, by Cyrus Redding, vol. i. p. 96.) His travels (1777-82) in Switzerland, the Low Countries, and Italy are described in his
Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents, in a series of letters from various parts of Europe
, published anonymously in 1783, and reprinted, with additions and omissions, in 1834 and 1840. In the previous year he had written
Vathek
in French, in "three days and two nights," without, as he says, taking off his clothes; "the severe application made me very ill." This statement, if made by Beckford, as Redding implies, is untrue. Evidence exists to prove that
Vathek
was a careful and elaborate composition. The book was published with his name in 1787; but a translation, made and printed without his leave, had already (1784) appeared, and was often mistaken for the original. In 1783 he married Lady Margaret Gordon, with whom he lived in Switzerland till her death in 1786. One of his two daughters — he had no son — became Mrs. Orde, the other the Duchess of Hamilton. From 1787 to 1791, and again from 1794 to 1796, he visited Portugal and Spain, and to this period belong his
Sketches of Spain and Portugal
(1834), and his
Recollections of an Excursion to the Monasteries of Alobaca and Batalha