ISSN 2056-6492 MAUSOLUSMAUSOLUS THETHE JOURNALJOURNAL OFOF THETHE MAUSOLEAMAUSOLEA && MONUMENTSMONUMENTS TRUSTTRUST THETHE WINTERWINTER BULLETINBULLETIN 2017/20182017/2018

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Contents

Obituary Page 3 Editorial Page 4 Chairman’s Report Page 5 From private retreat to public remembrance: Page 7 Princess Charlotte at Claremont Laura Gangadeen Norwood’s Mausolea Page 9 Dr Bob Flanaagan A topsy-turvy burial Page 10 Rob Hawkins Printed brass monuments in the King’s Page 12 Topographical Collection Grant Lewis Project in Focus: the Mausoleum of the family of Page 15 John Campbell Beth Meades Mementos of Thomas Becket’s Shrine Page 20 Amy Jeffs Events Page 22

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Obituary: Gavin Stamp

restored the house that adding to his vast complement Alexander ‘Greek’ Thompson of published texts. built for himself in Glasgow. In 2003 he left Glasgow and Gavin, who loved societies, became an independent was chairman of the 20th scholar and lecturer. He took Century Society and worked over from John Betjeman for many similar societies the writing of the ‘Nooks and such as the Victorian Society Corners’ architecture column and our own MMT. in Private Eye (under the pseudonym Piloti) lambasting A great supporter of the MMT, planners and indeed others, springing promptly into action especially church elders, on when required, he wrote their treatment of historic many articles for Mausolus Gavin Stamp, an MMT trustee, buildings, a task he continued including most recently an died on 29th December at until his death. account of a visit to Sofi a. At the age of 69. He had been committees his contributions a trustee of the society since In 1985 he led a very public were succinct and precise. 2010 and had only a few days defence via the Spectator When the society was asked before his death resigned as magazine of the Gilbert Scott- to assist in the restoration of a trustee due to his health designed telephone boxes. the Scarisbrick mausoleum he problems. This resulted in the listing of readily sped up to Crossens to around 2500 telephone boxes visit it and the ensuing write- A lifelong campaigner against and an illustrated book. up, reproduced in Mausolus, architectural vandalism, got the project moving. Gavin began his education at Also a scholar of Edwin Dulwich College, proceeding Lutyens, he wrote of We last saw him at the to Cambridge where he Lutyens’ country houses end of November when his gained his PhD in 1978 with a and monuments. His book illness was already causing thesis on George Gilbert Scott on the Lutyens memorial at him some diffi culties. Junior (1839-97). He became Thiepval to the lost dead of Nevertheless and true to form, the acknowledged expert the Great War (The Memorial he gave a fascinating talk, on the Gilbert Scott ‘family’, to the Missing of the Somme together with Roger Bowdler, publishing a book on George 2006) is a masterpiece, some on the Croatian sculptor Ivan Gilbert Scott (Gothic for the say his most beautiful book, Mestovic; it may well have Steam Age) as recently as and reveals much hitherto been his last public lecture. 2015. unknown information. A fascination with the First Gavin leaves his wife, From 1990 he taught World War also lead to an Rosemary Hill, the biographer architectural history at exhibition at the RIBA of its of Pugin, and two children by the Mackintosh School of War Memorials. The buildings his fi rst marriage. Architecture whilst at the in India designed by Lutyens same time he bought and fascinated Gavin, further Ian Johnson

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Patrons Editorial Professor James Stevens Curl Tim Knox The following pages keenly evoke the eccentricities and Honorary Secretary traditions of the past, not to John St. Brioc Hooper mention their revival. Four of the fi ve articles in this issue Chairman explore reproduction and re- Ian Johnson presentation: Thomas Becket’s shrine depicted in fourteenth- Trustees century pilgrim badges; Alexander Bagnall barely-studied, eighteenth- Roger Bowdler century printed impressions Gabriel Byng of late medieval brasses; a Tom Drysdale reconstruction of a new-gothic Amy Jeffs tea-house-cum-memorial and Carolyn Leigh (Membership Secretary) the astonishing conservation Tim Ellis of the Mausoleum of the Robert Heathcote (Treasurer) family of John Campbell. The Ian Johnson contribution from our guest co- Frances Sands editor, Rob Hawkins (University Charles Wagner of Cambridge), upturns the trend with discussion of a most Mausolus is published twice unusual burial… a year by the Mausolea & Monuments Trust. All contents I am sorry to say that this is © MMT 2015 except where the last issue of Mausolus I will otherwise indicated. be editing. I have relished the role and the learning that has Members and others are warmly come with it. I look forward encouraged to contribute photos, to seeing the journal fl ourish news and features to: in the hands of my successor, Amy Jeffs who will be announced in due Corpus Christi College course. Cambridge CB2 1RH [email protected] Amy Jeffs

