This quite rapidly executed sketch is of Melrose Abbey from the east. It therefore looks towards the large east window with the remains of the tower above, the relatively intact south transept at the left and the more ruinous north transept at the right. To the left of the sketch is the spire of Melrose Parish Church, and to the right are the hills to the north of the River Tweed. At the top of the page is a sketch of nearby hills.
This is the only view of the abbey in this sketchbook, though Turner had made numerous sketches in the
Abbotsford sketchbook during a visit on 8 August 1831, in preparation for an illustration to Sir Walter Scott’s
Poetical Works: see Tate
D25946 (Turner Bequest CCLXVII 11). In 1834 Turner was collecting subjects for illustrations to Sir Walter Scott’s
Waverley Novels and may have had Melrose in mind for an illustration to
The Monastery, 1820.
1
Thomas Ardill
January 2011
