ENGLISH ECCENTRICS.
PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON
[Illustration: THE EARL OF BRIDGEWATER AND HIS DOGS.]
ENGLISH ECCENTRICS AND
ECCENTRICITIES
BY
JOHN TIMBS
AUTHOR OF 'CLUBS AND CLUB LIFE IN LONDON' ETC.
[Illustration]
A NEW EDITION
WITH 48 ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1898
_PREFACE._
Gentle Reader, a few words before we introduce you to our ECCENTRICS.
They may be odd company: yet how often do we find eccentricity in the
minds of persons of good understanding. Their sayings and doings, it
is true, may not rank as high among the delicacies of intellectual
epicures as the Strasburg pies among the dishes described in the
_Almanach des Gourmands_; but they possess attractions in proportion to
the degree in which "man favours wonders." Swift has remarked, that "a
little grain of the romance is no ill ingredient to preserve and exalt
the dignity of human nature, without which it is apt to degenerate
into everything that is sordid, vicious, and low." Into the latter
extremes Eccentricity is occasionally apt to run, somewhat like certain
fermenting liquors which cannot be checked in their acidifying courses.
Into such headlong excesses our Eccentrics rarely stray; and one of
our objects in sketching their ways, is to show that with oddity of
character may co-exist much goodness of heart; and your strange fellow,
though, according to the lexicographer, he be outlandish, odd, queer,
and eccentric, may possess claims to our notice which the man who is
ever studying the fitness of things would not so readily present.
Many books of character have been published which have recorded the
acts, sayings, and fortunes of Eccentrics. The instances in the present
Work are, for the most part, drawn _from our own time_, so as to
present points of novelty which could not so reasonably be expected in
portraits of older date. They are motley-minded and grotesque in many
instances; and from their rare accidents may be gathered many a lesson
of thrift, as well as many a scene of humour to laugh at; while some
realize the well-remembered couplet or the near alliance of wits to
madness.
A glance at the Table of Contents and the Index to this volume will, it
is hoped, convey a fair idea of the number and variety of characters
and incidents to be found in this gallery of ENGLISH ECCENTRICS.
It should be added, that in the preparation of this Work, the Author
has availed himself of the most trustworthy materials for the staple
of his narratives, which, in certain cases, he has preferred giving
_ipsissimis verbis_ of his authorities to "re-writing" them, as it is
termed; a process which rarely adds to the veracity of story-telling,
but, on the other hand, often gives a colour to the incidents which
the original narrator never intended to convey. The object has been to
render the book truthful as well as entertaining.
JOHN TIMBS.
_CONTENTS._
WEALTH AND FASHION.
PAGE
_The Beckfords and Fonthill_ 1
_Alderman Beckford's Monument Speech in Guildhall_ 19
_Beau Brummel_ 22
_Sir Lumley Skeffington, Bart_ 36
_"Romeo" Coates_ 41
_Abraham Newland_ 44
_The Spendthrift Squire of Halston, John Mytton_ 48
_Lord Petersham_ 55
_The King and Queen of the Sandwich Islands_ 57
_Sir Edward Dering's Luckless Courtship_ 59
_Gretna-Green Marriages_ 63
_The Agapemone, or Abode of Love_ 68
_Singular Scotch Ladies_ 70
_Mrs. Bond, of Hackney_ 72
_John Ward, the Hackney Miser_ 74
"_Poor Man of Mutton_" 76
_Lord Kenyon's Parsimony_ 77
_Mary Moser, the Flower-Painter_ 78
_The Eccentric Miss Banks_ 80
_Thomas Cooke, the Miser of Pentonville_ 82
_Thomas Cooke, the Turkey Merchant_ 87
_"Lady Lewson," of Clerkenwell_ 89
_Profits of Dust-sifting and Dust-heaps_ 92
_Sir John Dinely, Bart._ 95
_The Rothschilds_ 96
_A Legacy of Half-a-Million of Money_ 99
_Eccentricities of the Earl of Bridgewater_ 103
_The Denisons, and the Conyngham Family_ 105
"_Dog Jennings_" 107
_Baron Ward's Remarkable Career_ 109
_A Costly House-Warming_ 112
_Devonshire Eccentrics_ 113
_Hannah Snell, the Female Soldier_ 116
_Lady Archer_ 122
DELUSIONS, IMPOSTURES, AND FANATIC
MISSIONS.
_Modern Alchemists_ 124
_Jack Adams, the Astrologer_ 130
_The Woman-hating Cavendish_ 132
_Modern Astrology.--"Witch Pickles"_ 136
_Hannah Green; or, "Ling Bob"_ 139
_Oddities of Lady Hester Stanhope_ 141
_Hermits and Eremitical Life_ 145
_The Recluses of Llangollen_ 155
_Snuff-taking Legacies_ 158
_Burial Bequests_ 159
_Burials on Box Hill and Leith Hill_ 163
_Jeremy Bentham's Bequest of his Remains_ 166
_The Marquis of Anglesey's Leg_ 169
_The Cottle Church_ 171
_Horace Walpole's Chattels saved by a Talisman_ 174
_Norwood Gipsies_ 177
"_Cunning Mary," of Clerkenwell_ 179
"_Jerusalem Whalley_" 181
_Father Mathew and the Temperance Movement_ 182
_Eccentric Preachers_ 184
_Irving a Millenarian_ 187
_A Trio of Fanatics_ 189
_The Spenceans_ 197
_Joanna Southcote, and the Coming of Shiloh_ 198
_The Founder of Mormonism_ 210
_Huntington, the Preacher_ 219
_Amen--Peter Isnell_ 231
_Strangely Eccentric, yet Sane_ 232
_Strange Hallucination_ 236
"_Corner Memory Thompson_" 238
_Mummy of a Manchester Lady_ 239
_Hypochondriasis_ 240
STRANGE SIGHTS AND SPORTING SCENES.
