With Four Etchings and Portrait of Beckford by A. H. Tourrier LONDON J. C. NIMMO AND BAIN 14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. 1883 なる Only 150 Copies of this Edition on laid paper, medium 8vo, • breat with praaf Ekhings on Japanese paper, have been printed and are numbered consecutively as issued. No. 124 PREFACE. WILLIAM BECKFORD, the author of "Vathek," was born in 1759. He was the son of the well-known Alderman Beckford, Lord Mayor of London, celebrated for having bearded King George III. on his throne, on the occasion of presenting a petition and remonstrance to his Majesty. His son succeeded at the age of ten years to a fortune of upwards of £100,000 per annum, consisting in part of the estate at Fonthill, and a large property in the West Indies. Young Beckford had the advantage of the watchful care of his sponsor, his father's friend, the great Earl of Chatham. The proprietor of Fonthill determined to erect a splendid superstructure which should embody his conceptions of architectural beauty. In this design and other fancies he expended in sixteen years the enormous sum of £273,000. One tower employed 460 men both by day and by night through an entire winter, the torches used by "the nocturnal workmen being visible to the astonished travellers b |