Turner’s inscription tells us that this sketch was made from ‘Craig Lockert’ (or Craiglockhart), about two and a half miles from the centre of Edinburgh. It shows the castle with Arthur’s Seat on the extreme right; the only parts of Edinburgh that could be seen from this distance. Craiglockhart forms a relatively sparse landscape setting for the distant castle, and the strong easterly wind bends the two trees in the middle distance, whose rugged appearance emphasise the wilder side of the Scottish Lothians. Strong winds features in Turner’s coastal subjects for Scott’s
Provincial Antiquities: Bass Rock, circa 1823 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight),
Dunbar, circa 1823 (private collection); and
Tantallon Castle, 1821 (Manchester City Art Galleries) and especially
Borthwick Castle, 1818 (watercolour, Indianapolis Museum of Art),
1 where a westerly wind similarly bends the trees to the left. Turner made several sketches of Edinburgh Castle from the outskirts to the south and south-west in this sketchbook (folios 42 verso, 43, 45 verso and 46;
D13396,
D13397,
D13402,
D13403; CLXV 42a, 43, 45a, 46), and in the
Edinburgh, 1818 sketchbook (Tate
D13570; Turner Bequest CLXVI 62a).
