A bronze statue of John Bunyan stands on St Peter's Green, Bedford, England. The statue was sculpted by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, it was erected in 1874, and unveiled on 10 June of that year. The statue was commissioned by the Ninth Duke of Bedford (who also commissioned the bronze reliefs on the doors of the Bunyan Meeting Free Church [1] ) and presented by him to Bedford town. [2]
The statue stands at the south-western corner of St Peter's Green, facing down Bedford's High Street. The site was selected by Boehm [3] for its significance as a crossroads, and faces symbolically the site of his imprisonment. [4] A ring of bollards connected by chains protect the base of the statue. A controlled crossing has resulted in the erection of a set of traffic lights extremely close to the statue.
John Bunyan (1628-1688) was an English Christian writer and religious dissident, who was born, and lived in Bedfordshire and was twice imprisoned in Bedford County Gaol.
Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, Baronet (1834–1890) was a medallist and sculptor, born in Vienna to Hungarian parents. While several of Boehm's colossal statues are considered important, notably the statue of Queen Victoria, he is certainly well-known for the Bunyan piece. [5] Boehm was later commissioned to produce the sarcophagus for Arthur Stanley, who addressed the guests at the unveiling ceremony, and was husband of Augusta Stanley who unveiled the Bunyan statue. He was also responsible for the statue of the Duchess of Bedford in the park at Woburn Abbey.
Francis Charles Hastings Russell, Duke of Bedford (1819–1891) was an English nobleman, active in politics and agriculture, as well as the civic life of Bedford.
The Duke of Bedford had been active in civic life, and proposed the donation of the statue two years before the unveiling, when opening the Bedford Corn Exchange.
Two years later, in 1876, he donated the doors to the Bunyan Meeting House. The doors contain ten bas-relief panels, illustrating, like the panels on the base of the Bedford statue, scenes from the Pilgrims Progress. The design of the doors is based on the Gates of Paradise, by Ghiberti in the Battistero di San Giovanni in Florence. The Bunyan doors were executed by Fredrick Thrupp (1812-1895), in copper on bronze.
The unveiling was a major event, called the Bunyan Celebration (or the Bunyan Festival), attended by people from across the United Kingdom, from the then colonies and from America. [6] The day was treated as a holiday by all the nearby villages and Bunyan's birthplace, Elstow. [7] Locally invitations went to all Sunday Schools, totalling 3,380 children who consumed a ton and a quarter of cake. [8]
The statue was unveiled by Lady Augusta Stanley, wife of the then Dean of Westminster, Arthur Stanley (known as Dean Stanley), on Wednesday 10 June 1874, [3] before a crowd of 10,000, [3] presided over by the Mayor of Bedford (Alderman George Hurst). [6] (Brown remarks that Augusta Stanley, as a Bruce of Elgin, was a direct descendant of the "noblemen who persecuted Bunyan and his people." [6] ) Sermons were preached, the church bells rung and a fire-work display was given. [3]
The Dean of Westminster said in his address, at the celebration:
Every one of you who has not read The Pilgrim's Progress, if there be any such person, read it without delay: those who have read it a hundred times, read it for the hundred and first time. Follow out in your lives the lesson which The Pilgrim's Progress teaches, and then you will all of you be even better monuments of John Bunyan than this magnificent statue which the Duke of Bedford has given you. [6]
The celebration was also addressed by Francis Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper, Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire, the member of Parliament (Samuel Whitbread), and Dr Brock and Dr Allon representing the Non-conformist movement. [6]
In the evening a lecture on the life and works of Bunyan was given by Rev. C. M. Birrell of Liverpool, in the Bunyan Meeting House. [9]
An exhibition of Bunyan relics, including Bunyan's will (now housed in the John Bunyan Museum) was on display in the hall of the Corn Exchange. [9] The Mayor entertained seventy guests at a banquet. [9]
The event was covered by much of the press including Daily News of the following day, and the Illustrated London News of 20 June, [9] and documented in The Book of the Bunyan Festival, edited by William Howie Wylie. [7]
Even Punch covered the unveiling:
Bunyan the Pilgrim, dreamer, preacher,
Sinner and soldier, tinker and teacher,
For heresy scoffed, scourged, put in prison—
The day of Tolerance yet un-arisen—
Who heard from the dark of his dungeon lair
The roar and the tumult of Vanity Fair,
Ans shadowed Man's pilgimrage forth with passion,
Heroic, in God-guided poet fashion,
Has now his revenge; he looks down at you
In a ducally-commissioned Statue
was part of Mr Punch's opinion. [7] : 116–117
A certain amount of discussion in the press revived an old idea that Bunyan had plagiarized the Pilgrims Progress from a work by a medieval French monk, Guillaume de Guileville, The Pylgrymage of the Sowle. [7] : 119–120
On 2 October 1874 the Illustrated London News reported that "A handsome illuminated address" from the Corporation of Bedford had been presented to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, by a delegation headed by the mayor, in acknowledgement of his gift of the statue. [10]
In the twentieth century, according to Paddy Ashdown, red footprints were painted from the statue to a nearby ladies public convenience, and back to the plinth. [11]
Bunyan is depicted in a two and a half ton bronze cloaked figure, [3] preaching from an open Bible, [3] to an invisible congregation, with a broken fetter representing his imprisonment by his left foot. The pose is reminiscent of one of the figures in the picture in the house of the Interpreter the Pilgrim's Progress, "...it had eyes uplift to Heaven, the best of Books in his hand, the law of Truth was written upon his lips...". [12] [13]
The figure, which incorporates a substantial base inscribed "John Bunyan" stands on a square plinth of Aberdeen granite. [14] There are three bronze relief scenes from The Pilgrim's Progress set in the plinth: [3] Christian at the wicket gate; his fight with Apollyon; and losing his burden at the foot of the cross of Jesus.
