“William Beckford, heir to Jamaican sugar plantations, who spent 40,000 pounds on his 21st birthday party. 8 year old mozart was brought in to give him piano lessons; Sir Wiliam Chambers, the kings' architect, taught him to draw. Bryon called him "England's wealthiest son in a poem. 1784 his affairs to a wife the a cousin and a young boy named William Courtenay, the future 9th Earl of Devon, was thought to be the most beautiful boy in England. Often both affairs were carried on under the same roof. In the fall of 1784 Beckford found a note written by the boy that threw him into a jealous rage, and he went up to the boy's room to horsewhip him; the noise caused a disturbance and "Courtenay was discovered in his shirt, and Beckford in some posture or other - strange story. the boy was the only male among 14 siblings, and was 16 at the time, but may have been as young as 10 when the affair began. Had to leave England due to the affair, and wrote a novel, admired in its day, in 1796 returned to England, pulled down the family mansion, and built the largest house since Blenheim, despite having no prospect of company. build by James Wyatt, a talented productive architect with absolutely no business sense and a huge drinking problem. The house eventualy fell down, after Beckford had sold it and moved to bath. ”
