the extreme healthiness 
 of the situation and the noble views in its 
 vicinity. 
 
 The next object for public competition is a 
 piece of land on the brow of the hill, descending 
 from the Down towards Bath, in quantity about 
 six acres and a-half, adjoining the turnpike-road, 
 having an ample supply of water,* 
 
 Admirably Adapted for Building, 
 
 And commanding views of uncommon beauty 
 and extent, facing the genial south, surrounded 
 with the most exhilarating objects, and admit- 
 ting the display of the liveliest fancy in the 
 decoration of its elevated slopes and salubrious 
 undulations, and which will be sold either entire 
 or in lots. After this 
 
 A Rustic Cottage, 
 
 Near the Hare and Hounds, with a Paddock 
 on the other side of the road, having a frontage 
 
 * Sept. 19, 1846. A portion of this land, formerly the 
 property of Mr. Beckford, wa9 purchased and the new 
 Wesleyan College, designed by Messrs. Wilson, was 
 erected upon it. 
 
Sale of Lansdown Tower and its Contents, izj 
 
 of about 740 feet parallel with the road ; an 
 object exceedingly desirable as a site for the 
 erection of villas, to which it was formerly 
 appropriated till Mr. Beckford removed the 
 buildings. It possesses the advantage of great 
 plenty of fine stone for building that may be 
 raised on the spot, and a never-failing supply of 
 the purest water. It also commands an extensive 
 prospect of the delightful scenery in the neigh- 
 bourhood of one of the most picturesque as well 
 as the most beautiful of English cities. After 
 this 
 
 The Nobi,e Garden at Lansdown Crescent 
 Will be presented, consisting of about four acres, 
 either together or in lots as shall be subsequently 
 announced. It is surrounded with high stone 
 walls, very picturesque in appearance, is stocked 
 with a profusion of the choicest fruit trees, and 
 includes greenhouse, forcing pits, a terrace 
 planted with the finest wall fruit in capital 
 bearing, conducting to a mossy-arched gateway, 
 in the Gothic taste, battlemented and macchi- 
 colated. This rich garden is parallel with the 
 rear of L,ansdown Crescent, and would be an 
 invaluable property for a resident in that range 
 of spacious and handsome private mansions, or 
 for the several villas in its immediate vicinity. 
 
 The Tower and Property there will be sub- 
 mitted to be viewed by Tickets, as early as 
 possible, of which due notice will be given. 
 
nb The Beckford Family. 
 
 The sale commenced on November 20, 1845, 
 and lasted eight days. 
 
 1 st day— Oriental Egg Shell aud Cabinet 
 China. 
 
 2nd day — AntiqueGems.. Coins, Agates, &c.,&c. 
 
 3rd day — Dresden and Cabinet China. 
 
 4th day — The Tower, with its Gardens and 
 Lands adjoining. 
 
 5th day — The valuable collection of Paintings. 
 
 6th day — The Furniture of the Crimson Draw- 
 ing-room, with the two precious Etruscan Vases, 
 &c. 
 
 7th day — Furniture of the Scarlet Room, &c. 
 
 8th day — Furniture of the Sanctuary, Etruscan 
 Iyibrary, &c. 
 
 Persons were admitted to view on purchase of 
 Catalogues which were sold at five shillings each 
 to admit two persons. All the effects belonging 
 to the Tower, with other property from the 
 Mansion, were removed for sale to Messrs. 
 English's Rooms, 21, Milsom Street. 
 
 The purchasers by agency included many 
 museums and some distinguished foreigners. 
 Among these maybe enumerated the Grand Duke 
 Constantine of Russia, the King of Bavaria ; also 
 the Duke of Beaufort, the Marquis of Dansdowne^ 
 the Marquis of Northampton, the Earl of Har- 
 rington, Earl de Grey, the Earl of Shrewsbury, 
 Iyord Northwick, General Sir W. Davey, C. 
 Maude, Esq., &c, &c. 
 
Sale of Lansdown Tower and its Contents, izf 
 
 The Tower with the Gardens produced 8,415 
 guineas, about one third of the cost. It after- 
 wards transpired that the Tower was bought in, 
 and was again offered for sale by public auction 
 on May 10, 1847, and was knocked down by the 
 auctioneer's hammer, together with an acre of 
 the surrounding land, for the almost nominal 
 sum of ^1,000. The purchaser was Mr. Wm. 
 Knott, landlord of the Freemason's Tavern, 
 Abbey Green, in this city. 
 
 The following sums were given for some of 
 the paintings, and which were considered at 
 that time extraordinary prices : — View in Venice 
 (Canaletti), 205 guineas ; Poultry in a Landscape 
 (Hondekoeter) 185 guineas; View of a Dutch Coast 
 (Albert Cuyp), 175 guineas; Interior of an Apart- 
 ment decorated with pictures (Ganzales Coques), 
 155 guineas ; A Rocky and Romantic Landscape 
 (Francesco Mola), 140 guineas ; Interior of a 
 Cathedral (Peter Neefs), 120 guineas ; French 
 Vessel endeavouring to enter a Harbour (Copley 
 Fielding), 115 guineas; Interior of St. George's 
 Chapel, Windsor, 16 inches by 22, 108 guineas — 
 Allegorical ; The Pursuit of Love (Domenichino), 
 this beautiful little gem, about four inches square, 
 formerly adorned the Aldobrandini Palace, 100 
 guineas ; The Tower of Babel (Walckenberg), 
 97 guineas ; Still Life (De Heem and Peters), 88 
 guineas ; a fine Portrait of Andrea Fendramini, 
 Doge of Venice, 1476 (Giovanni Bellini), 63 
 guineas. The companion picture of this was 
 
n8 The Beckford Family. 
 
 purchased of Mr. Beckford just before his 
 death by Government for £800. The Duke of 
 Hamilton tried to obtain the re-possession of it, 
 but the reply was that Government purchased 
 pictures but did not deal in them. Had the 
 companion picture been re-obtained by his 
 Grace this would not have been sold. It was 
 purchased by Mr. Stothert. 
 
 Mr. Beckford's library, together with some of 
 his choicest paintings, was removed to Hamilton 
 Palace. The Duke of Hamilton fitted up at his 
 palace a continuous range from the long state 
 gallery through the old state apartments to the 
 new Beckfordean library and tribune, forming 
 in itself a separate feature. Some five years 
 ago this splendid library of books were sent to 
 London to Messrs. Christie's and disposed of by 
 public auction. 
 
 The will of Mr. Beckford (which is very short) 
 was proved at Doctor's Commons, 1844, by the 
 Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon (wife of the 
 Duke of Hamilton) and R. S. White, Esq., 
 solicitor to the deceased. He gave to his 
 daughter, the Duchess of Hamilton, the bulk of 
 his property, leaving ^500 to his executor, Mr. 
 White. He also left annuities to servants* and 
 other persons, and desired to be buried in 
 Dansdown Cemetery. The property of Mr. 
 
 * May 23, 1848, at Fonthill Gifford, Wilts, Mr. James 
 Vincent, aged 80, a faithful servant of the late Win. 
 Beckford, Esq., for sixty years. — Keene's Bath Journal. 
 
Sale of Lansdown Tower and its Contents, ng 
 
 Beckford, once the wealthiest commoner in 
 England, was sworn to as under ^8o,ooo.*f 
 
 1847, Sept. 4. The Duchess of Hamilton 
 repurchased the beautiful Tower and land from 
 Mr. Knott and presented it for a Cemetery to 
 Walcot parish. This, now consisting of five 
 acres of land, two acres of which were obtained 
 at a nominal value of Major Blathwayt, is a most 
 desirable site for interment. The approach, 
 from designs by Mr. Goodridge, is in the Byzan- 
 tine style, extended on each side by a wall of the 
 same architecture, surmounted by the richly 
 embellished iron railings which surrounded the 
 tomb in the Abbey Cemetery. 
 
 * The following is recorded in an edition of "Vathek" 
 recently published by Messrs. Sampson, Low, and Co. : — 
 " That Alderman Beckford died when his son was eleven 
 years of age, leaving him property which accumulated 
 during his minority to an annual income of one hundred 
 and ten thousand pounds, and this in addition to a million 
 in ready money." 
 
 t Mr. Beckford purchased his Lansdown Crescent pro- 
 perty of Sir Wm. James, and for which he paid him 
 between seven and eight thousand pounds ; the highest 
 price offered at the auction, after all the additions and 
 improvements had been made, was ,£3,050. 
 
120 The Beckford Family. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Consecration of Lansdown Cemetery. 
 
 ^HE ceremony of consecrating the beauti- 
 ful domain of Dansdown Tower and 
 ornamental grounds as a Cemetery was 
 performed on April 25, 1848, by the I,ord Bishop 
 of Bath and Wells. Several hundreds of the 
 inhabitants of the city were present at the inter- 
 esting ceremony. The Duchess of Hamilton, 
 hearing that there was a probability of the 
 Tower and grounds being appropriated for a 
 purpose unworthy of its character, it was re- 
 purchased by the Duchess and munificently 
 presented to the Rector of Walcot, to be con- 
 verted \>y him into a Cemetery, which was 
 ultimately accepted, and it is at the present 
 time an ornament and credit to the city. 
 
 The entrance to the Cemetery is by a noble 
 and elegant archway or porch, in a style suitable 
 to the chaste character of the Tower. The 
 enclosure of the tomb of the late Mr. Beckford 
 having been removed to form an architectural 
 screen, presents in connection with the Tower 
 
Lansdown Cemetery and Beckford's Tower. 
 
