Probably painted for the owner of Rosehill, Mr John Fuller, M.P. for Sussex, whose son Augustus Elliott Fuller married Clara Meyrick, heiress of Bodorgan; their son assumed the surname of Meyrick in addition to that of Fuller. On the other hand, family tradition has it that the picture was only acquired from Turner later, when he brought it to Bodorgan and sold it to the son, Owen Fuller Meyrick, for as much as 1,000 guineas. Turner is said to have asked for half a guinea for his cab fare as well, which would date the visit to about 1849 when the railway to Anglesey was opened.

A visit by Turner to Rosehill is documented in Farington's Diary for 21 April 1810. Farington records that Fuller had engaged Turner ‘to make drawings of three or four views. He is to have 100 guineas for the use of his drawings, which are to be returned to him.' A small but accurate pencil study for the picture occurs on pages 20v and 21 (composition continued on p.22) of the 'Hastings' sketchbook (T.B.CXI, listed by Finberg merely as 'View on the Sussex Downs'). Unfortunately this cannot be precisely dated, but another pencil drawing of Rosehill occurs in the later 'Hastings' sketchbook (T.B.CXXXIX-33av and 34), watermarked 1815, which suggests a further visit or visits, and other Turner watercolours that belonged to Fuller are dated 1816. The terms of the commission must therefore have been altered or extended later, for Fuller finally owned thirteen Turner watercolours. See also under No.130.

This picture must therefore have been painted between 1810 and 1816 and on stylistic grounds it would seem closer to the two views of Lowther Castle (exhibited 1810) than to the Raby Castle of 1818 (Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore). Indeed, the absence of human figures, a rarity in Turner's work which does however occur around 1810, points to a dating about then. It was in that year that Fuller bought his other oil by Turner, the 'Fishmarket on the Sands, Hastings' (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Kansas City) and there are several references to payments from Fuller in Turner's sketchbooks at this time. It seems possible that an outstanding amount of £200, which it appears that Fuller owed Turner at the end of 1810, refers to the oil of Rosehill.

Rosehill Park (now renamed Brightling Park) is in East Sussex about four miles from Battle. It was bought in 1697 by John Fuller's ancestor and later passed by inheritance to Sir Alexander Acland Hood, Bart, on whose death in 1908 the Turner watercolours and the picture of Hastings were dispersed at Christie's (4 April).