any further attacks until the restoration, which confirmed him in quiet 

 possession. It continued with his family during the succeeding reigns, 

 and until sold to Alderman Beckford, about the niiildle of the last 

 century, and it is now that the modern history of Fonthill interests us. 

 The earliest account of a family house at Fontliill is derived from an old 

 painting dated 1566, which represents an important residence of the 

 Elizabethan type, enclosed within walls and approached by a turreted 

 gatehouse. Tliis was probably built or greatl;y enlarged during the long 

 occupation of the Mervyn family. Another house followed, built by 

 Lord Cottington, and said to have been designed by Inigo Jones, who 

 designed the archway leading into the park (and this archway still 

 remains). This second house came into Alderman Beckford's possession 

 A\ith the Fonthill Estate, and, after he had lai-gely improved and 

 furnished it, it was burnt down in 1755, 



The new house (one of the wings of which is now the centre of Mr. 

 Morrison's house) was a handsome building with the centre and two wings, 

 connected by corridors and splendidly furnished ; the entrance hall 

 measured 90ft. by 40ft., and it was reputed to be one of the finest houses in 

 the West of England. 



The Alderman died in 1770 ; his father, Peter Beckford, had been 

 Speaker of the House of Assembly in Jamaica, and his grandfather, of 

 the same name, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of that island. 

 Alderman Beckford married the daughter and co-heiressof the Hon. George 

 Hamilton, M.P. for the city of Wells, by whom he had an only son, 

 William, the builder of Fonthill Abbey, a minor at the time of his father's 

 death, and reported to be the richest Commoner of his day. He represented 

 Wells in Parliament and afterwards sat for Hindon, and married I-ady 

 ]\Iargaret Gordon, only daughter of the 4th Earl of Aboyne. By her he 

 had two daughters, one becoming Mrs. Ord and the other Duchess of 

 Hamilton. He increased the Fonthill Estate by the addition of several 

 thousand acres and soon began to rear a temporary buikling about a mile 

 from the old house. This was the nucleus of the afterwards magnificent 

 Fonthill Abbey, the whole of the old house, except the one pavilion or 

 Aving (already mentioned) being demolished, and a public sale held. 

 What is said to have cost £250,000 Avas sold for £9,000 ! In 1796 

 Beckford, assisted by the architect, James AVyatt, began to erect on this 

 spot the building known as the Abbey. 



The ground plan was a cross of four limbs of nearly equal length, with 

 an octagonal tower of nearly 300 feet in height at the intersection. 



The doors at the entrance were 30 feet high, opening in to a vast 

 Gothic hall leading by steps to the central octagon, a groined room, of 



