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on a bedroom chair and looked at it every morning and evening. Asked about her favourites, however, Gardiner replies, 'They're all favourites. I wouldn't have them otherwise'. 75 While the placing of sculpture and paintings in Downshire Hill remained relatively static, Gardiner's cottage on Rousay was a different affair. Discovered in 1956 when Gardiner visited Orkney with Martin during his national service, 'Swartafiold' was a dilapidated but and ben, a simple building overlooking the island of Egilsay where St Magnus was martyred. Martin suggested that if it could be bought for £50, they should do so. Securing it, Gardiner threw herself into repointing roof tiles, cutting peat, laying paths, mending walls and creating a small garden. Inside, she tiled floors, covered cushions, made curtains and a rug that Martin thought rivalled Nicholson's. Once comfortably habitable, Gardiner wrote to Nicholson, 'it really does look quite enchanting now with the kind of doll's house charm that Sarah's [Nicholson's and Hepworth's daughter] flat has got – a rather Vermeer look, with the tiled floors and jugs standing on them and clean bright colours. I enjoy all this very much'. 76 There were rugs by Hepworth and Nicholson, a Wallis in the kitchen, a Paolozzi drawing ('grandmother's bed') in Gardiner's bedroom, and screen-printed fabric by Hepworth, a vibrant Tree of Birds by Scottie Wilson and a view of Rackwick Bay by Sylvia Wishart in the parlour. 77 Sometimes Gardiner would walk from room to room, simply enjoying the light. Swartafiold, Margaret Gardiner's home on the island of Rousay. (Photo: Courtesy of Bryce Wilson) 75 Gardiner, in Afternoon Plus with Elaine Grand, Thames Television, 1978, Tate TAV 1165D. 76 Gardiner, letter to Nicholson, 29 December [1957], Tate TGA 8719/1/2/122A. 77 Bryce Wilson, An Orcadian Odyssey: A Memoir, Orkneyology Press, Stromness, 2022, p.142. 21