Joseph Mallord William Turner

Drawn with the book inverted this sketch may show the Pease Bridge in Cockburnspath about halfway between St Abbs and Dunbar, which Turner had sketched in 1801 (Tate D02722, D02723; Turner Bequest LIV 71a, 72;). The bridge, opened in 1786, was, at the time, the highest bridge in Europe at forty metres above the water below. It crosses the Pease Dean valley, and is now part of a walk known as the Sir Walter Scott Way. Turner may have passed the bridge on his journey to North Berwick. Just as in his 1801 sketches, Turner draws the structure and landscape with the utmost economy using just a few lines. There is another drawing of the bridge on the top of the following page (D13379; CLXV 33).