Roche Abbey, Yorkshire

This watercolour by the artist Paul Sandby (1730-1809) is a depiction of the ruined medieval Roche Abbey in Sandbeck Park, estate of the 4th Earl of Scarborough. The gardens were the creation of landscape designer Capability Brown (1716–1783), nicknamed the ‘Shakespeare of Gardens’. During the late 1700s, historic ruins such as these were appreciated for their ability to evoke contemplation of the passage of time. Sandby described the view and its intended effect thus: ‘...these ruins ...form a picture inexpressibly charming, ...free from every noise, except the singing of the birds and the murmur of the brook, together with the fragments of sepulchral monuments, and the gloomy shades of ivy and yew... give such solemnity to the scene, as fills the mind with a pleasing melancholy.’