The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-10-08 00:00:00

.THE FONTHILL PROPERTY.

i • '

YII E AIL}IY.

..........

:Or; Saturday, at five o'clock in the evening, the
• exhibition of Foothill Abbey closed. The throng
of rompany.llueing•the whole day was prodigiolii.
Early even in the morning, the picture rooms were
suffocatingly .hot end crowded; snit; tor:hrd. the
• afternoon, notwithstanding a smart rain which came
nn, there was nothing like free ino., ig in any past
of the Abbey. No doubt a great deal more mousey
might hove been taken if the place had bees. kept
open longer.
The exhibition of 'Foothill, however, it over. and
no Tuesday the trade commences. An East India
merchant has-been down here, who offered to nue-
r hove mansiwn as it shunts and estates alto-
getturr. It appears, however, that his terms have
not been acceded to. Earl Grosvenor has, it is
said, offered three hundred thousand pounds for
she whole property, independeut of the rarities!
tint ,Ir. Beckford has refused !open with it for less
than three hundred and thirty thmirand pounds.
It is probable that his 1.M.614 will he the par-
. oiutser, as the licgocintion is still pending. Mrs.
I 'nuns is also spoken of as having heated fur the
property. upon a hich it is reported that she Inis a
. ronriderable mortgage. Whoever becomes the final
possessor, might, tiodouhtectly, to take the effects.
lt moat have required a whole life of opulence um'
of active taste/10 collect them.
Why does file. Beckford sett effects which he
seems to hove ro highly riled ?" is is question
which every body asks, dud many persons answer.
Some assert that he has been taken in by jobbers in
al articles winch he purchased at high piicer,
mind that in order to get rid of there, he has thrown
in some few things of sterling value. Now this
really is not the case.' By far the greater portion of
the effects are of massive and genuine richness. A
few of the pictures there are, indeed. in which lie
inny have been deceived. There is also too much
old-fsslitoiled chimpAreve ; some jsprimed articles
might be pointed out which must have hero
little less than :in encumbrance. But the cutiost-
lies in gold, silver, amber, sardoisyx, ivory, rock
crystal, soil el y , are, beyond all question, of con-
summate (scanty and great value, and form altoge-
llf f the choicest collection in this or perhaps any
sillier cottony. Others again say that his taste has
totigu-d itself in motets of this description, and
C:st. he is now more anxious about increaring
the 'limber of his books, and perfecting the
original design of the Abbey. than any thing else.
'Those, however, are perhaps more near the truth
who impute the sacrifice which Mr. Bet•kford has,
resolved to make, to hard stud inesorrible meet,-
• slily, rather than to ney mere exercise of volition.
'Every body is aware that the chief part of that
princely income which enabled loins to raise this
expensive edifice from the foundation, was de-
v:ved from hie paternal estates in the Weld In-
al es. Such was the wealth which those estates
at one time produced, th it it obtaiued for Ins
grandfather the distinction of bring considered
the richest pulij•ct in Europe. Fur the bast ten
vests tiny have tlecheed very materially, and se-
( veral of them have beets entirely lost through a de-
feet that lied been discovered im the title. The
original purchaser obtained there in the way tif man-
gier, and having foreclosed them in 211 untechnical
snootier, advantage has been Julien of the infor-
mality by the heirs of the mortgagees, and Mr.
Bvelcford has been dispossessed. The defence of
list title, sod the other consequences, involved him
iu lotwes and vast expense; lurid** which the reve-
sine from his unquestionable estates in those islands
• kr.: declined to kw; than the one-tenth of what it
formes ly was. These things. added to the deteriora-
tion of his landed property at hoots., the reduction
of rents, and the incalculable unpile of motley which
the Abbey, its superb furniture, and the improve-
ments of the extensive grounds around it, cost
were sufficient. it would seem, " to weigh a royal
merchant down." This is the most probable ac-
count of the business; sad indeed it is said in the
•sieighbourhood, that for the last six years the pro-
per/or of Funthill has beets 6. a distressed man."
• Certain it is tbat within that period lie curtailed his
establothmrtit considerably, and suspended the
'rooks which trete going uu its the earstera part of
the Abb-y.

Oe Fadsr the first divinnn of the 15111 reeiment of foot
'strived in lruilt from Hull, on than route to Marc:obit',
mad melt suursitug they departed.
HOUgairgielt..,;—Tlie coo thorn regiment of yeomanry ea.
alrv. wader the command of Li. iiiroant-Cohniel Wortley,
assembled here on Thursda, for six clays ultimo:4..
Monday 11a
.i r General Striving Elley aro ived in Castlelear,
and Impeeteil the 88th regiment quartered there.
Majoetenerat Sir John Elley ieviewerl the 3d royal vele.
ran battalion at Galway. yeete,iLry se'smight, and expressed
Wined( small pleased with tea regularity to the Commanding
Offieir,ll..iewenata-Culonel
it is sow m1(4.4140041 that la.id Comberinere, c.c.n.. who
Lae bees named fur some time as the sumemor of the late
Lietitesast•General Sir Sacittel A tichmoty, will et-tinnily go
is !Mood,' sod armunie the command of the forces in that
pet cf the Volt. d Kipcdorn.
A company of the 15th regiment of foot will arrive to-
. 'sorrow at Neweindle•ii tiller. Line, from Wohrerliatutpton,
tried from thence to Live. pool, where it will T.. 1 ire on Eri•
dry mai, the 11th, and tanbark with the first dmiairms of Its
corp.. fur Dublin, au the 14th instant. The 4d sad &1 divia
ems.' of this amps will not morels from Hull till the llth sand
11,h. and are mitered to arrive on the Nth tad 19th instead,
ii Manche's, r. _ .

One squadioa of the Bass will arrive at Yolk thin day
from Leeds.
A company of the 116th regiment of fast will arrive tai-thy
M Gaulle from Sumlnland.

Jostri Hume. Esq. M.P. arrived from Ber-
wick it the Turf Hotel, Newcastle, abobt eleven
o'clock on Tueerlay evening, sud left Oita place at
Brine on Wednesday morning, on his way to the
auuth. Had' lime been allowed to convene inert•
tog kir that porpme, we ore informed 11141 on
Athletes would have been presented to Mr. Huss,
by the Reformers of Newcastle. thanking him fur
in exertions in •behalf of the suffering people of
Englsnd, who have been impoverished by a proili-
b,ase waste and expenditore of the public money;
and praying his further exertions in the public
ruse to be directed to an investigation of the secu-
lar sffeirs of the Church Establniboacut, and par-
ticularly the tithing system, by which so large a
posterns of she national wealth and iv oh-
.i.• bed. Assn Chronicle.)