The British engraver and archaeologist Adam de Cardonnel was an educated man who practiced for a short while as a surgeon. However, his family's wealth gave him the leisure to indulge his interest in antiquities and numismatics. At the end of 1780 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland where he also served as curator from 1782 to 1784. Cardonnel later went on to produce work titled as 'Numismata Scotiae' which was published in Edinburgh in 1786 and 'Picturesque Antiquities of Scotland' which was published in London in 1788.
Soon after this Adam De Cardonnel took over his cousin - Hilton Lawson's - estates in Chirton and Cramlington in Northumberland where he then served as sheriff for the county in 1796 and became knows as 'Adam De Cardonnel-Lawson'. De Cardonnel spent his last days in Bath and after dying at age 73, he was buried at Cramlington in June 1820.
The images in this exhibition are taken from the Picturesque Antiquities of Scotland and are detailed engravings of abbeys and castles across Scotland. Inside the book which contains part one and two of a four part set, we find a preface by de Cardonnel himself where he states,
"the work was at first intended to have been on a much larger scale, and I had finished several of the plates; but at the particular desire of a learned author, I reduced the size, and altered my plan, as better adapted to the convenience of travellers, who wish to be acquainted with a few circumstances relating to the ruins they may chance to visit".
So, this was a sort of early travel guide, small enough to be packed in the traveller's bag and filled with information relating to the sites that were at the time of writing, mostly in ruins.
The image library for the collections of Edinburgh Libraries and Museums and Galleries