Thursday 13 August 2009

De Visme Mausoleum


THE MAUSOLEA & MONUMENTS TRUST

http://www.mausolea-monuments.org.uk/home.php?image_file_name=44bb6a534cc4c&admin_page=gazetteer&ref_id=4414756cb4cf3


History

The de Vismes were French Protestants who settled in England following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Gerald de Visme (1726-1797) who built the mausoleum belonged to the third generation of the family to live in this country. He is said to have "held high office at Lisbon (being) there at the time of the great earthquake".
Description
A large stone pyramid raised on a square base designed to shelter a sunken vault. The base has acroteria at the four corners two of which are decorated with some form of bean pod. The pyramid is built of vermiculated stone and bears an oval plaque with the family crest (a black, two-headed eagle with outspread wings). The overall form of the monument is similar to that of the Greg Mausoleum in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church at Hampton, also built in the last decade of the 18th century.
Condition
Good. A few small plants and minor cracks but nothing major (2006).

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