This preparatory study was made at Cockburnspath for Walton’s large watercolour Grandfather’s Garden (1884). The sketch shows the development of the composition from his initial ideas, quickly set out in pencil on a small-scale and developed further into an arrangement very close to the final one. Walton considered the finished watercolour to be one of his major works. When it was exhibited at the Royal Society of Watercolours in 1884 he put a price of 45 guineas on it, a substantial amount at the time. The subject of the little girl helping her grandfather tend plants in his garden is slightly sentimental and heralds Walton’s departure from his more familiar pastoral and rustic imagery.