PLATE CXLII.

ALTAR AND REREDOS,

DESIGNED BY THE LATE A. W. PUGIN; CARVED IN STONE BY MYERS OF LONDON; AND

FITTED UP BY HARDMAN OF BIRMINGHAM.

We have had the satisfaction, in the course of the present work, to advert, on several occasions, to theexquisite designs of the late Mr. Pugin for the decoration of buildings, executed in the various styles of themiddle ages. The death of an artist so distinguished by genius, enthusiasm, and energy, must at any timeand under any circumstances have been regarded as a loss to the arts of his country; but occurring as itdid in the maturity of his career, and under the recent affliction of mental disease, produced by the too activeexercise of his rare talents, that event excited, throughout the world of literature and art, a deep and morethan ordinarily painful sensation.

In referring, for the last time, to the productions of this gifted artist, we shall endeavour to place onpermanent record the leading particulars of his public life; regretting at the same time that our notice mustbe limited to little more than an enumeration of his literary publications, and some of his most importantarchitectural designs.* Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin was born in London , in the year 1811. His father,Augustus Pugin, was a native of France , and took up his residence in England at the time of the firstRevolution. Although for some time in the office of the late John Nash, he is less known as an architectthan by his admirable illustrations of Gothic architecture. In most of these he was associated with Mr.Britton, whose valuable works on that subject tended greatly to that general knowledge of the details ofnational art which is now so widely spread. This association induced the elder Pugin, in the year 1820, tocommence a series of “Specimens of Gothic Architecture.” In the “Architectural Antiquities of Normandy”(1827), the same parties were connected with Messrs. John and Henry Le Keux, the great masters ofarchitectural engraving; and among the other works of Mr. Pugin, senior, we may mention “ Illustrations ofGothic Ornaments” (1831), and “Examples of Gothic Architecture” (1830); the latter carried on, after hisdecease, by the subject of our memoir, and completed by Mr. T. L. Walker.

Mr. Welby Pugin , from assisting his father in the preparation of these works, acquired at a very earlyage that facility of drawing which distinguished him through life. Although for some time a private pupil atChrist’s Hospital, his early life was somewhat unsettled and wandering. He, however, accompanied his fatherin his travels, and thus acquired an ardent love for the beauties of mediaeval church architecture. Whenbut a young man he exercised his pencil for nearly two years in assisting Messrs. Grieve, the able artistsof Her Majesty’s and Covent Garden Theatres, in the preparation of their architectural scenery. ForMessrs. Morel and Seddon he designed and made working drawings for the furniture required for WindsorCastle ; and for Messrs. Rundell and Bridge he undertook a similar task in connexion with some plate in themediaeval style: but of these works he often afterwards expressed very unfavourable opinions. We are toldby Mr. Bury that he embarked at an early age in the manufacture of Gothic furniture and similai woiks,but that undertaking proved unsuccessful.

On the death of his parents, in the year 1833, Mr. Pugin very soon displayed his exti aordinary poweis,both as an architect and as an author. We may enumerate his publications in the order of their date as

* We have to express our obligations to a brief memoir of Mr. Pugin by bis old friend and fellow-pupil, Mr. Talbot Buiy, published in the“ Builder” of the 25th of September last, with some additional remarks by the Editor of that useful periodical.