John Cumming Macdona died in 1907 and was remembered as a ‘tornado of energy’. He was born in Dublin in 1839, and after university entered the church and was ordained in 1859. Many years later he decided to read for the bar, before entering politics as a Conservative in 1885. But he was perhaps best known as a ‘famous dog fancier’, and this little tower was built as a tomb for one of his favourites.
Merseyside
The Garden Temple and the Pantheon, Ince Blundell, Merseyside.
In 1761, Henry Blundell was given control of the Ince Blundell estate by his father. He had recently married Elizabeth Mostyn and the couple settled into the mansion house, which had been built earlier in the century. Blundell was an avid collector, with the funds to indulge his passion, and after his wife’s early death he spent time in Italy before returning to Ince Blundell to build two temples ‘purposely for the reception of statuary’.