The Ruins of Middleham Castle, Yorkshire c. 1797

Editor: We're looking at Thomas Girtin's pencil sketch, "The Ruins of Middleham Castle, Yorkshire." It feels so fragile, almost like a memory fading away. What strikes you when you look at it? Curator: Fragility, yes, but also resilience. Girtin captures the castle's decay, but the very act of sketching it, immortalizing it, speaks to its enduring presence. What stories do you think these stones could tell if they could talk? Editor: Tales of battles, perhaps, or courtly intrigue? Curator: Exactly! This castle, once a symbol of power, is now just a whisper in the landscape. And Girtin, with his delicate lines, makes us listen closely to that whisper. Editor: I see it now—a conversation between past and present, drawn in pencil. Curator: Precisely! It's about seeing the beauty in what remains, the echoes that still resonate.