Consecration of Lansdown Cemetery. isi 
 
 and porch, a most unique composition. The 
 Cross and emblems of the Trinity, Eternity, 
 Time, &c, are introduced, as well as the 
 monograms of the Rector and architect, and 
 the following inscriptions : — " Extruxit Anno 
 Domini mdcccxlviii.." "Till the Heavens be 
 no more they shall not awake," "Watch, there- 
 fore, for ye know not the hour your Lord doth 
 come," "Lord, remember me when Thou comest 
 into Thy kingdom." And over the side doors 
 are inscribed: — "The Gates of Death" and 
 " Resurgent." The principal apartment on the 
 first floor of the Tower has been converted into 
 a chapel, a reading desk being placed at the 
 western end and two rows of pews arranged 
 down the side. Facing the reading desk is the 
 escutcheon of the late Mr. Beckford, with his 
 armorial bearings and motto, " De Dim tout." 
 The remaining portions of the Tower, deprived 
 of the rich draperies and appointments they 
 were wont to wear, present a sad contrast to 
 their appearance in the days when the author of 
 " Vathek '' made them his frequent sojourn and 
 delight. The tomb of Mr. Beckford, which was 
 removed from the Abbey Cemetery, is placed on 
 the southern side and at some distance from the 
 Tower, and is beautifully situated in the midst 
 of choice and luxuriant shrubs. 
 
 On the day of consecration the principal path 
 leading from the porch to the Tower was lined 
 with children connected with the Brown, Green, 
 
isa The Beckford Family. 
 
 Walcot Parochial and District National Schools ; 
 awaiting the arrival of the Lord Bishop, who 
 was met at the gate by the Duchess of Hamilton, 
 the Rev. the Rector of Walcot, and several other 
 clergymen of the city. 
 
 A petition having been presented to his lord- 
 ship, praying him to consecrate the land for a 
 burial place, and he having signified his consent 
 to the same, a procession was formed consisting 
 of the Bishop, clergy, school children, and 
 visitors, who perambulated the ground to be 
 consecrated, repeating in their course one of the 
 appointed psalms and the other services. 
 
 Among the clergy forming the procession was 
 Archdeacon Brymer, Revs. Messrs. Widdrington, 
 Davis, Marsh, Sproule, Wood, Dixon, Strong, 
 Hall, Brodrick, East, Scarth, Dathbury, Totten- 
 ham, Woodward, &c. On arriving at the entrance 
 to the Tower the title deed was presented to the 
 Bishop, after which the sentence of consecration 
 was read by the Registrar and signed by his 
 Lordship, who then read the following prayer : — 
 
 " O God, who has taught us in Thy Holy Word 
 that there is a difference between the spirit of a 
 beast that goeth downwards to the earth and the 
 spirit of a man which ascendeth up to God who 
 gave it ; and likewise by the example of Thy 
 holy servants, in all ages, has taught us to assign 
 peculiar places where the bodies of Thy saints 
 may rest in peace, and be preserved from all 
 indignities, whilst their souls are safely kept in 
 
Entrance to La-nsdown Cemetery. 
 
 It was on April 25th, 1848, that the Cemetery was consecrated 
 by the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells. The remains of Mr. 
 Beckford had been deposited at the Abbey Cemetery in 1844, 
 and were removed to Lansdown Cemetery, where the tomb of 
 the deceased now occupies a prominent position. 
 
Consecration of L ansdown Cemetery. 123 
 
 the hands of their faithful Redeemer ; accept, we 
 beseech Thee, this charitable work of ours in 
 separating this portion of land to that good 
 purpose ; and give us grace, that by the frequent 
 instances of mortality which we behold, we may 
 learn and seriously consider how frail and 
 uncertain our condition here on earth is, and so 
 number our days as to apply our hearts unto 
 wisdom. That in the midst of life thinking upon 
 death, and daily preparing ourselves for the 
 judgment that is to follow, we may have our part 
 in the resurrection to eternal life, with Him 
 who died for our sins, and rose again for our 
 justification, and now liveth and reigneth with 
 Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world with- 
 out end. • Amen." 
 
 A portion of the 39th Psalm was then sung, 
 and the ceremony was concluded by the Bishop 
 pronouncing the following benediction : — 
 
 " The Lord bless us and keep us ; the Lord 
 lift tip the light of His countenance upon us, and 
 give us peace now and for evermore. Amen." 
 
124 The Beckford Family. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Beckford and Edgar Allen Poe — A 
 Comparison. 
 
 N the summit of Eansdown Hill (says an 
 American author) is to be seen I^ansdown 
 Tower, which, half-a-century ago, con- 
 stituted a kind of microcosm of the life, tastes, 
 and character of its owner. In its internal 
 decorations, as well as by its external appearance, 
 the bent of his mind was to be seen. William 
 Beckford has passed away, and the building which 
 he constructed so that from its topmost pinnacle 
 he might catch an occasional glimpse of the 
 gilded spires of Fonthill, is no longer a receptacle 
 of the living, but is dedicated to the dead. The 
 fantastic edifice called into being by the magic 
 wand of almost countless fortune, is now only a 
 place where the burial sendee is read ; the 
 grounds adjacent, that were once specimens of 
 the most varied horticultural magnificence 
 known at the time, have now no other occupants 
 but those who have done with this life. Beckford's 
 
Beckford and Edgar Allen Poe. 123 
 
 Tower is the chapel of a cemetery " Where all 
 life dies, death lives." 
 
 " In Rome of old they bore their dead 
 
 To fields with pleasant verdure spread, 
 
 And lay them down to rest. 
 
 The Egyptian reared his pyramid 
 
 To veil with a colossal lid, 
 
 The puny dust of man." 
 Even now the black cloth drapery which 
 envelopes the walls of one of the lower apart- 
 ments of the building — once a mimic banquetting 
 chamber, at present the vestibule to the tomb — 
 does not conceal all traces of that passion for 
 richness and splendour which has gained for the 
 words, Beckford, "Vathek" and Fonthill an 
 European fame. The hues of the ceiling are 
 somewhat dimmed by age ; the peculiarity of the 
 decorative device is yet visible. It is a perfect 
 realisation of the lagcianta leita of the Romans — 
 a frilled roof, whose panels are alternately black 
 or the richest crimson. Always averse to the 
 boredom of promiscuously entertaining sight- 
 seers, Beckford guarded his tower on I,ansdown 
 against intrusion with exceptional vigilance. It 
 was built as it was fitted up, primarily and solely 
 for his private gratification, he had consulted no 
 other taste than his own, but that was sufficient 
 to ensure for it the perfection of its kind. It is 
 unnecessary here, for our purpose, to go into a 
 detailed description of the building to which we 
 
i2b The Beckford Family. 
 
 refer. I<et us picture to ourselves one room 
 which may serve, in the first place, as a fair 
 exemplification of Beckford's conception of, and 
 passion for the beautiful ; and in the second, a 
 reasonable specimen of the aptness of ornament 
 noticeable in his Lansdown Tower, as in his 
 Abbey at Fonthill. The hangings, carpets, and 
 walls of the apartment in which we are supposed 
 to be standing were all of the richest crimson, 
 the only exception to this prevailing tint was the 
 ceiling, that was crimson interspersed with 
 purple and gold. At one extremity of the room 
 was placed an ebony cabinet, of most exquisite 
 workmanship, the top of which was composed of 
 a single slab of the most precious green porphyry. 
 Tables were ranged at intervals throughout the 
 chamber, manufactured from rare Italian marble ; 
 from the ceiling were suspended candelabra of 
 polished granite ; on the walls were hanging 
 cabinets containing vases of china, jasper, 
 chalcedony, agate, and cornelian. There were 
 enamelled salvers on every side, by Jean Cousin. 
 There were chefs d'csuvre of Murillo, battlepieces 
 by Bourgonone, Italian landscapes by Herman 
 Swaneveld. At another extremity of the room 
 a door led into a closet, with ceiling carved and 
 gilded, whose sides were lined with the rarest 
 and most sumptuously bound books — vellum 
 and gold, with devices in character with 
 their contents, and Morocco binding of all hues ; 
 or with cabinets displaying missals and psalters 
 
Beckford and Edgar Allen Poe. 127 
 
 of imperial value. Remember this is not a room 
 at Fonthill, simply an apartment in Beckford's 
 sanctum on Lansdown. It would be an endless 
 work to chronicle the glories that existed in the 
 Abbey in Wiltshire, and the account would seem 
 more like a picture of fair unrealities than a 
 record of what actually existed. Heine has 
 likened this world to the dream-begotten off- 
 spring of some begotten god, who falls asleep in 
 a far-off star forgetting that what he thinks he 
 creates. With Beckford to think or to wish was 
 to realise and to have, his mind was for ever 
 running riot amid scenes of more than human 
 beauty ; and he had no sooner mapped out for 
 himself a vision of transcendant splendour, than 
 his wealth enabled him to crystallize it into a 
 living fact. The passion for the beautiful was 
 thus the keynote of Beckford's existence. 
 
 It is our purpose to show an extraordinary 
 similitude between two men, in many respects 
 of totally opposite temperaments. 
 
 Beckford, by activity, temperance, joined with 
 plenty of exercise, rendered himself compara- 
 tively hale. He was never idle ; he told a friend 
 in the seventy- sixth year of his age that he never 
 felt a minute's ennui in his life. 
 
 Poe, on the other hand, was the adopted son of 
 a wealthy merchant (Mr. Allen). His whole life 
 was marked by extravagance and irregularity. 
 He was sent to Charlottesville University, 
 Virginia, but was so incorrigible that he was 
 
zs8 The Beckford Family. 
 
 expelled from the University. He became not 
 only a drunkard, but a gambler. His poem 
 " The Raven " is one of the most remarkable 
 productions of American poetry. Although his 
 friends prevailed upon him to join a temperance 
 society, whilst staying at Baltimore he became so 
 inebriated that he fell down in the street. On 
 being picked up he was conveyed to a hospital, 
 where he expired on the following day at the 
 early age of forty. 
 
