Joseph Mallord William Turner

There are two sketches of Dryburgh Abbey on this page. With the sketchbook inverted is the continuation of a sketch from folio 70 (D26052; CCLXVII 72), showing the abbey from the east. With the book turned to left from the previous sketch is a view of Dryburgh Abbey from the south. This formed the basis of Turner’s depiction of the abbey in his watercolour, Dryburgh Abbey circa 1832 (Tate N05241),1 prepared as the frontispiece illustration to volume 5 of Sir Walter Scott’s Poetical Works; the rest of the landscape was based on a drawing across folios 8 verso–9 (D25941–D25942; CCLXVII 8a–9).

This sketch looks towards the gable of the south transept, with the chapter house on the right and the south range to the left. Some details of the abbey are altered in the watercolour, which (as Anne Lyles has observed) was to some extent an amalgamation of several sketches.2