National Galleries of Scotland

Hutton is considered to be the founder of modern geology. His 'Theory of the Earth', (presented as a paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1785) showed that the continents are gradually worn away over vast stretches of time to form new continents on the sea floor and that there was 'no vestige of a beginning - no prospect of an end' to the physical history of the earth . The manuscript on the table is probably Hutton's 'Theory of the Earth' and Raeburn has also include geological specimens, including fossils, on the table top.