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

With the page turned horizontally, there are two related studies of buildings above what appear to be fortified earthworks; Finberg thought the setting was coastal.1 They follow on from views at Deal and Walmer (see under folios 273 recto and 279 verso; D19382, D19394), north-east of Dover, of which there are views at both ends of this sketchbook (see under folio 2 recto; D18843), and precede a final few pages towards the back cover which likely all relate to Folkestone, west of Dover (see particularly folio 282 recto; D19399).

The verso (D19398) shows Sandgate Castle, on the Channel coast less than two miles west of Folkestone, so one possibility is that the present sketches show the defences of Shorncliffe Redoubt, part of an important Napoleonic army camp about a mile further west again, on the heights just inland above Hospital Hill; the site is now largely wooded, obscuring the contours.2 The site would have been visible in the background of the Sandgate view. All the other identified British subjects in this sketchbook are widely dispersed along the Kent coast, giving scope for numerous other possibilities.