Gray's Journal Entry: ‘The views given of Windermere, when compared with each other, show that the style of that lake and its environs differs materially from the other lakes which are exhibited in the course of this work. That it is a landscape of a softer species, and wears a more cultivated appearance. In grandeur and sublimity it is inferior to Derwentwater and Ullswater; but excells both in splendour and extent. Each lake has a peculiar and striking character; the difficulty, therefore, with the artist, is to determine on those situations where the distinction is marked in the strongest manner. The islands on Windermere (if they may be so called, many of them being rather wooded rocks), are ten in number, composing a kind of archipelago, and in some views appearing to separate the upper from the lower reach of the lake. In this view, which was taken on the western side, nearly opposite the village of Bowness, the Great Island, which contains about thirty acres, forms a principal object. It is of oblong shape, traversing the lake in an oblique line, and is the only one on which a building is erected. From Ferry House beneath Bowness, is the great pass of communication from the western to eastern shore.’