Excerpt from The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill
It is strange that during the three-score years that have elapsed since the death of William Beckford only one attempt, and that, to quote Dr. Garnett, "a most intolerable piece of bookmaking," has been made to write his biography, for his character and achievements were just those that usually attract attention. He was, indeed, a many-sided man. As an author he gave proof of his humour in that elaborate, long-forgotten jest, the "Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters"; of his imagination in the famous story of "Vathek," and of his powers of observation and picturesque description in his books of travel: work that extorted the praise of Byron, Lockhart, and Benjamin Disraeli. He was the greatest English connoisseur of his day, collecting most kinds of works of art and vertu; his library was one of the most magnificent ever brought together in this country by a private individual; and, further, he was to a great extent architect of his pleasure-palace of Fonthill. The son of a millionaire who has his niche in the political history of England, he was brought up under the eye of Chatham and Camden; in his childhood was a playfellow of the younger Pitt; while yet a lad made acquaintance with Lord Thurlow, Voltaire, Madame de Stael, and a host of notabilities; and in later days was intimate with Nelson, Sir William Hamilton and his second too-famous wife Emma, Samuel Rogers, the Duke of Portland and Disraeli.
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