hyperthyroidism photos on Flickr

The Grange, Ramsgate, Kent by Jelltex

I am back at home in Chez Jelltex; Mulder is meowing just before dawn, in which case its situation normal. My longer than expected hike the day before meant that my legs were aching to buggery, but it is better than them stopping working.

Jools has to be up and about to go to work, but lucky me is working from home, so I can lay in bed a while enjoying the moment, but then I can smell coffee brewing, so I had better face the world. There is coffee on the table, but the cats have gone out exploring after eating, and so once Jools has left, its just me. However, the cats come in one at a time to request more food. At least not all at once.

Molly must think I'm looking a little peaky, as she brings me in a partially eaten Goldfinch and a large mouse/small rat, which I don't look at too closely.

Work is pretty much as usual, there is stuff to do, mails to send, calls to write, fires to put out. The usual.

Cheese and toast for lunch whilst I work. Somehow the volume of work wasn't what I was expecting, I guess what it being an hour ahead in Dk and being Friday afternoon. By two, mails had stopped and I can see most of my colleagues offline. I pack up for the week and get my camera gear together as there was some photographing to do.

This weekend in September is Heritage Weekend, and that means getting into churches that usually are locked. In addition, another area of Pugin's house in Ramsgate had been renovated and opened, so it seemed a good idea to go there in the 90 minutes before it closed. I think it was just about worth it.

Jools comes home, changes and we get in the car and take the Sandwich road, pretty much the same way I used to go to the office in Ramsgate when I was just an technical assistant, not that long ago, but in terms of my journey, ages ago! Traffic was a little crazy, but that is to be expected, but in the warm sunny weather, it was very pleasant indeed.

We park near The Grange, and have about an hour to get the visit done. I go straight to the Presbytery, just about the first to be built in Britain since the middle ages, designed by Pugin, and now converted by the Landmark Trust and now available for holiday rental. They have done a great job, and it feels like a fine place for up to four people can have a great stay, and help support the good cause.

I go round snapping each room, climbing the two sets of stairs to see the bedroom at the top, then back down again. What I can say is that it feels more of a home thand homely than The Grange, I think I could happily stay here. Stay and maybe never leave, mind.

Jools goes to see inside The Grange, but I have been in before, so chat with a guide outside, and I tell her about my job in the survey business. She is really interested, or says she is anyway. I do go in and take a few shots, and see that with the new camera/lens combination, the shots are fabulous. Just wish I had more time to get round.

We go back to the car as its four, and the buildings and church are closing.

I now spring it onto Jools that we are heading into Canterbury, as there is a church open that evening, that should be interesting. She takes the news well, so we drive round the outskirts of the city so to approach the right part, park up close to the chapel. We make better time that I thought, so we have time for a pint in the Two Brewers near to St Augustine's Abbey. This is the life, finished for the weekend, en route to a chapel and drinking beer and eating cheese and onion crisps; living the dream.

From the pub is was a short walk through the underpass then along the city wall to the Zoar Chapel.

You read that right; Zoar. Seems that being a Baptist isn't enough, you can have Strict and/or Peculiar Baptists too, and this is the Chapel of the Particular Strict Baptists in the city. The chapel has had an interesting life too; a former bastion in the city wall, then converted for use as a water cistern before the conversion to a church in the 19th century.

We are welcomed, but not that warmly, or I might have imagined it, I mean they open the chapel on all four days of the weekend, so they must be proud of the chapel. And rightly so, all lines with white painted wood, almost round, and looking really very fine indeed. I get my shots, talk politely, then we make our way back to the car and home.

We have run out of time for that day, so return home ready to have some dinner, as our appetites are raging. And as you will come to expect, its insalata caprese once again, with cheese and pickle bread, thickly sliced and buttered. Add a bottle of red wine, and it is perfect.

The cats are happy too, we have fed them and as we slob around the house, they ask for attention, food or whatever. Outside the sun sets on a fine late summer evening, whilst the moon has already risen and looks about half full already.

