Castle Howard Mausoleum, North Yorkshire

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Castle Howard has extensive and diverse gardens. There is a large formal garden immediately behind the house. The house is prominently situated on a ridge and this was exploited to create an English landscape park, which opens out from the formal garden and merges with the park.

Two major garden buildings are set into this landscape: the Temple of the Four Winds at the end of the garden, and the Mausoleum in the park. There is also a lake on either side of the house. There is woodland garden, Ray Wood, and the walled garden contains decorative rose and flower gardens.

The Mausoleum

In the 1720s the 3rd Earl of Carlisle announced his decision to build a grand funeral monument for himself and his family. Initially he consulted Vanbrugh, but following his death in 1726, the Earl turned to Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Begun in 1729, the Mausoleum took just over twelve years to build. Hawksmoor's initial design for a cylindrical structure sitting on a square plinth was modified by a triumvirate of gentleman architects. These were the young 4th Earl, his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Robinson, and their colleague Lord Burlington, the patron of the new style of Palladian architecture.

Ill-health and pressure of work in London prevented Hawksmoor from visiting often and, by the time of his death in 1736, the building had reached the height of the principal windows. The 3rd Earl died two years later and was temporarily buried in St Martin's Church, Bulmer, three miles away, before being interred in the Mausoleum in 1741.