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Chairman’s Report Ian Johnson

The MMT was founded in 1998 by will be the last prepared by Amy to assist with the restoration of a group of enthusiastic youngsters Jeff s who has been in charge one of the most spectacular and led by Jill Allibone. That group of the magazine for over a year. perhaps most famous mausolea in included Tim Knox, one of our She has now taken on a new full- the UK-the Howard/Carlisle family current patrons, and Roger time post which will be very time mausoleum at Castle Howard in Bowdler, to whom we must now consuming. It’s a great pity that she Yorkshire. Designed by Nicholas bid farewell. cannot continue but the reason is Hawskmoor (unlike Castle Howard wholly understandable. Thank itself) this mausoleum is just you, Amy, for your wonderful work. simply huge but in a parlous state We hope that you will continue to - the work cannot be done soon be involved with the MMT, and of enough. Larger than the Cobham course, best of luck with the new mausoleum, it will require a great job! deal of eff ort, including fundraising, to eff ect its restoration. We are delighted to welcome a new trustee, Mike Fox. Mike As reported previously, the is deputy director of SAVE and Scarisbrick mausoleum restoration brings a wealth of campaigning has now been completed by the experience and a youthful Earl FitzWilliam Charitable Trust. approach. Now the problem remains of ensuring its future care. This is where the MMT comes in. We are Roger has been a trustee of the aiming to try to establish a group of MMT for nearly twenty years but individuals - a Friends Group - who has recently decided to step down. will ensure a local supervision and In addition to being a trustee, of course alert MMT or EFCT to Roger took over as Chairman of any maintenance needs. Although the MMT following the sudden no date is yet fi xed, it is our aim and unexpected death of Thomas to to hold an open day early in Cocke in 2008. Besides providing 2018 when the mausoleum can be immense support and help to the shown to local interested people. society, Roger has also given talks on a range of subjects, During 2018 a number of events and yet another took place in have been arranged. These are conjunction with Gavin Stamp at shown in the events list elsewhere the end of November, this time In September the trustees met in the magazine but include a on a subject close to his heart: for a day-long meeting in order to lecture by Clive Aslet, an event for the interplay between architecture enable a more detailed review of MMT members only at the Hope and sculpture in the work of Ivan the MMT’s activities. The Trust has Mausoleum with a tour of the Mestrovic. been approached by a number interior of that mausoleum, a talk of groups to assist with the at the the Soane Museum and All the trustees, past and current, restoration of various mausolea our AGM at Brookwood Cemetery are immensely grateful to Roger but some we have had to turn in Surrey. Some of these events for his long service to the MMT down partially due to resources, can only accommodate limited and hope involvement will continue both fi nancial and human, but numbers so please book early to into the future. others we do want to pursue. reserve your place. Perhaps the most fascinating Also sadly this issue of Mausolus potential project is a proposal

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From private retreat to public remembrance: Princess Charlotte at Claremont Laura Gangadeen, Curator at the National Trust, tells the sad story behind a modern replica of a Georgian tea-house.

Princess Charlotte Augusta of In the tradition of imperial Leopold’s collection of specimen Wales, daughter of the Prince marriages, the fl edgling couple plants. Regent (the future George IV) were only acquainted after the and heir presumptive to the event, so Claremont was to be One signifi cant intervention in throne, had the weight of a the backdrop of their courtship. the landscape was the gothic nation on her delicate shoulders. The grand landscape garden tea house sited on the plateau What led her whimsical Gothic- started in 1715 was considered atop Bridgeman’s impressive revival tea-house, constructed one of the fi nest in Europe amphitheatre “whence a fi ne in the fi rst years of marriage, to with schemes by Bridgeman, bird’s-eye view is obtained over become her cenotaph? Brown, Kent and Vanbrugh. the lake…”. With youth and spirit on their A popular fi gure; young, side Charlotte and Leopold were On the exterior tracer y, charitable and genteel, Princess keen to add their own patronage quatrefoils and fi nials were Charlotte was unlike the rakish to the garden, executed under embellished using Bernasconi generation of rebellious royals the direction of Crown offi cial cement. Auguste Charles Pugin before her. When in 1816 the John William Hiort. Noted designed the intricate interior princess married the handsome architect and designer of garden enriched with fi ne plasterwork and regal soldier, Prince Leopold buildings, John Papworth, was fan vaulting and domed pendant of Saxe-Coburg, the estate commissioned to undertake ceiling. The room delicately lit at Claremont near Esher was a number of additions to the and coloured by armorial stained acquired for the charming young garden such as the handsome glass executed by Joseph royals. Camellia House for Prince Backler Snr of London.

Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold at Covent Garden, 1817 by William Thomas Fry (1789-1843) © View from the grass Amphitheatre, Claremont © National Trust Images/ National Portrait Gallery Andrew Butler

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The Mausoleum of Princess Charlotte, 1843 by Caleb Robert Stanley (1795- 1868) © Royal Collections

The Apotheosis of Princess “…the Gothic temple, may servants manned the rooms, Charlotte Augusta, Princess of almost be called a hallowed visitors were allowed to walk the Wales by Henry Howard, RA (1769- spot;… Hither they intended grounds in the footsteps of ‘their’ 1847) © National Trust Images/John to retire from the dull round Charlotte (although areas such Hammond of fashionable life and courtly as the shell grotto quickly had etiquette.” to be roped off from souvenir- to conserve the mausoleum hunters keen for mementoes). despite mounting pressure on This pavilion for “occasional Posthumous portraits, prints of the poorly designed roof and retirement” was short lived. Claremont and commemorative Bernasconi cement mouldings On 6th November 1817 shortly ceramics were produced for the that suff ered in the exposed after giving birth to stillborn inconsolable nation. In her poem hilltop position. In 1922 when son, Princess Charlotte died ‘Lines on the Mausoleum of the the Crown sold the estate the at the tender age of 21. A Princess Charlotte, at Claremont’ building had slipped beyond country plunged into mourning; (1824), Letitia Elizabeth Landon repair. The new owner planned heartbroken at the loss of their wrote to sell plots in the landscape ‘Hope of Britain’ and beloved garden for development and Princess. Buried in St George’s “It is a monument where Hope / so the gothic temple was Chapel, Windsor Castle, And youthful Love sleep side by demolished; the rubble cruelly Charlotte’s more fi tting memorial side, / Raised by the mourner to used for a path on the estate. was to be at Claremont where the the name / Of her – his lost but gothic temple was “afterwards, worshipp’d Bride.” To commemorate the 200th in obedience to the wish of her anniversary of Princess consort, converted by Mr Hiort Prince Leopold continued to live Charlotte’s death, the National into a chapel or cenotaph to the at his beloved Claremont until Trust (owner of Claremont memory of the princess”. his accession to the throne of Landscape Garden since Belgium in 1831, retaining the 1949) embarked on a project In response to the outpouring estate until his death in 1865 to recreate the spirit of the of public grief, Prince Leopold when it passed to his niece mausoleum on its original site. opened Claremont to visitors Queen Victoria. Accounts and Using Papworth and Pugin’s wishing to pay their respects. correspondence on behalf of designs, contemporary prints Tickets were purchased and King Leopold relay his keenness and descriptions, the temporary

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The recreated mausoleum at Claremont © National Trust/Dee Durham temple has been built by Props structure with elaborate arches young royal couple’s private tea and Sets, professionals in theatre and intricate gothic details off er house on the hill. and fi lm sets. The octagonal us a glimpse of the spirited

Norwood’s Mausolea Dr Bob Flanagan

The 2017 Annual General cemeteries and contains a and founder of the Tate Gallery), Meeting was held at West number of notable mausoleums Sir Henry Doulton of pottery Norwood Cemetery on Saturday and listed monuments, including fame, and Mrs Isabella Beeton. 8 July. After concluding the a splendid section for the Greek meeting and lunch we were Orthodox Community. Among its Dr Flanagan’s booklet treated to a tour of the cemetery. famous residents are: Sir Hiram concentrates on the mausolea The tour was led by Dr Robert Maxim (inventor of the automatic of the cemetery, having been Flanagan who has written a very machine gun), Sir Henry written with the MMT members informative and well-illustrated Bessemer (inventor of the particularly in mind. booklet on the mausolea of West famous steel process), William Norwood. Burges (architect), David Copies at the special price for Roberts (artist), Dr William members of the MMT at £3 each, West Norwood Cemetery Marsden (founder of the Royal plus postage, may be purchased founded in 1836 and laid out Free and Royal Marsden from: The Friends of West by Sir William Tite, who was hospitals), C W Alcock (founder Norwood Cemetery, 79 Durban himself interred there in 1873. It of Test Cricket and the FA Cup), Road, London SE27 9RW www. was one of London’s fi rst garden Sir Henry Tate (sugar magnate fownc.org.

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A topsy-turvy burial Rob Hawkins unearths an inverted interment

Near the summit of Box Hill in Surrey there is a simple stone memorial which marks the grave of Major Peter Labelliere, ‘an eccentric resident of Dorking’ who was buried there ‘head downwards’ on the 11th July 1800.

