The mystery of England's most flamboyant building: Fonthill Abbey and its eccentric owner

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Now in the English estate of Fonthill-Gifford in Wiltshire there is a small four-story tower. A two-story wing directly adjoins it. Nothing out of the ordinary. But earlier this place was one of the most unusual houses ever built. Fonthill Abbey, better known as Beckford's Caprice, was a building of fantastic proportions. The most fascinating thing was not the structure itself, but its unusual creators. The amazing story of the creation and decline of the most eccentric building in England, further in the review.

Colossal structure

The central tower was simply dizzying in height! It was like a modern sixteen-story building. At the time, it was the tallest private house in England. Huge ten-meter front doors and giant fifteen-meter windows. The curtains for them were twenty meters long. There were many staircases inside the house, which were also impressive in size. The central corridor in the building was almost a hundred meters long.

Such an amazing building had an incredibly fascinating history of creation and the people behind this creation were no less interesting.

The richest son of England

William Beckford was fabulously rich. He was the sole heir to the Lord Mayor of London, one of the wealthiest aristocrats in England. He owned most of Jamaica. Thousands of black slaves worked on the vast plantations of the Beckfords. The Beckford family has been a monopolist in the sugar market in the West Indies for almost a century. When the boy was ten years old, his father died, leaving him a legacy of £ 1 million. This provided William with an annual income of £ 100,000. In those years, this was a fantastic amount.

The boy's mother did everything possible for him. She loved him madly and tried to make him get the best in this life. He had the most brilliant education, the most wonderful teachers. Mother persuaded Mozart himself to give William piano lessons. Royal architect Sir William Chambers taught him to draw. Lord Byron called Beckford "the richest son of England." The young man used all the advantages that wealth could give to the fullest.

The boy was promised a political career, but he was a person of a completely different kind. His godfather, a prominent politician Pitt Sr.was very unhappy with the young man. He wrote about him that he consists only of fire and air. Pitt hoped that over time, the proper measure of earth density would come to William and complete his character. These hopes were not destined to come true.

The young man was a gentle dreamer who loved nature and solitude. Since childhood, he wrote wonderful fantastic stories about meeting Pan in the forest, about Divas and Djinn who coiled from shreds of fog. The boy dreamed of how he swims with the Argonauts in search of the golden fleece. It has become a habit. Such was his characteristic state of mind. The young man with all his soul rejected light and politics. This did not interest him at all. His imagination attracted him. Later, he will write a magnificent novel, where he will tell all his incredible visions.

Loving Beckford

When William was twenty-four years old, he immediately got into two high-profile scandals. One concerned an affair with Louise Beckford, the wife of his cousin. The other is with a beautiful young man named William Courtney. He was the future ninth Earl of Devon, eight years younger. Rumor has it that Beckford seduced Courtney when he was only ten. In addition, he loved to arrange real orgies with the participation of his beloved Louise and his young lover.

One day Beckford found out that William has another lover. He was so angry that he burst into the room of the young man and lashed him with a whip. The guests came running to the noise. What he saw amazed the society. Courtney was in a shirt in a strange position, and Beckford was standing over him with a whip. William's reputation was hopelessly damaged and he literally had to flee the country.

Also a writer

Wiyam Beckford traveled a lot and finally did what he really liked. He wrote his most famous work at this time. It was a gothic novel called Vatek. As the author boasted, it took him only three days and two nights to write the work.

Beckford has written several other books during his writing career. Among them: "Dreams, waking thoughts and happenings" (1783), "Memoirs of outstanding artists" (1780) and "Letters from Italy with sketches of Spain and Portugal" (1834). All these works did not bring him fame. He became famous as an insanely eccentric and extravagant architect and collector.

Fantastic idea

Over the years of wandering, Beckford managed to marry Margaret Gordon. Unfortunately, the woman died three years later. Evil tongues said that William had a hand in this. Historians disagree about Beckford's relationship to his wife. Some believe that he really had something to do with her untimely death. Others, on the contrary, claim that he had deep love and tenderness for Margarita, grieving for her loss until the end of his days.

When William returned to England years later, he decided to build for himself the sensational Fonthill Abbey mansion. To this end, he hired the architect James Wyatt to design it. Wyatt had a reputation for being a rare talent.

James Wyatt was the son of a farmer. In his youth, he became interested in architecture. For six years he studied this specialty in Italy. There he managed to work as a draftsman under the guidance of the famous Italian artist Antonio Visentini. A young man once made measurements and drawings of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. At the same time, he lay with his back on the stairs, which were hung to the dome at a height of one hundred meters. There were no railings or cradles. When the young architect was twenty-four years old, he designed the Pantheon exhibition hall in London. Horace Walpole, historian and writer called it "the most beautiful building in England".

Despite his genius, James Wyatt was not a very decent man. The talented architect was an alcoholic. He was extremely forgetful and disorganized. During his tenure as inspector general, he constantly forgot about his duties. Once it even turned out that one employee had been with Wyatt on vacation for almost three years.

All Wyatt's shortcomings could not interfere with his relevance and popularity. He never refused clients. Due to the abundance of orders, the architect did not have the opportunity to devote the necessary amount of time to the needs of the clients. William had to learn this fully through his own bitter experience.

Construction of Fonthill Abbey began in 1796. Because of Wyatt's carelessness, Beckford had to personally supervise the construction work.

Beckford's favorite brainchild

Beckford hired half a thousand workers. They worked day and night. A little later, he brought the same amount. The people who were engaged in the construction of the new royal chambers at Windsor Castle, William seduced with the dispensing of ale. He commandeered all the carriages in the area to transport building materials. As compensation, Beckford himself delivered free coal and blankets to the poor when it was cold.

Wyatt has designed a truly fantastic mansion. A huge house with an octagonal tower in the center. The tower was so incredibly high that it collapsed twice. One day, Beckford ordered his workers to hurry up to prepare dinner in the new kitchen. Once everything was ready, the tower collapsed, burying the kitchen beneath it.

The house was just grandiose. Despite all its external splendor, it was rather gloomy and dark inside. Most of the building was not heated, and only a few candles lit the room. The bedrooms were like monastic cells. Some didn't even have windows. The master bedroom only had a single bed.

Beckford lived in this huge mansion all alone. He sat alone at a fifteen-meter table during lunch. Despite this, the servants cooked every day for twelve persons. William received guests only once at Christmas. Admiral Nelson and Lady Hamilton visited him. In order to preserve its privacy, a high fence was erected around the abbey, which was crowned with huge iron spikes.

Decline

The eccentric millionaire lived at Fonthill Abbey until 1822. Then it happened that he lost two of his sugar plantations in Jamaica. After that, Beckford was forced to sell his architectural brainchild. The mansion was not looked after. For three years, no repairs were made. In 1825, Fonthill Tower collapsed for the last time.

William Beckford moved to Bath. There he hired local architect Goodridge to build a new tower for him. She was much more modest in size, but also very impressive. Lansdowne Tower (or Beckford Tower) is still intact, unlike Fonthill Abbey.

If you are interested in the topic, read our article on how the secrets of the most fashionable landmark of the Enlightenment: the insane creation of the architectural genius Desert de Retz.