\n The painting, found in the archives of the British Geological Survey (BGS), depicts the Dryburgh Suspension Bridge and the River Tweed, offering a rare glimpse of the Borders landmark just a year after it was built in the early 1870s.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was uncovered by a building stones specialist while examining historical field slips, which are geological maps and notes recorded during fieldwork.\n<\/p>\n
\n Following further research, the watercolour is believed to have been painted around 1873 by Benjamin Neeve Peach, a geologist with the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland who was known to be conducting fieldwork in the region around that time.\n<\/p>\n
\n Daniel Burgess, geological data steward at the BGS, said: “Field slips have always been a vital tool for geologists since the inception of the survey in the 19th century, as a way of recording important observations, measurements and notes whilst out in the field.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It was not unusual for geologists, who are often out in the field for weeks at a time, to sketch the landscapes that have been shaped by the underlying geology.\n<\/p>\n
\n “In this example, peach is showing how the tough volcanic rocks of the Eildon Hills dominate the landscape around Dryburgh.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The front of the Dryburgh field slip used by Benjamin Peach when surveying the area in the 1870s (Image: BGS \/ UKRI)\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Peach was also an accomplished artist, and his other works are held in the BGS archive and available on GeoScenic, the BGS\u2019s public online geological photograph database.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Burgess said: “Our extensive data holdings are still very relevant today and they do occasionally throw up a welcome surprise when accessing them as part of modern research.\n<\/p>\n
\n “In this case, we knew almost instantly we had stumbled across a Ben Peach artwork, given his signature style and prolificacy.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Peach worked at the BGS from 1862 until his retirement in 1905 and produced hundreds of sketches and paintings during his field surveys.\n<\/p>\n
\n His drawings, often found in field notebooks and on the backs of maps, documented landscapes and everyday scenes across Scotland.\n<\/p>\n
\n The geological field map now resides in the BGS Archives alongside around 40,000 other items, including administrative records and personal papers from BGS staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The painting, found in the archives of the British Geological Survey (BGS), depicts the Dryburgh Suspension Bridge and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-800125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}