Given its size and the style of drawing it is fairly clear that this comes from the 1812-15 sketchbook and indeed (on the basis of the photograph) it seems that at the left edge of the sheet there are marks of holes made by stitching and even (towards the top and at the centre) darker bits of red and brown which may be remnants of the book's covers and may indicate that this sheet was at one extremity of the book, and came away from the cover when the sheet was removed from the book. Among the 1812-15 sketches, two have not been photographed, but their provenances are incompatible with this sheet. It seems therefore that this is a new addition to the sketchbook which has been in continuous private ownership since the Merivale family sold the sketchbook in the 1940s, and therefore has not come to the attention of the London art market in the way that other sheets have done.

Stylistically, the drawing looks like others that Towne made in the period 1812-15, and is most obviously comparable to FT734, a tree study drawn on 13 August 1812 in Dulwich. Both employ a delicate and controlled pen line that - perhaps due to the artist's increasing frailty - lack the vigour and flow characteristic of his earlier outlines.