Joseph Mallord William Turner

Turner passed through Melrose Vale on 6 August 1831 on his return to Abbotsford from Smailholm Tower and Bemerside, and is reported to have been ‘greatly pleased with the turns of the Tweed about Old Melrose and Gladwood’.1 However, he is not reported to have made any sketches on that occasion so the present sketch is likely to have been made on 8 August when Turner visited Melrose Abbey and made various sketches of it and the vale.2 The view was made while Turner was travelling from Dryburgh to Melrose, and looks west along the River Tweed and Melrose Vale with the Eildon Hills at the left. At the right of the page is a peel tower.

Turner’s sketch of Melrose on folios 14 verso–15 of this sketchbook (D25953–D25954; CCLXVII 14a–15) was used as the basis for his watercolour, Melrose 1831 (The National Gallery of Scotland),3 which was engraved to illustrate volume 6 of Sir Walter Scott’s Poetical Works.