LIFE OF BECKFORD..

Trri3 marked incidents in the life of " Vathek, England's wealthi- est son," are not many, or in themselves striking. He was born in 1759, his father being the celebrated political Lord Mayor of the " Wilks and Liberty" times, whose statue stands in the London Guildhall, with a golden inscription from the celebrated answer to George the Third, when his Majesty snubbed the City remonstrance. The father died in 1770, leaving his son to the guardianship of Chatham, Iyttleton and Chancellor Bathurst, and they appear to have done their day so far as guardians can ;

• Memoirs of William Beckford of Foothill. Author of " vathek." to two vo- lumes. Published by Skeet. Mitp ;714 ff) Agif,404,0.9.1.014,44_4•filINITI 4%.

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he WrOte rdj4 je-,,M,4,494,44941' the gr,,ato: portio. n 4114 weddedlifswas ilass lua,,Switzerland. On the death of his wife in ebildbed in 1786, his mental constitution, this biographet intiinates, received a -sti6eK..from which lie never recovered. Next:year, however, he ,yiSitied Portu,a1 and Spain., of which in his Letters he give. SOme and lively pictures that by no means argue a inhait.prostrated by grief. For some years he wandered about, now at home,, now abroad; but on his mother's death" in 1798, be took up his residence. at Fonthill, where his la- vish outlay, his real seclusion, the mystery affected by himself or imagined 19y others, With the taste, the voluptuousness, the luxury of his life, exalted the public attention and stimulated its curiosity for years. Mlles7 however, are uncertain. The man -who on com- ing of age came into a,hundred thousand a year, including a mil-

lion of 'ready money;—the fruits of large family wealth and a long minority—found himself crippled at last. This was not the result of inere extravagance in the common acceptation of the term, but

of successive losses of income, without adequate retrenchment. A law-suit in Jamaica deprived him we are told of twelve thou- Sand per annum ; confidential agents cheated him ; the deprecia- tion of West India property, some thirty years ago, affected him as it affected others ;. and .as he continued his usual expenditure embarrassment of necessity ensued. It -was, however, - only thZ embarrassment of a Croosus. The gorgeous pile and its domain which gave the cognomen of Fonthill to its owner, had to be sold ; but the change was little more than a change of place' and a restrietion in the ground, from which he could exclude others. When Beckford withdrew to Bath he xeserved his most cherished books, and articles of vertu, with- some of -his most valuable furniture. His residence in Lansdown Crescent was as luxurious as his old home ; his grounds, though not so exten- sive as those. of Fonthill, were improved into equal richness or wildneallpi "Ineessantly employed, and determining,, upon a small scale, compared with Fenthilly to .make a paradise of the wild in the rear of his establish- ment, up to the very-summit of Lansdown, he purchased or leased the whole property for the distance of a mile on the side of the hill. Upon the hill summit he eresed a tower, in order to obtain a view over a vast extent of ceuntry, of which it would else have been impossible to gain a knowledge. * * • * In a few years he converted some fields, a stone quarry, and much rough ground, into pleasant walks and plantations, which he took great de-

light in eontinually improving. • •

"Never, on all hands, was there such a prodigality of fruitage of every variety.. The walls were in a blush with the warm tints of the peach and other wall fruit; glowiug freshly in the bright morning sun. The principal path was overlaid with glittering quartz. Here were long espaliers, that groaned beneath their precious products of apple and pear ; there huge pen- dent plums of all colours and sizes. The place seemed to be under the spell of enchantment."

. The sale of Fonthill Abbey and estate took place in 1823, and the name of Beckford, no longer kept alive by newspaper.para-

graphs, stories of persons who strove to " somehow" get inside his nine-mile wall, and the reputation of fabulous wealth, com- paratively declined. In 1834, it excited legitimate attention by the appearance of Letters descriptive of his travels half a cen-

tury before, a portion of -which had been privately printed not long after they were Written, but not published : their publication was soon followed by the Akan:co and Botalha. These two works gave a more solid and the prospect of a more enduring reputation to his name ; but his age, his habits, and the " mystery" about

him, precluded any directly personal effect. He died on the 2d

May 1844, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. With the excep- tion of some small legacies, he left his wealth to his daughter, the

Duchess of Hamilton. His personal property was sworn to as under eighty thousand pounds—he had purchased annuities. According to the biographer, who luxuriates in such matters, his funeral was " superb," which idea, it will be seen, he reiterates in brief space.

"The preparations for his funeral were upon the most superb scale. The tower ground,Where his sarcophagus stood ready, was not consecrated, as if

that were a thing of any moment compared to the express wish of the de-

ceased. It was therefore decided the funeral rites should take place in the cemetery at Lincombe, on the opposide side of Bath to his residence. The preparations were on the most superb scale. A chariot and four, with mutes, led the way, containing the clergyman who performed the service. Two carriages with domestics followed these, and then came the hearse drawn by

six horses; another carriage and six contained the Duke and Duchess of

Hamilton as chief mourners, with the Marquis of Douglas and Lady Lin- coln. Four chariots and four contained the Marquis of Huntley Lady Mar- garet Beckford'a brother, the Earl of Dunmore, the Honourable C. Murray, the Honourable Captain Murray, the Honourable K. S. MKenzie, and Mr. White, co-executor with the Duchess of Hamilton, Major Blathwayt, Mr.

