Samuel Bough, regarded as one of the
most influential watercolourists of his time, noted for painting in the open-air, was resident at No. 5 from about 1856 to 1867. He was born on 8 January 1822 at Carlisle, the son of a shoemaker. After a short apprenticeship with a London engraver Bough returned to Carlisle and started producing watercolours. He moved to Manchester in 1845 to take up employment as a scene painter at the Theatre Royal and three years later moved to Glasgow and to work as a scene painter at the Prince’s Theatre.
Bough settled in Edinburgh in 1855, by which time he was an established landscape artist. Bough helped establish the Royal Scottish Society for Painters in Watercolour, becoming its first Vice-President. He exhibited 15 works at the RA between 1856-1876, and was elected RSA in 1875. Bough was admired by Robert Louis Stevenson and painted a view of his house at Swanston. Samuel Bough died in Edinburgh on 19 November 1878. R.L. Stevenson penned a glowing obituary of him.
Samuel Bough married Mary Ann Isabella Taylor, an opera singer, on 15 April 1849, at Glasgow. She was born about 1822 in England.