The Subject

This view shows part of the great castle as a ruin. The castle was not royal but was built by great nobles. Before the English Civil War it passed into the hands of the crown, and for this reason it was stripped of its wood, lead and other valuable materials by Cromwell's men.

Geoffrey de Clinton, Chamberlain to King Henry I, built the original Norman castle around 1122. From 1389 to 1394 John of Gaunt built the Great Hall, a magnificent palace, in the Inner Court. By the time of the visits of Queen Elizabeth I there were also a grand banqueting hall and splendid apartments for royal guests, built by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

Kenilworth was a favourite stopping point for those of some means who wished to make a pictureque tour of England and Wales. Its popularity was assured through the 19th century following the success of Walter Scott's novel 'Kenilworth' of 1821.

The Artist

The artist was born in Great Marlow, the son of a clergyman. He studied with Augustus Pugin, assistant architect and decorator of the Houses of Parliament. He became an illustrator, as with this work for a women's literarary magazine. He specialised in picturesque architectural subjects. In 1830 he began to make lithographs himself.

Works by the artist

Drawn for the Ladies' Magazine, September 1830. One of a series of at least ten drawings of Kenilworth by him, of which this is labelled as the fifth. The Herbert holds three of the series, the others being 'Octagonal Lobby, Kenilworth Castle', and 'Leicester's Buildings, Kenilworth Castle'.

Nash also drew Coombe Abbey on the edge of Coventry. The Herbert has a printed frontispiece of ' Elizabethan Doorway at Coombe Abbey' by him for 'Mansions of England in the Olden Time', a series which ran from 1839 to 1849.