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E-book Fonthill Recovered : A Cultural History

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Penilaian

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Fonthill, in Wiltshire, is usually associated with the writer and collector William Beckford, who built his Gothic fantasy house Fonthill Abbey at the end of the eight-eenth century. The collapse of the Abbey’s tower in 1825 transformed the name Fonthill into a symbol for over- arching ambition and folly, a sublime ruin. Fonthill is, however, much more than the story of one man’s excesses. Beckford’s Abbey is only one of several important houses to be built on the estate since the early six-teenth century, all of them eventually consumed by fire or deliberately demolished and all of them oddly forgotten by historians. Little now remains: a tower, a stable block, a kitchen range, some dressed stone, an indentation in a field.Fonthill Recovered draws on histories of art and architecture, politics and eco-nomics to explore all of the rich cultural history of this famous estate. Some of the men and women who built the houses and lived at Fonthill surpassed Beckford in terms of their wealth, their collections and their political power. Some were players on the national and world stage as well as major patrons of the arts. Their political and religious allegiances, their sources of wealth and social positions reflected and were affected by the shifts and changes in five hundred years of British history.The book is divided into two sections: the first is largely narrative, the second consists of essays exploring themes, topics and objects which enhance and cannot be comfortably included in the main narrative. There is inevitably some repetition and some difference of opinion, but we have tried to avoid speculation. The main narrative traces the occupation of Fonthill from the Bronze Age through to the twenty- first century; it can be read as a separate book. The first house of any note (see marker 1 on Figure 1.1, the Ordnance Survey (OS) map) was a Tudor mansion, built for Sir John Mervyn who died in 1566. The last of his family to own Fonthill was his great- grandson Mervin Touchet, 12th Baron Audley and 2nd Earl of Castlehaven, who was tried for rape and sodomy in the House of Lords and beheaded on Tower Hill in 1631.The estate was acquired by Francis Cottington, Baron of Hanworth and King Charles I’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, who extended and improved the house and grounds. After the Civil War, during which Cottington left the country and died in Spain in 1652, John Bradshaw, Cromwell’s President of the Council of State, was given Fonthill. After his death and the restoration of King Charles II, the Cottingtons were again the owners, but as Roman Catholics they were outside court circles. In 1744– 5 Francis Cottington, 2nd Baron of Fonthill sold Fonthill to Alderman Beckford, whose fortune had been acquired from his sugar plantations in Jamaica.In 1755 a fire damaged part of the old house, so the Alderman demolished the rest and built a new mansion called ‘Splendens’ on a new site (see marker 2 on Figure 1.1). This enormous house was inherited in 1770 by his son William Beckford and extensively embellished by him before being abandoned and demol-ished, apart from one small service pavilion. The younger Beckford’s extraordinary Gothic abbey was built on a hill close by, but its tower collapsed in 1825 (see marker 4 on Figure 1.1): with sugar prices falling, Beckford had by then sold up and moved to Bath, and it was the new owner, John Farquhar, who was inside the Abbey when the tower fell. He was unhurt but sold up soon after and the estate was divided.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

724.1 DAK f

Penerbit

London : UCL Press., 2018

Deskripsi Fisik

430 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781787350458

Klasifikasi

724.1

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Architecture from 1400 - 1799

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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