William Turner of Oxford 1789-1862

Description

• William Turner of Oxford
• The Highlanders burial ground, Loch Maree
• signed l.r.: W. Turner / Oxford, inscribed on the backboard: No.2 / The Highlanders Burying Ground, on a small Island in Loch Maree, Ross shire, N.B. Moonlight Evening. / W. Turner / Oxford / 1848 / "Loch Maree takes it name from St. Maree, a Culdec [?] from Iona, or from Aplecross, where some of St. Columba's disciples settled, who took up his abode in the most northernly (a circular) / little isle, which if in his time as samantic a little spot as now, evinced propriety of choice; for with its pebby beach, surmounted by a thicket of oak coppice birch, and larch, tangled with holly shoots from the old stems, reputed to have / been planted by the Saint, and carpet beneath of moss, oxalis, blackberry, and fern, it forms a most fitting reteat as Auchorite or Lady of the Lake could desire. In the centre of the thicket, sit locale for Druidical cemetary, there is a primitive / little burying ground, marked by narrow dressed flags and headstones, the resting place of some families about Letterewe. Hard by is a little well, celebrated for its healing virtues, the boughs sound which are hung with [?] rags, and whose / water, with the additional operation of being dragged through. the loch to an adjoining isle, are deemed sooeign [?] for the case of insanity." See Anderson's Guide to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Also Dr. Macculloch's 2nd Vol / of the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland.         
• watercolour over pencil heightened with gum arabic
• 45 by 89 cm., 18 by 35 in.

Catalogue Note