The most elaborate part of the 4th Earl’s topiary garden lay to the south of the house and east of the churchyard. The mausoleum or vault stands in a hedged enclosure linked to both garden and churchyard. It takes the form of a raised mound, covered with turf, and is approached via a grass walk, flanked by yew hedges. The statue of a girl, with her hands folded in prayer, used to stand on the plinth above the entrance, gazing down the path towards the church. This statue, badly damaged by a fall from her former position, is now set in the grass to one side of the entrance.
Not known
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1881
The Stanhopes became lords of the manor of Elvaston in the 16th century. In 1818 Charles Stanhope, the 3rd Earl of Harrington, greatly enlarged the house creating the huge Gothick mansion subsequently known as Elvaston Castle. Following the death of his father in 1829, the 4th Earl of Harrington, also named Charles (1779-1851), turned his attention to the garden. Between 1830 and 1850 he employed William Barron, a skilled arboriculturalist, to landscape the grounds. The ‘architectural’ framework of the vast garden was largely created with topiary. The mausoleum, which is a bunker-like earthwork in a landscaped setting, was built sometime after 1880, perhaps following the death of the 7th Earl in 1881.
Though the statue is damaged, the mausoleum itself appears to be in reasonably good order (2003).
Maxwell Craven & Michael Stanley, The Derbyshire Country House (2001) 1, 92-4;
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OS maps for 1879-80 and 1900-1.
Elvaston
None
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Churchyard of St Bartholomew
Elvaston
Derbyshire
DE72 3EP
England