Robert William Billings

He trained as a topographical draughtsman, wrote and illustrated many books early in his career, before concentrating on his architectural practice.

He assisted Sir Jeffry Wyattville on drawings of Windsor Castle, and prepared many views of the ruins of the old Houses of Parliament after the fire.

The work for which he became best known was The Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland, published in four volumes between 1845 and 1852,[3] which contained 240 illustrations, with explanatory text.

He was employed on the restoration of the chapel of Edinburgh Castle (a government commission); the Douglas Room in Stirling Castle; Gosford House, Haddingtonshire, for the Earl of Wemyss; the restoration of Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire; Crosby-on-Eden Church, Cumberland and Kemble House and Vicarage, Wiltshire.

[1] In 1865 Billings erected an unusual memorial to fellow architect Peter Nicholson (1765–1844) in Carlisle cemetery, in the form of a pair of interpenetrating obelisks.