The attribution has been made on the basis of a comparison with a very similar drawing, illustrated in Country Life 24 October , 1974, of a different scene which is also attributed to Edmund Walker. Walker, who executed a number of drawings of London now in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of London worked on topographical scenes for the publishers Newman and Co. in the middle of the century. The present drawing dates from between 1859/60, when the Cemetery Chapels to the left of the drawing were built, and 1867, when the spire of the Congregational Chapel - which does not appear - was completed. The building to the extreme left and in front of the Cemetery is the Union Workhouse. The artist has evidently worked beside footpaths on the Snowdon Hill, West of Chard. There exists a lithograph of Chard, by another hand, from a similar viewpoint, also executed between 1859/60 and 1867.

Another attribution, to the lithographer W. Spreat of Exeter, has been suggested. Spreat exhibited at the British Institution and contributed drawings for Pulman's 1854 'Book of the Axe'.

We are grateful to Mr. Len Hoskins for his help in preparing this entry