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Mausoleums
Mausoleums magnificent, monumental tombs are often haunting, powerful buildings in evocative sites. The author reveals their history, beginning with the great tomb at Halicarnassos built for King Mausolos of Caria by his wife Queen Artemisia in the fourth century BC, which gave the monuments their name. She explains the details of their architecture, ranging from massive Egyptianate landmarks through elegant Georgian temples to lavishly decorated Victorian tombs, and considers the motives of mausoleum builders. A substantial, well-illustrated gazetteer of over 150 examples in Britain completes the book, leading the reader on a journey from the remote Sinclair Mausoleum in the north of Caithness a tiny castle known as Harold's Tower to the hugely ornate Royal Mausoleum at Windsor.
40 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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April 7, 2011
Lynn F. Pearson is the author of Discovering Famous Graves and British Breweries: An Architectural History, so her two interests (dead people and architecture) combine in this booklet.
And what a strange little book this is. Apparently once Henry VIII busted up the Catholic Church’s landholdings in the United Kingdom, the wealthy started burying themselves anywhere they held property. Historic mausoleums dot the countryside — from serving as follies on the ancestral grounds (sometimes held now by the National Trust) to overseeing parish churches long crumbled to dust, lurking in overgrown forests or standing on lonely cliffs. Because so many of them are not on public lands, Pearson gives no addresses more specific than Lowther (presumably the village), Cumbria (the county?), England. Some lucky mausoleums stand in churchyards, which she identifies by name, although again there are no addresses.
I understand the purpose of this book is not to serve as a guidebook or to encourage visitation or vandalism of these sites, but so few of the listings are accompanied by photographs that the book reads like a précis of a larger work. That’s unfortunate, because I think it contains important information. This survey of vulnerable monuments is, judging from the gutted ruin on the cover, long overdue.
That said, I found the booklet completely fascinating. The black-and-white photographs which are included are often dramatic and quite powerful. Pearson’s history of mausoleum-building is chock-full of interesting information I’ve come across nowhere else. Pearson’s descriptions of the mausoleums, while brief, are lively: “The mausoleum, a monumental construction of irregular stone blocks, is to death as the church is to life; look through its window — if you dare — to be confronted by a cool, white alabaster vision…” She includes last resting places of the famous: Napoleon III, Sir Francis Dashwood (founder of the Hell-Fire Club), Sir Richard Burton (translator of The Arabian Nights), Princess Diana, etc. My favorite aspect of the booklet, however, is the details Pearson mentions in her whirlwind tour: the “bug-eyed monsters with their serrated teeth” adorning the Iremonger mausoleum in Wherwell; her wry observation about a couple buried in opposing wings of their church in Hertfordshire that “apparently their marriage was not altogether happy”; the mausoleum in the Trowbridge General Cemetery whose motto reads, “I have the keys of Death and Hades.”
It’s clear that Pearson knows her topic intimately. I hope that she will be given the time and space to explore it further. In the meantime, for the cemetery connoisseur of any nationality, this book is absolutely intriguing.
This is another review from Morbid Curiosity #7.
And what a strange little book this is. Apparently once Henry VIII busted up the Catholic Church’s landholdings in the United Kingdom, the wealthy started burying themselves anywhere they held property. Historic mausoleums dot the countryside — from serving as follies on the ancestral grounds (sometimes held now by the National Trust) to overseeing parish churches long crumbled to dust, lurking in overgrown forests or standing on lonely cliffs. Because so many of them are not on public lands, Pearson gives no addresses more specific than Lowther (presumably the village), Cumbria (the county?), England. Some lucky mausoleums stand in churchyards, which she identifies by name, although again there are no addresses.
I understand the purpose of this book is not to serve as a guidebook or to encourage visitation or vandalism of these sites, but so few of the listings are accompanied by photographs that the book reads like a précis of a larger work. That’s unfortunate, because I think it contains important information. This survey of vulnerable monuments is, judging from the gutted ruin on the cover, long overdue.
That said, I found the booklet completely fascinating. The black-and-white photographs which are included are often dramatic and quite powerful. Pearson’s history of mausoleum-building is chock-full of interesting information I’ve come across nowhere else. Pearson’s descriptions of the mausoleums, while brief, are lively: “The mausoleum, a monumental construction of irregular stone blocks, is to death as the church is to life; look through its window — if you dare — to be confronted by a cool, white alabaster vision…” She includes last resting places of the famous: Napoleon III, Sir Francis Dashwood (founder of the Hell-Fire Club), Sir Richard Burton (translator of The Arabian Nights), Princess Diana, etc. My favorite aspect of the booklet, however, is the details Pearson mentions in her whirlwind tour: the “bug-eyed monsters with their serrated teeth” adorning the Iremonger mausoleum in Wherwell; her wry observation about a couple buried in opposing wings of their church in Hertfordshire that “apparently their marriage was not altogether happy”; the mausoleum in the Trowbridge General Cemetery whose motto reads, “I have the keys of Death and Hades.”
It’s clear that Pearson knows her topic intimately. I hope that she will be given the time and space to explore it further. In the meantime, for the cemetery connoisseur of any nationality, this book is absolutely intriguing.
This is another review from Morbid Curiosity #7.
Displaying 1 of 1 review