特纳题词:塔马尔河大桥上的注释

There is no drawing here, only inscriptions relating to bridges on the River Tamar, unrelated to the adjacent sketches, as Finberg noted. ‘Poulston’, now usually ‘Polson’, is between Launceston (‘L’) and Lifton (see the Devon Rivers, No.1 sketchbook, under Tate D09607 ; Turner Bequest CXXXII 115), and ‘Greston’ is usually known as Greystone Bridge, beyond which the river passed through the Duke of Bedford’s estate around Endsleigh Cottage (again, see Devon Rivers, No.1 , under Tate D09634 ; Turner Bequest CXXXII 129a).

Turner may have noted this information in conversation, perhaps with the journalist Cyrus Redding, one of his local companions on the Tamar during his 1813 visit to Devon (see the Introduction to the 1813 tour), and perhaps again in 1814. Redding later wrote An Illustrated Itinerary of the County of Cornwall (London 1842), including the following on page 12:

Cornwall is nearly insulated by the Tamar on the eastern side, which borders upon Devonshire. ... The first bridge is called Newbridge, and is situated in a very picturesque spot, just above a place denominated the Weir-head, beyond the reach of the tide. The next bridge, anciently called Hawte Bridge, but now High, or Horsebridge, stands in the parish of Stoke-climsland, about four miles by the river above Newbridge; the third is called Greston Bridge, on the road from Tavistock to Launceston; then there is another of wood, between that and Poulston; over which last is the central mail-road from London, by way of Exeter and Okehampton, to Falmouth.

The last place of note in Devonshire, before crossing the Tamar towards Launceston, is Lifton, about five miles distant.