"_The Wonder of all the Wonders that the World ever
Wondered at_" 243
"_The Princess Caraboo_" 246
_Fat Folks.--Lambert and Bright_ 249
_A Cure for Corpulence_ 256
_Epitaphs on Fat Folks_ 257
_Count Boruwlaski, the Polish Dwarf_ 258
_The Irish Giant_ 270
_Birth Extraordinary_ 271
_William Hutton's "Strong Woman_" 274
_Wildman and his Bees_ 276
_Lord Stowell's Love of Sight-seeing_ 277
_John Day and Fairlop Fair_ 280
_A Princely Hoax_ 283
_Sir John Waters's Escape_ 285
_Colonel Mackinnon's Practical Joking_ 287
_A Gourmand Physician_ 288
_Dick England, the Gambler_ 290
_Brighton Races, Thirty Years since_ 292
_Colonel Mellish_ 294
_Doncaster Eccentrics_ 296
"_Walking Stewart_" 300
_Youthful Days of the Hon. Grantley Berkeley_ 304
_What became of the Seven Dials_ 310
_An Old Bailey Character_ 312
_Bone and Shell Exhibition_ 317
"_Quid Rides?_" 318
"_Bolton Trotters_" 319
_Eccentric Lord Coleraine_ 321
_Eccentric Travellers_ 323
_Elegy on a Geologist_ 328
ECCENTRIC ARTISTS.
_Gilray and his Caricatures_ 330
_William Blake, Painter and Poet_ 339
_Nollekens, the Sculptor_ 350
THEATRICAL FOLKS.
_The Young Roscius_ 363
_Hardham's "No. 37_" 368
_Rare Criticism_ 370
_The O. P. Riot_ 371
_Origin of "Paul Pry_" 372
_Mrs. Garrick_ 374
_Mathews, a Spanish Ambassador_ 378
_Grimaldi, the Clown_ 382
_Munden's Last Performance_ 387
_Oddities of Dowton_ 389
_Liston in Tragedy_ 391
_Boyhood of Edmund Kean_ 398
_A Mysterious Parcel_ 400
_Masquerade Incident_ 402
_Mr. T. P. Cooke in Melodrama and Pantomime_ 404
"_Romeo and Juliet" in America_ 407
_The Mulberries, a Shakspearian Club_ 408
_Colley Cibber's Daughter_ 410
_An Eccentric Love-Passage_ 413
_True to the Text_ 415
MEN OF LETTERS.
_Monk Lewis_ 417
_Porson's Eccentricities_ 425
_Parriana: Oddities of Dr. Parr_ 435
_Oddities of John Horne Tooke_ 444
_Mr. Canning's Humour_ 451
_Peter Pindar.--Dr. Wolcot_ 460
_The Author of "Dr. Syntax"_ 472
_Mrs. Radcliffe and the Critics_ 475
_Cool Sir James Mackintosh_ 478
_Eccentricities of Cobbett_ 481
_Heber, the Book-Collector_ 485
_Sir John Soane Lampooned_ 488
_Extraordinary Calculators_ 490
_Charles Lamb's Cottage at Islington_ 494
_Thomas Hood_ 497
_A Witty Archbishop_ 504
_Literary Madmen_ 508
_A Perpetual-Motion Seeker_ 513
_The Romantic Duchess of Newcastle_ 516
_Sources of Laughter_ 520
CONVIVIAL ECCENTRICITIES.
_Busby's Folly and Bull Feather Hall_ 525
_Old Islington Taverns_ 526
_The Oyster and Parched-Pea Club_ 529
_A Manchester Punch-House_ 530
"_The Blue Key_" 533
_Brandy in Tea_ 534
"_The Wooden Spoon_" 535
_A Tipsy Village_ 535
_What an Epicure Eats in his Life-Time_ 536
_Epitaph on Dr. William Maginn_ 538
_Greenwich Dinners_ 539
_Lord Pembroke's Port Wine_ 540
_A Tremendous Bowl of Punch_ 541
MISCELLANEA.
