Architecture and the Romance of Gothic Remains: John Carter and The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1797–1817

Abstract

John Carter (1748–1817), the British architect, draughtsman, and antiquary, made a life of the study of Gothic remains. First giving expression to what would turn out to be his life-long passion for the architectural remains of medieval Britain in the pages of The Builder’s Magazine: Or, A Universal Dictionary for Architects, Carpenters, Masons, Bricklayers, &c […] (1774–78), Carter, serving from 1792 as the official draughtsman for the Society of Antiquaries, London, would provide the illustrations to the Society’s Vetusta Monumenta series, as well as produce highly detailed sketches and elevations for the Society’s so-called ‘Cathedral Series’ in the period 1795 to 1813 (Mordaunt Crook, 1995). Under the patronage of Richard Gough, the esteemed antiquary and Director of the Society of Antiquaries, Carter provided several maps, etchings, and architectural illustrations for Gough’s The History and Antiquities of Croyland Abbey, in the County of Lincoln (1783) and the first volume of Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain (1786), as well as for the multi-authored Specimens of the Ancient Sculpture and Painting […] (1780–6 and 1787–94). In his own right as a commentator on, and visual illustrator of, Britain’s ancient Gothic architectural remains, Carter would provide both the text and etchings for the six-volume Views of Ancient Buildings in England (1786–93), republished in four volumes in 1824, as well as the text, drawings and etchings for the uncompleted, two-volume The Ancient Architecture of England (1795–1814).