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

Turner’s subject here is a small cave on the east bank of the River Greta not far from its junction with the River Tees. The cave had been brought into the garden of Rokeby Hall by a network of picturesque pathways along the rocky banks of the Greta. The sketch is one of the scrappiest in the sketchbook, and quite untypical of Turner’s work as a whole on this tour. However, the unusual sense of haste is shared by other sketches at Rokeby, for example in the Yorkshire 5 sketchbook (Tate D11572; Turner Bequest CXLVIII 29a) and the present writer, dating them to Wednesday 31 July 1816, has suggested that Turner was hampered by some particularly wet weather at this point in his itinerary. There is a further sketch, made in the same vicinity, in the Yorkshire 2 sketchbook (Tate D11217; Turner Bequest CXLV 108), which also accompanied him on the tour.

Rokeby Hall and its grounds stand at the junction of the Greta and Tees about seven miles north-west of Richmond. It is a private house but regularly open to the public. In 1816 it was the home of John Baker Sawrey Morritt, and famous through Sir Walter Scott’s poem, Rokeby, published in 1813, which celebrated the scenery of the area. The cave was subsequently named ‘Scott’s Cave’. In 1816 Turner was no doubt already well aware of Scott’s poem.