. Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern. him the richestuntitled citizen of England. He was not sent to a university, butimmense care was given to his education, in which Lord Chathampersonally interested himself; and he traveled widely. The resultof this, on a very receptive mind with varied natural gifts, was tomake Beckford an ideal dilettante. His tastes in literature, painting,music (in which Mozart was his tutor), sculpture, architecture, andwhat not, were refined to the highest nicety. He was able to gratifyeach of them as such a man can rarely have the means to do.
. Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern. him the richestuntitled citizen of England. He was not sent to a university, butimmense care was given to his education, in which Lord Chathampersonally interested himself; and he traveled widely. The resultof this, on a very receptive mind with varied natural gifts, was tomake Beckford an ideal dilettante. His tastes in literature, painting,music (in which Mozart was his tutor), sculpture, architecture, andwhat not, were refined to the highest nicety. He was able to gratifyeach of them as such a man can rarely have the means to do. Hebuilt palaces and towers of splendor instead of merely a beautifulcountry seat. He tried to reproduce Vatheks halls in stone andstucco, employing relays of workmen by day and night, on two sev-eral occasions and estates, for many months. Where other men gottogether moderate collections of bibelots, Beckford amassed wholemuseums. If a builders neglect or a fire destroyed his rarities anddamaged his estates to the extent of forty or fifty thousand pounds,. William Beckford I-QO WILLIAM BECKFORD Beckford merely rebuilt and re-collected. These tastes and lavishexpenditures gradually set themselves in a current toward thingsEastern. His magnificent retreat at Cintra in Portugal, his vastFonthill Abbey and Lansdowne Hill estates in England, were onlyappanages of his siimptuous state. England and Europe talked ofhim and of his properties. He was a typical egotist: but an agree-able and gracious man, esteemed by a circle of friends not calledupon to be his sycophants; and he kept in close touch with the intel-lectual life of all Europe. He wrote much, for an amateur, and in view of the tale whichdoes him most honor, he wrote with success. At twenty he invitedpublicity with a satiric jeu cVesprit, < Biographical Memoirs of Extraor-dinary Painters ^; and his ^ Italy, with Sketches of Spain and Port-ugal,* and < Recollections of an Excursion to the Monasteries ofAlcobaba and Balt
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherny, bookyear1896
