A vault under the Wellington Testimonial?

bridget.laitly

Full disclosure: this came from Wikipedia

Came across a "local legend" about fundraisers holding a dinner in the vault under the Wellington Memorial in 1820 to finance its completion, then accidentally sealing in a drunk butler as they closed the place up.
... really?

Can anyone corroborate this (the story or the vault) or is it a Wikifact gone astray?

imme

never heard the like:rolleyes:
seriously though, never heard of a vault under the monument. The obelisk was the tallest of it's kind in the world until the obelisk in Washington DC was completed. I never heard of a vault under an obelisk and think it highly unlikely, building/architecture-wise.
The monument was unfinished for many years due to lack of funds.

Judgement Day

imme wrote: »

never heard the like:rolleyes:
seriously though, never heard of a vault under the monument. The obelisk was the tallest of it's kind in the world until the obelisk in Washington DC was completed. I never heard of a vault under an obelisk and think it highly unlikely, building/architecture-wise.
The monument was unfinished for many years due to lack of funds.

Sounds like an urban legend to me but it reminds me of something that I came across while researching my family history. In 1812 General Sir Issac Brock died at the Battle of Queenston Heights in Ontario, Canada, defending Canada from the rapacious USA and becoming a national hero in the process. A monument was erected to Brock on Queenston Heights not far from Niagara Falls see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brock's_Monument

My ancestor, despite coming from good Wexford loyalist stock is supposed to have been responsible for blowing up the Brock monument in 1840 but it was replaced by a bigger structure which is still in place today. An interesting, if macabre, point is that General Brock and another individual were actually buried under the monument and had to be disinterred during the rebuilding work. Apparently it was a none too professional disinterrment which led to both sets of skeletal remains being well and truly mixed-up! Anyway, as far as I remember General Brock and his companion were reinterred and remain in situ under the new monument today - so, although unusual, it is not unheard of for there to be vaults under obelisks. As an aside my relation went on to create further mayhem along the Canadian/USA border and was eventually locked up in the US before eventually meeting his death at the hands of British agents while on a hunting trip in 1858.

bridget.laitly

Judgement Day wrote: »

so, although unusual, it is not unheard of for there to be vaults under obelisks.

I'll take a tenuous connection as a win