The vehicle caught fire immediately after the collision, but Beckford was able to pull himself out before the red pick-up became fully engulfed in flames.

" I have an odd fifty thousand pounds in a drawer: I will build it up again ," Beckford promptly declared, and rebuilt it as Fonthill Splendens.

Beckford was discovered ( according to a houseguest at the time ) to be ' whipping Courtenay in some posture or another ' after finding a letter penned by Courtenay to another lover and subsequently chose self-exile to the continent in the company of his long-suffering wife ( who died in childbirth aged 24 ).

William Thomas Beckford ( 1 October 1760 – 2 May 1844 ), usually known as William Beckford, was an English novelist, a profligate and consummately knowledgeable art collector and patron of works of decorative art, a critic, travel writer and sometime politician, reputed at one stage in his life to be the richest commoner in England.

Beckford lived alone in his abbey and used only one of its bedrooms for his own use.

If one can imagine a combination, in almost equal parts, of Walter Scott, William Beckford, Dumas père, and Charles Dickens, together with a strong hint of Hungarian patriotism, one may perhaps form a fair idea of the character of the work of this great Hungarian romancer.

By his wife, Susan Beckford, Hamilton had one son and one daughter:

Fonthill House burnt down in 1755 and was replaced with a new one — Fonthill Splendens built by William Beckford — to the south of the old one.

Beckford was named " Man of the Year " in 1995 by the cable television music channel VH1 & one of the " 50 Most Beautiful People in the World " by People magazine.

She took modern dance classes during this time, and met dancers and choreographers Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford.

In 1771, when Beckford was ten years old, he inherited £ 1, 000, 000 ( roughly £ 100 million in 2008 values ) and an income which his contemporaries estimated at around £ 100, 000 per annum, a colossal amount at the time ( equivalent to £ 10 million in 2008 ), but which biographers have found to be closer to half of that sum.

During this time ( c. 1782 ), Beckford began writing Vathek, his most famous novel.

Consequently, he seems also to have caused the ire of many a client of his — including Beckford — because of his all too common absences from client meetings, for a general disregard for supervising the construction works he was in charge of, and for not delivering the promised results in time, with clients accusing him — in certain instances — of years of delay.

Although suffering from a strained, at times, relationship, Beckford and Wyatt engaged, thus, in the construction of the Abbey, but it stands clear that, due to Wyatt's constant absences from the site, and because of the overt personal interest that Beckford had for this enterprise, he often took on the roles of construction site supervisor, general organizer, patron, and client all at the same time.

In 1782, he made his second visit to Italy, accompanied by the author William Beckford, spending much time at Naples.

In March 1770 following the release of John Wilkes, of whom Beckford had been an ardent supporter, Beckford decorated his house with a large banner, which according to Horace Walpole bore the word Liberty written in embroidered white letters.

He was briefly trained in music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but his drawing master Alexander Cozens was a greater influence, and Beckford continued to correspond with him for some years until they fell out.

For many years Beckford was believed to have conducted a simultaneous affair with his cousin Peter's wife Louisa Pitt ( c. 1755-1791 ).

In 1784 Beckford was accused by Courtenay's uncle, Alexander Wedderburn Loughborough, 1st Lord ( later Earl of Rosslyn ) of having had a homosexual affair with William Courtenay.

Beckford's decidedly obsessive haste to erect the building as fast and as grandiosely as he could, coupled with the decision ( ultimately pushed by Beckford ), of reaching structurally unsound heights in the building's tower spire, and utilizing for this a method of building labeled " compo-cement " by Wyatt, which consisted in using timber stuccoed with cement, led to the eventual collapse of the tower — damaging the western wing of the building too — in 1825, when Beckford had already sold the building ( for a good price of £ 275, 000 ) to John Farquhar.

* Past Present Future ( 2011 ) features " Soul Makossa 2. 0 " with vocals performed by Wayne Beckford

Reformers like William Beckford and Radicals beginning with John Wilkes called for reform of the system.