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Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1 March 1812 – 14 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic, chiefly remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival style; his work culminated in the interior design of the Palace of Westminster. Pugin designed many churches in England, and some in Ireland and Australia.[1] Pugin was the son of Auguste Pugin, and the father of E.W. and Peter Paul Pugin, who continued his architectural firm as Pugin & Pugin.

Pugin was the son of a French draughtsman, Auguste Pugin, who had come to England as a result of the French Revolution and had married Catherine Welby of the Denton, Lincolnshire Welby family.[3] Augustus was born at his parents' house in Bloomsbury. Between 1821 and 1838 Pugin's father had published a series of volumes of architectural drawings, the first two entitled, Specimens of Gothic Architecture, and the following three, Examples of Gothic Architecture, that were to remain both in print and the standard references for Gothic architecture for at least the next century.

As a child he was taken each Sunday by his mother to the services of the fashionable Scottish Presbyterian preacher Edward Irving (later founder of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church), at his chapel in Cross Street, Hatton Garden.[4] He soon rebelled against this version of Christianity: according to Benjamin Ferrey, Pugin "always expressed unmitigated disgust at the cold and sterile forms of the Scotch church; and the moment he broke free from the trammels imposed on him by his mother, he rushed into the arms of a church which, pompous by its ceremonies, was attractive to his imaginative mind".

Pugin learned drawing from his father, and for a while attended Christ's Hospital. After leaving school he worked in his father's office, and in 1825 and 1827 accompanied him on visits to France.[6] His first commissions independent of his father were for designs for the goldsmiths Rundell and Bridge, and for designs for furniture at Windsor Castle, from the upholsterers Morrel and Seddon. Through a contact made while working at Windsor, he became interested in the design of theatre scenery, and in 1831 obtained a commission to design the sets for the production of a new opera called Kenilworth at Covent Garden.[7] He also developed an interest in sailing, and briefly commanded a small merchant schooner trading between Britain and Holland, which allowed him to import examples of furniture and carving from Flanders,with which he later furnished his house at Ramsgate.[8] During one voyage in 1830 he was wrecked on the Scottish coast near Leith,[9] as a result of which he came into contact with Edinburgh architect James Gillespie Graham, who advised him to abandon seafaring for architecture.[10] He then set up a business supplying historically accurate carved wood and stone details for the increasing number of buildings being constructed in the Gothic style, but the enterprise soon failed.

In 1831, aged nineteen, Pugin married the first of his three wives, Anne Garnet.[11] Anne died a few months later in childbirth, leaving him with a daughter. He had a further six children, including the architect Edward Pugin, with his second wife, Louisa Button, who died in 1844. His third wife, Jane Knill, kept a journal of their married life together, between their marriage in 1848 and his death; it was later published.[12] Their son was Peter Paul Pugin.

In 1834, Pugin became a Roman Catholic convert,[16] and was received into the Church in the following year.[17] Pugin's father Auguste-Charles Pugin, was a Frenchman who had come to England as a result of the French Revolution. It is probable that he, like many others, converted to the Anglican faith in order to get work (it was highly unlikely that any non-Anglican could obtain a government commission or tender for example).

British society at this time had many restrictions on any person not adhering to the state religion of the Anglican Church. Non-Anglicans could not attend University, for example as well as being unable to stand for parish or city councils, be an MP, serve as a policeman, in the armed forces or even on a jury. A number of reforms in the early 19th century changed this situation, the most important of which was the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829 which specifically abolished the restrictions on Catholics. After 1829 it became (in theory at least) possible to have a successful career while being a Catholic - this was the background to A W Pugin's conversion to the Roman Catholic Church.

However his conversion also brought him into contact with new patrons and employers. In 1832 he had made the acquaintance of John Talbot, 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, a Roman Catholic, sympathetic to his aesthetic views who employed him in alterations and additions to his residence Alton Towers, which subsequently led to many other commissions.[18] Shrewsbury commissioned him to build St. Giles' Catholic Church, Cheadle, completed in 1846, and Pugin was also responsible for designing the oldest Catholic church in Shropshire, St Peter and Paul at Newport.