_Long Sir Thomas Robinson_ 542
_Lord Chesterfield's Will_ 542
_An Odd Family_ 543
_An Eccentric Host_ 544
_Quackery Successful_ 545
_The Grateful Footpad_ 546
_A Notoriety of the Temple_ 546
_A Ride in a Sedan_ 548
_Mr. John Scott (Lord Eldon) in Parliament_ 549
_A Chancery Jeu-d'Esprit_ 551
_Hanging by Compact_ 553
_The Ambassador Floored_ 553
"_The Dutch Mail_" 554
_Bad Spelling_ 556
_A "Single Conspirator_" 559
_A Miscalculation_ 560
_An Indiscriminate Collector_ 561
_The Bishops' Saturday Night_ 563
"_Rather than Otherwise_" 564
_Classic Soup Distribution_ 565
_Alphabet Single Rhymed_ 565
_Non Sequitur and Therefore_ 566
[Illustration]
_LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS._
PAGE
"Vathek" _Beckford. From a Medallion_ 1
_John Farquhar surveying the Ruins of Fonthill_ 21
_Beau Brummel. From a Miniature_ 22
_Lord Alvanley. A Pillar of White's_ 27
_Beau Brummel in Retirement at Calais_ 35
_Sir Lumley Skeffington in a_ "Jean de Brie" 36
_Sir Lumley Skeffington, as dressed for the
"Birthday Ball_" 40
_Robert Coates, the Amateur of Fashion, as "Romeo_" 41
_Squire Mytton of Halston on his Bear_ 48
_Lord Petersham; a noble Aide-de-Camp_ 55
_The Eccentric Miss Banks, an Old Maid on a Journey_ 80
_The First Rothschild--a well-known Character on
'Change_ 96
_Hannah Snell, the Female Soldier_ 116
_Lady Archer, Enamelling at her Toilet_ 122
_The Alchemist_ 124
_Jack Adams, the Astrologer_ 130
_A Hermit of the Sixteenth Century_ 145
_Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Mary Ponsonby, the
Recluses of Llangollen_ 156
_Major Peter Labelliere, a Christian Patriot_ 163
_Margaret Finch, the Norwood Gipsy_ 177
_Edward Irving, the Millenarian_ 184
_Joanna Southcote_ 198
_Facsimile of Autograph with Seal of the Elect_ 209
_William Huntington, the Converted Coalheaver_ 219
_The pretended Princess Caraboo_ 246
_Count Boruwlaski, the Polish Dwarf, in Disgrace
with his Wife_ 259
_The Prince Regent, a Back View_ 284
_Colonel Mellish and Buckle his Agent_ 294
_Curtis, an Old-Bailey Character_ 312
_Corder, the Murderer of Maria Martin_ 316
_Lord Coleraine, keeping an Apple Stall_ 321
_Nollekens, the Sculptor. From J. T. Smith's Life_ 350
_Master Betty, the "Young Roscius", as "Norval_" 363
_Mrs. Garrick in her Youth_ 374
_Charles Mathews the Elder_ 378
_Joe Grimaldi as Clown_ 382
_Liston as "Paul Pry"_ 391
_Edmund Kean as "Richard III._" 398
_T. P. Cooke in "Black Eyed Susan"_ 404
_Charlotte Charke, Colley Cibber's Daughter_ 411
_M. G. Lewis, Author of "the Monk_" 417
_Professor Porson_ 425
_Dr. Parr_ 435
_William Cobbett, Peter Porcupine and the_
"Political Register" 481
_Jedediah Buxton, the Calculator_ 490
_Lamb's Cottage, Colebrook Row_ 495
_Margaret Lucas, Duchess of Newcastle_ 516
_Lord Eldon (John Scott)_ 549
ENGLISH ECCENTRICS.
_WEALTH and FASHION._
[Illustration: "Vathek" Beckford.]
The Beckfords and Fonthill.
The histories of the Beckfords, father and son, present several points
of eccentricity, although in very different spheres. William Beckford,
the father, was famed for his great wealth, which chiefly consisted
of large estates in Jamaica; and the estate of Fonthill, near Hindon,
Wilts. He was Alderman of Billingsgate Ward, London, and a violent
political partisan with whom the great Lord Chatham maintained a
correspondence to keep alive his influence in the City. When Beckford
opposed Sir Francis Delaval to contest the borough of Shaftesbury, the
latter said--
Art thou the man whom men famed Beckford call?
To which Beckford replied--
Art thou the much more famous Delaval?=
Alderman Beckford died on the 21st of June, 1770, in his second
mayoralty, within a month after his famous exhibition at Court, when,
after presenting a City Address to George III., and having received
his Majesty's answer, he was said to have made the reply which may be
read on his monument in Guildhall, but which he never uttered. The day
before Beckford died, Chatham forced himself into the house in Soho
Square (now the House of Charity), and got away all the letters he had
written to the demagogue Alderman. His house at Fonthill, with pictures
and furniture to a great value, was burnt down in 1755. The Alderman
was then in London, and on being informed of the catastrophe, he took
out his pocket-book and began to write, and on being asked what he was
doing, he coolly replied, 'Only calculating the expense of rebuilding
it. Oh! I have an odd fifty thousand pounds in a drawer, I will build
it up again; it won't be above a thousand pounds each to my different
children.' The house was rebuilt.
The Alderman had several natural sons, to each of whom he left a
legacy of 5,000_l._; but the bulk of his property went to his son
by his wife, who was then a boy ten years old, and is said to have
thus come into a million of ready money, and a revenue exceeding
100,000_l._ Three years later, Lord Chatham, who was his godfather,
thus describes him to his own son William Pitt--"Little Beckford is
just as much compounded of the elements of air and fire as he was. A
due proportion of terrestrial solidity will I trust come and make him
perfect." The promise which his liveliness and precocity had given,
was fulfilled by a _jeu-d'esprit_, written by him in his seventeenth
year. This was a small work published in 1780, entitled _Biographical
Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters_, and originated as follows. The old
mansion at Fonthill contained a fine collection of paintings, which
the housekeeper was directed to show to applicants; but she often
told descriptions of the painters and the pictures, which were very
ludicrous. Young Beckford, therefore, to methodize and assist the
housekeeper's memory, wrote their lives, which she received from her
youthful master as matters-of-fact. Thus, after descanting on Gerard
Douw, she would add the particulars of that artist's patience and
industry in expending four or five hours in painting a broomstick.
There were other extravagancies which she believed; a few copies of the
book were printed to confirm her belief; hence the book is very rare.
Beckford, in after-life, spoke of it as his _Blunderbussiana_. It was,
in fact, a satire upon certain living artists, and the common slang of
connoisseurship.
Young Mr. Beckford had been educated at home: he was quick and lively,
and had literary tastes; he had a great passion for genealogy and
heraldry, and studied Oriental literature. He had visited Paris, and
mixed in the society of that capital, in 1778, when he met Voltaire,
who gave him his blessing. He had fine taste for music, and had been
taught to play the pianoforte by Mozart.
Mr. Beckford travelled and resided abroad until his twenty-second
year, when he wrote in French _Vathek_,[1] a work of startling beauty.
More than fifty years afterwards he told Mr. Cyrus Redding that he
wrote _Vathek_ at one sitting. "It took me," he said, "three days and
two nights of hard labour. I never took off my clothes the whole time.
