J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

Over folios 82 verso and 83 (D13722; CLXVII 75) are four sketches. The main sketch across both pages shows Dalkeith, with what is probably another sketch of the town in the centre at the top of folio 83, a small study for Crichton Castle to its right and a larger study for Borthwick Castle at the bottom of the page.

Dalkeith is identifiable here, and in another sketch on folio 74 of this book (D13706; CLXVII 67), by its church (shown on folio 83) and the arched bridge over the North Esk River which Turner made careful sketches of in the Edinburgh, 1818 sketchbook (Tate D13550; Turner Bequest CLXVI 51a) and inscribed ‘Dalkeith’. The view is from the Old Dalkeith Road in the north-west and shows the hills in the foreground and the town beyond, with the Esk flowing through it.