Trials in this hall have included those of Anne Askew ( Protestant martyr ), Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, Lady Jane Grey, Guildford Dudley, Thomas Cranmer, Henry Peckham, John Daniel, John Felton ( Catholic ), Roderigo Lopez, Henry Garnet ( in connection with the Gunpowder Plot ), Sir Gervase Helwys ( in connection with the Overbury plot ) and it contains memorials to Pitt the Elder, Pitt the Younger, Admiral Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, William Beckford, and Winston Churchill.

He won the outdoor title with a winning margin of four centimeters over James Beckford of Jamaica.

He was educated at Eton, where he was contemporary with Charles James Fox, the 2nd Baron Lyttelton and William Beckford.

Dubbed ‘ The Phoenix ’ by William Beckford, Hayter showed a pomposity that irritated his fellow artists, but he mixed freely with many aristocratic families.

The concept evolves around the ending of Braxton's relationship with her fictional boyfriend, played by model Tyson Beckford.

As the video begins, Beckford is seen leaving their home, with Braxton giving him a goodbye kiss and going to check the mail box.

She then walks around the house, remembering the good moments she had with Beckford, such as swimming in the pool and playing Twister.

In 1992, he was recruited to hip hop magazine The Source by a talent scout, Jeff Jones, who has been credited with ' discovering ' Beckford in New York City.

Beckford is currently co-hosting the modeling contest Make Me a Supermodel on the television channel Bravo with fellow supermodel Niki Taylor.

King George was reportedly more enraged by the breach of protocol than by the nature of the request, yet it attracted the support of the Common Councilmen of London who expressed their gratitude by erecting a monument in the Guildhall, London including a life-size statue of Beckford ( pictured ), surmounting a stone tablet on which the words Beckford had used to admonish the king are engraved in gold.

An important commission in terms of the client, were alterations to William Pitt the Younger's house at Holwood House in 1786, Soane had befriended William Pitt's uncle Thomas on his grand tour ; In ( 1787 ) Soane remodelled the interior of Fonthill Splendens ( later replaced by Fonthill Abbey ) for Thomas Beckford, adding a picture gallery lit by two domes and other work.

Glass painter, Francis Eginton, did much work in the building, including thirty-two figures of kings, knights, etc., and many windows, for which Beckford paid him £ 12, 000.

* James Wyatt's biography at Beckfordiana, the website for resources on the life and work of William Beckford of Fonthill.

* Another work in the same vein was Vathek, a novel written directly into French in 1787 by English-born writer William Thomas Beckford.

This was further undermined by the ruling in Beckford v Hood, where the Court of King's Bench confirmed that, even without registration, copyright could be enforced against infringers.

Encouraged to study music by his father, he was sponsored as a young composer by Sir Peter Beckford, a wealthy Englishman who took him to England to advance his studies.

In 1774, Clementi was freed from his obligations to Peter Beckford.

Beckford Junction was abandoned in 1940.

Beckford Junction was a train switch that allowed trains to go to Suffolk, Elizabeth City, or Edenton.

William Beckford ( 19 December 1709 – 21 June 1770 ) was a well-known political figure in 18th century London, who twice held the office of Lord Mayor of London ( 1762 and 1769 ).

He was, and is, often referred to as " Alderman Beckford " to distinguish him from his son William Thomas Beckford, the author, art collector and builder of follies.

Beckford was born in Jamaica the grandson of Colonel Peter Beckford.

His only child by this marriage was William Thomas Beckford, born at Fonthill Splendens in 1760.

Beckford was born on 1 October 1760 in the family's London home at 22 Soho Square.

However, Beckford was bisexual and chose self-exile from British society when his letters to William Courtenay, later 9th Earl of Devon, were intercepted by the boy's uncle, who advertised the affair in the newspapers .. Courtenay was just ten years old on first meeting Beckford.

The loss of his Jamaican sugar plantation to James Beckford Wildman was particularly costly.