This severe application made me very ill.... Old Fonthill had a very
ample loud echoing hall--one of the largest in the kingdom. Numerous
doors led from it into different parts of the house through dim,
winding passages. It was from that I introduced the Hall--the idea of
the Hall of Eblis being generated by my own. My imagination magnified
and coloured it with the Eastern character. All the females in _Vathek_
were portraits of those in the domestic establishment of old Fonthill,
their fancied good or ill qualities being exaggerated to suit my
purpose." An English translation of the work afterwards appeared, the
author of which Beckford said he never knew; he thought it tolerably
well done.
[1] _Vathek_ was dramatised by the Hon. Mrs. Norton some thirty
years since, and was offered to Mr. Bunn for Drury Lane Theatre,
but declined; the "exquisite beauties of Mrs. Norton's metrical
compositions being overloaded by a pressure of dialogue and a
redundancy of scenic effects, the fidelity and rapid succession
of which it would have puzzled any scene painter or mechanist to
follow."--_Bunn's Stage_, vol ii., p. 139.
At twenty-four, Mr. Beckford married the Lady Margaret Gordon, daughter
of Charles, fourth Earl of Aboyne, but the lady died in three years.
In 1784 he was returned to Parliament for Wells; in 1790 he sat for
Hindon; but in 1794 he accepted the Chiltern Hundreds, and again went
abroad. He now fixed himself in Portugal, where he purchased an estate
near Cintra, and built the sumptuous mansion, the decoration and
desolation of which some years afterwards Lord Byron described in the
first canto of his _Childe Harold_, in the stanza beginning--
There thou too, Vathek! England's wealthiest son,
Once form'd thy Paradise, as not aware
When wanton Wealth her mightiest deeds hath done,
Meek Peace voluptuous lures was ever wont to shun.
Here didst thou dwell, here schemes of pleasure plan,
Beneath yon mountain's ever beauteous brow:
But now, as if a thing unblest by man,
Thy fairy dwelling is as lone as thou!
Here giant woods a passage scarce allow
To halls deserted, portals gaping wide:
Fresh lessons to the thinking bosom, how
Vain are pleasaunces on earth supplied;
Swept into wrecks anon by Time's ungentle tide!
Many years after, Mr. Beckford published his Travels, one volume of
which was _An Excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha_. Of
the kitchen of the magnificent Alcobaça, he gives the following glowing
picture:--"Through the centre of the immense and groined hall, not less
than sixty feet in diameter, ran a brisk rivulet of the clearest water,
flowing through pierced wooden reservoirs, containing every sort and
size of the finest river-fish. On one side, loads of game and venison
were heaped up; on the other, vegetables and fruit in endless variety.
Beyond a long line of stoves extended a row of ovens, and close to them
hillocks of wheaten flour whiter than snow, rocks of sugar, jars of
the purest oil, and pastry in vast abundance, which a numerous tribe
of lay-brothers and their attendants were rolling out and puffing up
into a hundred different shapes, singing all the while as blithely as
larks in a cornfield!" The banquet is described as including "exquisite
sausages, potted lampreys, strange messes from the Brazils, and others
still more strange from China (_viz._ birds'-nests and sharks'-fins)
dressed after the latest mode of Macao, by a Chinese lay-brother.
Confectionery and fruits were out of the question here; they awaited
the party in an adjoining still more sumptuous and spacious saloon, to
which they retired from the effluvia of viands and sauces." On another
occasion, by aid of Mr. Beckford's cook, the party sat down to "one of
the most delicious banquets ever vouchased a mortal on this side of
Mahomet's paradise. The _macédoine_ was perfection, the ortolans and
quails lumps of celestial fatness, the _sautés_ and _bechamels_ beyond
praise; and a certain truffle-cream was so exquisite, that the Lord
Abbot piously gave thanks for it."
Mr. Beckford returned to England in 1795, and occupied himself with
the embellishment of his house at Fonthill. Meanwhile, he had studied
Ecclesiastical Architecture, which induced him to commence building
the third house at Fonthill, considering the second too near a piece
of water. In 1801, the superb furniture was sold by auction; when the
furniture of the Turkish room, which had cost 4,000_l._, realized only
740 guineas. Next year there was a sale in London of the proprietor's
pictures. In 1807 the mansion was mostly taken down, when the materials
were sold for 10,000_l._; one wing was left standing, which was
subsequently sold to Mr. Morrison, M.P., who added to it, and adapted
it for a country seat.
These proceedings were, however, only preliminary to the commencement
of a much more magnificent collection of books, pictures, curiosities,
rarities, bijouterie, and other products of art and ingenuity, to
be placed in the new "Fonthill Abbey," built in a showy monastic
style. Mr. Beckford shrouded his architectural proceedings in the
profoundest mystery: he was haughty and reserved; and because some of
his neighbours followed game into his grounds, he had a wall twelve
feet high and seven miles long built round his home estate, in order
to shut out the world. This was guarded by projecting railings on the
top, in the manner of _chevaux-de-frise_. Large and strong double gates
were provided in this wall, at the different roads of entrance, and at
these gates were stationed persons who had strict orders not to admit a
stranger.
