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Fonthill Abbey — also known as Beckford's Folly — was a large Gothic revival country house built between 1796 and 1813 at Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire, England, at the direction of William Thomas Beckford and architect James Wyatt.〔For a short, comprehensive historical account see Wilton Ely, J. "The genesis and evolution of Fonthill Abbey", ''Architectural History'', 23 (1980:40–51.〕〔For more in-depth accounts see Brockman, H. A .N., (1956), ''The Caliph of Fonthill'', London: Werner Laurie, or Fothergill, B. (1979), ''Beckford of Fonthill'', London: Faber and Faber)〕 Its main tower collapsed several times, lastly in 1825 damaging the western wing. The entire abbey was later almost completely demolished. It was built near the site of the Palladian house, later known as Fonthill Splendens, which had been constructed by his father, William Beckford. This, in turn, had replaced the Elizabethan house that Beckford ''père'' had purchased in 1744 and which had been destroyed by fire in 1755. The abbey has now been almost completely demolished. ==History== Fonthill Abbey was a brainchild of William Thomas Beckford, son of wealthy English plantation owner William Beckford and a student of architect Sir William Chambers, as well as of James Wyatt, architect of the project. In 1771, when Beckford was ten years old, he inherited £1 million (£}} in ) and an income which his contemporaries estimated at around £100,000 per annum, a colossal amount at the time, but which biographers have found to be closer to half of that sum. Newspapers of the period described him as "the richest commoner in England". He first met William Courtenay (Viscount Courtenay's 11-year-old son), in 1778. A spectacular Christmas party lasting for three days was held for the boy at Fonthill. During this time (c.1782), Beckford began writing ''Vathek'', his most famous novel.〔Oliver, J. W. (1932), ''The Life of William Beckford'', London: Oxford University Press – Humprhey Milford, 100, 203.〕 In 1784 Beckford was accused by Courtenay's uncle, Alexander Wedderburn Loughborough, 1st Lord (later Earl of Rosslyn) of having had an affair with William Courtenay.〔Brian Fothergill, "Beckford of Fonthill" (London: Faber and Faber, 1979), 169–70.〕 The allegations of misconduct remained unproven, despite being stirred up by Lord Loughborough, but the scandal was significant enough to require his exile. Beckford chose exile in the company of his wife, née Lady Margaret Gordon, whom he grew to love deeply, but who died in childbirth when the couple had found refuge in Switzerland. Beckford travelled extensively after this tragedy – to France, repeatedly, to Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal (the country he favoured above all). Shunned by English society, he nevertheless decided to return to his native country; after enclosing the Fonthill estate in a six-mile long wall (high enough to prevent hunters from chasing foxes and hares on his property), this arch-romantic decided to have a Gothic cathedral built for his home. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fonthill Abbey」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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