Catalogue entry
This sketch of Worcester continues across folio 2 verso opposite (
D22154), where All Saints Church is seen to the east. The viewpoint is the west bank of the Severn below Hylton Road; on this page, looking south-east down the River Severn, John Gwynn’s 1781 bridge is shown. It remains much the same as depicted in early nineteenth-century engravings (Worcester City Museums), except for the demolition around 1932 of the twin domed tollhouses Turner shows on the right.
1 Above it is St Andrew’s Church, drawn by Turner with the upper stage of its tower and steeple (the only part of the building to survive today) detached to the left, perhaps suggesting that the inscription discussed below was present already and impeded him at this point. Worcester Cathedral stands beyond.
The overall composition is repeated on folio 4 recto (
D22156) from a little to the north. For other views of Worcester, see under
D22154.
The main inscription, not mentioned by Finberg, comprises about a dozen words of poetry: ‘[...]ed as the Star of Eve when [?Twylight] [... (one word overwriting another)] | [...] struggles with’. The word ‘struggles’ overwrites or is overwritten by another word, beginning with ‘E’. There is a similarly worded attempt among the sketches on folio 4 verso (
D22157), and longer passages on folios 70 recto and verso and 71 recto (
D22277–D22279; Turner Bequest CCXXXIX 69, 69a, 70), under the last of which their significance is discussed.
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