The building of the Abbey was a sort of romance. A vast number of
mechanics and labourers were employed to advance the works with
rapidity, and a new hamlet was built to accommodate the workmen. All
round was activity and energy, whilst the growing edifice, as the
scaffolding and walls were raised above the surrounding trees, excited
the curiosity of the passing tourist, as well as the villagers. It
appears that Mr. Beckford pursued the objects of his wishes, whatever
they were, not coolly and considerately like most other men, but with
all the enthusiasm of passion. No sooner did he decide upon any point
than he had it carried into immediate execution, whatever might be the
cost. After the building was commenced, he was so impatient to get
it furnished, that he kept regular relays of men at work night and
day, including Sundays, supplying them liberally with ale and spirits
while they were at work; and when anything was completed which gave
him particular pleasure, adding an extra 5_l._ or 10_l._ to be spent
in drink. The first tower, the height of which from the ground was 400
feet, was built of wood, in order to see its effect; this was then
taken down, and the same form put up in wood covered with cement. This
fell down, and the tower was built a third time on the same foundation
with brick and stone. The foundation of the tower was originally that
of a small summer-house, to which Mr. Beckford was making additions,
when the idea of the Abbey occurred to him; and this idea he was so
impatient to realize, that he would not wait to remove the summer-house
to make a proper foundation for the tower, but carried it up on
the walls already standing, and this with the worst description of
materials and workmanship, while it was mostly built by men in a state
of intoxication.
To raise the public surprise and afford new scope for speculation, a
novel scene was presented in the works in the winter of 1800, when in
November and December nearly 500 men were employed day and night to
expedite the works, by torch and lamp-light, in time for the reception
of Lord Nelson and Sir William and Lady Hamilton, who were entertained
here by Mr. Beckford with extraordinary magnificence, on December
20, 1800. On one occasion, while the tower was building, an elevated
part of it caught fire and was destroyed; the sight was sublime, and
was enjoyed by Mr. Beckford. This was soon rebuilt. At one period,
every cart and waggon in the district were pressed into the service;
at another, the works at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, were abandoned
that 400 men might be employed night and day on Fonthill Abbey. These
men relieved each other by regular watches, and during the longest and
darkest nights of winter it was a strange sight to see the tower rising
under their hands, the trowel and the torch being associated for that
purpose. This Mr. Beckford was fond of contemplating. He is represented
as surveying from an eminence the works thus expedited, the busy bevy
of the masons, the dancing lights and their strange effects upon the
wood and architecture below, and feasting his sense with this display
of almost superhuman exertion.
Upon one memorable occasion Mr. Beckford was willing to run the risk of
spoiling a good dinner, in order to show that nothing possible to man
was impossible to him. He had sworn by his beloved St. Anthony, that
he would have his Christmas dinner cooked in the new Abbey kitchen.
The time was short, the work was severe, for much remained to be done.
Still, Beckford had said it, and it must be done. So every exertion
that money could command was brought to bear. The apartment, indeed,
was finished by the Christmas morning, but the bricks had not time
to settle readily into their places, the beams were not thoroughly
secured, the mortar, which was to keep the walls together, had not
dried. However, Beckford had invoked the blessed St. Anthony, and he
would not depart from it. The fire was lit, the splendid repast was
cooked, the servants were carrying the dishes through the long passages
into the dining-room, when the kitchen itself fell in with a loud
crash; but it was not a misfortune of any consequence; no person was
injured, the master had kept his word, and he had money enough to build
another kitchen.
Mr. Loudon, in 1835, collected at Fonthill some curious evidence in
confirmation of his idea that Mr. Beckford's enjoyments consisted of
a succession of violent impulses. Thus, when he wished a new walk to
be cut in the woods, or work of any kind to be done, he used to say
nothing about it in the way of preparation, but merely give orders,
perhaps late in the afternoon, that it should be cleared out and in a
perfect state by the following morning at the time he came out to take
his ride, and the whole strength of the village was then put upon the
work, and employed during the night and next day, when Mr. Beckford
came to inspect what was done; if he was pleased with it he used to
give a 5_l._ or 10_l._ note to the men who had been employed, to drink,
besides, of course, paying their wages, which were always liberal. His
charities were performed in the same capricious manner. Suddenly he
would order a hundred pairs of blankets to be purchased and given away;
or all the firs to be cut out of an extensive plantation, and all the
poor who chose to take them away were permitted to do so, provided it
were done in one night. He was also known to suddenly order all the
waggons and carts that could be procured to be sent off for coal to be
distributed among the poor.
Mr. Beckford seldom rode out beyond his gates, but when he did he was
generally asked for charity by the poor people. Sometimes he used to
throw a one-pound note or a guinea to them; or he would turn round and
give the supplicants a severe horse-whipping. When the last was the
case, soon after he had ridden away, he generally sent back a guinea
or two to the persons whom he had whipped. In his mode of life at
Fonthill he had many singularities: though he never had any society,
yet his table was laid every day in the most splendid style. He was
known to give orders for a dinner for twelve persons and to sit down
alone to it, attended by twelve servants in full dress; yet he would
eat only of one dish, and send the rest away. There were no bells at
Fonthill, with the exception of one room, occupied occasionally by Mr.
Beckford's daughter, the Duchess of Hamilton. The servants used to
wait by turns in the ante-rooms to the apartments which Mr. Beckford
occupied; they were very small and low in the ceiling. He led almost
the life of a hermit within the walls of the Fonthill estate; here he
could luxuriate within his sumptuous home, or ride for miles on his
lawns, and through forest and mountain woods,--amid dressed parterres
of the pleasure-garden, or the wild scenery of nature. This garden, the
vast woods, and a wild lake, abounded with game, and the choristers
of the forest, which were not only left undisturbed by the gun, but
were fed and encouraged by the lord of the soil and his long retinue
of servants. A widower, and without any family at home, Mr. Beckford
resided at the Abbey for more than twenty years, ever active, and
constantly occupied in reading, music, and the converse of a choice
circle of friends, or in directing workmen in the erection of the
Abbey, which had been in progress since the year 1798.
About the year 1822 his restless spirit required a change; besides
which his fortunes received a shock from which they never recovered. He
now purchased two houses in Lansdown Crescent, Bath, with a large tract
of land adjoining, and removed thither. The property at Fonthill was
then placed at the disposal of Mr. Christie, who prepared a catalogue
for the sale of the estate, the Abbey, and its gorgeous contents. The
place was made an exhibition of in the summer of 1822: the price of
admission was one guinea for each person, and 7,200 tickets were sold:
thousands flocked to Fonthill; but at the close of the summer, instead
of a sale on the premises, the whole was bought in one lot by Mr.
Farquhar, it was understood, for the sum of 350,000_l._ Mr. Beckford's
outlay upon the property had been, according to his own account, about
273,000_l._, scattered over sixteen or eighteen years. The reason he
assigned for disposing of the property was the reduction of his income
by a decree of the Court of Chancery, which had deprived him of two
of his Jamaica estates. "You may imagine their importance," he added,
"when I tell you that there were 1,500 slaves upon them."
Mr. Farquhar, the purchaser of the property, was an old miser who had
amassed an immense fortune in India. By the advice of Mr. Phillips, the
auctioneer, of Bond Street, in the following year another exhibition
was made of Fonthill and its treasures, to which articles were added,
and the whole sold as genuine property; the tickets of admission were
half-a-guinea each, the price of the catalogues 12_s._, and the sale
lasted thirty-seven days.
In December, 1825, the tower at Fonthill, which had been hastily built
and not long finished, fell with a tremendous crash, destroying the
hall, the octagon, and other parts of the buildings. Mr. Farquhar,
with his nephew's family, had taken the precaution of removing to the
northern wing: the tower was above 260 feet high.
Mr. Loudon, when at Fonthill in 1835, collected some interesting
particulars of this catastrophe. He describes the manner in which
the tower fell as somewhat remarkable. It had given indications of
insecurity for some time; the warning was taken, and the more valuable
parts of the windows and other articles were removed.
Mr. Farquhar, however, who then resided in one angle of the building,
and who was in a very infirm state of health, could not be brought to
believe there was any danger. He was wheeled out in his chair on the
front lawn about half an hour before the tower fell; and though he had
seen the cracks and the deviation of the centre from the perpendicular,
he treated the idea of its coming down as ridiculous. He was carried
back to his room, and the tower fell almost immediately. From the
manner in which it fell, from the lightness of the materials of which
it was constructed, neither Mr. Farquhar, nor the servants who were
in the kitchen preparing dinner, knew that it had fallen, though the
immense collection of dust which rose into the atmosphere had assembled
almost all the inhabitants of the village, and had given the alarm
even as far as Wardour Castle. Only one man (who died in 1833) saw
the tower fall; it first sank perpendicularly and slowly, and then
burst and spread over the roofs of the adjoining wings on every side.
The cloud of dust was enormous, so as completely to darken the air
for a considerable distance around for several minutes. Such was the
concussion in the interior of the building, that one man was forced
along a passage as if he had been in an air-gun to the distance of
30 feet, among dust so thick as to be felt. Another person, on the
outside, was, in like manner, carried to some distance; fortunately,
no one was seriously injured. With all this, it is almost incredible
that neither Mr. Farquhar, nor the servants in the kitchen, should
have heard the tower fall, or known that it had fallen, till they saw
through the window the people of the village who had assembled to see
the ruins. Mr. Farquhar, it is said, could scarcely be convinced that
the tower was down, and when he was so he said he was glad of it, for
that now the house was not too large for him to live in. Mr. Beckford,
when told at Bath by his servant that the tower had fallen, merely
observed, that it had made an obeisance to Mr. Farquhar which it had
never done to him.
One of the last things which Mr. Beckford did, after having sold
Fonthill, and ordered horses to be put to his carriage to leave the
place for ever, was to mount his pony, ride round with his gardener,
to give directions for various alterations and improvements which he
wished to have executed. On returning to the house, his carriage being
ready, he stepped into it, and never afterwards visited Fonthill.
Though Mr. Beckford had spent immense sums of money there, it is
said, on good authority, 1,600,000_l._, it did not appear that he had
at all raised the character of the working classes: the effect was
directly the reverse; the men were sunk, past recovery, in habits of
drunkenness; and when Mr. Loudon visited Fonthill, there were only two
or three of the village labourers alive who had been employed in the
Abbey works.
We now follow Mr. Beckford to Bath, where he was storing his twin
houses with some of the choicest articles from his old libraries and
cabinets; was forming and creating new gardens, with hot-houses and
conservatories, on the steep and rocky slope of Lansdown. On its summit
he built a lofty tower, which commands a vast extent of prospect. A
street intervened between the two houses, but they were soon united by
a flying gallery. One of these houses was fitted up for Mr. Beckford's
residence, and here he lived luxuriously; the splendour and state of
Fonthill being followed here on a smaller scale. In his wine-cellars he
had a portion of the nineteen pipes of the fine Malmsey Madeira, which
his father, Alderman Beckford, had bought. The merchant who imported
them offered them to Queen Charlotte, who could only purchase one, as
the price was so great; the Fonthill Crœsus, however, purchased the
remainder of the cargo.
The new proprietor of Fonthill was a very different man from Mr.
Beckford. Born in Aberdeen, Mr. John Farquhar, like many of his
countrymen, started in early life to seek his fortune in India. The
interest of some relatives procured him a cadetship in the service
of the East India Company, on the Bombay establishment; there the
young Scotsman had the certainty of slowly but steadily rising in
position, and should health be left to him, of enjoying a reputable and
independent competency. He, however, received a dangerous wound in the
leg, which first caused a painful and constant lameness, and soon after
led to general derangement of his health, and even danger to life
itself. He now obtained leave to remove to Bengal, partly in hopes of a
more salubrious climate, but chiefly in search of that medical talent
which was likely to be most abundant at the chief seat of Government.
