Fonthill Abbey

In the end, Taylor's florid gothic design was entirely lifted from the 90m-high tower of Fonthill Abbey, a monumental pile designed by James Wyatt for William Beckford in the 1790s.

When my grandfather Westminster died in the autumn of 1869 he left the reversion of Fonthill Abbey to Uncle Michael.

He expended an enormous sum in building and rebuilding Fonthill Abbey, near Salisbury, which he filled with rare and expensive works of art.

He then began building Fonthill Abbey, shrouding his proceedings in the greatest mystery and surrounding his estate with a wall twelve feet high and seven miles long, guarded by chevaux-de-frise to keep out intruders.

In the smoking-room is to be seen a remarkable chimney-piece of carved marble, which once stood in Fonthill Abbey, the house of the author of Vathek.