Description

HENDERSKELFE KIRK HILL
SE 76 NW
Castle Howard
7/44 The Mausoleum and bastion
wall with gates and
railings
25.1.54
(formerly listed as the
Mausoleum including
substructure)
GV I
Mausoleum and bastion wall. Designed 1726-29 and modelled on Tomb of
Metella by Nicholas Hawksmoor for Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle;
built 1729-42 under the supervision of William Etty, Clerk of Works, with
additional flight of steps and bastion wall by Daniel Garrett; interior
carving by Charles Mitley. Sandstone ashlar with lead roof and wrought-iron
gates and railings. Circular peripteral mortuary chapel on square plinth
containing burial crypt, surrounded by square bastion wall. 3-storey cella
with colonnade to second storey. Entrance to crypt on rusticated north-east
facade: ornamental iron gate beneath channelled lintel with massive
keystone, flanked by broad ashlar pilasters and double flight of steps with
damaged column-on-vase balustrade leading to piano nobile. Moulded plinth
carries 20-column Doric peristyle and entablature. Entrance to cella: 6-
fielded-panel door in moulded architrave with pulvinated frieze beneath
canopy held on moulded corbels. Similar blind entrances to each quarter,
divided by niches with continuous moulded impost band. Moulded first-floor
band. Above entrances are round-headed 35-pane unequal sashes with radial
glazing to heads, in pilastered architraves with keyed hoods, divided by
niches echoing those below. Blind square openings in moulded architraves
above. Above peristyle entablature, cella has eight 20-pane sashes in eared
architraves separated by lead downpipes. Moulded cornice, blocking course
and domed roof. Bastion wall: squared rusticated projections with Greek key
frieze to angles and in pairs to each facade, separated by ashlar
semicircular projections and rusticated broad pilasters with Greek key
friezes. Scroll-decorated gates, semicircular on plan, to centre of north-
east facade, flanked by lancet railings which surmount wall and first
pilaster to either side. Interior: vaulted crypt contains 63 catacombs.
Cella has Corinthian columns on high plinths recessed into the walls and
carrying a rich entablature. Coffered ceiling. Horace Walpole wrote of
this fine building that it "would tempt one to be buried alive". Howard G,
Castle Howard Guidebook, 1972. Hussey C, English Gardens and Landscapes
1700-1750, 1967. Lees-Milner, English Country House: Baroque 1685-1715,
1970. Pevsner N, Yorkshire: The North Riding, 1966. HBMC, Register of
Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England, Part 32, North
Yorkshire: Castle Howard, Grade I.

Listing NGR: SE7273969630

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17538317

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings