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

This is the right half of a double-page spread, drawn inverted in relation to the main sequence of sketches, continued from folio 28 recto (D11414) opposite, recording Hornby Castle from the south as seen across the lake. This sketch supplies greater detail for the composition sketched from a greater distance in a succeeding spread, folios 28 verso–29 recto (D11415–D11416). Turner recorded the south-western aspect in a further sketch on folios 29 verso–30 recto (D11417–D11418) and the eastern aspect in sketches in the Yorkshire 1 sketchbook (Tate D10990–D10991, D10983–D10984; Turner Bequest CXLIV 67a–68, 62a–63).

Hornby Castle is about half-way between Richmond and Bedale. In origin it is a fourteenth and fifteenth-century courtyard castle, extensively remodelled in the 1760s by the architect John Carr of York for Robert, 4th Earl of Holderness and more latterly the Dukes of Leeds. The medieval corner tower was demolished in 1927.