In the mid-nineteenth century, Windsor Castle, the royal residence of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, symbolized England's noble history and culture. The castle became a popular destination for American tourists, and Sanford R. Gifford traveled to Windsor in 1855 during his first tour of Europe. In a journal entry from that trip, he described making a sketch of the castle from Datchet Mead—a nearby meadow that is referenced in William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor (1602)—and also observing a stunning view of the castle at twilight:

"In the evening we had a fine sunset, and I enjoyed a walk up the Thames. . . . There was a fine “effect” of the castle just before sunset. It crowns a bluff, and at this time its regal towers and battlements were relieved in the warm sunlight against the sullen gray of the clouds behind them."

[Sanford Robinson Gifford, journal entry of July 11, 1855, Archives ofAmerican Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC]