Delineations of Fonthill and Its Abbey

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author, 1823 - Abbeys - 112 pages

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Page 90 - And west winds with musky wing About the cedarn alleys fling Nard and cassia's balmy smells. Iris there with humid bow Waters the odorous banks, that blow Flowers of more mingled hue Than her purfled scarf can shew, And drenches with Elysian dew (List, mortals, if your ears be true) Beds of hyacinth and roses, Where young Adonis oft reposes, Waxing well of his deep wound, In slumber soft, and on the ground Sadly sits the Assyrian queen.
Page 84 - With mazy error under pendent shades Ran Nectar, visiting each plant, and fed Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art In beds and curious knots, but nature boon Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain, Both where the morning sun first warmly smote The open field, and where the unpierced shade Imbrown'd the noontide bowers. Thus was this place A happy rural seat of various view...
Page 108 - ... at its summit, carried it off its base altogether. The fall was tremendous and sublime, and the only regret expressed by Mr. Beckford was, that he had not witnessed the catastrophe. He instantly gave orders for the erection of a new tower.
Page 89 - All the characteristic beauties of the avenue, its solemn stillness, the religious awe it inspires, are greatly heightened by moon-light. This I once very strongly experienced in approaching a venerable, castle-like mansion, built in the beginning of the...
Page 89 - I once very strongly experienced in approaching a venerable, castle-like mansion, built in the beginning of the l5th century: a few gleams had pierced the deep gloom of the avenue; a large massive tower at the end of it, seen through a long perspective, and half lighted by the uncertain beams of the moon, had a grand mysterious effect. Suddenly a light appeared in this tower — then as suddenly its twinkling vanished — and only the quiet, silvery rays of the moon prevailed; again, more lights...
Page 108 - ... converting the convent into a permanent residence was entertained ; nor, indeed, did the impatience of Mr. Beckford admit of the necessarily slow progress of a work of such dimensions, when constructed of solid materials. Timber and cement were therefore the principal articles in its composition ; and every expedient was used to complete the building within a given time, regardless of the consequencesthat might almost have been expected to ensue.
Page xxii - Somers. 32. Argent, a man's heart gules, ensigned with an imperial crown or, on a chief azure, three mullets of the field; name, Douglas, of Scotland.
Page xxii - Or, a lion rampant gules, armed and langued azure, within a double tressure flory counterflory of fleur-de-lis of the second. Supporters — Two unicorns argent armed maned and unguled or, gorged with open crowns, with chains affixed thereto, and reflexed over the back of the last.
Page xxi - Scotland through several sovereign houses of Europe. That, in consideration of such an extraordinary accumulation of descents from royal and illustrious families, and in order to preserve the memory thereof, an augmentation to the bordure, so first assigned, of a double in lieu of a single tressure, was thereupon granted, to be borne by him and his descendants for ever according to the laws of arms.
Page xxi - Per pale gules and azure, on a chevron argent, between three martlets or, an eagle displayed sable, within a bordure of the fourth, charged with a double tressure flory and counterflory of the first — BECKFORD.

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