Embroidery was for centuries thought to be an appriopriate feminine occupation, and until the early part of the twentieth century considered an essential part of an upper class British lady's education. Augusta Kennedy Erskine (1803-1865), who made this remarkable panel was the daughter of William, duke of Clarence, son of George III, brother of George IV and himself King, as William IV from 1830-1837. Her mother was the renowned actress Dorothea Jordan (1761-1816) who bore William eleven children. Dorothea's tragic early death in 1816 was deeply mourned by the royal duke, and was soon followed by another royal tragedy, when Princess Charlotte of Wales (1796-1817), died just hours after giving birth to a still-born daughter, thus erasing two generations in the direct line of succession. This tragedy brought about a crisis of succession in the royal family, and occasioned a rather unseemly rush to the altar, with the younger brothers of George, Prince of Wales, namely William, duke of Clarence and Edward, duke of Kent (1767-1820) searching for appropriate royal wives - both prospective future queens. Edward, duke of Kent married Victoria von Leiningen (1786-1861), sister of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1790-1865) widower of the recently deceased Princess Charlotte. William, duke of Clarence, married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (1792-1849). The marriages took place in a joint ceremony at Kew Palace on 11 July 1818. Of the two unions, only the new duchess of Kent produced a child, who later suceeded her uncle William IV as Queen Victoria.

All of this important dynastic activity was a far cry from William's earlier life, happily spent in the company of Dorothea, at Bushy Park or in the lavish rooms at Clarence House, St James's Palace. Augusta, born in 1803, was the fourth child of this unconsecrated and illegitimate arrangement: the children were all given the surname FitzClarence, the prefx Fitz- traditionally signalling acknowledgement of a child born outside royal marriage. In 1827, she married the Hon. John Kennedy Erskine, a younger son of the Earl of Cassilis, later 1st Marquess of Ailsa, and they lived in his family's estate at Dun, Forfarshire. John died in 1831 just a few years after their marriage, but Augusta had managed to bear three children. Like many of her sex and generation, she was a skilled needlewoman and made a number of embroidered textiles which remain in the house. Indeed, there are close similarities between this panel and the elaborate embroidered pelmets and coverlet which are preserved by the National Trust for Scotland at the House of Dun.