ff.3v-4r have a pencil drawing of Somer Hill which Turner used for his painting of the house, seat of Major Woodgate, which appeared at the R.A, in 1811 (No.158). Finberg suggests (1909, 1, p.392) that the sketchbook was in use from this time until about 1816, when Turner was working on the series of views in Sussex commissioned by John Fuller. But although the 'Hastings' sketchbook, connected with that commission, is watermarked 1815, a commission for 'three or four views' had come from Fuller as early as 1810 (see Farington, Diary, 21 April 1810). The views of Heathfield and Ashburnham (ff.41v-42r and 68r-69r) were used for two of the Fuller watercolours, the latter signed and dated 1816. The MS notes were presumably written into the sketchbook prior to the tour of Dorset, Devon and Cornwall in July, August and September of 18I1. Some of the views (e.g. those on ff.64v and 63v) suggest the Lake District, where Turner was in 1809 (see Finberg 1961, p.159).

In support of Finberg's view that the sketchbook went on being used until about 1816 it should be noticed that the studies of sea and sky in watercolour on ff.38r and 39r are of a freedom normally associated with the late 1810s, or even later (cf. the 'Skies' sketchbook, T.B.CLVIII, No.177), though Finberg identified some of them as the Eddystone lighthouse which, as Wilkinson notes (1974, p.132), Turner must have visited in either 1811 or 1813. Furthermore, the style of many of the pencil drawings is close to that of the 'Yorkshire' sketchbooks of 1815-18 (T.B.CXLIV-CXLIX). It is evident too that Turner was in the habit of retaining sketchbooks for several years, especially at this period; compare the ‘Tabley No.3' sketchbook, T.B.CV, apparently used in 1808 and in 1818 (No.119).

The drawing exhibited was used for the watercolour of the Vale of Ashburnham (see No.129), one of a series of thirteen executed for Fuller and sold by Sir Alexander Acland Hood at Christie's, 4 April 1908 (85-98).