News at Eleven: [Joseph Mallord William] Turner had first visited

Teesdale in 1797, long before [Walter] Scott. In all he made four visits to the area, the final one in 1831, when he was specifically working on illustrations for Scott's poems. His first visit was made a year after Thomas Girtin had toured the area, and was probably made at his friend and rival's suggestion.

Scott visited Rokeby Park several times while writing Rokeby, and descriptions of the landscape feature prominently in the poem--as, for example, in these florid lines on a sunset in the area:

from The Guardian: Walter Scott's poems and Turner's paintings celebrated in an exhibition at the Bowes Museum

~~~~~~~~~~~