History
The Earls of Darnley had been buried at Westminster Abbey, but after the death in 1781 of John Bligh, the 3rd Earl spaces at the Abbey were no longer available. James Wyatt (1746-1813), a fashionable and extremely prolific architect of the time, was commissioned to design a mausoleum to hold the coffins of the Earls and their family members. Wyatt exhibited the design at the Royal Academy in 1783. A slightly modified design was completed in 1786 under the supervision of George Dance the Younger (1741-1825), perhaps fortunately as Wyatt had a poor reputation for supervising the execution of his work. For obscure reasons the mausoleum was never consecrated so no bodies were laid to rest there. However, shortly after it was completed Humphry Repton (1752-1818) started to redesign the landscapes around Cobham Hall for the 4th Earl in the 1790s and subsequently over nearly 30 years. As a result he mausoleum became an important landscape feature, sitting at the highest point of the Darnley estate.
Read more about this topic: Darnley Mausoleum
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