Settled in Bengal, he obtained the advice of the best physicians. He
also studied chemistry and medicine; and it was before long generally
said that the sickly cadet who was so attached to chemical experiments,
was well fitted to be sent into the interior of the country, where
was a large manufactory of gunpowder established by the Government,
but which was unsuccessful. The shrewd Scotsman took charge of the
mill, henceforth the powder was faultless; and shortly after Farquhar
became the sole contractor for the Government. The Governor-General,
Warren Hastings, reposed much confidence in Farquhar; and this, added
to his own indefatigable vigour of mind, soon laid the foundation of a
fortune, which was rapidly increased by his penurious habits.
It was the time when war and distresses in Europe kept the funds so
low, that fifty-five was a common price for the Three per cents.
Accordingly, as Farquhar's money accumulated, he sent large remittances
to his bankers, Messrs. Hoare, of Fleet Street, for investment in the
above tempting securities. When he had thus amassed half a million, he
determined to return to his native country, and he bade adieu to the
East where he had found the wealth he coveted. Landing at Gravesend,
he took his seat upon the outside of the coach, and in due time found
himself in London. Weather-beaten, and covered with dust, he made
his way to his bankers, and there, stepping up to one of the clerks,
expressed a wish to see Mr. Hoare himself. But his rough appearance
and common make of the clothes about his sunburnt limbs, suggested to
the clerk that he must be some unlucky petitioner for charity; and he
was left to wait in the cash-office until Mr. Hoare happened to pass
through. The latter was some time before he could understand who Mr.
Farquhar was. His Indian customer, indeed, he knew well by name, but
he had none of that hauteur which was then common with the successful
Anglo-Indians. At length, however, Mr. Hoare was satisfied as to the
identity of his wealthy visitor, who then asked him for 25_l._, and
saluting him, retired.
On first arriving in England, Mr. Farquhar took up his abode with a
relative of some rank, who mixed a good deal in London society, and who
proposed to introduce to his circle Mr. Farquhar, by giving a grand
ball in honour of his successful return from India. This relative had
tolerated Mr. Farquhar's fancies as regarded his every-day attire; but
his fashionable mind was horrified when the day of the coming ball was
only a week off, and there was, nevertheless, no sign of his intending
to provide himself with a new suit of clothes for the gay occasion. He
ventured accordingly to hint to him the propriety of doing so; when
Mr. Farquhar made a short reply, packed up his clothes, and in a few
minutes was driven from the door in a hackney-coach, not even taking
leave of his too-critical host.
He then settled in Upper Baker Street, where his windows were ever
remarkable for requiring a servant's care, and his whole house notable
for its dingy and dirty appearance; at which we cannot wonder when we
learn that his sole attendant was an old woman, and that from even
her intrusive care his own apartment was strictly kept free. Yet in
charitable deeds Mr. Farquhar was munificent to a princely extent, and
often, when he had left his comfortless home with a crust of bread
in his pocket to save the expenditure of a penny at an oyster shop,
it was to give away in the course of the day hundreds of pounds to
aid the distressed, and to cure and care for those who suffered from
biting poverty, hunger, and want. But in his personal expenditure he
was extremely parsimonious; and whilst he resided in Baker Street, he
expended on himself and his household but 200_l._ a year out of the
30,000_l._ or 40,000_l._ which his many sources of income must have
yielded him.[2]
[2] Mr. Farquhar died July 6, 1826, in York Place, Marylebone, aged 76
years; he was buried in St. John's Wood Chapel, where is a handsome
monument to his memory, with a medallion head of the deceased by P.
Row, sculptor.
Such was the man who succeeded the luxurious Beckford at Fonthill! He,
however, sold the property about 1825, and died in the following year.
The immense fortune he had struggled to make, and to increase which
he had lived a solitary and comfortless life, he made no disposal of
by will; the law distributed it among his next-of-kin, and those he
favoured and those he neglected inherited equal portions. Three nephews
and four nieces became entitled to 100,000_l._ each. Fonthill Abbey had
been taken down, merely enough of its ruins being left to show where it
had stood. Mr. Farquhar possessed Fonthill for so short a time, and it
was demolished so soon after he had parted with it, and so many years
before Mr. Beckford followed him to the grave, that the latter lived
to know that its last proprietor was comparatively forgotten, and the
strange glories of the fantastic pile will be connected by the public
voice with no name but that of its eccentric architect.
On settling at Bath, Mr. Beckford was frequently seen on horseback in
the streets with his groom, and appeared as the plain unostentatious
country gentleman: he was no longer the wealthy lord of Fonthill; still
his appearance always excited the gaze and speculation of idlers and
gossips. A dwarf, an Italian named Piero, was occasionally seen on
a pony with the groom, and strange conjectures were hazarded on the
history of this human phenomenon. The fact is, Mr. Beckford had taken
charge of him in Italy, when he was deserted by his parents and was
homeless and friendless; and he was brought to England by a humane
patron, who supported him through life.
In 1844, Mr. Cyrus Redding, when at Bath, had several interviews and
conversations with Mr. Beckford, whose mind was then vigorous: his
spirits were good, and he displayed his wonted activity of body nearly
to the last. In his seventy-sixth year he said that he had never felt
a moment's _ennui_ in his life. He was the most accomplished man of
his time: his reading was very extensive; he used to say that he could
easily read and understand an octavo volume during his breakfast.
Besides the classical languages of antiquity, he spoke four modern
European tongues, and wrote three of them with great elegance. He read
Russian and Arabic. We have said that he was taught music by Mozart, to
whom he was so much attached, that when the great composer settled in
Vienna, Mr. Beckford made a visit to that capital "that he might once
more see his old master."
Mr. Redding tells us that Mr. Beckford's custom, "in fine weather, was
to rise early, ride to the tower or about the grounds, walk back and
breakfast, and then read until a little before noon, generally making
pencil notes in the margin of every book, transact business with his
steward; afterwards, until two o'clock, continue to read and write, and
then ride out two or three hours." Mr. Beckford was never idle. When
planning or building, he passed the larger part of the day where the
work was proceeding. He sometimes expressed contempt by a sarcastic
sneer, peculiar to himself. Few could utter more cutting things
than the author of _Vathek_, the delivery with a caustic expression
of countenance that made them tell with double effect. Mr. Redding
once ventured to remark, "It must have cost you much pain to quit
Fonthill." "Not so much as you might think. I can bend to fortune. I
have philosophy enough not to cry like a child about a play-thing." Mr.
Britton, who had seen much of Mr. Beckford, tells us that the remarks
and opinions in the novels of _Cecil a Coxcomb_ and _Cecil a Peer_,
mostly written by Mrs. Gore when on a visit to Mr. Beckford at Bath,
afford the nearest approach he had seen in print to the language, the
ideas, the peculiar sentiments of the author of _Vathek_.
Mr. Beckford continued to reside in Bath (except his annual visits
to the metropolis, when he lived in Park Lane and in Gloucester
Place[3]) for about twenty years, and died there on May 2, 1844, in the
eighty-fourth year of his age. His intention was to make the ground
attached to the Lansdown tower the place of his sepulchre, and he had
prepared and placed on the spot a granite sarcophagus, inscribed with
a passage from _Vathek_; but the ecclesiastical authorities refused
to consecrate the ground, the body was embalmed and placed in the
sarcophagus in the cemetery of Lyncomb, to the south of Bath. It was
afterwards removed to Lansdown, when the ground was consecrated.
[3] Three other of Mr. Beckford's town houses were:--1. On the Terrace,
Piccadilly, part of the site of the newly-built mansion of Baron
Rothschild; 2. No. 1, Devonshire Place, New Road; and it is said,
though we do not vouch how correctly, 3. No. 27, Charles Street,
Mayfair, a very small house, looking over the garden of Chesterfield
House.
The author of _Vathek_ was unquestionably a man of genius and rare
accomplishments. "But his abilities were overpowered and his character
tainted by the possession of wealth so enormous. At every stage his
money was like a millstone round his neck. He had taste and knowledge;
but the selfishness of wealth tempted him to let these gifts of the
mind run to seed in the gratification of extravagant freaks. He really
enjoyed travelling and scenery, but he felt it incumbent on him, as a
millionnaire, to take a French cook with him wherever he went;[4] and
he found that the Spanish grandees and ecclesiastical dignitaries who
welcomed him so cordially valued him as the man whose cook could make
such wonderful omelettes. From the day when Chatham's proxy stood
for him at the font till the day when he was laid in his pink granite
sarcophagus, he was the victim of riches. Had he had only 5,000_l._ a
year, and been sent to Eton, he might have been one of the foremost men
of his time, and have been as useful in his generation as, under his
unhappy circumstances, he was useless."[5] It may be added, that he was
worse: for he so threw about his money at Fonthill as to corrupt and
demoralise the simple country people.
[4] In conformity with an old English custom, Mr. Beckford invariably
travelled with his bed among his luggage.
[5] _Saturday Review._
Against this judgment must, however, be placed Mr. Beckford's own
declaration, that he never felt a single moment of _ennui_.
Mr. Beckford left two daughters, the eldest of whom, Susan Euphemia,
was married to the Marquis of Clydesdale in 1810, and became Duchess of
Hamilton. The tomb at Lansdown, with its polished granite, emblazoned
shields, and bronzed and gilt embellishments, was not long cared for;
since in 1850, it presented in its neglected state a lamentable object.
_Vathek_ will be remembered. Byron, a good judge of such a subject, has
pronounced that "for correctness of costume, beauty of description, and
power of imagination," it far surpasses all other European imitations
of the Eastern style of fiction.
Alderman Beckford's Monument Speech, in Guildhall.
The speech on the pedestal of Beckford's statue, and referred to at
p. 2 _ante_, is the one which the Alderman is said to have addressed
to his Majesty on the 23rd of May, 1770, with reference to the King's
reply to the Remonstrance address which Beckford had presented:--"That
he should have been wanting to the public as well as to himself if he
had not expressed his dissatisfaction at the late address." Horace
Walpole thus notes the affair: "The City carried a new remonstrance,
garnished with my lord's own ingredients, but much less hot than the
former. The country, however, was put to some confusion by my Lord
Mayor, who, contrary to all form and precedent, tacked a volunteer
speech to the 'Remonstrance.' It was wondrous loyal and respectful,
but, being an innovation, much discomposed the solemnity. It is always
usual to furnish a copy of what is said to the King, that he may be
prepared with his answer. In this case, he was reduced to tuck up his
train, jump from the throne, and take sanctuary in his closet, or
answer extempore, which is not part of the Royal trade; or sit silent,
and have nothing to reply. This last was the event, and a position
awkward enough in conscience."--_Walpole to Sir Horace Mann_, May 24,
1770.
Now, at the end of the Alderman's speech, in his copy of the City
addresses, Mr. Isaac Reed has inserted the following note:--"It is
a curious fact, but a true one, that Beckford did not utter one
syllable of this speech (on the monument). It was penned by John
Horne Tooke, and by his art put on the records of the City and on
Beckford's statue, as he told me, Mr. Braithwaite, Mr. Sayer, &c., at
the Athenæum Club.--Isaac Reed." There can be little doubt that the
worthy commentator and his friends were imposed upon. In the _Chatham
Correspondence_, volume iii., p. 460, a letter from Sheriff Townsend
to the Earl expressly states that with the exception of the words
"and necessary" being left out before the word "revolution," the Lord
Mayor's speech in the _Public Advertiser_ of the preceding day is
verbatim. (The one delivered to the King.)--_Wright_--_Note to Walpole._