Blickling Park mausoleum

The mausoleum was commissioned by Lady Caroline (wife of William Harbord, 2nd Baron Suffield), the eldest daughter of John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire, in memory of her father who died in 1793.

[1] Caroline, who inherited her father's estate Blickling Hall, commissioned the Italian architect Joseph Bonomi the Elder to design the structure.

[2] Bonomi designed a mausoleum based on the ancient Pyramid of Cestius in Rome, in an early example of Egyptian Revival architecture.

[1] The pyramid measures 45 feet (14 m) square in plan and is sited on an avenue of yews, on the edge of an ancient woodland around 1 mile (1.6 km) from the hall.

The entablature is engraved with the Hobart family motto auctor pretiosa facit (Latin: "the giver makes the gift precious").

[1][4] In 1806, Edmund Bartell described the mausoleum in his Guide to Cromer: "Its situation is very happily chosen in the midst of a large and venerable wood, whose solitude appears only to be broken by the prying curiosity of the stranger, or the footsteps of the nimble deer".

[5][4] The National Trust, which describes the mausoleum as "one of Blickling’s most iconic landmarks", is fundraising for repairs to the structure, to include replacement for the worn door hinges.