Following the death of his wife in 1671, the griefstricken Duke of Buccleugh , Sir George Rothmere, commisioned one of Englands most prominent architects to provide a fitting memorial to her memory. 

Planne, Elevation and Specificat’n for the Memorial Chapel and Reliquary of Lady Caroline Rothmere, lately deceas’d wife of His Grace The Duke of Buccleugh.

Henry Newbold, Architect, 1672

Architectural Drawings and Building Instructions

13 48” x 24” parchment Drawings and plans
10 detailed drawings for the interior decoration and adornment of the finished chapel
8 foolscap parchment instructions, Bills of Material etc.
1 notebook and Diary of Works, in Newbolds own handwriting.

All contained in a hardback leather portfolio retained in the library of Cavendish House, Lancashire.


Newbold had overseen the original design and construction of the family seat, and was poularly believed to have become the secret lover of Lady Caroline during his time at the Hall (circa 1630-1635) as the work neared completion.

Scandal and the Rothmeres were already closely linked in the popular imagination of the county, as it was widely held that as a young girl, Lady Caroline, “The Wicked Lady”, was intimately involved with the infamous Demdyke coven -the Lancashire Witches - with only her family’s position at court saving her when the witchhunt came.

Studying the diary it is clear that Lady Caroline herself had considerable input into both the design of her Memorial and the inital contracting and execution of the work. This was not uncommon at a time when the aristocracy where determined to make their mark on society and the landscape up to and even after their own deaths.

Intriguingly, the Bills of material are quite specific in some of the requirements for Newbolds vision. These include stones to be taken from certain ruins on the estate of Lady Caroline’s mother near Goatswood in the Severn Valley. These stones from her ancestral home were to be incorporated into the walls and floor of the crypt –a touching reminder of Lady Caroline’s childhood home.

Further to this, Newbold records receipt of a large piece of circular glass for incorporation into the chapel itself. Newbold’s diary is explicit in the anger expressed by the Duke when the costs of this “curiously wrought and formed glass, furnish’d by the craftsmen of Leng in far Cathay and purchas’d in strict accordance with My Lady’s instructions and design” were presented to him.

It is known that work began on the memorial chapel –Newbold’s diary of works indicated that foundations were dug, and that work on the crypt was almost completed, although no trace of the construction can be seen in the grounds today. It may be that Sir George heeded the advice of the local parson (sneeringly referred to in Newbolds diary) and abandoned the project, or that the impecunious aristocrat chose the more economic option of having his late wife interred in the family vault in the local church.


STUDY TIME: 2D6 weeks

Detailed study of the plans indicate that the building is to be precisely aligned according to strict astrological precepts.( One of the foolscap pages is a complex horoscope, whose astrological implications will take specialist interpretation.)For some reason this is to ensure that the light of the full moon is transmitted through the circular glass window in the roof of the chapel, in such a way that the light will be transmitted through the large circular opening in the floor of the chapel onto the reliquary monument in the crypt.Why this should be the case in what was ostensibly to have been a consecrated Christian chapel is open to debate.

It may also be that the prominence the reliquary monument takes in the building as opposed to the small and somewhat unimpressive altar is a reflection of seventeenth century aristocratic hubris, and the paucity of traditional christian insignia and emblems, replaced by what appear to be Rosicrucian, Classical Roman and Greek and Ancient Egyptian symbols which form the decoration both within the body of the chapel and within the crypt is possibly explainable as a Puritan or Neo clasical reaction to the flamboyant baroque style common in Catholic churches on mainland Europe at the time.

Further examination of the plans show that the geometry is somewhat strange for building features such as: roof beams, columns and arches and even the geometric patterns for the marble floor tiles. At first glance the dimensions seem mathmatically correct, but anyone attempting a reconstruction –a scale model say, will find that unless non-Euclidean precepts are employed within the building, it is simply impossible to construct. It costs 1/1D4 SAN to realise this and further 1/1D6 when an attempt at reconstruction-(full size or scale), succeeds.

The drabness of the exterior and the plainess of the interior of the building will eventually lead the patient student to deduce that it is not the building itself which was important to Newbold and his patroness –it is the shape of the space enclosed by the building and the position of the reliquary monument and the circular glass window in the roof relative to each other within that space, which is the overriding concern of the design.

SPELLS – The finished building was intended to be the temple of the cult that Lady Caroline founded and nurtured. It is unclear what foul deity she worshipped, but any recreation of the design will create a space which will add +1D20% chance of success to any Summon/ Bind ritual, and +1D10% to any Contact spell enacted within it.

Examination of the adornments and decorations specified in the plans in conjunction with other Mythos Tomes may allow a more precise identification of the deity -if this is established then the chances of succes increase to +50% for Summoning of the appropriate servitors, and +25% for Contacting the deity itself.

A half scale model constructed of, say, sheets of plywood, would suffice, provided the enclosed space thus created precisely matches Newbolds design, and that the reconstruction is accurately aligned according to the astrological chart contained in the architects plans. A full restoration of the original building will create the temple to Lady Carolines original conception. The black marble reliquary monument currently resides in the Conservatory in the west wing of Cavendish House, where it forms a striking centrepiece to the magnificent, and wildly overgrown collection of tropical plants and vines.

The glass which Newbold records having taken receipt of is more difficult to locate –there are rumours that the Camera obscura in the North Tower of Cavendish Hall sometimes shows disturbing and frightening images, however.

Assuming the Memorial Chapel was eventually completed, perhaps as a foolhardy, but well intentioned restoration project, there is no telling what may be let in to this world when the stars align correctly and pale moonlight shines onto the reliquary monument...