Rising 895 feet above sea level, Hind Head Hill only loomed "Mountainous" to Turner and other travelers on the road from Portsmouth to London passing below the haunted summit and descending the steep sides of the Devil's Punchbowl.

"The flock, the burning weeds, the passing coach speak only of the peaceful occupations of daily life, and contrast with the grim figures hanging on the gibbet on the distant hilltop . . . Whose hand but Turner's could have caught the intricate play of those rays of afternoon sunlight, breaking from behind the clouds just coming across the sun?"
-W.G. Rawlinson, 1878