From an edition of 50 in the final state. This etching was worked through sixteen states many of which are also known under the working titles 'Deathwatch' and 'High Cradle'. For the final state the height of the plate was reduced from 200mm to 180mm. The plate was intended as a companion piece to 'Rat Barn' (PR737). The original drawing, in conté crayon and pencil, is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. See catalogue entries 54 to 74 in 'Joseph Webb, prints and working drawings', Gascoigne & Furst, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1989
Imaginative medieval cathedral / barn; foreground, falls in a river, sheer rocky banks and a small arched doorway; middleground, a large cathedral-like barn with transepts, buttresses, an arched doorway, long windows, pinnacles, wooden supports and an overgrown, partly ruined, roof; background, a cathedral with a nave, transept and a tower. Sky largely unworked. Rocks on the right are left in outline. Etched with varied line including cross hatching and small circular marks. Some burnishing used for highlights