The Press. — London, England, 1858-12-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 25, 1858. type of the Englishman on horseback who figures in some of the popular pictures of the period.-1n 1791 he again went to Portugal, but the well-known book on the Monasteries of Alobaca and 13atalha, published in 1835, is the only record of his stay. Back at Fonthill in 1796, he found sportsmen would come into his park, so he built a wall seven miles long and twelve feet high to exclude them. Within this inclosure he soon afterwards began the structure associated with his name. The old house at Fonthill, a pile of Palladian architecture, was spacious and splendid, but he fancied it damp. The plan of the new one was that of a cross, measuring two hundred and seventy feet from east to west, and three hundred and twelve feet from north to south. One limb of the cross shorter than the rest was occupied by a hall sixty-eight feet by twenty-eight ; tne others contained galleries, libraries, and private rooms. From the intersection rose an octagon tower to the height of two hundred and seventy-six feet. This was twice rebuilt, and, as everybody knows, fell down after all. Once it took fire, and the owner, standing " apart on a hill retired," pleased himself with watching the pile that blazed as if with the sacrifice of Carathis. Beckford's mother had died while the works were proceed ing, and he then paid a third visit to Portugal. During his absence the contractor laid the foun dation of the tower, but neglected to turn arches under it, though money had been paid for the purpose. Long after, when it had changed hands, a man who had been clerk of the works sent for Beckford to his death- bed, and confessed to him the fraud that had been practised. The comple tion of the house and park occupied many years, and in fact it was never entirely finished. The entire cost, exclusive of materials, was 273,000/. In December, 1800, he gave a magnificent noc turnal fitte, at which Nelson, and Sir William and the second Lady Hamilton, were present. Work men were impressed from all parts of the country, and the building was carried on by torchlight. Nothing was omitted which could enhance the effect of the preparations. A winding road, cut through the woods, conducted the company, to the tune of solemn marches from a military band, from the old mansion to the new. Suspended lamps and waving flambeaux cast a fitful light on the route, and threw the massive projections and deep recesses of the Abbey into unwonted effects of light and shade. Vast illuminated gal leries, where fictitious heraldic emblazonments darkened the windows, wearied the sight with their long perspective. The furniture was antique, ebony and ivory, and the food was solid and "Early English" in character. Chimneys piled with baskets of pine cones and armfuls of fir-branches threw the gleam of their odorous flames on sideboards loaded with massy gold and silver plate. Mysterious figures in hooded gowns— Lampadss igniferas manibns retinentis dextrin, Lumina nocturnis epulis ut suppeditentur,— stood in the angles of the staircases. Music from invisible hands behind crimson draperies woke sudden and startling strains. And after the ban quet the syren Emma deligthed the eye with one of the tableaux in which her husband's classical taste had carefully instructed her. Agrippina carried in a golden urn the ashes of Germanicus, and drew tears from some of the company by the extreme naturalness with which she appealed to the people, supplicated the gods, or wept over the young lady, taken from the audience, who repre sented her daughter. Just after these festivities the horizon of this Wiltshire Caliph was darkened by its first cloud. A West India estate, producing 12,000/. a year, was swept from hint by an adverse decree in Chancery; and the costs of the suit, combined with other minor embarrassments, and large defal cations through the agents who naturally battened on so rich a patron,:reduced his income by at least 30,0001. a year. Still, however, he went on build ing, improving, and collecting. Living entirely at Fonthill, and devoting himself to literature and art, his life was without events of any impor tance up to 1823, when he found his income so much reduced that he determined to part with the house, and go to live at Bath. Ten thousand copies of his catalogue were sold, but the choicest specimens of viral accompanied their owner to Lansdow•n, where he built a tower for them 'at the top of the hill, whence he amused himself with looking over the downs The particulars of the tour are recorded in his work " Italy and Spain " (1834), parts of which arc supposed to have been extracted from the earlier one composed during his first absence from England. The work is not by any means inaccessible, but our biographer, in accordance with his usual practice, has, by dint of extract and abridgment, made it stand him in good stead to the extent of fifty pages.—On Beckford's return to England, a great "coming-of-age" festival took place at Fonthill, lasting a week— three hundred people at dinner in the house, and the lawn covered with dependants and humbler guests—two booths full of county voters, two more full of borough constituents—about a thousand people in all ; illuminations, fireworks, a grand supper on Saturday, and on Sunday a sermon from the tutor (now emeritus) ; after which, " the company at dinner was reduced to " three tables." Plenty of money was spent on this occasion, of course; but what was any birth day feast to a youth who had just come into 1,000,0001. in ready money, and an income of 100,0001. a year ? After a presentation at Court, and a slight coruscation in the world of fashion, Beckford made a second tour in 1782, with a retinue which filled three carriages, and included an artist, a physician, a musician, and his former tutor ; so that in one part of Italy he was taken for the Emperor of Austria, and charged ac cordingly. " Vathek" seems to have been written about 1781 or 1782, and was preceded probably by another tale, called "Al Raoui," which came out sixteen years after. The author told Mr. Red ding in 1835 that he composed " Vathek " at one sitting, in French, in three days and two nights, during which he did not take off his clothes. Probably this was, in part, a vain statement of the writer. The story occupies 150 pages of the close t of the " Standard Novels," a quantity which it is difficult to imagine to have been pro duced in only sixty hours. A book called " Abdallah, les Aventures du Fils de Hand," &c. (Paris, 1723), seems to have furnished most of the supernatural machinery of the story, and rather diminishes the originality usually attached to it. Still it has a vigour and light ness which arc evidently Beckford's own, being ejusdem farinw with the " Letters from Italy and Spain." " Vathek" would never, indeed, create anything like the tragic impression of the Aga memnon, Macbeth, or Lear. It is too grotesque and extravagant to terrify even a very young reader. And the