Uploader's Comments

"The beautiful spire at the offices of Penicuik house might reasonably suggest to the onlooker the proximity of a place for Divine worship rather than a stable. At first designed by Sir James Clerk for the parish church at Penicuik, but its erection there being forbidden by his fellow-heritors, the Baronet determined to see the creation of his brain in stone and lime, and hence the presence of this unusual and imposing structure at the entrance to the stable-yard." -- Wilson, The Annals of Penicuik, 1891