Billings, ROBERT WILLIAM

Billings, ROBERT WILLIAM, born in London in 1813, acquired, during a seven years' apprenticeship with John Britton, topographical draughtsman, a taste for and facility in the production of illustrations of historic buildings. Between 1838 and 1846 he produced illustrations on his own account of several churches and cathedrals, including his Architectural Antiquities of the County of Durham. The work, however, with which his name is permanently associated is his Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland (4 vols. 1845–52), with accompanying letterpress to its 240 illustrations. He wrote several works on architecture, and conducted a large business; amongst the buildings restored under his direction are the chapel of Edinburgh Castle and the Douglas Room in Stirling Castle, &c. He died 14th November 1874.