Engraved by W. Radclyffe, 1829, for Picturesque Views in England and Wales, Part VII, No. I (Rawlinson No.

233).

The background of this drawing is taken directly from an architectural study in pencil on f.80 of the 'North of England' sketchbook of 1797 (T.B.XXXIV, No. 23). Ruskin, in his notes on his own collection, Ruskin on Pictures, 1902 p.325, No.35) calls this 'Another drawing of what he [Turner] clearly felt to be objectionable and painted, first as a part, and a very principal part of the English scenery he had undertaken to illustrate ... He dwells, (I think, ironically) on the elaborate carving of the church spire, with which the foreground interests are so distantly and vaguely connected.' Rawlinson (loc. cit.) disagrees with this: 'homely subjects were by no means uncongenial to him . . . he would probably have thoroughly enjoyed the sights and sounds of a country fair ... I have no doubt that the contrast here between foreground and background was intentional.' 'Louth' was originally owned by Thomas Griffith.

It was one of seventeen England and Wales watercolours completed by 1829 and shown in June of that year by Charles Heath at an exhibition to promote the enterprise held at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. In all, forty drawings by Turner were included.