W. H. Choulter’s account of the event describes how

‘a huge crowd gathered. Many had brought their dinners and had picnicked on the southern slopes. Others had watched all the morning, while three of four workmen, taking turns, had dug out a hole in the solid chalk in a small piece of open ground, surrounded by box trees. This hole grew deeper and deeper until it looked just like a well. On the bottom of the thick chalk was laid a blanket of yew twigs and leaves.

‘At last the wagons arrived and the crowd surged forward. Four men dressed in black stepped to the rear of the van and slowly brought out a polished wooden coffi n. This they had carried towards the hole and without any religious ceremony at all, except perhaps for the silent prayers of a few friends, the coffi n was placed on its end, head downwards, in the hole. More branches of yew and box were thrown in followed by earth and lumps of chalk, until the hole was completely fi lled and all that remained was

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‘in height, he was beyond the middle stature. His dress in which he was very negligent, was that of the period – a long blue coat with gilt buttons, knee breeches, worsted stockings, buckled shoes and a three- cornered black hat’. Mr Timbs, in his Promenade Round Dorking of 1824, noted that ‘numerous were the anecdotes told of his eccentricities. To a gentleman with whom he was in habits of intimacy he presented a parcel, curiously folded and sealed, with a particular injunction not to open it until after his death. This request was strictly complied with but on opening the packet it was found to contain merely a plain memorandum book.’ The major himself had a little book of daily meditations and the margins were covered with jottings of all kinds, some in ordinary writing and some in strange characters. He had great reverence for the Divine Name and would not permit the landlady’s children to burn a scrap of paper with the name of A portrait of Labelliere. Photo published in the Surrey Mirror (25 July, 2013) Deity upon it. a large white mound. On this, ragged boys’. Later, he lived in Besides his eccentricities, branches were thrown by a Dorking in a cottage called ‘The the Major was famous for his strangely noisy crowd.’ Hole in the Wall’. These modest charity. He was always giving circumstances are surprising money to those in need, and if Labelliere had joined the army given the fact that the Major he met a beggar on his walks, after a career as a teacher, was receiving a pension of he would off er him his coat. becoming an Offi cer and then £100 a year from the Duke of On one occasion he gave a Major in the marines. But Devonshire, of whom he was a away his shoes. He is reported as soon as he retired from close friend, being invited every to have found great solace the Army, he began to be ‘a year to spend a month on one in communion with nature, little eccentric in his ways’. He of the Duke’s estates. walking the hill at all times of lived for a time at Chiswick, the day and in all weathers. He where ‘he frequently walked to Charles Rose’s Recollections enjoyed particularly the furore London, followed by a tribe of of Old Dorking records that of thunderstorms, and indeed

10 Mausolus - WINTER 2017/2018 lost one of his eyes during one, was in fact buried in this the topsy-turvy world of the tripping over in the undergrowth manner, the other two being Kingdom of Heaven, where the and gouging it on a gnarled baseless legends spawned fi rst are last, the last fi rst, the branch. by the Major’s example, rich poor and the poor rich. At and suggested that Swift’s the Last Trumpet, therefore, the He died, legend has it, on the Gulliver’s Travels (1726), which ‘eccentric’ Major will perhaps day he had predicted some nine describes a similar burial, was be found to be ‘centric’; burial months previously. The Major the Major’s likely inspiration. ‘head downwards’ ensuring made two strange requests. Simpson gave a fuller history his uprightness on the Day of One was to be buried upside of the folklore notion of an Judgement. down on Box Hill; the other inversion of the world on was that the youngest son and Doomsday, relating it to Isiah In other historical contexts, daughter of his landlady should 24:1: ‘Behold, the Lord maketh upside-down burial (or, more dance upon his coffi n. The girl the earth empty, and maketh often, face-down burial) has could not be persuaded, but it waste, and turneth it upside been used as a way of shaming the boy did as he was asked, down, and scattereth abroad the dead. Suicides and and ‘remembered the incident the inhabitants thereof.’ assassins have been buried vividly’. upside down as an expression of society’s rejection of their A number of explanations decisions. Hundreds of face- have been off ered for the down or ‘prone’ burials have Major’s desire for an inverted been recorded, some dating burial. Mr Timbs off ers: ‘he from 26,000 years ago. These was buried in this manner, it include men, women, and being a constant assertion with children, though the majority him that the world was turned are men. They occur in all topsy-turvy and therefore at the sorts of graves: single graves, end he would be right’. Another double graves, and mass possible explanation is that the Labelliere’s grave. Photo published graves. A signifi cant number of Apostle Peter was crucifi ed in the Surrey Mirror (25 July, 2013) the archaeological examples of with his head downwards and this practice occur in Sweden, the Major desired to imitate his Elsewhere in the Christian from the early Christian period: namesake. Two historians of canon we can fi nd Bernard of it was perhaps a way in folklore working in the 1970s, Clairvaux expressing a similar which pagan Vikings showed Herbert Halpert and Jacqueline sentiment: to seculars, he and their contempt for Christian- Simpson, investigated the his monks appear like acrobats convert victims. If the popular plausibility of this, unearthing and dancers, with their ‘heads interpretation of Labelliere’s similar myths surrounding a down and their feet up’, burial is correct – if his head- string of nearby burials. Richard ‘drawing all eyes to themselves’ down position pre-empts the Hull on Leith Hill in Surrey, a and pleasing heavenly inversion of the world come miller named John Oliver on onlookers: it is a ‘good sort of Doomsday, then the usual Highdown Hill in Sussex, and playing’ which enrages men shaming relationship is, along an unknown man under Toat and pleases God. They appear with Labelliere’s body, inverted. Tower, Pulborough, Sussex: like this, he writes, because the Instead, the dead Christian, a all three were alleged to have seculars desire what the monks man of charity and generosity, been buried in the same way fl y from, and what the seculars showed his contempt for the for the same reason. Halpert fl y from the monks desire, for world by the burial he designed concluded that only Labelliere they are learning to inhabit for himself.