 Now for the similitude of the two men — by 
 reference rather to the direction in which their 
 tastes led them to indulge their fancies than to 
 the visible results which they each separately 
 achieved, and it will be seen that the analogy 
 which we have here suggested is borne out in 
 many minute points. The visions of Poe's 
 writings perpetually haunted his brain ; that 
 deathless craving after the perfection of beauty 
 which, though it has given him his title-deeds to 
 fame, yet proved the curse of his existence ; his 
 conceptions of splendour, his poetic appreciation 
 of the aesthetic accompaniments to luxury, were 
 not a whit less strongly defined than in the case 
 of Beckford. More than this— just as the type 
 of beauty which was ever present to the author 
 of " Vathek " has something distinctly Oriental 
 about it, so too was it with Poe. With each 
 alike the idea of the beautiful ever present to 
 them was purely sensuous. Beckford could carry 
 out his dreams by converting them into realities ; 
 
Beckford and Edgar Allen Poe. i2q 
 
 Poe sought to feel their full splendour by the 
 photography of pen and ink, or by means less 
 hallowed. 
 
 Poe's love for the gorgeous, for the splendid, 
 the antique, and the rare, is perpetually manifest 
 in his writings ; the decorations of his prose and 
 of his poetry are just those with which Beckford 
 filled his Abbey at Fonthill and his house at 
 Bath. Nothing less than " the luxurious violet 
 velvet lining that the lamp lighted gloated o'er " 
 does he deem a fit reposing-place for his hero of 
 " The Raven," only out of " many a quaint and 
 curious volume of forgotten lore " does he seek 
 " surcease of sorrow " for his lost love. Whether 
 the vein in which he writes be humorous or 
 serious, sombre or gay, there is still the same 
 passion for the uncommon and for the magni- 
 ficent. Poe's life may be described as a vain 
 groping after his realisation of beauty. The very 
 mottoes which Poe loves to prefix to his tales are 
 written from the pages of some almost extinct 
 poet or half-forgotten divine. These are the 
 scenes amid which he loves to portray his heroes. 
 "Rich draperies in every part of the room 
 trembled to the vibration of low melancholy 
 music, whose origin was not to be discovered, 
 senses were oppressed by mingled and conflicting 
 perfumes, reeking up from strange convolute 
 censers, together with multitudinous flaring and 
 flickering tongues of emerald and violet fire. 
 The rays of the newly-risen sun poured in upon 
 
jjo The Beckford Family. 
 
 the whole, through, windows formed each of 
 a single pane of crimson-tinted glass. Glancing 
 to and fro in a thousand reflections, from curtains 
 which rolled from their cornices like cataracts of 
 molten silver, the beams of natural glory mingled 
 at length fitfully with the artificial light, and lay 
 weltering in subdued masses upon a carpet of 
 rich liquid-looking cloth of Chili gold." 
 
 The Hall of Eblis was indeed the creation of 
 the imagination of Beckford, but it was an 
 imagination of precisely the same kind as that 
 which inspired the American writer to conjure 
 up visions of more than Eastern magnificence. 
 It is a somewhat remarkable fact that neither in 
 his reviews of English authors, nor in those short 
 critical comments printed in the American 
 edition of his works, under the title of Margi- 
 natia, does Poe refer in any way to "Vathek" or 
 its author. It is strange for two reasons. In the 
 first place, such a writer as Beckford could not 
 have faited, in virtue of the sympathy of genius, 
 to have a marvellous fascination for such a mind 
 as Poe's. His mode of existence, the princely 
 splendour in which he lived, could not but have 
 had a strong hold on the poet who wrote the 
 " Philosophy of Furniture " — an essay which is 
 one of Poe's happiest and most characteristic 
 efforts. In the second place, Beckford reached 
 the zenith of his almost world-wide fame just as 
 Poe was in the midst of his literary career. It is 
 impossible that the gifted American should not 
 
Beckford and Edgar Allen Poe. iji 
 
 have heard of him whom Byron has called 
 " England's wealthiest son." And that Poe did 
 hear of him, and had made himself tolerably well 
 acquainted with the adoration of the beautiful, 
 which was the great end of Beckford's life, we 
 believe there is internal evidence to show. There 
 is a certain tale of Poe's, not yet reprinted from 
 the four- volume edition of his writings, in which 
 he describes a gorgeous abbey, the original of 
 which may reasonably be supposed to have been 
 Fonthill. " Occupying the whole southern face 
 of the pentagon was the sole window- — an 
 immense sheet of unbroken glass from Venice — 
 a single pane, and tinted of a leaden hue, so that 
 the rays of the sun or moon passing through it 
 fell with a ghastly lustre on the objects within." 
 Apropos of this passage, which we have quoted 
 from the story above alluded to, "I4geia," we 
 have these remarks to make in confirmation of 
 the proposition on which we have ventured. 
 Firstly, we do know that there was at Fonthill 
 exactly such a pentagonal chamber as here 
 described. Secondly, Venetian glass was first 
 used by Beckford to any considerable extent in 
 England ; it first became fashionable with him. 
 Thirdly, windows composed of a solid pane were 
 amongst the special features at Fonthill. And, 
 fourthly, the idea of the interior objects of a 
 room deriving their tints from the reflection of 
 glass was acted upon by Beckford uniformally at 
 all his houses. There are two other of Poe's 
 
132 The Beckford Family. 
 
 compositions which might be thought to lend 
 their testimony in the same direction — "Candor's 
 Cottage," and the " Domain of Arnheim." The 
 whole interest of the latter of these sketches 
 turns upon precisely that species of gardening 
 which Beckford adopted and introduced both at 
 Fonthill and Eansdown. — The point here raised 
 may not be a very important one, only as we have 
 instituted a kind of comparison it will be 
 interesting to know how far the points of 
 resemblance between' the two men may be said 
 to be cases of effect rather than of coincidence, 
 and it certainly seems impossible that Poe, with 
 his passion for reading anything exceptional or 
 striking, should have failed to peruse a work 
 which created as much sensation on both sides of 
 the Atlantic as "Vathek;" and if he did, as 
 doubtless he did, peruse it, it seems not less 
 impossible, that he should have been content 
 to have let his knowledge of its extraordinary 
 author end there. 
 
 But if Edgar Poe loved to revel in the splen- 
 dours of the palace, he could gloat over the 
 mysteries of the charnel. His taste was essen- 
 tially morbid. If he had a passion for beauty 
 he was enamoured also of horror. There were 
 moments when he seemed wholly possessed by 
 the spirit of that Raven which he has described 
 as " a grim, ungainly, ghastly, ominous bird," 
 when his highest pleasure was to torture himself 
 with conceptions of terror and dread, and to 
 
Beckford and Edgar Allen Poe. 133 
 
 brood over images full of the most recondite 
 and hideous terror. He experiences a morbid 
 enjoyment in chronicling the sensations of the 
 victims of such tortures as the ingenuity of 
 Spanish inquisitors might have devised ; in 
 minutely analyzing the successive symptoms of 
 approaching insanity ; in picturing in vivid 
 colours each particular stage of suffering and 
 dread through which the wretch who has found 
 a living burial passes. Poe, it is said, prided him- 
 self on his humour ; but of that humour which 
 bubbles over with kindly jest and sparkles with 
 laughter he knew absolutely nothing. Laugh 
 indeed he does, but the laugh is a hollow one, not 
 pleasant to hear ; beneath the smile may be seen 
 a sneer ; from under the jester's mask peers out 
 the ghastly lineaments of the death's-head. You 
 feel the fun, if fun it can be called, is forced ; 
 and if in one line your mirth is raised by an 
 image drawn from the region of merriment, in 
 the next it is sure to be terror-smitten by a 
 metaphor only kindred to awe. After all, in 
 such a character as Poe's, this is only what we 
 might expect ; it is simply an instance of a 
 reaction which is inevitable. Failing to realize 
 objectively those conceptions of splendid and 
 lustrous, but still sensuous, beauty, he would at 
 times betake himself in simple despair to a fancy 
 created out of an exactly opposite nature. Gold 
 and purple, rich colours, rare combinations of 
 tints, antique books in quaintly characteristic 
 
i$4 The Beckford Family. 
 
 bindings, classic statuary, priceless paintings — 
 amid these he would have loved to dwell ; but 
 the means which fortune gave to Beckford she 
 denied to Poe. Is it wonderful that the mortifi- 
 cation of the privation — and in estimating this 
 point we must remember that Edgar Poe lived 
 in a country remarkable above all others for its 
 obtrusive ostentation of wealth — should by 
 sheer force of opposition have caused him to 
 turn to the ghastly and the terrible ? 
 
