The Leader valley at Cowdenknowes House, Berwickshire, 1843 [Scotland]

Mounted in album with PAI4673-PAI4699, PAI4701-PAI4716.; No.28. 22. No. 28 in Fanshawe's Baltic and later album, 1843-1883. Captioned by the artist on the album page below the image, 'Cowdenknowes, James Gilfillan, Esqr, 1843'. According to the website (March 2010) of the Edinburgh architects, Simpson & Brown, who had then recently renovated it as a private residence, 'Cowdenknowes House is a category-A listed mansion situated on the east bank of the Leader water south of Earlston in Berwickshire. The present house stands on the site of a Douglas stronghold and has been substantially added to and remodelled in the late 18th century, and again in 1820 and the 1880s.' In Fanshawe's drawing it appears in the distance amid the trees of the Leader valley. The Edenton-Eaglesfield section (pp. 349-61) of Samuel Lewis's 'Topographical Dictionary of Scotland' (1846) briefly mentions 'Cowdenknows' as ' now the property of James Gilfillan, Esq.,' noting that it 'stands on the Leader, amid scenery which has for hundreds of years been celebrated for its beauty'. It is not known what personal connection (if any) Fanshawe may have had with Gilfillan, of whom nothing else is known. Fanshawe however married Jane Cardwell on 11 May 1843, when he was a young Commander RN, and this drawing is one of a group (PAI4700-PAI4706) recording their first summer holiday together that summer, though his biography (1904) does not give the exact dates.
Edward Gennys Fanshawe

Original size: 176 mm x 263 mm