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Printed brass monuments in the King’s Topographical Collection Grant Lewis shares rare prints of medieval artworks

noted the number of objects it contains relating to funerary monuments, particularly from Britain. Remarkably, most of these are only now coming to light as part of an on-going project to catalogue and digitise the collection in toto, including copious examples of the engravings of tombs that proliferated in London’s print shops throughout George’s reign, plus watercolours, drawings, earlier prints and occasional pieces of text. During cataloguing, it has become apparent that many Printed impression of a brass of of these items would repay the Trinity, from St. Bartholomew’s, further research, and as the Bobbing, printed impression on project progresses it is hoped paper, last quarter of the eighteenth that some can start being century, 29.8 x 21.6 cm. The British advertised more widely. Library, Maps K.Top.18.6.b.

To begin with, however, it This technique essentially seems particularly important used monuments like copper to publicise the dozen or so plates: they were fi rst daubed printed impressions of English Printed impression of the brass with ink, wiped clean to force monumental brasses belonging effi gy of Robert Langton (d. 1524), the ink into the engraved to George, which in spite of their from the Chapel of Queen’s College, lines, and then impressed on bold appearance have attracted Oxford, printed impression on dampened paper, producing so little notice that many of paper, last quarter of the eighteenth an image in reverse of the their subjects have remained century, 94.7 x 40.6 cm. The British original. In fact, the only major unidentifi ed, save for some Library, Maps K.Top.34.29.a. technical modifi cation was the very vague, often incorrect replacement of a rolling press suggestions by the royal Comprising some 40,000 with a more primitive source of librarians. Worse still, even in items, King George III’s pressure, often to the detriment recent years these sheets have enormous collection of of the quality of the impression, often been confl ated with brass topographical maps and views which was necessitated by the rubbings, thus obscuring their is one of the largest and most fragility of brass, and the need signifi cance as extremely rare comprehensive antiquarian for a travel-friendly kit capable examples of a long obsolete resources the British Library of printing monuments in situ. and largely forgotten method of can off er. Readers who have Despite their alien appearance, reproducing brasses in print. used it will doubtless have therefore, these sheets actually

12 Mausolus - WINTER 2017/2018 have a lot in common with technique may not have been and Gough’s highly infl uential the sophisticated eighteenth- used to reproduce medieval Sepulchral Monuments (1786- century prints that typically brasses until the late eighteenth 96). Loose copies also appear surround them; moreover, as century. At this time, it became to have been gifted on a part of a collection that might closely associated with two regular basis, and a little good profi tably be used to study the collaborating antiquarians: Sir fortune in the archives might evolution of English engraving John Cullum, and in particular reveal either Cullum or Ord to they are a very good fi t indeed, Craven Ord, who both amassed have been the ultimate source evoking the very origins of large collections of impressions of some or all of George III’s the medium with their playful while touring the country, the impressions, one or two of blurring of the boundaries remaining parts of which are which are duplicated in their between plate and subject also in the British Library (Add. albums. Knowledge of a handful matter, printing and metal MSS 32478-9), where their of other named practitioners, all engraving, which must have contents have at least been potential donors, should check been every bit as curious and listed. Aside from creating their hypotheses about provenance stimulating for George III and own paper museums, both men for the time being, but reviewing his contemporaries as they are were also active in circulating the possible candidates for us. their material among fellow does highlight several trends antiquarians, especially Ord, underlining the specifi city of this The practice of taking ad who supplied impressions for technique: that its known users hoc impressions from metal some of the most important were limited to contemporaries engraving is a very old one, antiquarian publications of of Cullum and Ord; and that older than intaglio printmaking, the late eighteenth century, it may therefore only have which gradually grew out of including John Nichols’ History been current for a very short it as a separate process only of Leicestershire (1795-1815), time, in and around the period in the late fi fteenth century. Initially, it was especially favoured by goldsmiths as a means of checking their work, and in England at least, the fi rst surviving evidence for the printing of monumental brasses only appears in the early seventeenth century, when the scholar and engraver Richard Haydocke made a handful of off prints from his own funerary brasses, and not as proofs but as images in their own right, perhaps as explorations of his own into the relationship between the diff erent kinds of engraving.

