Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of A. W. N. Pugin. Considering that the medieval and Victorian periods are my twin loves, the Gothic Revival is very close to my heart; but I'm especially fond of Pugin for being one of the few people to see beauty in, and bring beauty to, my underappreciated corner of Kent. Last year I posted lots of pictures of the wonderful stained glass of the abbey church of St Augustine's, Ramsgate, and here are some more photos which didn't fit into that mammoth post.
The stained glass is from the north cloister; as I understand it, this part of the church wasn't the work of Pugin himself, but some of these windows were based on his designs (according to this useful page, which has many more and better photos than mine).
These details are from the Digby chantry chapel, designed for Kenelm Digby:
The chantry chapel also features a window depicting St Kenelm (as you might expect!) but I sadly didn't get a chance to photograph it. I took a picture of this instead, because it's awesome:
The north cloister has a Flemish set of stations of the cross, running the length of the wall:
And this is from Pugin's chantry chapel, in fact from his own tomb, which stands beneath the wonderful Augustine window I wrote about in my previous post:
This was designed by Pugin's son Edward and depicts members of Pugin's family mourning for him. And here's that splendid window again, just because I like it so much:
Happy birthday, Pugin; between you and Charles Dickens, Thanet has been well-served for bicentennials this year!
ETA: link to this article from the BBC. It's heartening to see a positive article on such a subject, but seriously, the standards of proofreading at the BBC are atrocious; the punctuation in that piece is all over the place.
ETA 2: this excellent sermon from the bicentenary Mass held yesterday at Ramsgate. I wish I could have been there.
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