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A Gorgeous Tomb

Sir Thomas Gorges’ monument in Salisbury Cathedral

We all love a good funerary monument.

If you are wandering in Salisbury Cathedral you will inevitably stumble upon the beautiful tomb of Sir Thomas Gorges, bedecked with polyhedra.

Gorges was a bit of a character who managed to woo the somewhat saucy Swede Helena Snakenborg, who had become Marchioness of Northampton for a few months in 1571 before the Marquess rather suddenly dropped dead.

Sir Thomas fell for her and they were married in secret in 1576 to escape the wrathful gaze of the jealous usurper Elizabeth I.

He should not be confused for his relation, also Sir Thomas Gorges, who went to the New World to serve as deputy to William Gorges, the first governor of Maine before the province’s absorption by the Massachusetts-Bay Colony.

The proprietor of Maine, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, aimed to foster a neo-feudal community in New England based on the model of the West Country, and named his land New Somersetshire accordingly. (What a pity it failed, although Maine in summer is the very best of everything American.)

Our Sir Thomas, however, died in 1610 and this gorgeous monument was erected fifteen years later by son Edward. In addition to wonderful swirling sugarstick columns, the tomb is topped by a cuboctahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron (amongst others).

Not fifteen miles away in the Dorset church of Wimborne St Giles — much augmented by Sir Ninian Comper — you can find the lavishly ornate tomb of Sir Anthony Ashley and his wife. At Sir Anthony’s feet lies a truncated octahedron, indicating these geometric forms followed something of a deathly fashion.

You can even find a partially truncated rhombic dodecahedron at the final dwelling place of Sir Thomas Bodley — of Bodleian fame — in Merton College, Oxford.

The great majority of funerary polyhedra date from a period of about three decades during which, we are told, England and Europe “saw a resurgence of interest in quasi-mystical geometric symbolism”.

Published at 2:20 pm on Friday 3 October 2025. Categories: Architecture Tags: , .
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