Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.

"Teachers' bulletin", vol. 4- issued as part of v. 23, no. 9-

Fonthill, in Wiltshire, is traditionally associated with the writer and collector William Beckford who built his Gothic fantasy house called Fonthill Abbey at the end of the eighteenth century. The collapse of the Abbey’s tower in 1825 transformed the name Fonthill into a symbol for overarching ambition and folly, a sublime ruin. Fonthill is, however, much more than the story of one man’s excesses. Beckford’s Abbey is only one of several important houses to be built on the estate since the early sixteenth century, all of them eventually consumed by fire or deliberately demolished, and all of them oddly forgotten by historians. Little now remains: a tower, a stable block, a kitchen range, some dressed stone, an indentation in a field. Fonthill Recovered draws on histories of art and architecture, politics and economics to explore the rich cultural history of this famous Wiltshire estate. The first half of the book traces the occupation of Fonthill from the Bronze Age to the twenty-first century. Some of the owners surpassed Beckford in terms of their wealth, their collections, their political power and even, in one case, their sexual misdemeanours. They include Charles I’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the richest commoner in the nineteenth century. The second half of the book consists of essays on specific topics, filling out such crucial areas as the complex history of the designed landscape, the sources of the Beckfords’ wealth and their collections, and one essay that features the most recent appearance of the Abbey in a video game.

A rare combination of documented fact and good storytelling, Ill-Starred General is the biography of a much maligned man from one of history’s most vital eras. The career of Edward Braddock began during the court intrigues of Queen Anne and George I, gained momentum in continental military campaigns in the early 1750s, and ended abruptly in the rout of his American army near present-day Pittsburgh in 1755. This highly acclaimed biography reveals the man—and the politics—behind his defeat, one of the major setbacks to British imperial power in the American colonies. “Braddock was the first English general that Americans had ever seen in action, and although he lost his life fighting for them, they detested him...What [McCardell] has done is to replace a historical puppet with a credible human being, and...to explain how a carefully planned colonial expedition can go wrong.”—Naomi Bliven, The New Yorker “The breadth, depth and care of McCardell’s research on Ill-Starred General are amazing and delightful. He has labored with that fidelity which every honest historian must display and with that luck which crowns the efforts of the fortunate.”—George Swetnam, Pittsburgh Press “A first-rate biography.”—Lynn Montross, New York Times “A genial and readable interpretation that will revivify an important figure in early American history. It is the kind of well-documented book that will appeal to both the general reader and the historian.”—W. R. Jacobs, American Historical Review