Monument To Hugh Pugh, East Enclosure

635-1/0/10218 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Monument to Hugh Pugh, East enclosure

GV II Headstone of Hugh Pugh, 1840

LOCATION: 532771, 182261.7

MATERIALS: Welsh slate

DESCRIPTION: The monument is an upright slate slab with a shaped top in the form of a semicircle set between two quarter-circles. The latter contain palmette ornament; in the former, stylised plants frame a Welsh harp. The bilingual text is set within a raised and fielded panel. The English portion, above, describes the deceased as 'the celebrated Welsh harper'; below are four Welsh englynion (quatrains) by Pugh's fellow bards, praising his talent and lamenting his death. The name of the stonemason, D Morris of Barmouth, is recorded beneath a further band of ornament at the base.

HISTORY: Hugh Pugh (c.1812-40) was a bard and harpist born in Dolgellau in Merionethshire; according to his gravestone, Hugh's father Richard was 'Guide General to the summit of Cader Idris', at a period when the north Welsh mountains were becoming a popular destination for Romantically-minded tourists. A child prodigy on the Welsh triple harp, he took the junior prize at the 1828 national Eisteddfod in Denbigh, going on to win the coveted Silver Harp at the Cardiff Eisteddfod in 1834.

Bunhill Fields was first enclosed as a burial ground in 1665. Thanks to its location just outside the City boundary, and its independence from any Established place of worship, it became London's principal Nonconformist cemetery, the burial place of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, William Blake and other leading religious and intellectual figures. It was closed for burials in 1853, laid out as a public park in 1867, and re-landscaped following war damage by Bridgewater and Shepheard in 1964-5.

SOURCES: Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902). A W Light, Bunhill Fields (London, 1915).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monument to Hugh Pugh is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is an exceptionally well-preserved early-C19 headstone, bearing high-quality lettering and carved ornament by a named stonemason. * It is of cultural interest in commemorating a once-celebrated figure in Welsh musical life, the national connexion reinforced by the unique bardic texts and the use of Barmouth slate. * It is located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), and has group value with the other listed tombs in the east enclosure, especially with the nearby monument to Pugh's contemporary, countryman and fellow bard James Hughes (q.v.).