Haydocke was the exception Printed impression of a memorial inscription to William Scot (d. 1441), from rather than the rule, however, St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, printed impression on paper, last quarter of the and excluding the occasional eighteenth century, 28.1 x 37.0 cm. The British Library, Maps K.Top.34.29.d. fi gure lost to history, the

13 Mausolus - WINTER 2017/2018 in which Cullum and latterly Ord’s surviving examples were produced, that is between the 1770s and 90s.

This makes surviving impressions of this type among the oldest mechanical reproductions of medieval brasses in existence, long predating the rubbings produced in great numbers from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. For the researcher, the documentary value of such early, dependable records of a monument is obvious, especially if the brass in question has since disappeared, or its appearance has subsequently been altered, either by damage or the overzealous Victorian restorations which many rubbers were too late to avoid.

Fortunately, whoever was responsible for the King’s impressions unknowingly managed to print quite a few plates that would later suff er Printed impression of the brass effi gy of John Hygden (d. 1532), similar misfortunes. These from the chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford, printed impression are too numerous to mention on paper, last quarter of the eighteenth century, 57.8 x 33.3 cm. here, but a suggestive sample The British Library, Maps K.Top.34.29.b. might be found in the handful of impressions taken from Oxford refreshed and re-laid as part impressions. In the meantime, brasses, the best represented in of largely reworked tombs, interested researchers may the collection: of the catalogued such as that belonging to John wish to consult relevant parts items from this cluster, one, the Hygden, the head of which was of the collection speculatively; memorial inscription to William later restored, and the missing of course, most will be Scot from St Mary the Virgin, lower body replaced. disappointed, but given the was taken from a plate that has apparently arbitrary decisions since been lost, probably not As more of George’s examples about which monuments long after this impression was remain unidentifi ed and (and parts of monuments) made; meanwhile, among the uncatalogued, it is expected that to reproduce, the chance of bruised and battered effi gies similar cases will soon emerge, serendipitous discoveries from Magdalen College are which will hopefully be entered seems real enough. several that have since been onto a descriptive list of all of his

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Project in Focus: the Mausoleum of the family of John Campbell Beth Meades shares the successful conservation of a gilded gem in Britain’s capital.

the designs of CHB Quennell is of great architectural interest and a high-quality example of an Edwardian mausoleum in a striking neo- Byzantine style. However, due to water penetrating the roof, along with major structural damage caused by a jungle of buddleia roots, both the structure and architectural features of the mausoleum had seriously deteriorated.

Specialist conservation skills were required to repair the external structure of the building and stabilise the micro-climate of the interior. Restoration of the decorative elements such as the gold mosaic ceiling, stained glass windows, marble-clad walls and stone fl oor were also needed to save this building.

Cliveden Conservation began by removing all the vegetation and repairing the damaged roof. Other external works included resetting the two stone arches and repairing cracks and open joints with appropriate mortars. The Mausoleum of the family of John Campbell looking forlorn, healthy if The layers of sulphation only in terms of its crop of buddleia covering the red brick and One of London’s most elaborate has recently been upgraded to Portland stone were removed mausoleums, situated at Grade II* and is currently listed with specialist poultices and all St Mary’s RC Cemetery in in Historic England’s Heritage the elevations were cleaned. Kensal Green, has been at Risk Register, was funded carefully restored by Cliveden by Historic England, with Inside the mausoleum, Conservation. The project to support from The Pilgrim Trust. Cliveden Conservation preserve the Mausoleum of the The Campbell Family repaired and cleaned the family of John Campbell, which Mausoleum built in 1904 to mosaic ceiling created from

