Transcribed from the 1893 edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE LATE WILLIAM BECKFORD
OF FONTHILL, WILTS and LANSDOWN, BATH
The Manuscript of the following Letters, written by my Father, has been in my possession fifty years. He intended to publish it at the time of Mr. Beckford’s death, in 1844, but delayed the execution of the work, and sixteen years afterwards was himself called to enter on the higher life of the spiritual world.
Mr. Beckford and my Father were kindred spirits, conversant with the same authors, had visited the same countries, and were both gifted with extraordinary memories. Mr. Beckford said that he had never met with a man possessed of such a memory as my Father; and many a time has my Father told me that he never met a man who possessed such a memory as Mr. Beckford.
If my Father had published the Reminiscences himself I think that much misconception in the public mind respecting the character of Mr. Beckford would have been prevented. For instance, I remember, when a child, being warned that this great man was an infidel. When he showed my Father the sarcophagus in which his body was to be placed, he remarked, “There shall I lie, Lansdown, until the trump of God shall rouse me on the Resurrection morn.”
CHARLOTTE LANSDOWN.
8 Lower East Hayes, Bath;
July, 1893.