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

Although there is no resemblance, Finberg speculated from the indistinct lower inscription that the castle was that of Lulworth in Dorset, for which see the Corfe to Dartmouth sketchbook (Tate D08828; Turner Bequest CXXIV 19). Rather, the view is of the blockhouse at Polruan, looking south-east from its counterpart at Fowey across the Fowey Estuary. St Saviour’s Chapel crowns the hill beyond. The Polruan fortification survives relatively intact, but little remains of the one at Fowey. There is another view from nearby on folio 17 recto opposite (D08393); for other views in and around Fowey see under folio 5 verso (D08371).

The inscription at the top refers to a pound note1 which Turner presumably spent or broke in Fowey when he was drawing the fortifications. However, the same number appears in the list of banknotes on folio 253 verso at the back of the sketchbook (D40905), where it is crossed out and annotated ‘Lost’, presumably indicating Lostwithiel, a few miles inland, as written in full inside the back cover (D40906), while the preceding number on the list is suffixed with ‘Fowey’.