This cyclopeian mausoleum is built into a hillside scattered with large rocks. In the pediment above the entrance there is a gryphon (the Evelyn crest) and on the lintel over the door a carving of a butterfly and the inscription “Good deeds are the best memorials”. The forecourt is enclosed by a wall and entered via wrought iron gates. The brick-lined rectangular chamber inside the mausoleum contains twenty coffin niches, in two rows of five to either side.
Not known
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Grade II (England and Wales)
1812
It is not known which member of the Evelyn family built this mausoleum. It may have been Mary Lady Evelyn, the wife of the 3rd and last baronet, Sir Frederick Evelyn, following his death in 1812. As the couple had had no children, the Wotton estate then passed to a cousin, Captain George Evelyn (1791-1829). He served in the Peninsular War and was wounded at the Battle of Waterloo. The mausoleum could have been built during his lifetime, or even following his death in 1829. Whether it was ever used is not known either: the coffin niches inside are now all empty. It was restored by J P M H Evelyn in 1993.
Good (2002).
BoE: Surrey (1971), 544;
G Headley and W Meulenkamp, Follies (1990), 117.
None
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Brickyard Lane
Wotton
Surrey
RH5 6QD
England