In line with his grandiose enlargement of Hamilton Palace, Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852), entertained various schemes to redesign or replace his family burial vault which stood close to the east quarter of the palace in the aisle of the old and dilapidated collegiate church. Between 1838 and 1841 these schemes involved David Hamilton (1768-1843), the architect with whom the duke had collaborated on the enlargement of the palace, and, in 1846, Henry Edmund Goodridge of Bath, designer of Beckford's Tower at Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire for the duke's father-in-law, William Beckford. Both architects produced designs for a chapel and mausoleum on the medieval church site, close to the east flank of the palace. Neither came to anything and in the end, in 1848, the commission eventually fell to the distinguished Edinburgh architect, David Bryce (1803-76), and in relation to a fresh site north of the palace.

This sepia perspective of the east front by David Bryce, dated 9 July 1850, shows the superstructure of the mausoleum essentially as it is today. The main differences between this perspective view and the building as completed reside in the finished treatment of the arcaded entrance to the crypt and of the associated staircases and balustrade.

In the completed mausoleum, the crypt arcade comprises three, not five arches as shown here, the balustrade terminates in huge sculptured lions, not simple scrolls, and the masonry facework is heavily vermiculated (of worm-like treatment) not just conventionally rusticated. This perspective does, however, go so far as to sketch in the keystones of the five arches in the form of sculptured heads. Like the lions, the three carved heads as existing are the work of the sculptor, Alexander Handyside Ritchie (1804-70).