J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

Turner’s drawing occupies only the upper quarter of the page, turned vertically. The slight sketch of a pinnacled tower and ruins on the skyline appears to be a variation on the views of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, with St Helen’s Church and the ruins of the adjacent castle, in the contemporary Kenilworth sketchbook (Tate D22150, D41046; Turner Bequest CCXXXVIII 90a and inside back cover). The shapes in the foreground appear to include cattle. The readings of Turner’s inscriptions immediately below the drawing as possibly ‘Tonpit’ and ‘Ilam Road’ are very tentative, as they do not seem to relate to local Ashby topography. Finberg suggested a small drawing in the 1831 Worcester and Shrewsbury sketchbook (Tate D22286; Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 73a) shows Ilam in the Derbyshire Peak District,1 but Ilam is far to the north of Turner’s identified 1830 itinerary.

Below, in the same orientation, are two names. The upper appears to be ‘Rougets’, comparable with what may be ‘Rouet’ in the list of names on folio 18 verso opposite (D22354), but the significance of both has yet to be established.