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Updated: June 22, 2025
Perhaps the best thing Wyatt ever did was his architectural work in the foundations of this sham "abbey." The present Fonthill House has a small portion of Wyatt's building incorporated with it. It was erected by the Marquis of Westminster in 1859 and is in the Scottish Baronial style.
The great "lion" of this district was the famous and extraordinary Fonthill Abbey, an amazing erection in sham Gothic, built by Wyatt, that "infamous dispoiler, misnamed architect" to the order of the eccentric author of Vathek William Beckford, heir of a wealthy London merchant who was twice Lord Mayor and died a millionaire.
I have scarcely ever witnessed a more furious tempest; the thunder and lightning were fearful, and I pushed my horse to his utmost speed to reach Fonthill before the torrents of rain drenched me to the skin.
The chief spring discharges one hundred and twenty-eight gallons a minute. While a hundred years ago Bath was at the height of its celebrity, the German spas have since diverted part of the stream of visitors. It was at Bath that Pitt and Sheridan lived, but its most eccentric resident was William Beckford, the author of Vathek, who came to Bath from Fonthill, not far from Salisbury.
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"Neither his genius nor his fortune yielded what they would have produced to a wiser and better man. . . . Hardly any other man has produced such masterpieces with so little effort." He was the author of "Vathek," an Oriental romance, and other works. He was an enthusiastic collector, and he made Fonthill, where he lived in later life in eccentric seclusion, a complete museum.
Allen was at that time residing. Here he remained about a month; and in returning to town made a short tour, in the course of which he inspected the collections of art at Storehead, Fonthill, Wilton House, the Cathedral of Salisbury, and the Earl of Radnor's seat at Longford. At Reading he staid some time with his half-brother, Mr. Thomas West, the eldest son of his father.
His father, a London alderman, owned Fonthill, and died in 1770, leaving his son William, aged ten, with $5,000,000 ready money and $500,000 annual income. He wrote Vathek in early life after extensive travels, but founded its scenes and characters upon places and people at Fonthill.
He moved into a more commodious house at 64 Harley Street. During this year he exhibited pictures of Caernarvon Castle and the "Fifth Plague of Egypt;" also fine views of Fonthill Abbey, the new palace of Beckford, with whom he spent much time. The only portrait for which Turner ever sat was painted in 1800 by George Dance.
"I turned toward the shore, groaning; dragged my bruised and aching limbs along the ledge of jagged rocks, through the masses of drift-wood; and finally reached the shore, where I sank down exhausted, and ready to die. "I will not lengthen out the gloomy picture. At last I rose, looked around, and with bent head and cowering frame, stole away through the woods toward Fonthill.
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