“The scene is set at Fonthill, William Beckford’s extraordinary gothic pile in Wiltshire where Nelson, Emma and Sir William Hamilton spent their Christmas in 1800. According to one contemporary account published in The Gentleman’s Magazine on 28 December that year, ‘they were received into the great saloon … furnished with rich tapestries, long curtains of purple damask before the arched windows, ebony tables and chairs studded with ivory, of various but antique fashion; the whole room in the noblest style of monastic ornament, and illuminated by lights on silver sconces. At the moment of entrance they sat down at a long table, occupying nearly the whole length of the room, to a superb dinner, served in one long line of enormous silver dishes, [including a ‘nef’] in the substantial costume of the ancient abbeys, unmixed with the refinements of modern cookery. The table and side-boards glittering with piles of plate and a profusion of candle-lights, not to mention a blazing Christmas fire of cedar and cones of pine, united to increase the splendour and to improve the coup’-d’oeil of the room. It is needless to say the highest satisfaction and good-humour prevailed, mingled with sentiment of admiration at the grandeur and originality of the entertainment.”
In 1914, Wright’s Coal Tar Soap offered customers smaller coloured copies of this patriotic scene (in return for 24 soap wrappers!
