The subjects of these very different views were probably specified to William Wyld by his patrons, as they accord closely with Victoria’s journal entries for the couple’s visit to Manchester and Liverpool in October 1851. In Liverpool she and Albert admired St George’s Hall, a newly built concert venue and court building; staying just outside Manchester, the Queen remarked upon seeing ʻendless chimneys & factories rise aroundʼ in the direction of the city. Wyld’s take on the great industrial city is romantic. The idyllic pastoral foreground contrasts atmospherically with the line of smoking chimneys in the middle distance.