John Bunyan was an English writer and Puritan preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, which also became an influential literary model. In addition to The Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan wrote nearly sixty titles, many of them expanded sermons.
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of its urban area, including Kempston and Biddenham, was 106,940. Bedford is also the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford, a unitary authority that includes a significant rural area.
The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of theological fiction in English literature and a progenitor of the narrative aspect of Christian media. It has been translated into more than 200 languages and has never been out of print. It appeared in Dutch in 1681, in German in 1703 and in Swedish in 1727. The first North American edition was issued in 1681. It has also been cited as the first novel written in English. According to literary editor Robert McCrum, "there's no book in English, apart from the Bible, to equal Bunyan's masterpiece for the range of its readership, or its influence on writers as diverse as William Hogarth, C. S. Lewis, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, George Bernard Shaw, William Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Enid Blyton." The words on which the hymn "To be a Pilgrim" is based come from the novel.
Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1st Baronet, was an Austrian-born British medallist and sculptor, best known for the "Jubilee head" of Queen Victoria on coinage, and the statue of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner. During his career Boehm maintained a large studio in London and produced a significant volume of public works and private commissions. A speciality of Boehm's was the portrait bust; there are many examples of these in the National Portrait Gallery. He was often commissioned by the Royal Family and members of the aristocracy to make sculptures for their parks and gardens. His works were many, and he exhibited 123 of them at the Royal Academy from 1862 to his death in 1890.
Houghton House is a ruined mansion house in the parish of Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire. It is a Grade I listed building, positioned above the surrounding countryside, and commands excellent views. Built from 1615 to 1621, it is said that the house was the model for House Beautiful in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678). It was abandoned in 1794 and stripped of its interiors and roof for sale as building supplies. Today the property is owned by English Heritage, and is open to free public access during daylight hours.
Lidlington is a small village and civil parish in Central Bedfordshire, England surrounded by farmland, in the Marston Vale. The hamlets of Boughton End and Thrupp End are also part of the parish.
The Pilgrim's Progress is an opera by Ralph Vaughan Williams, based on John Bunyan's 1678 allegory The Pilgrim's Progress. The composer himself described the work as a 'Morality' rather than an opera. Nonetheless, he intended the work to be performed on stage, rather than in a church or cathedral. Vaughan Williams himself prepared the libretto, with interpolations from the Bible and also text from his second wife, Ursula Wood. His changes to the story included altering the name of the central character from 'Christian' to 'Pilgrim', so as to universalise the spiritual message.
Pulloxhill is a small village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England 342 ft above sea level with a population of 850 at the 2001 Census, increasing to 985 at the 2011 Census.
John Brown (1830–1922) was a British theologian, historian, and pastor.
HMP Bedford is a Category B men's prison, located in the Harpur area of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service.
John Bunyan Museum is a museum primarily dedicated to the life, times and works of John Bunyan. The museum is located in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England.
Pilgrim's Progress: Journey to Heaven is a 2008 Christian film based on John Bunyan’s classic 1678 novel The Pilgrim's Progress. It was written and directed by Danny Carrales, and starred Daniel Kruse as Christian. The film was featured at the Merrimack Valley Christian Film Festival.
Frederick Thrupp (1812–1895) was an English sculptor.
An equestrian statue of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, stands on the north side of Hyde Park Corner, London. The open space in which it stands, now the centre of a large roundabout, was once called Wellington Place.
A sculpture of the statesman and three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, is located in Parliament Square, London, England. The sculptor was Matthew Noble and the Grade II-listed statue was unveiled on 11 July 1874.
The statue of John Howard, in St Pauls's Square, Bedford, is a bronze of John Howard, erected in 1890, the centenary of Howard's death. The statue is "clothed ... in the travelling dress of the time to denote he was a great traveller." The sculptor was Alfred Gilbert.
LadyAugusta Elizabeth Frederica Stanley, was daughter of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and Elizabeth Oswald. She was brought up in Paris after her father died and later served as lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria. She met and married Arthur P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster at the home of Mary Elizabeth Mohl in Paris.
The Old Town Hall is a municipal building in St Paul's Square in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. The building, which was the headquarters of Bedford Borough Council from 1892 to 2009, is a Grade II listed building.
A statue of Thomas Carlyle by Joseph Edgar Boehm stands in Chelsea Embankment Gardens in London. Erected in 1881 and unveiled in 1882, it stands close to 24 Cheyne Row where Carlyle lived for the last 47 years of his life. The statue became a Grade II listed building on 15 April 1969.
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