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Beccles lies just inside the county of Suffolk, near the Norfolk border. The river from which the view of St Michael’s Church is taken is the Waveney. Cotman was commissioned by the publisher Longman to provide illustrations for Excursions through England, in which each county was to be depicted in eight views, to be issued monthly. He contributed to the Norfolk and Suffolk volumes, the present work being one of the seven views he made of the latter county. Cotman’s drawings for the Excursions have been described as ‘topography turned high art.’ This is a particularly fine and delicately drawn example of this rare artist’s work.