Heaviside, Dr. Bowie, and several literary and scientific friends of the de- ceased. A number of private carriages followed, and not less than twenty thousand spectators."

Beckford's mode of life during early manhood may be pretty well.gathered from the Letters, entitled Italy, with Sketches of Spam and Portugal. His character for the same period may be

gleaned from the same source, so far as a man shows himself, in his writings, even to his intimates. He did not improve as he

advanced in life. The early buoyant spirits seem to have left Inns; the sprightly satire of his youth turned into a sour and contemptuous self-sufficiency; the easy indifferent good-nature Might Continue when it cost him nothing, but its expression tkiiiikati air ifthollitinaniAffl 41 Wafhle NO eiRitiE 1)0144 7.1n8difie "A'ar inVee '4% IficiTh4 vsmioltaig, if hilf) IP) lb h' .`ABfititikiie 'iii3e ikinit. haire

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- Whether tinder all the eireiirthitaciefsjWdra1e to lina4 any detailed life-of the author-of '-VraPhek' a1a1estion. II it were to be dime two things are intlis '-Tlie:' Midei should have every gnarantee that could the-Mit/Mae, city of What was advanced. The writer' t4hoald be equal especially in the critical powirr reqiiisite.to form a true mate of Ileekford, his career,- and the ciretunstances orthtittitib that :surrounded him. In 'both these requisites the lifinwirs deficient. The book is anonymous ; so that we miss' all sonal gearantee. Except Mr. Redding; kind Beeliford's own pub- lication, which are quoted prettylteely enough and mostly wall little biographical bearing, the references are scanty or nit, though seine of the anecdotes -or 'information is Of a .kind vihia , no living authority could knooiat first band. Take as aii-examge these particulars of young Beckford's tutor and tuthring. ' Wi> omit as much as we possibly can, though the quotation really supersedes criticism. The misspelling of Lord Lyttelton's name iS Mae among other Marks of 'hasty and slovenly etimposition. - -Clearer, afterwaide Bishop of St. Asaph, reioramerided-liis owls causin, the Reverend Mr.-Lettioe, to take upon himself the tlisk:Of 'Used& aation. The application to Dr. Cleaver to'recommend a tutor was made him.hy no lass a personage than the celebrated Lord Littleton, of Hagley. The instruction of a youth considered heir to one of the first lea-tunes in the kingdom, a Licit had yet nine or ten years to increase, his -father being recently dead, was au- undertaking of some consideration. The appoint- ment was three hundred a year; and Lord Littleton represented the pupil as possessing parts much above mediocrity:, and indeed of more than ordinary promise, With a•disposition peculiarly amiable. * • " Dr. Lattice was a man of considerable learniugand experience, between thirty wad forty years old, and the recommendation given of hint to Lord Littleton obtained him the appointment in the year 1771. His lordship in- troduced the new tutor to Mrs. Beckford himself, at her house in Wimpole Street, where for the first time the tutor met young Beckford. Lord Little!- ton came to meet him at dinner. Dr. Lettiee described his reception as polite and flattering, but was particularly struck with the elegance as well as vivacity of Lord Littleton's conversation' whom he described in terms much more striking than appear in any of the biographies of that accom-

plished and learned nobleman. • • • •

" At Fonthill, as in town, Mrs. Beckford having taken the advice of Lord Littleton as to the arrangements, seems to have acted with great kind- ness and consideration in all that related to the accommodation of the tutor, with a view both to his own convenience, and that of his pupil, that their studies might not be interrupted. It is probable that Mrs. Beckford had not forgotten the care and kindness her husband always exhibited to those who were the instructors of youth. She devoted a handsome breakfast- room, and bed-chamber, communicating with the library, and a footman, to the tutor's exclusive use, the same that had teen once occupied by the elder Beckford. The pupil was lodged near his mother's chamber, but the room

devoted to purposes of study was on the ground floor, spacious and airy. • • • "The system referred to in the education of young Beckford, was carried out with a ride for half an hour on horseback at seven in the morning."

This is the sort of mind which undertakes to judge of the career and character of a man almost as great a contrariety, and cer- tainly as great a puzzle as Pope's Wharton, or Dryden's Zimri, the second Villiers Duke of Buckingham. And this is by no means a solitary example. The spirit of the penny-a-liner, not to say of the flunkey, pervades the book. About the only gleam of criticism we have met with is on the question of the family pedi- gree. This the Heralds trace to Bekeford, meaning the ford of Beke, a village and manor existing before the Conquest ; but the biographer prefers beginning with Peter Beckford, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica in 1702, and seems to have made a vast fortune during the days when buccaneering, and pursuits of a like kind, were rife in that quarter. The subsequent pedigree from the biographer is a most bungling Rieee of display, though containing some necessary facts. The life of Lord Mayor Beek- ford is of a piece with all the rest of the book • but it indicates some truths that an abler hand might have developed effectively.