ALL biographers of William Beckford, the author of 'Vathek' and creator of Fonthill, agree in recounting, on Beckford's own authority, that during the Mozarts' visit to England in I764-5 Beckford was given lessons in composition by the young Wolfgang Mozart. Most of them also repeat the story that the air which appears in 'Figaro' as 'Non pii andrai' was originally hit upon by Mozart as a theme on which his pupil could try his hand at writing variations. Some show a faint degree of scepticism, which is not surprising since at that time Mozart was only 8 or 9 years old and Beckford only 4 or 5, but most accept the stories unquestioningly as just further evidence of Beckford's remarkable precocity. They all allow to pass unchallenged Beckford's much shakier claim to have renewed his acquaintance with Mozart in later years. It is strange that not one of them appears to have been worried by the fact that Mozart's biographers are completely silent about the whole business. As the fables-if fables they are-go back to Beckford himself it seems right to let him have his say first. What, then, does the evidence amount to? One piece of it, at least, survives in Beckford's own hand. His personal papers, which were numerous, passed at his death to his surviving daughter Susan Euphemia (I786-I859), who in I8Io had married Alexander Hamilton, Marquis of Douglas, later the ioth Duke of Hamilton. They have remained ever since in the possession of the Hamilton family and have been drawn upon by all recent biographers of Beckford. One of these, J. W. Oliver, in his 'Life of William Beckford' (1932), quotes a note appended by Beckford to one of his early letters in which, talking of Mozart, he says: "He passed some time at Fonthill, having been engaged, though quite a child, to give me-his junior by four or five years-lessons of composition. We renewed our acquaintance at Vienna, where I found him as strange, as melancholy, but more wonderful then ever." There is reason to believe that this note was written in 1838 or I839.1 The other evidence comes at second hand. Beckford's first biographer was the journalist and miscellaneous writer Cyrus Redding (1785-1852). Redding was in Bath from 1834-5 as editor of The Bath Guardian and made Beckford's acquaintance there. In I844, on Beckford's death, he published, in two instalments, 'Recollections of the Author of "Vathek" ' in The JVew Monthly Magazine.