in october 1938 spencer had to leave cookham and moved to london, spending six weeks with john rothenstein before moving to a bedsit in swiss cottage. there was now no realistic hope of reconciliation with carline and he was already distanced from preece, who had rented out lindworth so effectively evicting spencer. at this low point spencer painted four of the canvases in the "christ in the wilderness" series. he originally intended to paint a series of 40, one representing each day of jesus's sojourn in the wilderness, but in the end only eight were completed and a ninth was left unfinished. by september 1939, he was staying at leonard stanley in gloucestershire with the artists george and daphne charlton. spencer created many important works in his room above the bar of the white hart inn which he used as a studio, including "us in gloucestershire" and "the wool shop". while in gloucestershire, spencer also began a series of over 100 pencil works, now known as the "scrapbook drawings", which he continued to add to for at least ten years.