A Classic Looks at the Gothic: Sir John Clerk, Ruins and Romance

Sir John Clerk of Penicuik (1676-1755) was the most distinguished antiquary and gentleman amateur architect of his day in Scotland. With a classical education and the experience of a remarkable Grand Tour behind him (he spent eighteen months in Rome alone) he pursued a cultivated life of ‘Roman’ ease at his Midlothian country seat of Newbiging and at his ‘suburban’ villa of Mavisbank where he played the roles of both the Maecenas and the Lord Burlington of Scotland. Today he is regarded almost wholly as cast in this classical mould. But Clerk was also a respecter of the remains of the past regardless of period. This chapter examines his attitude to the Gothic and the Gothick, as well as his interest in, and the preservation of, the ecclesiastical and secular buildings of Britain, especially those of his native Scotland.