 Independently of the exceptional circumstances 
 of Poe's case, it is probable that a supreme and 
 overwhelming passion for the beautiful is in 
 some way or other closely allied with a. penchant 
 for the ghastly. Thus much at least the writings 
 of Beckford would seem to prove. We have in 
 Vathek, it is true, scenes of the most bewitch- 
 ing loveliness, of the softest and most melodious 
 beauty ; we have the very acme of gorgeous 
 magnificence, and voluptuous splendour — an 
 exact realization of scenes such as those amid 
 which the fancy of Poe loved to dwell. But if 
 there are these, there are, too, pictures sketched 
 in very different colours. There may be the 
 softness of Titian; but there are also the terrors 
 of Dante. The descent of the Caliph and 
 Nouriashar down the stairs that lead to the 
 Hall of Eblis, their steps insensibly becoming- 
 so violently accelerated that they seem at last 
 to fall rather than to walk, with the subsequent 
 scene, illustrates this side of Beckford's genius 
 
Beckford and Edgar Allen Poe. 135 
 
 and genius of no common order his undeniably 
 was. "Writing," says one of Beckford's most 
 celebrated critics, "has here done its utmost 
 for imagination. In that gloomy and mysterious 
 place are discovered the countless multitudes, 
 wandering in burning agony, each heart of flame 
 covered with the right hand, their eyes hollow, 
 gleaming phosporically, and sunk like the eyes 
 of those whom fever is gradually sucking up 
 the life-blood ; pallor upon the cheek and aridity 
 upon the lip, dreadfully contrasting with the 
 lascivious glances and dancing ; the piercing 
 shrieks of pain, and the tables of feasting and 
 rich perfumes ; raving madness and despair, with 
 hysterical joy ; melancholy with forced mirth ; all 
 suspicious of each other and solitary. Then we 
 have the grandeur of external description in the 
 person of Eblis, and the globe of fire for his 
 throne — Eblis thunder-blasted, noble-browed, 
 fair and yet terrible." Such are the character- 
 istics sketched by an able hand of one aspect of 
 Beckford's writing and genius. Do we not here 
 see the germs of that singular vein of fancy 
 which made Poe the author of such tales as 
 " The Masque of the Red Death, or the Cask of 
 Amontillado." 
 
 It has been our object here to comment on 
 certain striking points of similarity between the 
 genius and the nature of two equally extraordi- 
 nary men, rather than to give an exhaustive 
 criticism of either. The comparison may of 
 
/j6 The Beckfoi-d Family. 
 
 course be pushed too far, but up to a certain 
 point the analogy that we have suggested will 
 hold undeniably good. We believe we may even 
 go farther and say that the likeness between 
 Beckford and Poe was so striking that by looking 
 at both, the one becomes more the interpreter of 
 the other than if they are looked at singly. 
 In an essay entitled "The Poetic Principle" 
 usually prefixed to Poe's poems, occurs a passage 
 which further illustrates his intellectual kinship 
 to Beckford that we quote it here. Poe, it is 
 true, is speaking of the poet : let us substitute 
 for that one word the searcher after the beautiful, 
 and the extract might serve as a sign-post to 
 Beckford's theory of the beautiful. " He (the 
 poet) recognises the ambrosia which nourishes 
 his soul in the bright orbs that shine in heaven, 
 in the volutes of the flower, in the waving of the 
 grain-fields, in the slanting of tall eastern trees, 
 in the blue distance of mountains, in the 
 grasping of clouds, in the twinkling of half- 
 hidden brooks, in the gleaming of silver rivers, 
 in the repose of sequestered lakes, in the star- 
 mirroring depths of lonely wells." It would 
 have been interesting to have known what might 
 have been the verdict passed by the author of 
 Vathek on this passage. 
 
 Prominent features of Poe's nature are especi- 
 ally prominent in his metrical productions ; at 
 times he will revel in visions of splendour ; 
 at others he is led to dwell on tombs and 
 
Beckford and Edgar Allen Poe. ijy 
 
 epitaphs. But whatever be the nature of his 
 theme there is one thing which can never fail to 
 strike the reader — the essential unreality of the 
 poet. He wrote for effect : his despair does not 
 strike the keynote of true and real sorrow ; we 
 listen not to the utterance of a heart's agony ; we 
 are rather witnessing the theatrical effect of long- 
 continued study ; we are reminded of some 
 structure of exquisitely shaped crystals tinged 
 with a thousand prismatic hues, very beautiful to 
 look at, but which, in spite of their beauty, are 
 formal and hard. 
 
rj8 The Beckfotd Family. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 A Contemporary Tribute. 
 
 ^HE following tribute to the memory of 
 Mr. Beckford was written a few days 
 after his decease by a gentleman who was 
 privileged to be a confidential friend, and on 
 most intimate terms with him. 
 
 " A few particulars respecting this extra- 
 ordinary man, from one who, during the last five 
 years, had frequent access to him, may not for 
 the present moment be uninteresting. 
 
 " For nearly half-a- century Mr. Beckford had 
 withdrawn himself from society, and lived in a 
 state of voluntary seclusion, as complete as that of 
 one of the old hermits in the desert. ' Solitude,' 
 says Eamartine, in his account of L,ady Hester 
 Stanhope (a woman for whom, by the way, 
 Mr. B. had the greatest reverence), ' Solitude 
 concentrates and strengthens all the faculties of 
 the mind ; — prophets, saints, great men and 
 poets, have wonderfully understood this ; and 
 their dispositions naturally incline them to seek 
 for it in deserts, or to isolate themselves in the 
 
A Contemporary Tribute. ijg 
 
 midst of their fellow men.' This was the case 
 with Mr. Beckford. Few, with the exception of 
 his own family, and some people of talent, ever 
 approached him ; in truth, he was perfectly 
 inaccessible. 
 
 " It may well be questioned whether any 
 individual ever united greater knowledge and 
 taste in all the sister arts. Born with mental 
 powers superior to the generality of mankind, 
 these powers were early developed by the 
 fostering care of the first professors in the 
 kingdom : — Mozart was his music-master, Sir W. 
 Chambers instructed him in architecture ; and an 
 eminent painter of the day taught him the rudi- 
 ments of drawing. It will scarcely be believed, 
 that many justly admired airs were originally his 
 composition, and improved on by Mozart and 
 other great composers of the time. I have seen 
 drawings done nearly 70 years ago (sketches 
 from nature of Italian scenery), which for 
 correctness and delicacy would not have been 
 unworthy a regular artist. He designed almost 
 every building and piece of furniture that he 
 possessed. A few years ago an eminent architect 
 showed him a plan of a public building. After 
 the interview, he told me his astonishment at 
 Mr. Beckford's knowledge of the art. ' I should 
 have thought him,' said he, ' a regular architect ! 
 when he saw the ground plans, he told me in a 
 moment the intended size of all the apartments.' 
 
 "He understood thoroughly Greek, I/atin, 
 
i4° The Beckford Family. 
 
 French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic ; 
 and conversed in many of these languages. His 
 writings in French are so admirable in style and 
 idiom, that Vathek was long considered the work 
 of a Frenchman. The episodes of that singular 
 tale excited such curiosity in the mind of Lord 
 Byron, that he offered (though then in Italy) to 
 meet the author half-way, if Mr. Beckford would 
 gratify him with the perusal of the original 
 manuscript. He wrote poetry, in the energetic 
 and nervous manner of Milton ; and much of his 
 prose contains the very essence of poetry. 
 
 "His collection of pictures contained selec- 
 tions of the works of almost every painter of 
 eminence in all ages ; and his judgment, as to the 
 originality of pictures, was that of a regular 
 dealer, and not a mere connoisseur. 
 
 "His house was one vast library; and there 
 was scarcely a book that was not full of remarks 
 in his own writing. In conversing with him, it 
 was impossible to mention any work of repute 
 but he knew all about it, and could instantly tell 
 where it was in any part of the house. 
 
 " His conversation was full of anecdotes of the 
 great people and distinguished characters that 
 have flourished in the last century. You were 
 startled at stories about Voltaire, Mirabeau, 
 Neckar, Madame de Stael, Egalite, Madame 
 Beauharnais (afterwards Empress Josephine), 
 Gainsborough, West, Reynolds, and others of 
 note, with whom he was in habits of intimacy. 
 
A Contemporary Tribute. 141 
 
 Every tiling he uttered, if copied down, would 
 have read well ; his writings published were 
 exactly like his conversation. 
 
 " Mr. Beckford's taste in painting was formed 
 from contemplation of the glorious works of the 
 old masters. This correct taste disgusted him 
 with the daring eccentricities of the moderns ; 
 but he was not insensible to the genius of many 
 of our living artists. Of late years he had added 
 to his precious collection many of the works of 
 Roberts, Landseer, Etty, Lee, Barker, Cope, 
 Lance, and others ; and his death may be con- 
 sidered a loss to living art, for wherever he 
 observed genius he reverenced it. 
 
 " Such wasW. Beckford, Esq., whose daughter 
 is a mother in the princely house of Hamilton ; 
 and who, before he died, saw his grandson united 
 to the daughter of a sovereign German house, 
 the Princess Mary of Baden ; yet, in dress and 
 exterior so plain and unostentatious, that in the 
 streets of this polite city he might have passed 
 for a country farmer. 
 
 " Many were the private liberalities of this 
 great man, but always administered with refine- 
 ment and sensibility. The last time I had the 
 pleasure of seeing him, I told him of the neces- 
 sitous state of a man of genius, whose works I 
 knew he admired. He listened without dis- 
 pleasure to the tale of suffering, and I had soon 
 after the satisfaction of hearing that the appeal 
 had not been. made in vain. 
 
142 The Beckford Family. 
 
 " By birth an aristocrat, he was liberal in 
 opinions ; and many times have I seen him burst 
 with indignation on hearing of some stretch of 
 arbitrary power which interfered with the hap- 
 piness of his fellow men. 
 
 " But, he is gone — for ever ; yet those who 
 knew anything of him, must confess with the 
 author of this imperfect sketch, that 
 
 ' He was a man, take him for all in all, 
 We shall not look upon his like again.' 
 
 " Bath, 16th May, 1844." 
 
Sir Isaac Pitman, 
 
 Founder of the Phonetic System of Shorthand. 
 
 Died in the Royal Crescent, Bath, Jan. 22, 1897 ; 
 
 aged 84 years. 
 
 His remains were taken to Woking and cremated, the 
 ashes returned to Bath and placed in an urn to be 
 deposited at the Swedenborgian Church, in Henry Street 
 near the Great Western Railway Station. 
 
 Page 142. 
 
