An interesting talk on Wednesday by Dr. Helen Brown, Habitats and Heritage Conservation Officer, focussing on the life and achievements of Lady Isabel Burton (nee Arundell), born 1831 and died 1896.

Like her husband she had been an intrepid traveller, before she married Richard Burton in 1856 when he was Consul in Damascus.

There are many mysteries about their lives and their religions.

He died in Trieste in 1890. She was instrumental in the design of the Mausoleum at St Mary Magdalene’s Churchyard in Mortlake, where he was buried. It is a Grade 2 * listed building. It has been described as a Bedouin Tent but there is debate about this. It is high enough to accommodate a tall, standing Burton. Is it like the tent they used in their travels?

Why did Isabel come to Mortlake? It seems she had friends in the area and of course Portobello House, now replaced by Vernon Road, provided a Catholic Community. But she died in Baker Street.

She used Messrs Dyke, Stonemasons in Kentish Town, who created the sandy effect of the Mausoleum. Can it now be recreated for the purposes of the renovation?

She destroyed some of his original papers. Why?

There are many artefacts inside the Mausoleum which will be interesting to examine.

And an inscription ‘Praying for all those whose faith is known only to God’. Interpret that!

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The Mausoleum of Sir Richard and Lady Burton is a Grade II* listed^[1] tent-shaped mausoleum of Carrara marble and Forest of Dean stone in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.^[1] It contains the tombs of the Victorian explorer Sir Richard Burton (1821–90), who took part in the search for the source of the River Nile and translated The Arabian Nights, and his wife Isabel, Lady Burton (1831–96), who designed it.^[2] The coffins of Sir Richard and Lady Burton can be seen through a glass panel^[1] at the rear of the tent, which can be accessed via a short fixed ladder. The inscription includes a commemorative sonnet by Justin Huntly McCarthy (1859–1936), who lived in Putney.^[3]

The mausoleum was completed in time for Sir Richard’s funeral at the church on 15 June 1891.^[4] It was restored in 1975, and again in 2012–13. It is now maintained by Habitats & Heritage who are currently engaged in further restoration to be completed by November 2025.

Next to the lady chapel in the church there is a memorial stained-glass window to Burton, erected by his widow.^[6]

Architecture

Burtons’ mausoleum is carved from sandstone in the shape of the tent that the couple used for expeditions into the Syrian desert.^[7] The building is decorated with symbols of both Islam and Christianity, reflecting the Catholicism of Isabel Burton and Burton’s fascination with Middle Eastern philosophy and religion.

According to Mary S. Lovell in her 1998 Burton biography A Rage to Live, the design is neither that of a Bedouin tent (as is commonly stated) nor of a typical Arab tent. It is modeled on a tent Burton had made for his and Isabel’s travels in Syria, whose principal feature was being tall enough for the 5’11” Burton to stand upright. The tomb was executed in Forest of Dean sandstone, a highly prized stone noted for its fine grain and even color, by Messrs Dyke, Stonemasons of Highgate, and rises to a roof peak about thirteen feet high. It was paid for by a public subscription of £668, loosely equivalent to $60-70,000 today. The tomb itself reportedly cost £460, with the balance of the funds raised going towards the funeral costs.

The base ring, 12 feet by 11, is rough-cut York stone, and the interior floor is of white Carrarra marble with an inlaid black design. The door was originally of a style matched to the “tent,” of stone resembling a drop-cloth door and opening on metal hinges. It bore three marble plaques, one styled as an open book and bearing Richard and Isabel’s life dates, a larger tablet containing a sonnet by Justin Huntly McCarthy, and a stone ribbon commemorating the donors who helped pay for the tomb separating the two.

In deference to Burton’s dislike of the dark, the tomb includes on its rear a window, which was once wire-reinforced stained glass. There are conflicting descriptions of this window’s design but it is believed to have represented Burton’s coat of arms, and perhaps a dove with outstretched wings.