This image depicts the ruins of Tintern Abbey, which dates back to the twelfth century and is located on the the banks of the River Wye, in Monmouthshire, Wales. An aquatint recreation of William Gilpin's Tintern Abbey, it was published before Wordsworth composed "Lines," and consequently before the Abbey became so strongly associated with personal reflection.

Cliffs, presumably near New Weir (spelled “New Wear” in the title), stretch upward, taking up most of the left half of the print. In the foreground, at the foot of the cliffs, is a small house. A sailboat floats on the river. To the right of the boat and further downstream, the wharf of the ironworks extends into the water.

This image features a view of Goodrich Castle from the river Wye, and so recreates for us the perspective of the tourists depicted in the boats on the river.

During the Romantic period in England, Gilpin helped popularize picturesque tourism—that is, sightseeing centered on experiencing the Romantic notion of the picturesque: a natural object, such as a stone, tree, etc., that stood out in stark contrast to its surroundings and often impressed the viewer with a feeling of the sublime. Consequently, the theme of “editing” nature to make it

Grand Woody Banks near Ross-on-Wye was originally sketched in the travel journal of William Gilpin. This and other sketches were eventually published in the printed version of Gilpin’s journal.

As Judith Pascoe argues in her 2006 book The Hummingbird Cabinet: A Rare and Curious History of Romantic Collectors, “[t]o be a collector of hummingbirds in the romantic period was to experience the most inspirational collecting conditions: a seemingly endless supply of new types of birds, each potentially lovelier than the last” (27).