The Lady Anne Temple

Dawson Mausoleum (Image: Irish Arts Review)

On the 15th August, 2020, five of us visited Dartrey Estate, County Monaghan.

Having seen the New and Old stable blocks, the Iron Bridge, and the site of Dartrey House, we made our way through dense forest and woodland.

It was a warm and sunny day, perhaps the warmest of the year.

Eventually we emerged at a clearing and a little hill, which we drove up in the car.

A square red-brick building appeared at the top of the hill.

The immediate area round the building has been cleared of foliage, though it is surrounded by forestry commission land densely planted with fir trees.

The Temple directly faces the site of Dartrey House, though today the view is obscured by forest.

We had arrived at the Dartrey Mausoleum, a Georgian temple dedicated to the Lady Anne Dawson (1733-69), wife of Mr Thomas Dawson (1725-1813), later Baron Dartrey, Baron Cremorne and 1st Viscount Cremorne.

Lady Anne Dawson as Diana, by Sir Joshua Reynolds (Image: Sotheby's)

Lady Anne was the youngest daughter of Thomas Fermor, 1st Earl of Pomfret.

A great deal has already been written about the Temple, Lady Anne, and Thomas Dawson, so I shan't (or can't) add to it.

Given its description as a mausoleum, I suppose it's possible that Dawson had considered interring his young wife there, though she was buried at Dartrey Church in the estate, and later her remains were removed to Stoke Poges Church, Buckinghamshire.

John Redmill has written a fine article for the Irish Georgian Society about Lady Anne's Temple.

Noel Carney, a member of Dartrey Heritage Association, led us in to the mausoleum, through the large doors, and a cavernous chamber with a great domed ceiling.

(Image: Timothy Ferres, 2020)

At the centre of this ceiling there is an oculus, from where light shines through to different parts of the temple at certain times of the day.

The dominant feature inside the Temple is the exquisite sculpture, on a plinth or base, with a large, elaborate funerary urn.

(Image: Timothy Ferres, 2020)

This urn is adorned with the Dawson coat-of-arms.

In 1774 the Hibernian Journal wrote:-

"A few days ago was landed in Dublin a beautiful marble monument, done by Joseph Wilton Esq, of Portland Street, London, which Lord Dartrey is to erect in a temple at his seat in Co Monaghan to the memory of his late wife, Lady Anne Dawson, daughter of the late Earl of Pomfret."

(Image: Henry Skeath, 2002)

In VOLUME X of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead, Ireland, there is an account of the monument to Lady Anne, written in 1917, describing it thus:-

"On a wooded island [Black Island] in a lake in Lord Dartrey's demesne is a square building, with a single window in the roof, known as the Temple." 

"The monument is placed in an alcove of the wall, and consists of an altar of white marble, with grey background, approached by two steps of alabaster, and surmounted by a carved classic urn of white marble." 

"Resting on a cloud beside the urn is a life-sized figure of an angel, pointing on one hand on high, and with the other to a life-sized draped figure of Mr Dawson, who stands before the altar looking towards her, with an arm uplifted in a supplicating attitude, while his infant son stands clutching him as if in alarm."

The lengthy inscription below the sculpture states that the monument commemorates "Lady Anne Dawson, sixth daughter of Thomas Fermor, Earl of Pomfret ... in a grateful and affectionate sense of the Blessing he enjoyed in such a wife ..."

Lady Anne died in 1769, aged 36, though the monument couldn't have been erected until after 1770, the year Thomas Dawson was created Baron Dartrey.

In 1785, Lord Dartrey was advanced to a viscountcy, as Viscount Cremorne.

The monument to Lady Anne is generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest Georgian memorials in Ireland.

It once stood neglected. The roof had fallen in, and if the sculpture had not been in a niche it would have suffered even more damage from the elements.

Vandals had broken off fingers and toes, and the angel's arm had gone.

This superb sculpture and temple have been largely restored by the Dartrey Heritage Association, with the support of Monaghan County Council, the Irish Heritage Council and the Irish Georgian Society.

(Image: Henry Skeath, 2002)

This wonderful restoration has transformed a ruinous building into an architectural treasure; a phœnix that has risen from the ashes.

First published in August, 2020.