Lecture by an Anglo-American. 143 
 
 LETTER 
 
 From the late Sir Isaac Pitman to the Compiler 
 (written in phonetic spelling). 
 
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144 The Beckfotd Family. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Beckford, "Vathek," Fonthiee. 
 
 A Lecture by Mr. Ben Pitman, at the School of 
 Design, Cincinnati, U.S., October, 1874. 
 
 [Mr. Ben Pitman, who in early life settled in 
 Cincinnati, is a brother of the late Sir Isaac 
 Pitman. Between Sir Isaac and the compiler 
 there existed nearly a life-long intimacy. ] 
 
 men have exercised a singular 
 influence in shaping my modes of 
 thought, and determining, to some ex- 
 tent the destiny of my life. Two are among 
 the illustrious living ; two are with the 
 glorified dead. Four men more unlike in 
 their tastes and lives, have scarcely lived in 
 modern times. They are only alike in that they 
 are souls of the finest quality. They are all men 
 whose lives are worth our knowing, and their 
 writings are worth our reading. They are 
 Beckford, Waterton, Ruskin, and Emerson. 
 Only a sort of personal interest justifies one in 
 placing Beckford with the rest. He was of the 
 
Wiiaiam Gregory, 
 
 (The Compiler,) 
 
 Born April 24, 181 7. 
 
 Paoe 143. 
 
Lecture by an Anglo-American. i<fj 
 
 earth, glorious but transient ; the others are of 
 the heavens, and their lives and teachings are 
 for all time. It is only in Beckford I wish to 
 interest you this morning. As long as I can. 
 remember, Beckford and his doings had an 
 absorbing interest for me. Stories of his great 
 wealth, his cultivated taste, the magnificence and 
 grandeur of his surroundings, and the mystical 
 seclusion of his life, lent a charm to this man's 
 existence. Not a boy of my acquaintance but 
 had honest faith in the current belief that 
 Beckford's income was a guinea a minute! 
 Beckford's residence during the last twenty years 
 of his life, was at Bath. When I was a young 
 man I served a short apprenticeship in the 
 office of an Architect at Bath, Mr. Lewis, who 
 was personally acquainted with Beckford, and 
 occasionally consulted him. Mr. Lewis and the 
 man who made Mr. Beckford's boots were the 
 only two persons I ever knew who actually saw 
 this mysterious personage. Mr. Lewis often told 
 me of Beckford's views of things, of his tastes 
 and eccentricities, or what appeared such to 
 ordinary folk. One instance I now recall, which 
 I remember accepting as evidence of my master's 
 confidence in his art judgment. A Gothic 
 church had just been completed in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Bath, and which I believe Mr. Lewis 
 had designed. One bright moonlight evening 
 Beckford rode down from Lansdown Hill, his 
 residence, attended as usual by his dwarf, to look 
 
 10 
 
146 The Beckford Family. 
 
 at the new church. When he came within 
 seeing distance he put spurs to his horse, 
 galloped at his utmost speed around the church, 
 and then shot off like an arrow. Mr. L,ewis 
 used to laugh at the thought of Beckford racing 
 around that church, followed by his dwarf, 
 perfectly satisfied, perhaps horrified, with half-a- 
 minute's examination of what had taken years to 
 build. 
 
 Beckford is known in art, history, and litera- 
 ture, as the builder of Fonthill Abbey, and 
 the Author of Vathek. Of lesser note, but of 
 greater interest, as showing the man, are his 
 letters from Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and his 
 " Recollections of his Excursion to the Monas- 
 teries of Alkobaka and Batalha." Beckford is 
 unique as an author, and unique in his contempt 
 for authorship. All he did savoured of the 
 marvellous, and showed a wonderful reserve of 
 power. He wrote the Oriental tale of Vathek 
 when he was twenty-two, at a single sitting of 
 three days and two nights. It, however, laid 
 him on his back with a fever. It was written in 
 French, and published anonymously, and its 
 idiom was so pure that for some time it was 
 regarded as the work of a Frenchman. His 
 letters from Italy, Spain, and Portugal, in 1780 
 to 1794, written to relatives, were not published 
 till 1835. They describe Furope under the old 
 regime, before the devastations and upsettings of 
 that arch-robber and disturber, Napoleon, and 
 
Lecture by an Anglo-American. 147 
 
 when, as Beckford puts it, Venice enjoyed her 
 submarine dungeons, France her Bastile, and 
 Spain her Inquisition. I have read Vathek many 
 times, and each time with added interest and 
 wonder. It is said to have impressed Byron's 
 youthful fancy; he said he esteemed it more 
 highly than Johnson's Rasselas. Christopher 
 North says of Vathek, that it is the finest of 
 Oriental romances, as Lalla Rookh is the 
 finest of Oriental poems. The American Cyclo- 
 paedia says, " Beckford published a satirical work 
 against artists." This must refer to a boyish 
 conceit of Beckford' s. While yet a youth he 
 used to be much amused with an old house- 
 keeper, who had a habit of edifying visitors with 
 descriptions of the paintings of old Fonthill, 
 mainly drawn from her own fertile imagination. 
 This seems to have suggested to Beckford the 
 idea of compiling and printing a catalogue of sup- 
 posititious painters, with their histories, equally 
 fanciful and grotesque. This he published at 
 the age of seventeen. It is said that the house- 
 keeper, with her young master's printed guide, 
 "The Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters" in 
 her hand, would descant on the merits of "Og 
 of Basan, and Waterslouch of Amsterdam, their 
 wives and Styles," all of which was received by 
 the country squires and their fair companions in 
 perfect faith. 
 
 It is in Beckford's Sketches from Italy that we 
 see most of the man. He was the richest com- 
 
148 The Beckford Family. 
 
 moner in England, with a yearly income of 
 ^100,000 — equal in purchasing power to about 
 half-a-million dollars of our money — a young 
 man of cultivated taste, acute sensibility, munifi- 
 cence, and genius. The great Earl of Chatham 
 stood sponsor at his baptism, and was adviser in 
 his early studies and training. William Pitt was 
 his companion, Mozart his music teacher, and 
 Voltaire patted him on the head in the way of a 
 blessing. He travelled with a retinue of thirty 
 people, numbers of fine horses, and a string of 
 carriages. His retinue included a cook, an artist, 
 a doctor, musicians and a savant to aid him in 
 his literary researches. His wealth and taste 
 gained him admission to any society he desired ; 
 indeed, he was sought by noble and royal folk ; 
 for this reason, his description of the old order 
 of things possesses a unique interest. 
 
 Mr. Pitman read extracts from Beckford's 
 works ; one describing a visit to the monastery 
 of Alkobaka, perhaps the greatest ecclesiastical 
 edifice in Portugal, possessing paintings, unique 
 tombs and fountains, where the monks lived in 
 pomp and splendour worthy of ecclesiastical 
 princes. Beckford and his friends were con- 
 ducted to the kitchen of the monastery by the 
 Abbot in his costume of High Almoner of 
 Portugal, that they might see the preparations 
 that had been made to regale them. 
 
 "The kitchen was worthy of a Vathek ! 
 Through the centre of the immense and nobly 
 
Lecture by an Anglo- American. 14Q 
 
 groined hall, not less than sixty feet in diameter, 
 ran a brisk rivulet of the clearest water, con- 
 taining every sort and size of the finest river 
 fish. On one side, loads of game and venison 
 were heaped up ; on the other vegetables and fruit 
 in endless variety. Beyond a long line of stores, 
 extended a row of ovens, and close to them hillocks 
 of wheaten flour, whiter than snow, rocks of 
 sugar, jars of the purest oil, and pastry in vast 
 abundance ; which a numerous tribe of lay 
 brothers, and their attendants, were rolling out; 
 and puffing up in a hundred different shapes, 
 singing all the while as blithely as larks in a 
 corn-field." 
 
 Ferguson, in his fine "History of Architecture," 
 says that to Beckford and Ruskin is mainly due 
 the modern revival in Gothic architecture and 
 art. Ruskin teaches because he cannot rest 
 without exposing wrong and falsehood, and 
 telling what he believes to be useful and true. 
 Beckford built purely for sensuous gratifi- 
 cation. 
 
 He had both taste and means, but was, I 
 imagine, utterly indifferent whether others were 
 benefited or inj ured thereby. Beckford inherited 
 the estate at Fonthill, which he enclosed with 
 nine miles of high brick wall to keep out 
 intruders. There stood the paternal mansion; 
 which he pulled down to build the magnificent 
 structure known as Fonthill Abbey. It was a 
 vast Gothic pile, more like a monastery or a 
 
ijo The Beckford Family. 
 
 cathedral than an Englishman's home, with a 
 tower 280 feet high. " This structure was like a 
 romance. On one occasion, when the tower was 
 pushing its crest toward heaven, an elevated part 
 of it caught fire and was destroyed. The sight 
 was sublime ; and we have heard that it was a 
 spectacle which the owner enjoyed with as much 
 composure as if the flames had not been devour- 
 ing what it would cost a fortune to repair. The 
 building was carried on by him with an energy 
 and enthusiasm of which duller minds can form 
 no conception. At one period every cart and 
 waggon in the district was pressed into the 
 service, though all the agricultural labour of the 
 country stood still. At another, even the Royal 
 works of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, were 
 abandoned, that 460 men might be employed 
 night and day on Fonthill Abbey. These men 
 relieved each other by regular watches ; and 
 during the longest and darkest nights of winter 
 the astonished traveller might see the tower 
 rising under their hands, the trowel and torch 
 being associated for that purpose." 
 
