The cabinet is for instance far more beautiful than one in the same gallery that belonged to Marie Antoinette. Instead, he has something like a gay identity: he clearly identifies with the men arrested in raids on Molly houses.Īnyway, to return to the objects, they are gorgeous. He is not like a 17th century rake sleeping with his pageboys, who would have identified with other aristocratic rakes.
Among other things, Beckford kept articles about all the sodomy trials in England and comments sympathetically in his letters. In fact, one of the amazing things about Beckford is that unlike most other gentlemen in similar circumstances (including Kitty, who fled to Paris at a certain point and never returned) he stayed in England for much of his life and braved it out.īut the most interesting thing about Beckford is that we have his scrapbooks and letters, and we can learn a LOT about gay life in 18th century England from them.
For instance, it remained fashionable to visit his massive gothic-cathedral-style country house to see his art collection-but ONLY when he was not at home. We don’t really know, because there was never a trial, but Beckford was ostracized by English society for the rest of his life, despite his wealth. Another houseguest claimed he was horsewhipping him-possibly because Kitty had written a love letter to someone else. In 1784, when Beckford was 24 and Kitty 16, Beckford was found in a locked room with Kitty. Beckford had a relationship with a boy named William Courtenay, Viscount of Powderham and later Earl of Devon, nicknamed “Kitty” (ahem!). And…he was the subject of a massive GAY SCANDAL.