Dickie Bateman and the Gothicization of Old Windsor: Gothic Architecture and Sexuality in the Circle of Horace Walvole

摘要

Upon Dickie Bateman's death in 1774, ownership of the Priory went to his nephew, John Bateman (1721-1802), who seems to have had no love for his uncle's famous home. He pulled down parts of the house and sold its contents at Christie's the same year. Walpole provided an emotional response: writing to William Cole, he urges him to come to visit Strawberry Hill soon because 'Strawberry is almost the last monastery left, at least in England. Poor Mr Bateman's is despoiled: Lord Bateman has stripped and plundered it[!]'. He continues, 'I was hurt to see half the ornaments of the chapel, and the reliquaries, and in short a thousand trifles exposed to sneers.