 During my brief apprenticeship I was never 
 tired of hearing the stories of two of the 
 carpenters who had worked at Fonthill. My 
 first impressions of the architecture and art 
 glories of the place were derived from their 
 descriptions, and I have to-day a vivid recollec- 
 tion of the massiveness of the oak gates which 
 led to the Abbey, the beauty of the joinery, the 
 
Lecture by an Anglo-American. 151 
 
 intricacy of the ponderous locks, and the 
 strength of the great brass hinges. 
 
 Chambers's Encyclopaedia, from which I read 
 the last extract, says: — "At Fonthill Beckford 
 lived in a style of Oriental luxury and vice." I 
 have reason to believe this to be untrue. Beckford 
 had too much sensibility to be vicious. When 
 he was 76 years of age, he told Cyrus Redding, 
 that he had never known a moment's ennui in 
 his life. Later than that he told Mr. Lewis 
 that if he lived till he was a hundred, he had 
 sufficient occupation to keep him busy and 
 happy. He was known again and again to 
 spend many midnight hours, quite alone, in 
 exploring and enjoying the interior of cathedrals 
 and other ghostly places. He died in 1844, 
 when he was 84 years of age, from a severe cold, 
 caught while on a journey to Paris to secure 
 some literary treasures then first offered for sale. 
 These are not the indications of a vicious life. 
 
 The seclusion and mystery of Beckford's life, 
 and the capricious and magnificent way in which 
 he indulged his tastes, seem to have misled 
 Byron into the belief that he had built a fairy 
 palace at Cintra, in the neighbourhood of Lisbon. 
 Byron refers to it in the First Canto of Childe 
 Harold : — 
 
 On sloping mounds, or in the vale beneath, 
 Are domes, where, whilom Kings did make repair ; 
 But now the wild flowers round them only 
 breathe : 
 
152 The Beckford Family. 
 
 Yet ruined splendour still is lingering there, 
 And yonder towers the Prince's palace fair, 
 There, thou, too, Vathek ! England's wealthiest 
 
 son, 
 Once formed thy Paradise, as not aware 
 When wanton wealth her mightiest deeds hath' 
 
 done, 
 Meek peace voluptuous lures was ever wont to 
 
 shun. 
 Appleton's Cyclopsedia states that Beckford 
 built a fairy palace at Cintra, but I find he did 
 not live there two years ; he may have occupied, 
 but did not build, a palace there. 
 
 In 1822 Fonthill was sold, and Beckford came 
 to live in Bath. He had lost two of his estates 
 in Jamaica, on which he had 1,500 slaves. He 
 sold the Abbey and a portion of his paintings, 
 gems of art and furniture, and the residence ; 
 yet a perfect mine of wealth he brought to the 
 house and to the tower he built on Lansdown 
 Hill, Bath. The Eondon Times in 1822, when 
 describing the sale at Fonthill, said, "He is 
 fortunate who finds a vacant chair within 20 
 miles of Fonthill, and the solitude of a private 
 apartment is a luxury which few can hope for ; " 
 — so intense was the desire of the nobility and 
 gentry of England to avail themselves of this 
 chance to see the interior and contents of this 
 fabulous pile. It was after the sale at Fonthill 
 that Beckford lived at Cintra ; he resided there 
 only while his residence at Bath was being com- 
 
Lecture by an Anglo- American. 153 
 
 pleted. In the Literary Gazette, 1822, Hazlitt 
 says : — " Fonthill Abbey, after being enveloped 
 in impenetrable mystery for a length of years, 
 has been unexpectedly thrown open to the 
 vulgar gaze, and has lost none of its reputation 
 for magnificence. . . Ships of pearl and seas 
 of amber are scarce a fable here, — a nautilus's 
 shell, surmounted with a gold triumph of 
 Neptune, tables of agate, cabinets of ebony and 
 precious stones, painted windows shedding a 
 gaudy crimson light, satin borders, marble 
 floors, cups made from single gems, and lamps 
 of solid gold, Chinese pagodas and Persian 
 tapestry, whatever is far-fetched and dear 
 bought, rich in the materials or rare and 
 difficult in the workmanship." 
 
 The Mechanics' Institute Library of this city 
 is rich in possessing the illustrated work on 
 Fonthill, containing coloured steel-plate views of 
 the exterior and interior. The Public Library 
 also possesses an original copy of Beckford's 
 "Sketches from Italy," with a fine steel portrait. 
 Beckford's is a face you will like to look at. He 
 was scarcely above the medium height, slender, 
 but well formed, with features indicating great 
 sensibility, sweetness and power. 
 
757 The Beck ford Family. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 °N concluding the Reminiscences of the 
 Beckford family the compiler will endea- 
 vour to " point a moral and adorn the tale" 
 \>y describing under three several aspects the 
 prominent features appertaining to both father 
 and son. 
 
 i . Their Political Proclivities. — The words 
 placed under the statue of Alderman Beckford, 
 and which may now be seen in the Guildhall, 
 London, testify to the admiration which was 
 called forth from his fellow-citizens, and the 
 gratitude which accompanied it. How very 
 different was the opinion formed of him by his 
 political opponents ! We find one satirical poet 
 alluding to what he had addressed to Royal ears 
 as "That senseless speech which Balaam's ass 
 might own." The invectives with which he was 
 assailed were both disgraceful and discreditable. 
 He has been represented as a noisy, vulgar 
 flatterer of Lord Chatham — a popular politician 
 affecting a warm sympathy with mobocracy and 
 noisy demagogues ; and in a modern history 
 even his pedigree is assailed. Such was the 
 
Conclusion. ijj 
 
 character given a century ago to a public 
 benefactor by political partisans. As it was in 
 the past so it is now, we have not to go far back 
 in our local history to find fervent politicians 
 assailing each other with equally bitter invectives. 
 The sins of the father are represented as having 
 descended to his off-spring — it is stated that 
 William Beckford, Esq., died unregretted, that 
 his death excited only a short-lived curiosity, 
 and added one more name to the list of selfish 
 misanthropes. During the time Mr. Beckford 
 was M.P, for Hindon and Wells he was in very 
 indifferent health, and when solicited by his old 
 constituency to again represent them he declined 
 by saying, " I should feel happy in again serving 
 my country, but on account of ill-health I can- 
 not." Both Mr. Beckford and his father belonged 
 to what was then known as the Whig, or popular 
 party in politics. That he had little admiration 
 for George III. may be surmised from the 
 following. In the Court Magazine for 1782 is an 
 account of Mr. Beckford joining in a country 
 dance with the daughter of Iyord North at St. 
 James on the Queen's birthday, in 1780; he was 
 then in his 22nd year. " I went to the levee just 
 after I^ord George Gordon's riots had occurred. 
 The military had just fired upon the mob — a 
 necessary step to put a stop to lawless plunder 
 and violence. I entered as the King came out of 
 his closet, the officer who commanded the troop 
 being immediately before me. As soon as the 
 
156 The Beckford Family. 
 
 King saw him he said, ' You peppered them well, 
 I hope — peppered them well — peppered them 
 well ! ' in his loud way. Everybody looked — the 
 levity of the remark struck the officer. Firing 
 even upon lawless mobs was then considered to 
 be justified only by self-evident necessity. ' I 
 hope your Majesty's troops will always do their 
 duty,' was the answer duly returned, with 
 a gravity which feelings less obtuse than the 
 King's must have felt to be a tacit reproof, as 
 many were killed." His Majesty is said to have 
 declared that he would lay down his crown 
 rather than acknowledge American indepen- 
 dence. Mr. Beckford's impression was that this 
 Royal obstinacy not only accelerated war with 
 America, but that the same influence had drawn 
 Pitt into the war with France. 
 
 Mr. Beckford appears to have been very jealous 
 of his father's reputation. "What chief magis- 
 trate of London, before or since my father, ever 
 gave a single entertainment at the Mansion 
 House which cost ten thousand pounds of his 
 own money ?" In this company were forty- nine 
 members of the House of Peers and a large 
 number of the House of Commons, who went 
 in procession to the festival. The Alderman 
 was at Westminster School with I^ords Mansfield 
 and Kinnoul. These three were dubbed "The 
 Triumvirate," being the best verse-makers in 
 the school. He acknowledges that his father 
 was a bad speaker, but able to write, and was a 
 
Conclusion. 757 
 
 very intrepid man. Feeling indignant at the 
 insult the King had put upon the city by 
 laughing when an address was presented, he 
 determined it should not pass unregarded. The 
 King was as much surprised as angry at the 
 rejoinder. Lord Chatham was too high-minded 
 for George III., who was a man of coarse feelings. 
 High-minded noblemen are not royal favourites. 
 The subjects must not touch the hem of the 
 royal robe. " I have seen," says Beckford, 
 " something of courts, both here and abroad. 
 There must be no competition with regality — all 
 must be prostrate to fatten upon its good things." 
 Mr. Beckford was perhaps the only living 
 individual who had a recollection of Lords 
 Chatham and Lyttelton as personal acquaint- 
 ances. Lord Camden, another of his father's 
 friends, survived till 1794. He often spoke with 
 feeling of the kindness these noble lords ex- 
 tended to him in his youth after his father was 
 no more. Lord Camden he called the " Cato of 
 the Bench ; " nothing could shake his integrity, 
 He voted for Lord Chatham's celebrated motion 
 in the House of Peers. The King took away 
 the seals from his conscience keeper for this. 
 The Bar behaved most honourably upon the 
 occasion. For some time no one would take 
 the seals. Mr. Yorke, who first accepted the 
 office, was seized with such remorse in conse- 
 quence that he put an end to his own life before 
 a peerage patent could be got ready for him. 
 
/5<? The Beckjord Family. 
 
