Leatherhead, Surrey, from across the River Mole, with cattle watering in the foreground

This view across the River Mole of cottages and the church of St Mary and St Nicholas, Leatherhead, is one of a group of similar watercolours almost certainly painted in the late summer of 1797 when Turner was staying with William Lock of Norbury Park (1732-1810), a house some two miles south of Leatherhead. Turner's visit was specifically intended so that he could work on the now lost watercolour exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1798, no. 640, as Study in September in the fern house, Mr. Lock's Park, Mickleham, Surry [sic] (A. Wilton, The Life and Works of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg and London, 1979, p. 326, no. 239; for the Norbury Park works see ibid., pp. 316-7, nos. 152-63, nine examples illustrated). Another recently discovered work from this group is Scene of a river and canal, with a weeping willow (published by A. Wilton, in 'Picture Notes', Turner Studies, IV, no. 2, Winter 1984, pp. 58-9, illustrated). This and the present watercolour, like several of the others, are similar in size and style.

William Lock of Norbury was a talented figure draughtsman and an important early patron of Turner. He was also a friend and country neighbour of Dr. Thomas Monro who acquired several of Turner's watercolours of Norbury Park (Wilton, loc. cit., nos. 153-5).