15 Mausolus - WINTER 2017/2018 golden tesserae (gold leaf embedded between layers of glass): all the loose pieces collected from the fl oor were carefully reset. Conservators also recovered broken pieces of marble collected from the fl oor and spent days identifying them. Kris Zykubek, one of Cliveden Conservation’s most experienced conservators, explains the challenge:

This project required highly skilled conservators and stonemasons every step of the way. Each section of marble we found was assessed for repair using stainless steel dowels, resin and modifi ed plaster. Ones which could be repaired were reset on the walls but the main hurdle was sourcing replacement marble. Ashburton and Belge Rouge marble are no longer quarried but luckily we found an antiques and ancient marble expert who had a limited supply. Full of potential but sadly neglected, the project was not begun a moment With the cladding complete, too soon. Cliveden Conservation carried out repairs to the damaged just before works began, fl oor, replacing sections This has been a very special and Cliveden Conservation with new stone slabs where project, not only in practical enthusiastically welcomed required. The whole fl oor was conservation terms but also his visits to see work in established on an appropriate in what we have learned progress. We are delighted mortar bedding. Other works about the construction of that the mausoleum has included restoration work to the mausoleum and the now been repaired and the stained glass windows social history of the family. conserved – it is certainly and the copper-clad doors. Campbell was a major worthy of the care that has fi gure in the nitrates industry been taken, and we hope Verena McCaig, Heritage in Peru and many of his that a wider audience will at Risk Projects Offi cer for extensive family are interred be able to appreciate its Historic England refl ected on here. We were thrilled to intricacies. the project: meet a direct descendant

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Conservators assemble fragments to begin the painstaking task of reconstruction.

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The marble cladding on the walls had fallen away dramatically.

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A dazzling interior shown to its full advantage, after a rewarding conservation eff ort.

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Mementos of Thomas Becket’s Shrine Amy Jeff s presents a tiny but crucial image of the lost monument

A badge maker’s stall, with freshly cast lead alloy pilgrim souvenirs. Image courtesy of the Digital Pilgrim Project.

‘More famous than all the Becket, among other factors, like barnacles on the back of a rest, the golden mausoleum probably provoked Henry VIII’s whale, jewels, votive off erings, of Thomas of Canterbury [is] iconoclasts to annihilate it all candles and whatever else covered with diamonds, pearls the more completely. All that grateful pilgrims, high and low, and carbuncles, where it is survives, if they have been presented to the shrine. Most considered sacrilegious to off er correctly attributed, are a few of this Canterbury-centred any mineral less precious than fragments of purplish marble. paraphernalia is utterly lost. silver.’ – Aeneas Sylvius (later What once existed, on the other However, there is a class of Pope Pius II), 1436 hand, was a jewel-encrusted object that not only represents casket on an coloured stone the material fallout of the What may have been the richest, platform. After the translation popular explosion that was most materially excessive of Thomas’s body into the east Becket’s cult, but also sheds shrine of medieval England has end of the choir of Canterbury light on the lost spectacle of his left the faintest archaeological Cathedral, in 1220, it stood for shrine. trace. Indeed, the outlandish almost three centuries. In that popularity tomb of St Thomas time, the casket accumulated, One thing Henry VIII’s subjects