 "Walpole," Beckford says, "hated me. I 
 began Fonthill two or three years before his 
 death. Mischief-making people annoyed him 
 by saying I intended to buy up all his nic- 
 nackery when he was dead. Some things I 
 might have wished to possess — a good deal I 
 would not have taken as a gift. The place was 
 a miserable child's box — a species of Gothic 
 mouse-trap — a reflection of Walpole's littleness. 
 I happened to be adding to the Fonthill col- 
 lection of pictures at the time, and was made a 
 bugbear of. Mrs. Damar and L,ord Waldegrave 
 may thank me for their legacy. My having his 
 playthings he could not tolerate, even in idea, 
 so he bequeathed them beyond my reach, as he 
 not improperly surmised. I was thirty-seven 
 when he died — mortals grope in the dark. He 
 built everything upon family honours and gossip 
 — his writings are portraits of himself. He 
 would have abused my heraldic emblazonments 
 at Fonthill. He was full of spleen. He would have 
 written and talked me and my buildings down to 
 the ground. Yet he affected the philosopher." 
 
 2. Mr. Beckford's Religious and Mortal Per- 
 ceptions. — Of Mr. Beckford the most charitable 
 inference we can draw from what his life has 
 revealed to us may be described in the words 
 of Pope — 
 " Slave to no sect, he took no private road, 
 
 But looked from Nature up to Nature's God." 
 One who knew him well says, " I had many 
 
Conclusion. ijg 
 
 conversations with him upon the subject of 
 religion, for he was rather fond of controversy. 
 I should say he was an orthodox Catholic." 
 That he regularly attended any place of worship 
 we have no record, but that he sometimes was 
 seen in a sanctuary we have local testimony. 
 He used to say, " What are forms ? The heart 
 is everything." The Rev. E. Neale in his 
 " Closing Scenes," second series, says, " Beck- 
 ford told me that Jay of Bath, whom he had 
 gone to hear incognito was one of the finest 
 preachers he had ever heard, and shewed me 
 his sermons ; and curious enough he had a 
 correspondence with the Rev. William Jay upon 
 the badness of the psalms and hymns used in 
 worship, considered as poetical compositions." 
 " Some," he says, " may consider this a matter 
 of no moment. One of the Popes said it was 
 blasphemous to submit the word of God to the 
 rules of grammatical composition. God should 
 have the best that can be offered in relation to 
 his worship. Church and chapel make sad work 
 of their psalmody." * In the Bath Herald, imme- 
 
 * About the year 1832, when politics were at fever heat 
 in Bath, Cyrus Redding attended public worship at 
 Argyle Chapel. The Rev. Mr. Jay (who was for 63 years 
 the minister) for the first time in his life introduced 
 politics into a sermon. I wrote a short letter in a Bath 
 paper and reproved it, " I hope not too violently." On 
 the following Sunday he apologised to his congregation 
 for the remarks he had made, and cast blame upon him- 
 self in a mode so honest and truly Christian that I almost 
 felt sorry that I had so prominently noticed it ; but then 
 I should not have had his virtuous recantation. 
 
ibo The Beckford Family. 
 
 diately after Mr. Beckford's decease, appeared 
 the following : — 
 
 " The Christian Contemplated. — A series of 
 sermons preached at Argyle Chapel and after- 
 wards published by Mr. Jay was perused with 
 much interest by Mr. Beckford, as appears from 
 his numerous notes written on its leaves, and 
 from which the following is extracted : — ' This 
 man's mind is no petty reservoir supplied him 
 by laborious pumpings — it is a clear, transparent 
 spring, flowing so freely as to impress the idea 
 of its being inexhaustible. In many of these 
 pages the stream of eloquence is so full, so rapid, 
 that we are fairly borne down and laid prostrate 
 at the feet of the preacher, whose arguments in 
 these moments appear as if they could not be 
 controverted, and we must yield to them. The 
 voice which calls us to look into ourselves and 
 prepare for judgment is too piercing, too power- 
 ful, to be resisted ; and we attempt for worldly 
 and sensual considerations to shut our ears in 
 vain.' Let the reader realize this and connect 
 with it the fact that the book he was perusing 
 was the composition of him who when a boy 
 was employed by Mr. Beckford with his father 
 as a stone mason on the buildings at Fonthill — 
 unconsciously declaring that he was himself a 
 learner from the eloquent piety and wisdom of 
 Mr. Jay." 
 
 Mr. Beckford regrets not having studied 
 astronomy — 
 
Rev. Wiiaiam Jay, 
 
 For 63 years Minister of Argyle Chapel, Bath. 
 
 At the age of 14 assisted his father in building Fonthill Abbey. 
 
 (From the Painting by Win. Jay Bolton.) 
 
Conclusion. 161 
 
 " Except what everybodj' knows of the stars I 
 know nothing. I wish I was better acquainted 
 with some of those distant worlds. Ten years 
 younger, and I would have built an observatory 
 on the point of Lansdown towards the Avon, 
 three hundred feet high, furnished it with in- 
 struments, and shut myself up till I was master 
 of the science. I am too old now — I must think 
 less of this planet — • 
 
 I<e cerf volante dont le ficelle casse, 
 Tourne en tombant tourne et tombe toujours ! 
 Ours is a miserable atom of creation— we and all 
 our solar system — amidst the many that dot and 
 sparkle along the infinity of space. How much 
 is to be discovered ! How few of these magnifi- 
 cent worlds will glasses ever enable man to see ? 
 What sort of people inhabit them ? Is life there 
 — death — original corruption, which Dr. Whitby 
 wrote so well against ? I lament my ignorance 
 of astronomy — I cannot learn it now — we do not 
 live half long enough to acquire the hornbook 
 of the studies life opens to us." 
 
 3. An Omnium Gatherum.— He had great 
 resources for the employment of his time ; he 
 had no time for " dawdling," as he called it ; he 
 told his friend Redding he never had a moment's 
 ennui in his life. To an acquaintance once made, 
 Mr. Beckford was unreserved, kind, and of a 
 feeling disposition. The most atrocious calum- 
 nies were heaped upon him, which he scorned ; 
 for he possessed untameable haughtiness of 
 
ibs The Beckjord Family. 
 
 spirit. Seldom gloomy, exceedingly sarcastic, 
 sometimes prejudiced but open to conviction, 
 he was admired and feared, to all which his 
 inaccessibility contributed. Yet a more kind- 
 hearted man never lived, for a spoiled child of 
 fortune. He gave away large sums, but would 
 not allow his name to appear in the subscription 
 list ; if the donor must be mentioned he would 
 have A. B. or C. D.* He refused even to receive 
 thanks. " When I give, I don't exchange the 
 gift for anyone's thanks," he used to say. He 
 was often played upon, but it made no difference 
 to his charity. His servants remained with him 
 from youth to age. His recollection and sight 
 were perfect to the last. He stooped but very 
 slightly after his eightieth year. When he was 
 eighty-three his horse ran away with him ; but 
 he contrived to sit firmly, and when he had 
 stopped the animal, coolly said to his man, 
 "Did you ever see anything so well done as 
 that ? " Jewels and costly articles of all kinds 
 lay in open drawers about his house, and being 
 told he might be robbed, he replied he knew all 
 
 * In one instance where he presented two hundred 
 pounds it was on the sole condition that it should be 
 placed on the subscription list as from A. B. To a young 
 man who showed considerable abilities as a scholar, a 
 total stranger, but who afterwards became a distinguished 
 professor, Mr. Beckford, upon hearing that his father 
 could not afford to send him to a university, presented 
 the necessary means unsolicited. It was seldom he 
 would permit his name to appear in the list of subscrip- 
 tions to a literary work. 
 
Conclusion. i63 
 
 his servants too well to fear that, and as to 
 burglars, " I am in no fear of them. All my 
 servants are great guns in their way, and I am a 
 prodigious large blunderbuss myself." One lot 
 of diamonds he had, unset. They lay loose in 
 an ancient tazza. These he named his " Cat 
 diamonds," because a relation of his, who kept 
 a number of cats, to which when a boy he pre- 
 tended to be very partial, bequeathed them to 
 him out of gratitude for his attention to her 
 favourite grimalkins. He abhorred the senseless 
 sport of fox-hunting, and killing tame deer with 
 savage hounds for mere amusement. " Can 
 there be anything more absurd than that men 
 or rather brutes, should occupy themselves in 
 this cruel manner?" He spoke of Magendie, 
 the celebrated French surgeon, and of surgical 
 experiments with strong reprehension. When 
 his old companion, his favourite spaniel, died, it 
 was buried near the tower, where a marble 
 monument was erected to mark the spot. 
 
 He bought Gibbons' Library at Lausanne 
 (about six thousand volumes) to amuse himself 
 when he passed that way. He shut himself up 
 for six weeks from early morning until night, 
 only now and then taking a ride. The people 
 thought him mad. He nearly read himself blind 
 there, and never used the library afterwards, but 
 gave it to his physician, Dr. Schall. 
 
