In 1889 McTaggart moved away from central Edinburgh to Broomieknowe near Lasswade in Midlothian, devoting himself almost entirely to painting. From the 1870s he had developed an extraordinarily free and expressive manner which bore a steadily decreasing resemblance to anything being produced elsewhere in Britain. But the inclusion of the human figure, even as a sketchy presence, was to remain an important element even in his most advanced and mature landscapes. The Glaswegian collector D W T Cargill, who bought this late work directly from McTaggart, admired it as 'an effect of diffused daylight. As powerful and more beautiful in colour than a Constable'.