20 Mausolus - WINTER 2017/2018 never destroyed was the fragmentary, the iconography largest jewels were the size scattered corpus of pilgrim can be roughly reconstructed of goose eggs and presented souvenirs. It would be like by looking at them together. to pilgrims with a white rod by razing Disney Land to the Whole, they show a panel of the prior. The ruby’s fate after ground and then pursuing tracery beneath an effi gy of the Reformation is unclear, but every Mickey Mouse alarm Thomas Becket, dressed in it may have been made into clock, every Cinderella fridge archiepiscopal garb and holding a thumb ring for Henry VII (a magnet and every badge a cross-staff . Above him is the happenstance that presumably saying ‘I rode Big Thunder casket; a rectangle decorated suggests Erasmus was being Mountain.’ Pilgrim badges were with circle-and-dot motifs and hyperbolic in his description of small, portable and precarious. a small fi gure with a stick. The its size). These little souvenirs were rectangle is surmounted by two cast in stone moulds using an small ships. Flanking the shrine Two ships are also depicted alloy of lead and tin with an are two architectural pinnacles atop the shrine. These are outrageously low melting point and angelic fi gures with soaring attested by the historical (barely 200 degrees Celsius) censers. record. Miniature golden ships and most have an integral pin were donated by Edward I and clasp to allow them to be The badge is a delightful, and Edward III after military fastened to clothing for the informative but endlessly victories in their respective journey home. The low melting puzzling remnant of Thomas reigns. Edward III won his point and the eutectic nature Becket’s cult. The debate victory at Sluys, the fi rst major of the alloy meant that, for a continues as to whether it English victory of the Hundred few weeks, they would have represents an accurate visual Years’ War, in a ship called shone like polished silver. They record of the shrine. I direct Thomas. What with the ruby were sold in their thousands you to the work of Sarah Blick and the ships, it seems the outside Canterbury Cathedral. in Art and Architecture of designer of the badge was Many other pilgrimage sites in Late Medieval Pilgrimage in eager to draw attention to royal medieval Christendom had their Northern Europe and the British gifts as well as the saint’s body own souvenir badges. Those Isles (2005). However, some and its housing. from Canterbury are notable elements are straightforwardly for their diverse iconographies, verifi able. Badges could be purchased including depictions of for largely aesthetic reasons. Thomas’s head reliquary, the For one thing, the casket is For example, In the 15th sword that killed him (complete studded. The studs represent century Canterbury Interlude with removable scabbard), the the jewels that covered the by Beryn, which expands on martyrdom and his return from surface of the casket and these the Canterbury Tales’ pilgrims’ exile in a ship. Since being are described by late medieval experience of the shrine, the lost or discarded by medieval authors. One particular stud protagonists purchase ‘signs’ owners, those that survive have is being indicated by a small of Becket outside the cathedral. been excavated from rivers and fi gure with a stick and a slightly They did so, crucially, sewers, especially near ports wild hair-do. In some versions according to what they ‘liked’. like Bristol, London and King’s of the badge, the attendant Badges, as distinct from pilgrim Lynn. is clearly an angel. This stud ampullae which contained almost certainly represents the holy water or oil, don’t seem The souvenir-type being held Régale, a large cabochon ruby to have been actively holy. up for brief scrutiny here shows donated by Louis VII of France They were however, shiny, Becket’s shrine. While many in 1179. Erasmus explains, representational and aesthetic examples of this badge are somewhat satirically, that the objects. In choosing what they

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‘liked’ of the variety of available on pilgrim badges had some How ironic to fi nd two parties images, pilgrims must have bearing on the monuments partnered here that, in the refl ected on the spectacles of the shrine. In the aesthetic saint’s own life, quarrelled to they had just venerated in appeal of the Thomas shrine the point of homicide. the enclosed space of the badge, we see an interest cathedral. It is likely that many in both ecclesiastical and of the iconographies found royal patronage of the saint.

The shrine badge of Thomas Becket. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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2018 EVENTS

SUNDAY 29th April Behind the Scenes Visit to Thomas Hope’s Mausoleum and The Deepdene

Join us for an exclusive private view of the newly restored Hope Mausoleum, the resting place of the enigmatic Regency tastemaker Thomas Hope. The visit will be an opportunity to see inside this wonderful austere Neo Grecian tomb and hear about the restoration of the building and its landscape. The tour will also take in the Grade II* registered garden at Deepdene which has also been uncovered as part of the £1million Heritage Lottery funded restoration. Venue: Meet at Dorking Halls by the tatue of Ralph Vaughan Williams at 10.30 am Numbers limited to 25. Please note the walk includes uneven hilly terrain

THURSDAY 24th May ‘Sir William Chambers forgotten masterpiece: a mausoleum for Frederick, Prince of Wales’ by Dr Frances Sands, Curator of Drawings and Books at Sir John Soane’s Museum

A talk on Chambers’ unexecuted design for this extraordinary and little known example of Georgian funerary architecture, followed by an opportunity to enjoy privileged access to the original drawings.

Numbers limited to 25. late bookings cannot be accepted Venue: 14 Lincoln’s Inn Fields (to the right-hand side of Sir John Soane’s Museum), Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3BP. Doors open at 6.00pm, lecture begins at 6.30

SATURDAY 16th June AGM at Brookwood Cemetery

The Annual General Meeting will commence at 12.00 noon, followed by lunch and a tour of the cemetery. to rest within the beautiful grounds Brookwood Cemetery, Cemetery Pales, Brookwood, Surrey.GU24 0BL Please note that members are able to attend the AGM only without payment.

WEDNESDAY 12th September ‘War Memorials’ A lecture by Clive Aslet

War memorials as we understand them today were practically unknown before 1914 and now there are more than 10,000. But since there was no pre-established form, diff erent types emerged, depending on the particular meaning communities sought to attach to them. Venue: The Gallery 70 Cowcross Street London. 6-30 for 7.00pm

All events will cost £15 per person (£20 for guests), except for the AGM which will be £10 (£15 guests), and should be booked through our website [email protected] or by email to [email protected]. (Bookings can be made by post to The Secretary, Mausolea and Monuments Trust 70 Cowcross St London EC1M 6EL but an acknowledgement may take some while due to the postal system)

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