Slough of Despond
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The Slough of Despond is a deep bog in John Bunyan's novel Pilgrim's Progress, into which the character Christian sinks under the weight of his sins and his sense of guilt.
At one point, in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, the character Mr. Heathcliff likens his son's current state of depression to having been dropped "into a Slough of Despond."
In 1976, in a speech to the Greater London Area Conservative Association party leader, Margaret Thatcher described Britain as being in a "slough of despond".
An area of wetlands in Canada is named after this fictional construct, and is located near Big Bay, Ontario, north of Owen Sound.
In Horatio Hornblower: The Even Chance, Midshipmen Archie Kennedy introduces Horatio to his new home: "His majesty's ship of the line Justinian, known elsewise among her intimates as the good ship Slough of Despond."
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.
