William Beckford - mad, bad and genius

On 27‘h March 2015 I will be giving the Wotton Historical Society a talk about William Beckford. Who, you may be saying? Who was William Beckford? Ask anyone living in Bath, and they will tell you that he built the Lansdown Tower (close to the Park and Ride). Nowadays you can visit the museum and his tower during the summer weekends. But this was not your ordinary tower. Built in 1827, the tower was not only fully carpeted, and centrally heated, but most extraordinary of all, it was crammed to the roof with great works of art. There were famous paintings by Raphael, Murillo, Durer, beautiful antique vases and ancient statues, wildly expensive furniture, and a library containing thousands of first editions of rare works, including original Medieval illuminated manuscripts.

But this tower was nothing compared to the huge mock Gothic Abbey, 280 feet high, which Beckford had built a few years earlier, at his Wiltshire estate at Fonthill, right on the top of Salisbury Plain. This was the size of a Medieval cathedral, and was surrounded by 7,000 acres of some of the most beautifully planted parkland in Europe.  A stupendously rich man, Beckford wasn’t just a builder, garden designer and art collector, but had a brilliant mind and was truly multi talented. He was a very good musician, had played with Mozart when he was a little boy and had had an opera staged in London when he was only 18. He published over 20 books and wrote an extraordinary Gothic Oriental tale called Vathek, when he was only 21, which sold like hot cakes, was hugely admired by Lord Byron and is an exciting read even today. Beckford was a traveller who regarded himself as more European than English and spoke 10 languages and left behind some of the best travel books ever written. In Paris in 1789, he became friends with some of the Revolutionary leaders, and was involved at the highest level with the political leaders of Europe.

If you hadn’t heard of this extraordinary West Country man before, you may now be wondering why! Well, it’s all to do with a personal scandal which Beckford was involved in when he was only 24. Later Victorian writers prudishly avoided his memory (we would say nowadays that he was airbrushed outl), and some of his writings were deliberately destroyed. It’s only been in the more tolerant climate of recent years that the true story of William Beckford has begun to be told. I do hope that you will come along to the Civic Centre in March to find out more!

                                                   Beckford's Tower

Wotton-under-Edge Civic Centre

Friday 27th March 2015 at 7.30pm

Visitors welcome.

Non-members £5 on the door