stinguished himself as a late
crusader in 1595 at the battle of Gran in Hungary, when he captured a
Turkish standard. His helmet is fixed to the wall above his tomb.
Place House, once a grange of Shaftesbury Abbey, at the end of the
village, is an early Tudor manor. The fine gate-house and the
tithe-barn at the side of the entrance court are good specimens of the
domestic architecture of the period. The buildings form a picturesque
group and the all too brief glimpse of them from the railway has
probably caused many travellers thereon to break their journey.

A short two miles to the north of Tisbury, in a lovely district of
wooded hills, is Fonthill Giffard. The church, erected in the Early
English style in 1866, will not detain the visitor, though one might
well be disposed to linger in the charming village. The great "lion"
of this district was the famous and extraordinary Fonthill Abbey, an
amazing erection in sham Gothic, built by Wyatt, that "infamous
dispoiler, misnamed architect" to the order of the eccentric author of
_Vathek_--William Beckford, heir of a wealthy London merchant who was
twice Lord Mayor and died a millionaire. Contemporary prints are
occasionally met with in curiosity shops that bring vividly before us
this specimen of the "Gothic madness" of our great grandfathers. An
enormous octagonal tower arises from the centre of the strange pile of
buildings, which is in the form of a cross with arms of equal length.
Pinnacle and gargoyles, moulding and ornaments, all clashing and at
war with each other, are stuck on anywhere and everywhere; the
nightmare dream of a medievalist. If this was the fruit of Beckford's
brain nothing more need be said. If that of Wyatt's, we can but be
thankful that he did not live long enough to have the commission for
building the present Palace of Westminster. A pile that as it is, is
only too reminiscent of the florid imaginings of the Gothic revival.

The expensive eccenticities of Beckford--he was a collector of
everything costly--brought about the sale of Fonthill and a retirement
to Bath. Not long after the new owner, a millionaire named Farquhar,
had entered into possession, the central tower fell and ruined most of
the "gingerbread" beneath. Perhaps the best thing Wyatt ever did was
his architectural work in the foundations of this sham "abbey."

The present Fonthill House has a small portion of Wyatt's building
incorporated with it. Half a mile away is the new Fon