Old London Bridge (oil on canvas)

painting from the Drawing Room at Felbrigg Hall; Scott painted this scene no less than eleven times. The first time was in 1747, the year after the Lord Mayor had called a Court of Enquiry to consider the future of the bridge. It was considered a dangerous obstacle to traffic both up, down and across the Thames. The houses on it were pulled down, and a single central arch was built in 1757. The rest of the bridge was not demolished until 1831. An inventory of 1764 at Felbrigg, where this picture hangs, records that this version was painted in 1753. This was the same year in which William II Windham requested frames for it and its pendant, ‘The Tower of London.’