 Mr. Beckford wrote, in 1783, a work full of 
 genius and talent, printed in quarto, entitled 
 
164 The Beckford Family. 
 
 " Dreams, waking thoughts, and incidents, in a 
 series of letters from various parts of Europe." 
 When printed it was suppressed from the absurd 
 fear of his friends that, from its imaginativeness, 
 when he went into Parliament they might think 
 he would not attend to solid business, and his 
 friends persuaded him to destroy the entire 
 edition, which was done. He wrote a short 
 burlesque entitled "A Catalogue of Books to be 
 sold by Maister Thomas Dibdin," while the 
 bibliomania prevailed. He read all works of 
 moment, but complained of the novels that 
 inundated society as destroying historical truth. 
 His general temperament seemed cheerful, 
 but was evidently, even in his age, that of one 
 who ran to excess in everything, and was 
 accustomed to have all he desired. Extremely 
 kind in friendship, he was implacable in his 
 resentments ; passionate, reserved by nature, 
 proud and impetuous on exciting occasions ; to 
 some all gentlemanly and frankness and affability, 
 to others distance and etiquette. In youth he 
 is said to have been remarkable for bashfulness. 
 Hence many opposite descriptions of his bearing 
 are given. He shaped his conduct after the 
 position of the party whom he addressed, having 
 a thorough knowledge of the world. He had a 
 great horror of meanness, particularly in pecuni- 
 ary matters, and always expressed his feeling on 
 the subject, no matter whom it concerned. He 
 was in consequence plundered by agents enor- 
 
Conclusion. 165 
 
 mously. He was willing, though many say not, 
 to oblige strangers with a sight of his buildings 
 and grounds, but was so overcome with applica- 
 tions and letters from all kinds of persons, as 
 well as impertinences, that he ordered his 
 steward to open and return all letters from 
 strangers that he and the steward did not think 
 of moment, giving him any of which the hand- 
 writing was identified. A trayful of letters was 
 sometimes taken in from the door in the morning. 
 He never refused permission to see his property 
 when the application came to him through one 
 of whom he had the slightest knowledge. He 
 would not tax his time merely to gratify idle 
 curiosity, and herein was scarcely to be blamed 
 when the extent of that curiosity was so con- 
 siderable and often so purposeless. 
 
 " Be to his faults a little blind, 
 Be to his virtues ever kind." 
 Rather of a slender and delicate, than an 
 athletic frame, he appeared a trifle above the 
 middle-height, dressed in a green coat with 
 cloth-covered buttons, a buff-coloured waistcoat, 
 breeches of the same colour as his coat, and 
 brown-topped boots, the fine cotton stocking 
 appearing just above them. His eyes were 
 small, acute and grey, but expressive; his 
 features indicating great intellectual power. On 
 the whole he appeared much as well-bred 
 gentlemen did of that date. By activity, tem- 
 perance, and care, more than all by spending as 
 
ibb The Beckford Family. 
 
 much time as possible in the open air, with 
 plenty of exercise, he had rendered himself 
 comparatively hale. It must be remembered 
 he did not spend the whole of his time in Bath ; 
 he had an establishment in Park Lane, London. 
 In the West End he was better known than in 
 Bath. He might be seen of a morning calling 
 upon a few old friends, entering a bookseller's 
 shop, often visiting Mr. Smith, in Eisle Street, 
 dealing for engravings, etc. After he had 
 entered his eighty-second year he was watched 
 by a friend who saw him riding through Hyde 
 Park, along the Edgware Road as far as the 
 West End, pull up his horse near the rural spot 
 opposite the entrance to what was once his 
 father's villa, and appeared lost in thought — in 
 association, perhaps, with by-gone years. Farther 
 on, half way up the hill to Hampstead, he was 
 more than once observed to stop and gaze over 
 the far-spread landscape beneath at the traces 
 of sunset, perhaps recalling the lines of Dante 
 which he had told his friend he had often quoted 
 on the same occasion in the southern countries 
 of Europe, beginning " Era gia l'ora " and 
 concluding with the beautiful reference to the 
 
 village chimes in Catholic lands, 
 
 Che paja '1 giorno pianger, che si muore. 
 
 Mr. Beckford's Fonthill Abbey and Lansdown 
 
 Tower have now been described, together with 
 
 his admiration of works of art and his love of 
 
 nature, his benevolence and humanity, his 
 
Conclusion. /6y 
 
 eccentricities and peregrinations, his foibles 
 and follies, his moral attributes and reflections, 
 how he lavished fabulous sums of money during 
 his life and died comparatively poor, and yet we 
 find his distribution of wealth did not meet with 
 universal approval, for the Rev. E. Neale asks — 
 
 " What hospital did he build, what asylum did 
 he endow ? What school did he originate, what 
 sanctuary did he raise ? What heathen error 
 did he seek to dissipate, what charity did he 
 munificently support, &c, &c." 
 
 This incongruity in man reminds us of Pascal's 
 sentiment — 
 
 " What a chimera is man ! What a confused 
 chaos ! What a subject of contradiction ! A 
 professed judge of all things, and yet a feeble 
 worm of the earth ! The great depository and 
 guardian of truth, and yet a mere huddle of 
 uncertainty ! Both the glory and the scandal 
 of the universe." 
 
 MR. BECKFORD'S POETICAL REMAINS 
 ( Inscribed in the album of the Grand Chartreuse.)* 
 
 " To orisons the midnight bell 
 Had toll'd each silent inmate from his cell ; 
 
 The hour was come to muse or pray, 
 Or work mysterious rites that shun the day ! 
 
 My steps some whispering influence led 
 Up to yon pine-clad mountain's gloomy head. 
 
 * Written when lie was 18 years of age. 
 
z68 The Beckford Family. 
 
 Hollow and deep the gust did blow, 
 And torrents dash into the vales below. 
 
 The summit high at length attained, 
 A moonlight chequered darkness round me 
 reign'd, 
 
 As fearful to my searching eye 
 A shadowy form glanced near, then flitted by ; 
 
 Anon before my face it stood — 
 A bearded figure, pale, in pensive mood. 
 
 Cold horror thrill'd me till it spoke 
 And accents faint the charm-held silence 
 broke, — 
 
 " L,one traveller, ere this region near 
 Say, did not whisperings strange arrest thine 
 ear? 
 
 My summons they to bid thee come, 
 Where sole the friend of Nature loves to roam. 
 
 Seven ages past, this drear abode 
 To solitude I sanctified and God ; 
 
 'Twas here, by love of wisdom brought, 
 Her truest lore, self-knowledge, first I sought : 
 
 Devoted here my worldly wealth 
 To win my chosen sons' immortal health ! 
 
 Mid these black woods and mountains steep, 
 Mid the wild horrors of yon desert deep, 
 
 Mid yawning caverns, watery dells, 
 Mid long sequestered aisles and peaceful cells, 
 
 No passions fell distract the mind, 
 To silence, nature, and herself resigned. 
 
 In these still mansions who shall bide ? 
 'Tis mine with Heaven's appointment to decide. 
 
Poetry. idg 
 
 But hither I invite not all, 
 Some want the will to come and some the call — 
 
 But all, mark now my parting voice, 
 Led on by chance, necessity or choice — 
 
 (Oh, with our genius fear to sport), 
 Sage lessons here may learn of high import. 
 
 Know silence is the nurse of truth ; — 
 Know temperance long retards the flight of 
 youth ; — 
 
 Learn hence how penitence and prayer, 
 Man's fallen race may happier worlds prepare ; — 
 
 Show mild demeanour, void of art, 
 And bear amidst the world the Hermit-heart ; 
 
 Farewell ! may Bruno's words prevail,' 
 He said, and sank into the misty vale." 
 
 The following is entitled a Prayer : — 
 
 " Like the low murmur of the secret stream, 
 
 Which through dark alders winds its shaded 
 way, 
 My suppliant voice is heard : Oh, do not deem 
 
 That in vain toys I throw my life away. 
 In the recesses of the forest vale, 
 
 On the wild mountain, on the verdant sod, 
 Where the fresh breezes of the morn prevail, 
 
 I wander lonely, communing with God. 
 When the faint sickness of a wounded heart 
 
 Creeps in cold shudderings through my sinking 
 frame 
 I turn to Thee — that holy peace impart 
 
 Which soothes the invokers of Thy awful name. 
 
i-jo The Beckford Family 
 
 O all-pervading Spirit — sacred beam ! 
 
 Parent of life and light ! Eternal power ! 
 Grant me, through obvious clouds, one transient 
 gleam 
 
 Of Thy bright essence in my dying hour." 
 
 The following striking lines embody some of 
 Mr. Beckford's views on Death and the Judgment : 
 THE EAST DAY. 
 " Dies islm, Dies illa ! " 
 Hark ! heard ye not that deep appalling sound ? 
 Tremble ! — for to the vex'd, the affrighted ground 
 Heaves strong in dread convulsion — streams of 
 
 fire 
 Burst from the vengeful sky — a voice of ire 
 Proclaims: "Ye guilty, wait your final doom : 
 No more the silence of the tomb 
 
 Shall screen your crimes, your frailties. Con- 
 science reigns, — 
 Earth needs no other sceptre ; — what remains 
 Beyond her fated limits, dare not tell ; — 
 Eternal Justice! — Judgment ! — Heaven! — Hell !" 
 
 On one side of the sarcophagus at Eansdown 
 Cemetery is the following inscription : — 
 William Beckford, 
 (Date of Fonthill, Wilts) 
 Died 2nd of May, 1844, 
 Aged 84. 
 With this quotation from Vathek — 
 
 " Enjoying humbly the most precious gift 
 of heaven to man — hope ! " 
 
Poetry. iyi 
 
 On the other side the same obituary followed 
 by these lines from the above prayer — 
 
 " Eternal Power ! 
 Grant me, through obvious clouds, one transient 
 
 gleam 
 Of thy bright essence in my dying hour." 
 
 He told Redding he had attempted to make 
 some verses on his favourite painting, the "St. 
 Catherine of Raphael" (now in the National 
 Gallery), and had failed. He feared he was 
 getting too old to write poetry any more. I 
 observed it was an inspiring theme, and he bade 
 me try it.* He wrote poetry with great excel- 
 lence, his mind was eminently poetical — he had 
 profound ideas upon the wisdom and goodness 
 of the Supreme Being ; these he sometimes 
 mingled with his enjoyments of picturesque 
 nature, his love of which was intense, seeing 
 all with a poet's eyes — the wilder the more 
 attractive. 
 
 The End. 
 
 * Redding did so and sent him the lines, in which he 
 made two emendations.