Voltarian humour and irony, good as they are, tend rather to impair the awfulness of the effect. The author's satiric genius could not help making sport even of his own creations; and Carathis, whose "taste for " dead bodies and everything like mummy is " decided," and who, on her doom overtaking her, " glanced off in a rapid whirl that rendered " her invisible, and continued to revolve without " intermission," is an image irresistibly ridicu lous. But the description of the never-resting crowd who thronged the hall of Eblis, " each as " if alone in a desert," and each holding the right hand over his heart, the receptacle of eter nal fire, is grand and original; and Tennyson seems to have been indebted to it for a striking line" in one of his most thoughful poems. Beckford's marriage to Lady Margaret Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Aboyne, took place on the sth May, 1783. He immediately set out with his bride for Switzerland, and remained there till her death, which occurred in childbirth four years afterwards. After travelling for a short time, and then spending a few months in England, he set out for Spain and Portugal. His travels there are, of course, abridged by our biographer from the author's vivacious into his own wretched style. He removes, however, one misconception. Beckford was supposed to have built a house at Montserrat, which Byron apostrophizes as the residence of " England s wealthiest son," and which a subse quent traveller, Wilde, describes as being in ruins. This is, literally, a mere château en Espagne, the only foundation for which was a house built in an imitation Gothic style by a Falmouth car penter, and hired by Beckford on his second visit. Returning to England via Paris, he witnessed the fall of the Bastile, and is said to be the proto- • Hollow .hades enclosing hearts of flame. —Polar,: qf Art. The whole conception of the poem a Pot porno that of more tottued and LloOthiau" Vathek." 1263 to his former residence. The biographer omits the well-known anecdote of his looking for it in vain one morning, and rubbing his eyes to make sure that it was really gone. lle also tells us that it fell so softly that Mr. Farquhar, the owner, though in the building at the time, was not aware of the accident ! a tale we must be excused for disbelieving.—At Bath, Beckford prolonged his library by throwing an arch over the street and joining the opposite house ; and clothed the whole of the hill in the rear up to the tower, with fruit, flowers, and terrace walks. To this domain he for the most part confined himself, living as retired as at Fonthill, with the same habits, but on a diminished scale : The inhabitants of the city in which lie resided knew as little about him as those of the metropolis. He was seen occasionally on horseback, with the late Duke of Hamilton , passing through the streets, but not more than halfa•doren persons, literary men and artists, were admitted to his acquaintance. His old porter at Fonthill, Pero, a dwarf, continued to be his porter at Bath. Ohl servants were still in his service, and strongly attached to him, as both his tenantry and domestics had been at Fonthill. Vincent, his gardener, between seventy anti eighty years of age, had planted Fonthill in the newer part. Accompanied by one, and sometimes two servants, he rode on horseback every day before dinner, not very regardful of the aspect of the weather. His course of life left little for the pen to detail. His health continued good nearly to the last. He usually took excellent care of himself, but riding one day during a chill east wind brought on a cold and fever, of which he died on the 2nd of May, 1844, aged eighty-four years and seven months. A superb funeral, witnessed by 20,000 spectators, conducted his remains to a polished granite sarcophagus, long destined to receive them, and bearing an inscription (partly from " Vathek"), —" Enjoying humbly ' the most precious gilt "of Heaven, Hope.'" In youth he had been very handsome, as we see from the portrait o f him by Reynolds, prefixed to his " Letters fro m Spain and Italy." He had delicate features, full lips, and a mass of wavy black hair. In later life he is thus described, vol. ii., p. 187 : ID person, he was not much above the middle height , well formed, and rather slender than full, with features indicating intellectual power, and small grey eyes of wonderful acuteness. His dress was almost uniformly a green coat with cloth buttons, a buff waistcoat, striped, breeches of the same colour as the coat, and brown topped boots, the tine cotton stocking appearing over them, much in the fashion of a gentlemen forty years before. His apprehension was quick, and his enunciation rapid. His voice was agreeable, his gesture energetic, especially when excited in conversation. -When silent or examining any thing, he placed his freckled fingers over his mouth. His bodily activity was that of a man of sixty when he was above eighty ; his face alone bore marks of age. He seldom sat down even when conversing, especially if particularly earnest. His manner was courteous and gentlemanly, while the impression produced on the mind of a stranger was decidedly that he was one out of the common run of individuals in the more refined ranks of life. A few traits of character are recorded in the close of this book. His temper was violent, and his sarcastic turn frequently and disagreeably in dulged ; but he could atone by lavish generosity for some of these ebullitions. His family pride induced him to quarrel with his daughter, who married Colonel Orde against his consent, and he refused to see her under subsequent distressing circumstances; but he was kind to animals, dis approved of fox-hunting, and buried his spaniel, whose death much affected his spirits, under a marble monument. His memory was unusually good, and he was proud of it, and liked to make other people acknowledge him in the right after all. In London he appears to have spent his time after a dilettante fashion, among print sellers, jewellers, and the like. He went to exhibitions occasionally, but hated everything like academic cliques. his biographers account of his intellectual qualities displays him as not much more than a trifler of first-rate elegance. He was certainly an excellent linguist, but the notes which he pencilled on the margins of his books arc mostly mere matters of antiquarian gossip, and the few reflections they contain are like weak imitations of Voltaire or Gibbon. It seems to be implied that he " waded " with some disgust (shared as usual by the biographer) through Blackstone; and he was much too proud to have anything to do with politics, because he could not do as he liked in acting with a party. For physical science none of the savants whom he met at Geneva seem to have given him any taste, and the lectures on experimental physics by M. D Epinasse he found only a bore. He seems to have had no appreciation of Dr. John son. Locke o On the Conduct of the Mind " was " a barren subject to him," nor doe; he semi