James Fergusson, a British writer on architecture, born at Ayr, Scotland, in 1808. He was educated at the high school of Edinburgh, and after several years' experience in a counting house in Holland and England, went in 1829 to India, where for ten years he was engaged in mercantile pursuits. Returning to England, he devoted himself to art and literature. During his residence in India he had taken great interest in the ancient architectural remains, and among the fruits of his observations was a description of the rock-cut temples with illustrations by himself (1845), and Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient Architecture in Hindostan" (1847-'8). In 1847 he published "Ancient Topography of Jerusalem," in which he undertook to show that the building known as the mosque of Omar is the church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1849 appeared the first volume of his "Historical Inquiry into the True Principles of Beauty in Art, more especially with reference to Architecture," which was succeeded by the "Illustrated Handbook of Architecture (1855), in the preparation of which he used the materials already collected for the succeeding volumes of the former work.

In these works he gives a complete survey of the architectural monuments of the chief nations of ancient and modern times, and offers many suggestions of great practical value. His "Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored (1851), published while Mr. Layard's excavations were proceeding, exhibits a profound knowledge of the architecture of the Assyrians and Persians; and upon the subsequent establishment of the crystal palace at Sydenham, of which he was the general manager for some time after its opening, he personally superintended the arrangement of the Nineveh court. His attention had been drawn in India to the use and application of earthworks in modern fortifications, and he proposed the substitution of circular forms for angles and bastions, and of earthworks for masonry. On this subject he published The Peril of Portsmouth and "Portsmouth Protected," and "Essay on a proposed New System of Fortification (1849). His system was put in practice in the Russian defence of Sebastopol, and frequently employed in the civil war in the United States. In 1859 he became one of the royal commissioners for the defences of the United Kingdom. In 1871 he received the royal gold medal of the institute of British architects.

Besides the works mentioned, he has published "A History of Architecture in all Countries," a reconstruction of his "Handbook" (3 vols., 1802-'7),Rude Stone Monuments of all Ages (1872), and Tree and SerpentWorship" (newed., 1874).