This early Gothic Revival mausoleum has a Greek cross plan with buttressed gables on all four sides. The doorway (now bricked up) is sheltered by a drip-mould with head-stops and a pointed arch. The other three faces of the building bear commemorative plaques under similar drip-moulds. Only one of the delicately carved head stops remained intact at the time of our visit.
Not known
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Grade II (England and Wales)
1847-48
Also known as the Dumore Mausoleum, the inscription on the D'Este Mausoleum says that it was erected by Sir Augustus Frederick D’Este (1794-1848) for his mother, Lady Augusta Murray (1761-1830), the second daughter of the 4th Earl of Dunmore, who lived at Mount Albion House in Ramsgate. D’Este was the offspring of her relationship with Augustus Frederick, 6th son of George III; their marriage, in 1793, was not recognised by the Royal Family. Five further members of the family are incumbents of the mausoleum: the builder Sir Augustus Frederick D'Este and his sister Augusta Emma D'Este (1801-66); Augusta Emma D'Este's husband Thomas Wilde, Lord Chancellor and 1st Baron Truro; and the 4th Earl and Charlotte, Countess of Dunmore (Lady Augusta's parents) who were previously interred in the parish church. Their coffins, along with Lady Augusta's coffin, were moved to the D'Este Mausoleum after it had been built in 1847-48.
The legal ownership of the D’Este Mausoleum lies with the Diocese of Canterbury.
At risk. The soft Caen stone is crumbling and parts of the gables, mouldings and all of the finials have already fallen to the ground (2002).
David Williamson, Brewer’s British Royalty (1996), 323.
Julia Abel Smith, Forbidden Wife (2020), pp. 284-85.
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Churchyard of St Laurence
High Street
St Lawrence
Ramsgate
Kent
CT11 0QP
England