Collections

In the opening pages of Volume 1 of Captain Francis Grose's 2-volume "The Antiquities of Scotland," Grose acknowledges the assistance of fellow antiquarians some of whom lent him their original drawings which he (in all but one, unidentified instance) reduced and made ready for the engraver. These include Grose's own assistant and travelling companion Thomas Cocking, in addition to Thomas Pennant, Sir John Clerk of Eldin, and Captain George Henry Hutton of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. As a soldier Hutton may have studied drawing in connection with an understanding of fortifications or of cartography (map-making). A number of the earliest topographical views made in Scotland were carried out by such military draughtsmen, of whom the Englishman Paul Sandy (1725-1809) is probably the best known and most influential. A substantial collection of Hutton's drawings, notes etc are held in NLS (Adv.MS.30.5.22-23) and are available as digitised images on line (http://digital.nls.uk/74466682), including views very similar to some in the RSA collection. RCAHMS holds a collection (1993/144) of slightly later drawings in similar vein by John Sime of Edinburgh which may also throw up some comparisons.