Eckford Lauder studied under Sir William Allan, Sir Walter Scott’s preferred illustrator. Baron Bradwardine’s legal adviser Bailie McWheeble features in Waverley (1814), the first of Scott's internationally famous series of Waverley Novels. The clutter of accessories is reminiscent of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish interior scenes of scholars or philosophers. Lauder’s highly finished style drew complimentary comparisons with the work of Gerrit Dou.