On the 4th January, 1816, Mr. Walter Fawkes married his second wife, the widow of the Hon. and Rev. Pierce Butler. Fortunately for us this lady kept a diary, which has been carefully preserved at Farnley Hall, and which Mr. F. H. Fawkes has very kindly placed at my disposal. In this diary the names of all visitors were carefully noted, together with the dates of their arrival and departure. The diary was continued to the 31st December, 1838, but Turner’s name does not occur in it after 1826. But for the ten years between 1816 and 1826 this diary forms an extremely valuable record of Turner’s movements. I propose, therefore, with Mr. Fawkes’s kind permission, to publish, for the first time, all the entries which have reference to the great artist.
The first entries of this kind are the following:—
| “Wed. | 17 | July 1816. | Left Farnley with Walter, Maria, Amelia, Ayscough, Richard, and Mr. Turner. Met John Parker at Skipton, where we slept and saw Skipton Castle. |
| Thurs. | 18 | July | Arrived at Browsholme. Heavy rain. |
| Fri. | 19 | ” | Rained all day. Sat in the house. Late in the evening walked a short way with John Parker and Mr. Turner. |
| Sat. | 20 | July | Walter drove me in curricle to the Trough of Bolland. |
| Sun. | 21 | ” | Went to Waddington Church and after to see Mrs. Clarke. |
| Mon. | 22 | ” | Went with the girls to the Trough to see them fish. |
| Tues. | 23 | ” | Heavy rain. Drove with Walter. Obliged to take shelter in a farmhouse. Walter bought a print of the Prodigal Son. |
| Wed. | 24 | ” | Left Browsholme. Got to Malham Village. Dreadful rain. |
| Thurs. | 25 | ” | Went to see Gordale Waterfall. Returned home. Heavy rain. Turner went on a sketching tour.” |
From the frequent references to the rain it is evident that the weather was bad, and the lady does not seem to have enjoyed the excursion very much. But the weather did not prevent Turner from making the sketches he wanted. The sketch-book labelled by him “Yorkshire 2” (CXLV, Turner Bequest) contains the drawings made on this occasion. It is an ordinary-looking book, bound in boards, with brown leather back and corners. The leaves, which number nearly two hundred, are 6 in. × 3¾ in. size, but only a hundred and sixty of them have been drawn on. There are sketches of Skipton Castle at both ends of the book, showing that Turner was not at all particular about the order in which he made his sketches. The drawings on pages 160 to 185 represent views at Skipton, Browsholme, the Trough of Bolland (or Bowland, as it is generally written), and Gordale Scar. But they are all rather hurried in character, which corroborates Mrs. Fawkes’s account of the unfavourable nature of the weather.
At the end of the book Turner has carefully made a list of the numbers and dates of the banknotes he carried with him to meet the expenses of his tour. He took two twenty-pound notes, four of ten pounds, five of five, and four smaller ones, making £110 in all. There is also, on the next page, a note of the expenses incurred on the journey from London to Leeds:—
| “Porterage | 2 | 8 | |
| Fare to Leeds | 2 | 2 | |
| Coachman | 1 | ||
| Dinner at Eaton | 5 | 6 | |
| Coachman—Scrooby | 1 | 6 | |
| ditto | 1 | ||
| Breakfast, Doncaster | 2 | 3 | |
| Brandy and water, Grantham | 1 | 6 | |
| Coachman and Guard | 4 | 6 | |
| 3 | 2 | 11” |
These items rather contradict Thornbury’s statements about the extreme meanness and parsimony of the artist’s habits of travel. I may also remark that the great painter’s exuberant imagination has led him to overstate the total of his expenditure by the sum of one shilling.
Taking leave of his friends at Gordale, Turner set off by himself on a sketching tour to collect material for the illustrations to Dr. Whitaker’s projected “History of Richmondshire.” His sketch-book shows that he struck over the hills to Kilnsey Crag and then crossed the wild road from Wharfedale over the Stake Pass to Semmer Water. From Askrigg he made his way to Richmond. He was there on the 31st of July, as we find him on that date writing to Mr. Holworthy, saying that his “journey is extended, rather than shortened, by an excursion into Lancashire.” The weather was still bad, as we learn from a characteristic postscript to this letter, which runs:—“Weather miserably wet. I shall be web-foot like a drake—excepting the curled feather—but I must proceed northward. Adieu.” The sketch-book shows he did “proceed northward” as far as Barnard Castle, and then, turning into Westmorland, went south into Lancashire, after passing through Appleby to Kirkby Lonsdale and Heysham. Riding round Morecambe Bay, and probably crossing the sands at low tide, he seems to have got back to Farnley by about the middle of August.
The diary does not give the date of Turner’s arrival at Farnley, but the shooting began on the 12th, when “all the gentlemen” went to the moors, and on the 13th an unfortunate gun accident wounded one of the party, Mr. Richard Hawksworth. On the 14th, the diary tells us that “Richard” was “pretty well;” on the 15th the entry runs, “Richard pretty well until evening. Sent for Hey” (the doctor), “who said he was dying.” On the 16th “Poor Richard died at 5 o’clock in the morning.” This sad event seems to have dispersed the house party, the entries on Saturday the 17th, and Monday 19th, recording the guests’ departures. Only “Turner and John Parker remained and Miss Coates.” On the 4th September Turner wrote from Farnley Hall to his correspondent, Mr. Holworthy, saying that “having finished nearly what I proposed doing this season in Yorkshire, I think I can do myself the pleasure of waiting upon Mr. Knight at Langold within a fortnight.” This gentleman was evidently Mr. H. Gally Knight, whose sketch of the Temple of Jupiter in the Island of Ægina had formed the basis of Turner’s large oil painting of this subject which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1816. Langold is two miles beyond Carlton, near Tickhill, Yorkshire. On the 11th September Turner writes to the same correspondent, saying that he intends to leave Farnley on “Sunday morning next” and that, if “Mr. Knight is not at Langold, I will be at Belvoir on the Tuesday following.”
That Turner carried out at least the first part of his plan is proved by the entry in the diary, “Mr. Turner went away,” under the date of Sunday, 15th September.