Fonthill Abbey

Fonthill Abbey — also known as Beckford's Folly — was a large Gothic revival country house built at the turn of the 19th century in Wiltshire, England, at the direction of William Thomas Beckford. It was constructed near the site of the Palladian house, later known as Fonthill Splendens, which was constructed by his father, William Beckford, to replace the Elizabethan house that Beckford "père" had purchased in 1744 and which had been destroyed by fire in 1755.

History

Fonthill Abbey was a brainchild of William Thomas Beckford, son of wealthy English plantation owner William Beckford and a student of architect Sir William Chambers. In 1771 when Beckford was ten years old, he inherited £1,000,000 (almost £320,000,000 in today's amounts) and an annual income which his contemporaries then estimated at around £100,000 (almost £32,000,000 in today's values) a year, a colossal amount at the time, but which biographers have found to be closer to half of that sum. The newspapers of the time described him as "the richest commoner in England".

He first met William Courtenay (Viscount Courtenay's 11 year old son), in 1778. A spectacular Christmas party lasting for three days was held for the boy at Fonthill. During this time, Beckford began writing "Vathek", his most famous novel. In 1784 Beckford was charged with sexual misconduct with William Courtenay. The allegations of misconduct remained unproven, despite being stirred up by Lord Loughborough, but the scandal was significant enough to require his exile.

Beckford chose exile in the company of his wife, née Lady Margaret Gordon, whom he grew to love deeply, but who died in childbirth when the couple had found refuge in Switzerland. Beckford travelled extensively after this tragedy - to France, repeatedly, to Germany, Italy, Spain and (the country he favoured above all), Portugal. Shunned by English society, he nevertheless decided to return to his native country; after enclosing the Fonthill estate in a six-mile long wall (high enough to prevent hunters from chasing foxes and hares on his property), this arch-romantic decided to have a Gothic cathedral built.

Construction

Construction of the abbey began 1795 in Beckford's estate near Hindon in Wiltshire, England. He hired James Wyatt as the leading architect, who can possibly be blamed for the building's failure due to his supposed lack of knowledge about vaulting and Gothic architecture in general. Over the protestations of his builders, Beckford decided that earlier foundations that had been made for a small summer house would suffice and decided to use faster materials like timber and cement — instead of more appropriate stone or brick. For years this was presumed to be the reason for the tower's collapse, until a Channel 4 documentary on the "Lost Buildings of Britain" conducted a radar survey of the site, proving that the building had substantial foundations going right down to the bedrock.

Beckford's 500 labourers worked in day and night shifts. He bribed 450 more from the building of the new royal apartments at Windsor Castle by increasing an ale ration to speed things up. He also commandeered all the wagons for transportation of building materials. To compensate, Beckford delivered free coal and blankets to the poor in cold weather.

The first part was the tower that reached about 90 metres (300 ft) before it collapsed. Beckford later said that he was sorry he could not see it fall himself. The new tower was finished six years later, again 90 metres tall. It collapsed as well. Beckford immediately started to build another one, this time with rock, and this work was finished in seven years.

Decorations

The abbey part was decorated with silver, gold, red and purple. Four long wings radiated from the octagonal central room. Front doors were 35 feet (10 m) tall. It was declared finished in 1813.

Use

Beckford lived alone in his abbey and used only one of its bedrooms for his own use. His kitchens prepared food for 12 every day although he always dined alone and sent other meals away afterwards. Only once, in 1800 did he entertain guests when Admiral Horatio Nelson and Lady Hamilton visited the Abbey.

Once he demanded that he would eat a Christmas dinner only if it would be served from new abbey kitchens and told his workmen to hurry. The kitchens collapsed as soon as the meal was over.

Beckford lived in Fonthill Abbey until 1822 when he lost two of his Jamaican sugar plantations in a legal action. He was forced to sell it and its contents for £330,000 to an ammunitions dealer, John Farquhar. The main tower collapsed for the last time in 1825. The rest of the abbey was later demolished. Only a gatehouse and a small remnant of the north wing remain to this day.

William Beckford died in 1844 in Bath, England.

External links

* [http://beckford.c18.net/wbfonthill.html The Fonthill Abbey section of a Beckfordiana website]
* [http://beckford.c18.net/rutterdelprelims.html An online fascisimile of an illustrated 1823 guidebook to Fonthill Abbey]
* [http://www.follies.btinternet.co.uk/fonthilltxt.html Fonthill on a site about follies]

References

* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9014044 Beckford, William. (2007), Encyclopædia Britannica.] Retrieved February 8, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.