Catalogue entry
From the northern edge of West Burton village Turner followed the lane from Flanders Hall for about a mile of quite steep climbing to reach a rock outcrop above Sorrelsykes Park. From here there is a panoramic view of Upper Wensleydale, looking over Aysgarth Church to the left of centre and Addleborough to the left, with the high moors above Askrigg and Hawes closing the distance. The ‘x’ in the left centre distance marks the vicinity of Hardraw and Cotter Force where he had sketched on the days immediately preceding (
D11455). A sketch in the
Yorkshire 2 sketchbook (Tate
D11272; Turner Bequest CXLV 136a), made on the same visit, effectively continues the panorama to the left.
The effort required to reach this vantage point, and the fact that Turner seems to have made the climb solely for the view, rather than to continue on his main route, prompts the question of how he got to hear of it and found his way there. He presumably had local directions, and the scenery of the area appears to have had some local celebrity at least, from the presence of the nearby Belvedere Temple recorded two pages later in the sketchbook, on folio 12 recto (
D11460).
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