INTRODUCTION
William Beckford, born in 1759, the year before the accession of King
George the Third, was the son of an Alderman who became twice Lord
Mayor of London. His family, originally of Gloucestershire, had thriven
by the plantations in Jamaica; and his father, sent to school in England,
and forming a school friendship at Westminster with Lord Mansfield,
began the world in this country as a merchant, with inheritance of an
enormous West India fortune. William Beckford the elder became
Magistrate, Member of Parliament, Alderman. Four years before the
birth of William Beckford the younger he became one of the Sheriffs of
London, and three years after his son\'s birth he was Lord Mayor. As
Mayor he gave very sumptuous dinners that made epochs in the lives of
feeding men. His son\'s famous "History of the Caliph Vathek" looks as if it
had been planned for an Alderman\'s dream after a very heavy dinner at the
Mansion House. There is devotion in it to the senses, emphasis on heavy
dining. Vathek piqued himself on being the greatest eater alive; but when
the Indian dined with him, though the tables were thirty times covered,
there was still want of more food for the voracious guest. There is thirst:
for at one part of the dream, when Vathek\'s mother, his wives, and some
eunuchs "assiduously employed themselves in filling bowls of rock crystal,
and emulously presented them to him, it frequently happened that his
avidity exceeded their zeal, insomuch that he would prostrate himself
upon the ground to lap up the water, of which he could never have
enough." And the nightmare incidents of the Arabian tale all culminate
in a most terrible heartburn. Could the conception of Vathek have first
come to the son after a City dinner?