The sketchbook contains some of the most elaborate of Turner's early architectural studies, some worked up wholly or partially with colour. They include views of Kirkstall, Egglestone, Warkworth, Bamborough and Lindisfarne. On f.57 is a very slight sketch of Norham Castle, used as the basis of the first of many treatments of the spot (see p.639). There are also studies made at Harewood (see Nos.27 and 28), and a drawing of Louth used much later as an England and Wales subject (No.422).

The drawing of Dunstanborough was the starting point for a series of rough experiments in chalk, monochrome and coloured washes dating presumably from shortly after the 1797 tour, and culminating in the painting exhibited R.A. 1798 (322); this drawing was also used as the basis for the Liber Studiorum plate (R.14) and for the elaborate watercolour engraved for the England and Wales series in 1829 (No. 423).