In 1834, a mausoleum was designed that defied – still defies – any hope of anyone’s being able adequately to describe its glory.
It honoured Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727), the great scientist, physicist, alchemist, mathematician, theologian, author and astronomer. He’d died over 100 years earlier and been buried in Westminster Abbey. It was suggested that he might also be posthumously remembered at his home in St Martin’s Street, Westminster, but with a most startlingly remarkable monument.
It could not have been any stranger: a 40-foot-high stepped stone pyramid, sliced off two thirds of the way up with a colossal
