Turner’s tours of Britain in the 1790s led him to explore the pictorial potential of a wide variety of themes. This watercolour was based on sketches Turner made on his tour of South Wales in 1795. Modern industry, in the form of a lime kiln in the foreground, is set against ancient heritage, represented in the silhouetted ruins of Llanstephan Castle. This was a device Turner used in many of his landscape views, presenting a vision of Britain as a place at once historic and modern.