Possible Reconstruction of the King's Arms, Dumfries

This pen and ink drawing, with watercolour shows a possible reconstruction of the King's Arms Hotel, Dumfries.  The location is the lower end of the High Street.  In front of the hotel is the fountain and the road bending to the left leads into English Street.  'Boots' the chemist now occupies this site.   Charles William Stewart was born in the Philippines in 1915.  His father was a partner in the merchant firm of Smith, Bell & Co.  After the end of  the First World War, he and his mother returned from the East to stay with his aunt and uncle at Shambellie, New Abbey.  After the death of his aunt and uncle, both childless, Stewart's father inherited the Shambellie estate.   Stewart was educated in the south of England, and attended the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting, London.  When war broke out in 1939, Stewart, a conscientious objector, joined Battersea ARP as a stretcher bearer.  In his spare time he trained himself to draw with a pen, and started on his first book illustrations.  In 1943 he received his first commission to illustrate a book.  After his release from service, he returned to the Byam Shaw School to teach life drawing and illustration, and in 1955 became joint principal of the school.    The death of his mother in 1960 saw Stewart return to Shambellie to help his father with running the estate.  He inherited the house after his father died in 1962.  In 1977, Stewart donated Shambellie House and his costume collection, together with the 18th century New Abbey Corn Mill, to the nation.