oil painting

[tearinghair]

We have an oil painting - bequeathed to us because nobody liked it I think - which is of a rural scene, a pond and trees. It certainly seems quite old, Victorian I'd say at a guess, and has the initials L T in the bottom right-hand corner. (At least I think it's LT; the T looks more like a 7, and the L could be a pound sign without the crossbar, but I can't imagine anyone would paint the price on it.....

About 15 years ago we had it valued by one of the big London auctioneers which was having a local valuation day. They took it away with them, then wrote to say that they couldn't trace the initials, but it was quite pretty (everyone to his taste!) and they would suggest putting a reserve of �75 on it. We decided to ask for it to be returned, which it duly was. Shortly afterwards we had a letter from the original valuer saying that (s)he would be happy to take it off our hands if we wished, for the �75 they were suggesting. Smelling a very faint rat, we decided to hang on to it; it's still in the loft.

Does anyone have any idea about who the artist might have been, and whether the valuation was reasonable?