Notes on the Art Treasures at Penicuik House Midlothian — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Notes on the Art Treasures at Penicuik House Midlothian
John Stuart Mill · en
After leaving Leyden Clerk visited Germany, Italy, France, and
Flanders, and the two large MS. volumes of his “Travels” during this
period—not only descriptive of the various places that he saw, and
very particularly of the antiquities of Rome, but also giving an
account of the laws manners, and customs of the several countries that
he visited—prove how diligent and observant the youth had been during
the whole time. At the end of these volumes he sums up the results of
his residence abroad, as follows:—
“_N.B._—My improvements abroad were these:
“I had studied the civil Law for three Winters at Leyden, and did not
neglect it at home, by which means I passed Advocate, by a privat and
publick examination some months after my return, with great ease and
some credite.
“I spoke French and Italian very well, but particularly Dutch,
having come very young into Holland, and kept more in the Company of
Hollanders than those of my own country.
“I had applied much to classical learning, and had more than ordinary
inclination for Greek and Roman Antiquities.
“I understood pictures better than became my Purse, and as to Musick
I ... performed better, especially on the Herpsicord, than became a
gentleman.
“This, to the best of my knowledge, is a faithful account of myself.”
The volumes are illustrated with over fifty drawings of the landscapes,
buildings, statues, etc., which he had seen during his travels, “a few
of many hundreds executed while I was abroad.”
In 1702 he was elected member for Whithorn in Galloway, which he
represented till 1707; and his “History” contains curious particulars
of the last sittings of the Scottish Parliament, and personal
references to the prominent political figures of the period,—to the
Duke of Queensberry, the Duke of Argyll, the Marquis of Tweeddale, the
Earl of Stair, Robert Dundas, second Lord Arniston, and Fletcher of
Salton—“a man of republican principles,” “a little untoward in temper,
and much inclined to Eloquence.” In 1706-7, through the influence of
the Duke of Queensberry, his first wife’s cousin, and the Duke of
Argyll, he was appointed a Commissioner for the Union; and in the
following year he became one of the Barons of the newly constituted
Court of Exchequer in Scotland.