In 1841 he left Salisbury,[20] finding it an inconvenient base for his growing architectural practice.[21] He sold St Marie's Grange at a considerable financial loss,[22] and moved temporarily to Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. He had however already purchased a piece of land at the West Cliff, Ramsgate, where he proceeded to build himself a large house and, at his own expense, a church on which he worked whenever funds allowed. His second wife died in 1844 and was buried at St. Chad's, Birmingham, a church which he had designed himself.

Following the destruction by fire of the Palace of Westminster in 1834, Pugin was employed by Sir Charles Barry to supply interior designs for his entry to the architectural competition which would determine who would build the new Palace of Westminster. Pugin also supplied drawings for James Gillespie Graham's entry.[24] This followed a period of employment when Pugin had worked with Barry on the interior design of King Edward's School, Birmingham. Despite his conversion to Catholicism in 1834, Pugin designed and refurbished both Anglican and Catholic churches throughout the country.

Other works include St Chad's Cathedral, Erdington Abbey and Oscott College, all in Birmingham. He also designed the college buildings of St Patrick and St Mary in St. Patrick's College, Maynooth; though not the college chapel. His original plans included both a chapel and an aula maxima (great hall), neither of which were built because of financial constraints. The college chapel was designed by a follower of Pugin, the Irish architect J.J. McCarthy. Also in Ireland, Pugin designed St Mary's Cathedral in Killarney, St Aidan's Cathedral, Enniscorthy (renovated in 1996) and the Dominican church of the Holy Cross in Tralee. He revised the plans for St Michael's Church in Ballinasloe, Galway. Pugin was also invited by Bishop Wareing to design what eventually became Northampton Cathedral, a project that was completed in 1864 by Pugin's son Edward Welby Pugin.

Pugin visited Italy in 1847; his experience there confirmed his dislike of Renaissance and Baroque architecture, but he found much to admire in the medieval art of northern Italy.

In February 1852, while travelling with his son Edward by train, Pugin suffered a total breakdown and arrived in London unable to recognise anyone or speak coherently. For four months he was confined to a private asylum, Kensington House. In June, he was transferred to the Royal Bethlem Hospital, popularly known as Bedlam.[26] At that time, Bethlem Hospital was opposite St George's Cathedral, Southwark, one of Pugin's major buildings, where he had married his third wife, Jane, in 1848. Jane and a doctor removed Pugin from Bedlam and took him to a private house in Hammersmith where they attempted therapy, and he recovered sufficiently to recognise his wife.[26] In September, Jane took her husband back to The Grange in Ramsgate, where he died on 14 September 1852.[26] He is buried in his church next to The Grange, St Augustine's, Ramsgate.

On Pugin's death certificate, the cause listed was "convulsions followed by coma". Pugin's biographer, Rosemary Hill, suggests that, in the last year of his life, he was suffering from hyperthyroidism which would account for his symptoms of exaggerated appetite, perspiration, and restlessness. Hill writes that Pugin's medical history, including eye problems and recurrent illness from his early twenties, suggests that he contracted syphilis in his late teens, and this may have been the cause of his death at the age of 40.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Pugin

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The Grange (aka St Augustine's Grange) in Ramsgate, Kent, on the coast in southern England was the home of the Victorian architect and designer August Pugin. He designed it in the Victorian Gothic style; it is a Grade I listed building.

Pugin bought the land for the site at West Cliff, Ramsgate, in 1841.[2] The house was built between 1843 and 1844 by the builder George Myers. Pugin's second wife died in 1844 and it was only after his third marriage to Jane Knill in 1848 that it became a family home.

The interior of the house was finally completed in 1850. It is built from the inside out in the sense that the layout of the rooms was considered before the outside of the building. This is in contrast to the Georgian style that preceded it. The style was influential on subsequent English architecture designed by architects like Edwin Lutyens.

Pugin died in the house in 1852 at the age of only 40. He is buried in the impressive Pugin chantry chapel in St Augustine's Church, next to the house, which was also designed by him and completed by his eldest son, Edward Pugin, who was also an architect.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grange,_Ramsgate