Turner painted the English countryside at a time when war with Napoleonic France gave new patriotic and political meaning to historic landmarks. The age of Romanticism also saw historical novels bring castles, ruined abbeys and abandoned palaces back to life, rekindling forgotten associations in the viewcrs' imaginations. Many of the buildings in Turner's paintings are now in the care of English Heritage and deserve to be visited and seen afresh from such perspectives,as do the pictures themselves. This selection of his paintings provides a fascinating introduction for the intrepid or armchair traveller, complete with comparative photographs of the actual sites. It reveals a shared sense of'heritage' - of what should be saved for, and as, the nation, beteen the artist's time and our own today.

No British artist can have had more books devoted to him than Turner, so it takes a strong subject to justify a further addition to his bibliography.As David Hill has shown through his best-selling recent works, public interest in visiting the landscapes Turner painted is now probably stronger than ever since his day, even allowing for armchair travellers. A popular publication by Cadw:Welsh Historic Monuments, devoted to the Welsh castles in their care as painted by Turner, further suggested that the time is right for this study.

The main aim of this publication is to provide a slim handbook with which travellers may follow Turner to a selection of historic properties now in English Heritage's care and there study them as if through his eyes,recognising all the artistic license he employed and considering the historical and literary associations such sites would have carried in his day. In this way it may appeal both to lovers of Romantic landscape painting and to admirers of early architecture, and so open up new interests to each audience. Research for this study soon raised the broader question of Turner as a patriotic painter of political landscapes, particularly during the Napoleonic wars, and the relevance of his market's perceptions of their country, past and present, to our notion of 'heritage' today. This publication can be only an introduction to the subject, and for definitive documentary studies of Turner's tours, his work for engravers and views of other historic properties, the reader is referred to the bibliography.

Preface and Acknowledgements

Painting the Nation

Gazetteer

Catalogue of Historic Properties arranged by region

The South East

The South West

The Midlands and East Anglia

The North

Photographic Acknowledgements

Further Reading

Painting Acknowledgements