Chiefswood Cottage, on the Abbotsford Estate, was the summer house of Sir Walter Scott's daughter Charlotte Sophia and her husband, the writer and barrister, John Gibson Lockhart. Turner had made a pencil sketch of the scene on his visit to Abbotsford in 1831 and then worked on the vignette the following year shortly after Scott's death. The empty chair under the trees may allude to the departed author. His son in law Lockhart was to write a biography of Scott and the unoccupied writing desk in the sun may refer to this project. The engraved vignette was the title image for volume XVIII of Cadell's 'Works of Sir Walter Scott.'