The two sketches on this page, and further sketches on folios 22 and 22 verso (
D26301,
D26302), do not depict Bothwell Castle as Finberg tentatively suggested,
1 but the ruins of the old Douglas Castle and the eighteenth-century mansion house built to replace it which stand near the Douglas Water in Lanarkshire.
2 Turner visited the site during a tour of Lanarkshire on 19 September 1831. As Gerald Finley has suggested, the reason for his visit was to make sketches for potential illustrations to Walter Scott’s
Waverley Novels; see
Tour of Scotland for Scott’s Prose Works 1834 Tour Introduction.
3 Douglas Castle and the surrounding area were the setting for Sir Walter Scott’s last novel,
Castle Dangerous, 1831, and although it is not officially a ‘Waverley Novel’, having been published after the identity of the ‘Author of Waverley’ was revealed, it is often included in that group. In the event Turner’s commission to illustrate the novels fell through, so he never worked up these sketches into more finished designs.
4There are two views on the present page. Across the right half of the page, drawn with the sketchbook inverted, is a view of the ruins of the old castle and part of the later castle as seen from the north. All that remained in 1834 of the old castle, built in the late seventeenth century, was the circular corner tower of the encircling wall. This was kept as a folly when the new castle was built and still stands today. To the right, partly hidden here by a tree, is the later Douglas Castle. This was built between 1757 and 1761 by the Adams brothers for Archibald Douglas, 3rd Marquis of Douglas. It was demolished in 1938 having become unsound due to subsidence caused by mining in the area.
The later castle can be seen more clearly in the second sketch at the left of the page. This shows the western side of the building with one of the round corner towers that flank its façade. At the back of the castle there are square towers which can be seen on folio 22 where this sketch continues. Above the sketch Turner has drawn in profile one of the corbels that supports the roof, with a row of corbels to the left.
Thomas Ardill
October 2010
