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Purpose

Downhill, County Derry, Northern Ireland: mausoleum for Lord George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol for 4th Earl of Bristol, 1800 (4)

Signed and dated

  • 1778
  • 1781

Notes

As built, the middle storey has an Ionic order and the base is ashlar with inset panels on each side; additional are an urn, paterae and a swag frieze; a variation of the design shown in drawing 1. Drawings 2-4 are for a larger and more elaborate mausoleum. Plate xxxv of Soane's Designs in architecture, 1778, shows a design for a mausoleum with a rusticated basement with an arched opening quite similar to that of drawing 2.

The mausoleum was commissioned by Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry, 4th Earl of Bristol (c.1778-1781), to the memory of his eldest brother, Lord George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, who died in 1775. An estimate from Michael Shanahan for £462.0s.9d was made in 1778 or early 1779 and construction followed until about 1783. Cupola and statue (upper storey) were blown down in a storm of January 1839 and were not replaced.

Literature. E.E.R.Green, 'Downhill Castle, County Derry, Northern Ireland', Country Life, 1950, CVII, p.38; P. Rankin, 'Downhill Co. Derry II', Country Life, 1971, CL, p.155; P. du Prey, John Soane’s architectural education 1753-80, 1977, pp.178-80; P. du Prey,'Je n'oublieray jamais: John Soane and Downhill', Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, XXI Nos 3&4, 1978, pp.18-19; H. Colvin, Architecture and the after-life, 1991, p.353

Jill Lever, February 2009

Level

Scheme

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Contents of Downhill, County Derry, Northern Ireland: mausoleum for Lord George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol for 4th Earl of Bristol, 1800 (4)