Cardarroch, near Robroyston by William Simpson (1823-1899).
Simpson visited this house in 1853 with some friends including the writer Hugh MacDonald. The latter wrote that "Cardarroch was the seat of an ancient family named Peters, which is now... extinct. The house is a queer-looking old structure, with peaked gables, crow-steps, narrow windows, and a picturesque old doorway, over which is the date of 1625. It is now occupied by several families of weavers and labourers. Our venerable friend Walter Watson, the weaver poet, lived here for a number of years... [Simpson] has taken a faithful sketch of the house, and a pretty little picture it makes, with the wee lame laddie sitting on the door-stone, Mrs Drummond bending over the washing tub, and a stately cock with his troop of hens strutting proudly in the foreground".
This watercolour is one of a series of fifty-five painted by Simpson between 1893 and 1898. Most are based on sketches he completed fifty years earlier and which originally appeared as black and white illustrations in Views and Notices of Glasgow in Former Times, published in 1848 by Allan & Ferguson.
Reference: 892at/ 1889.2.at
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums
Keywords:
Allan & Ferguson, Cardarroch, chickens, country houses, crow-stepped gables, disabled children, handloom weavers, hens, labourers, laundry, paintings, physical disabilities, poets, washing tubs, watercolours, women