Cox visited Hardwick Hall at least three time in the 1830s, and once again in 1845. Like at Haddon Hall, he was intoxicated by the architecture and painted a well-known series of interiors of the house. But atmospheric studies such as this demonstrate just how much he was swept up by the romance of the setting as well. The broad and rapid under drawing and impressionistic handling of watercolour is typical of Cox's work of this date.