To make certain that this was done he got permission to build a coffin into the wall of Wimborne Minster, so that it is half in the church and half out, half above the ground and half below it. To do this a special arch had to be made, and for the repair of this arch and the coffin Anthony Ettericke gave to the church a sum of 20s. from a farm. To bury him the wall of the church level with the pavement was opened and the body deposited in the coffin as described. It is of slate, and is emblazoned with many coats-of-arms.
There are two dates on it, 1691 and 1703, one over the other, so as to render both almost unreadable. He was fully convinced that he should die in 1691, and had his coffin made and that date placed upon it. But he did not die till 1703, and so the second date was cut over the first.
An art gallery seems a queer place in which to bury bodies, and probably few of the inhabitants of Dulwich are aware that Dulwich College Picture Gallery contains three bodies—the bodies of the three people to whom that collection of pictures owes its existence.
Noll Joseph Desenfans was a native of Douai in France, but settled in London, first as a teacher of languages. He became possessed of a valuable picture by Claude, which he sold to George III. for 1,000 guineas, and so became a picture dealer.
Then Stanislaus, King of Poland, commissioned him to purchase pictures to form a National Gallery for Poland, and in this work Desenfans was helped by his friend Sir Francis Bourgeois, R.A.
THE SLATE COFFIN OF A MAN WHO WOULD NOT BE BURIED IN THE CHURCH NOR OUT OF IT, NOT ABOVE THE GROUND NOR BELOW IT.
When the Polish King was overthrown, the collection of pictures came back to Desenfans, and was housed in Sir F. Bourgeois' house in Charlotte Street, Portland Place, where Desenfans lived.
On his death Desenfans left his pictures to Bourgeois, and he decided to hand them over to some public body for the benefit of the public. Accident directed his attention to Dulwich College, to which he bequeathed his pictures.
The bequest was conditional. He wished a mausoleum to be erected in the gallery where his own remains and those of his friends Mons. and Mme. Desenfans might repose. The condition was accepted, and our photograph shows the burial place of these three patrons of the fine arts. The mausoleum can be entered from the Art Gallery.