With the page turned vertically, the upper half is taken up with the following scrawled lines:
Alas when in his [...] pride
[?T...]rd down the depth of [?Bay ...] [‘days’ inserted below]
the [... ?Bridge] to tell before
the s[...] – and [... ]ing ways
sad [...] of [?m...y] . [?r...]
a [...]ing
This reading is extremely tentative, even regarding many of the words not specifically qualified or queried. However, the general pessimistic sense and mention of what seems to be a ‘Bridge’ may relate to the ‘Fallacies of Hope’ lines Turner composed to accompany his large painting,
Caligula’s Palace and Bridge, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1831 (Tate
N00512):
1What now remains of all the mighty bridge
Which made the Lacrine Lake an inner pool,
Caligula, but massy fragments left,
As monuments of doubt and ruined hopes
Yet gleaming in the Morning’s ray, that tell
How Baia’s shore was loved in times gone by?
2For studies for the painting in this sketchbook, see under folio 7 recto (
D35769), and for the other poetry it contains, see the Introduction.
Below is a rapidly rendered view, apparently of buildings and the masts of boats seen from off shore, perhaps at Deal (see under folio 3 verso;
D35762) or Margate (see under folio 10 verso;
D35776) on the Kent coast.
Matthew Imms
September 2016
