Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/11

 press. In 1803 had appeared Owen's concise ‘Cambrian Biography.’

In 1806 Owen succeeded to a small estate at Nantglyn, near Denbigh, whereupon he assumed the surname of Pughe. During the rest of his life he spent much of his time in Wales, and his literary activity diminished. On 9 Aug. 1790 he had married Sarah Elizabeth Harper, by whom he had a son, Aneurin Owen [q. v.], and two daughters, Isabella and Ellen. His wife died on 28 Jan. 1816, and it was to divert his mind from the loss that he afterwards undertook to translate ‘Paradise Lost’ into Welsh. ‘Coll Gwynfa’ appeared in 1819. Though a powerful and fairly accurate version, its ponderous and artificial diction has always repelled the ordinary Welsh reader. Pughe was no doubt the anonymous translator of Dodsley's ‘Life of Man’ (‘Einioes Dyn,’ 1821). In 1822 he essayed original verse, publishing a Welsh poem in three cantos on ‘Hu Gadarn,’ while in the same year he issued a volume of translations from English, which included Gray's ‘Bard’ and Heber's ‘Palestine.’ During his later years Pughe was chiefly occupied in preparing an edition of the ‘Mabinogion,’ or Welsh romances; but though the Cymrodorion Society in 1831 voted 50l. for the publication of this work at Denbigh (Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, iii. 117), it never appeared.

Pughe died of apoplexy on 4 June 1835 in a cottage near Dolydd Cau, in the neighbourhood of his birthplace, whither he had gone for the sake of his health, and was buried at Nantglyn. He had been elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries about 1793, and on 19 June 1822 received from the University of Oxford the degree of D.C.L. (Alumni Oxon.) In erudition no student of the Welsh language and literature has ever surpassed him, and his enthusiasm for these studies has deepened the interest generally felt in Celtic history and literature. His influence upon Welsh students was very great, nor has his authority upon questions of spelling and etymology yet ceased to carry weight in Wales. But he was entirely without critical power; his opinions were formed early and underwent no alteration to the close of his life. The eccentricity of his mind may be gauged from the fact that he was one of the followers of Joanna Southcott [q. v.]

[Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig, by C. Ashton, pp. 412–21; introduction to first edition of the Dictionary (1803); preface to Coll Gwynfa; Enwogion Cymru, Foulkes, pp. 864–8; Leathart's Origin and Progress of the Gwyneddigion Society, London, 1831.@] 

PUGIN, AUGUSTUS CHARLES (1762–1832), architect, archæologist, and architectural artist, was born in France in 1762, and claimed descent from a distinguished French family. Driven from his country either by the horrors of the revolution or by private reasons connected with a duel, he came to London about 1798, and soon found employment as a draughtsman in the office of John Nash [q. v.] His earliest work with Nash consisted in making coloured perspective views of certain ‘Gothic’ mansions upon which his master was engaged, and in the working out of an unaccepted design for the Waterloo monument. To increase his powers as an artist, he entered the schools of the Royal Academy, where he made the acquaintance of two fellow-students, Martin (afterwards Sir Martin) Archer Shee [q. v.] and William Hilton. He further revived acquaintance with Merigot, an aquatint engraver, who formerly had been a drawing-master to his father's family, and studied under him with advantage.

Nash, who treated his pupils and assistants with great kindness and hospitality, discovered in Pugin a valuable subordinate. Gothic art, though ill understood, was warmly appreciated by the distinguished clients for whom he worked, and Nash set Pugin to produce a collection of trustworthy drawings from ancient buildings which might form the basis of design for himself and other architects. The truthfulness of Pugin's drawings in form and colour at once attracted attention. A change was then coming over water-colour art. The old style—brown or Indian ink outline with a low-toned wash—was giving way to the more modern practice of representation in full colour, and Pugin, though he limited his palette to indigo, light red, and yellow ochre, was an active supporter of the new movement, and to his influence its ultimate predominance was largely due. In 1808 Pugin was elected an associate of the Old Water-colour Society, which had been founded in 1805, and he was a frequent exhibitor at the annual exhibitions held first in Lower Brook Street and subsequently in Pall Mall. Through his connection with the society he formed friendships with Antony Vandyke Copley Fielding [q. v.] and George Fennel Robson [q. v.] About the same time Pugin was employed on Ackermann's publications, notably the ‘Microcosm,’ for which he supplied the architectural portions of the illustrations, Rowlandson executing the figures. In 1823 he published, in conjunction with E. W. Brayley, a set of views in Islington and Pentonville, for which he had been collecting