The Slough of Despond is a fictional, deep bog in John Bunyan's allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, into which the protagonist Christian sinks under the weight of his sins and his sense of guilt for them.
Satirical illustration by James Gillray (1793) of politician Charles James Fox in the Slough of Despond
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.
John Bunyan
Bunyan's High Street cottage in Elstow
Bunyan in prison, as imagined in 1881
Bunyan's effigy on his grave in Bunhill Fields