Suburban Mausoleum

I have always thought it a bit strange that there is this very grand Mausoleum amongst all these suburban bungalows in Craigentinny.

The Mausoleum contains the remains of William Henry Miller (1789 - 31 October 1848) who was an English book collector and parliamentarian. He sat in the House of Commons from 1830 to 1837.

Miller the only child of William Miller of Craigentinny, Midlothian, was born in 1789. He received a liberal education, and throughout life retained a taste for classical literature. At the 1830 general election he entered Parliament as a Whig defeating Evelyn Denison (who was later Speaker) to become one of the two Members for the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme. He was re-elected in 1831 as a Tory, and in 1832, 1835 and 1837, each time after a contest, and on two occasions at the head of the poll. In 1841, however, he was defeated, and he was again unsuccessful as a candidate for Berwick at the general election of 1847.

He died, unmarried, at Craigentinny House, near Edinburgh, on 31 Oct. 1848, in his sixtieth year, and was by his own desire buried on his estate in a mausoleum erected after his decease, and decorated with sculptured friezes by Alfred Gatley (called the Craigentinny Marbles).