Signed, watercolour (25.5cm x 38cm (10in x 15in)) Footnote: Note: Maes Howe, a large mound with an entrance passage leading to three burial cells or chambers, is the finest chambered tomb in north-west Europe. Built about 5000 years ago - earlier than the pyramids of Egypt and the legendary golden age of China - it is a remarkable mixture of simplicity and sophistication, its survival due to the quality of its building stone. The tumulus is 92 feet in diameter, 36 feet high and about 300 feet in circumference at the base. Inside the tomb the entrance passage and chambers are constructed of stone slabs weighing up to 30 tonnes. The tomb was designed to be closed up. However, those who built Maes Howe were well aware of the seasonal movements of the sun. The passage points roughly to midwinter sunset and in the evenings around the shortest day of the year the sun shines into the chamber. Long after it was abandoned as a burial place, Maes Howe was broken into by Norsemen and Viking crusaders in the mid 12th century AD. They carved a considerable number of runic inscriptions on the large stones of the main chamber. After the depredation, or perhaps during it, the top of the mound collapsed filling the chamber with earth and stones. Its true nature was not revealed until it was excavated in 1861 by J Farrer, who published in 1862 an excellent account of his findings.