Bath is wonderful, but there are delights to be found on its edges too. Beckford’s Tower offers superb views and a fascinating insight into one of the finest minds of the 18th century.

So I am growing rich and mean to build towers…

So wrote William Beckford (1760-1844) and indeed he did, though for all his vast expenditure, surprisingly little remains today. A fourth generation only child whom Byron called England’s wealthiest son, he was considered the richest man in England upon the death of his father when he was only 10.

The first two generations grew rich in the sugar plantations of Jamaica. The third, William’s father, also William, returned to England and entered politics. His statue can be seen today in the Guildhall in London; the original design for it had one foot braced on the prostrate manacled body of a slave. Luckily that was omitted from the final concept!

Alderman William Beckford purchased Fonthill House in Wiltshire and married Maria Marsh, grand daughter of the 6th Earl of Abercorn and a member of the prestigious Hamilton family.

A Gilded Cage

Our fourth generation William never even got as far as Jamaica, claiming the very idea made him ill. Privately educated at home and supremely intelligent, his early life was a gilded whirl of grand tours, both at home and abroad. He developed a great love for architecture, art and literature, a lifetime passion that created a renowned art collection.

He returned from the Continent for his 21st birthday in 1781, a lavish affair at Fonthill. He wrote an early prototype of the Gothic novel, Vathek, and George Romney painted his portrait. In 1782, Sir Joshua Reynolds also depicted him in a romantic manner, the painting staying in Beckford’s possession until his death and now found in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

His future looked golden. After another European tour, he married Lady Margaret Gordon in May 1783 and subsequently became a Member of Parliament for Wells. The peerage beckoned.

But so did other delights. At the age of 19 at Powderham Castle in Devon, William had met William ‘Kitty’ Courtenay, the only son amongst Viscount Courtenay’s 13 children. Now in 1784, he renewed their friendship and a homosexual scandal ensued. This was still punishable by death at that time, and though he was never arrested, the threat was sufficient for him to retreat to Switzerland with his wife.

Sadly she died in Vevey at only 23 years of age, just 12 days after giving birth to their second daughter. Beckford was devastated and remained in Europe until he returned to Fonthill in 1795. A year later, with the aid of the architect James Wyatt, he started building Fonthill Abbey, a sprawling Gothic fantasy.

The family’s Jamaican estates suffered under absentee owners but turned enough of a sporadic profit for him to finish the Abbey by 1818. However his fortunes never recovered and in 1822 most of its contents were put up for sale in an auction that lasted over a month.

Soon after the Abbey itself was sold and Beckford moved to Bath, finally settling in Lansdowne Crescent. However he soon decided to embark on another architectural project: a neoclassical tower which he built at the top of a mile long strip of land he created behind the Crescent.

A Final Retreat

Only a tiny portion of Fonthill Abbey still survives and Beckford’s Tower is today his greatest legacy. His renowned art collection is scattered between the great museums and houses of England and the world, but the tower still stands proudly on its hill to the north of Bath.

Built in 1826, it became Beckford’s retreat from a world that viewed him as a social outcast. Tellingly, one can’t actually see Bath from the tower.  He enjoyed the remains of his great collection and had a famous library.

After his death in 1844, the remaining collection was broken up. His second daughter arranged for his burial near the tower and the great red granite tomb can indeed be seen close by, surrounded by a mini ha-ha and proudly above the ground as such a person as he should not be buried in the earth.

He did however have his dog buried with him and in an interesting aside, this had to be disinterred when the ground was consecrated as a cemetery a few years later.

Today, the tower is a pleasant place to visit away from the busy streets of Bath. There is a two room exhibition on Beckford’s life with a few objects that are original to the tower, including a great marble table. A spiral staircase leads up to the tower, a photogenic swirl of soft pink walls and shell like contortions. At the top, though one cannot see Bath, there are fine views to as far afield as the Menai Strait and the Cherhill white horse. A further level is inaccessible.

The graveyard too is deserving of a wander, an eclectic collection of admirals and doctors, the great and the good and their wives. They have obviously suffered neglect over the years but the lopsided, higgledy piggledy, closely packed array has some fascinating monuments and there are fine views and walks on the other side of the boundary wall.

NOTES

The tower is open from March until the end of November on weekends and bank holiday Mondays. Admission is £4.60. Find more information here.