- 181
[MacCulloch, John]
Description
- Twenty albums containing over 500 pencil drawings of topographical views and tree studies. Great Britain, [c.1806-c.1813], oblong folio (275 x 390mm.), all but one contemporary half leather bindings (rather worn)
1. Scotland. Nine albums containing c.264 pencil drawings on paper watermarked 1810-11, all with locations identified, including Loch Katrine, Ben Nevis, Mull, Staffa, Loch Leven, Glencoe, Killicrankie, Glen Lyon, etc., all but a few at the end of one volume in a finished state, contemporary red half morocco
2. Devon and Cornwall. Four albums dated 1807 (watermarked 1804-05) containing c.101 pencil drawings, all with locations identified, including Dartmoor, Mount Egecumbe, Cotehele, Lostwithiel, Tintagel, etc., contemporary half sheep over vellum boards
3. Tree studies. Five albums containing c.141 pencil drawings (watermarked 1802-04), comprising: "Beech, Knole 1806", 25 drawings; "In Hyde Park May 1806", 44 drawings, mostly of trees; "Elms in Hyde Park May 1807", 25 drawings; "Walnut 1808", 23 drawings, locations identified; "Abele 1808", 24 drawings, location identified
and 2 other albums with unfinished sketches, one in Wales
Provenance
Catalogue Note
John MacCulloch (1773-1835), born in Guernsey, became interested in geology in the early 1800s and from 1809 was paid by the Board of Ordnance to search for suitable limestone deposits to provide millstones for the British Ordnance gunpowder mills in the war against Napoleon. By 1812 he had found such deposits in Sutherland, Skye and at Glen Tilt. In the pursuit of his interests he toured Scotland, Wales, Wessex and the Lake District during 1805-1821 and continued to visit Scotland until 1832.
MacCulloch had a strong interest in sketching picturesque scenery, aware of the close relationship between the scenery and underlying rock. In 1813 he records in his diary making sketches of Loch Achray and Loch Katrine, and these are probably in one the sketchbooks in this collection, along with drawings of Lochs Earn, Venachar and Lubnaig (see David A. Cumming John MacCulloch's 'Millstone Survey' and its Consequences in Annals of Science, 41 (1984) pp.583-4). His diaries also record a visit to the West Country in 1807 during which he visited mines and commented on rocks.