Lessons from Scarisbrick Hall i: Splendour

I was recently given a private tour of Scarisbrick Hall in West Lancashire, which is now an independent school. Any building which claims to be a ‘hall’ is usually rather grand, but this place blew my mind. This is Gothic Revival on steroids. This is high Victoriana on a high. This is as grandiose and ostentatious a house as one will find.

Each room was dripping with opulence. I can only imagine that the architect, Augustus Pugin, who designed the Palace of Westminster, was given several blank cheques, and instructed to spare no expense on pain of death.

I know it is all too easy and even somewhat cliched to liken a grand country house to the heavenly mansions which Christ is preparing for those whom He saves, but this place does just that. As God will spare no expense or glory from the Christian’s final destination, so this Victorian edifice is a humble and partial picture thereof.

Finally, let me show you some ceilings:

...and this:

...then this!

If this is the glory of man, how great will be the glory of Christ?