This sheet contains several sketches. The topmost register is a schematic representation of the relationship between King Arthur’s Round Table and Mayburgh Henge, the two henge monuments at Eamont Bridge near Penrith.
Below this to the right is a quick sketch of ‘St John’s’ Vale (St John’s in the Vale) near Keswick, and below that another sketch of the same site, but from a lower viewpoint, more in the vale. The sketch is partly obscured at the left by the grubbiness of the page at that point, but also by the top left quarter having been used by Turner as an impromptu palette at some stage. The inscription ‘St John’, below, relates to this sketch.
In the fourth register to the left is a more distant view of King Arthur’s Round Table and Brougham Hall with Penrith Beacon in the distance, probably showing similar material to the sketch in the top register, but from a different point of view.
In the fourth register to the right, inscribed ‘2’, is a close up view of Mayburgh with Penrith Beacon in the background, not dissimilar to the watercolour engraved for Scott’s Poetical works:
Mayburgh circa 1832 (whereabouts unknown).
1In the fifth register are two schematic cross-sections of the earthworks; that on the left showing the banks, ditches and central dais of King Arthur’s Round Table, and on the right a cross-section of the banks and central standing stone of Mayburgh.
In the bottom register left is a sketch of Yanwath Hall, about one kilometre to the west of Mayburgh.
In the bottom register right is a rough sketch map of the Junction of the ‘Greta’ and the ‘Tees’, sketched on the recto.
