Description: The beautiful engraving seen here was taken from 'Nottinghamia Vetus et Nova' written by Charles Deering 1751. It is drawn looking from the West Bridgford side of the River Trent over the Meadows and showing the whole of the city; from the Castle on the left across to St Mary's Church in the Lace Market on the right. St Peter's Church spire is in the centre and the old medieval Trent Bridge is in the foreground. The city at this time still had the appearance of a large market town. The houses were bound within a restricted area due to a ring of fields and meadows around the city, used by the burgesses of freeholders of the City to graze their animals (The Nottingham Enclosure Act of 1845 enclosed these fields and meadows, and compensated them for the loss of open space used for housing development, and allotted space for a series of places of public recreation and public walks). The city, as it is seen here, has not yet developed its late Georgian and Victorian boom in the industrial economy, with its associated increase in population and cramped squallid housing. This scene is a pastoral one with barges carrying trade goods and animals grazing in the Meadows. The buildings are a jumble of Tudor, Stuart, and early Georgian gables.