Description: Thomas William Hammond 1854-1935. Born in Philadelphia of Nottingham emigres, and orphaned at the age of four, he came to England with his younger sister Maria and lived for a short while with his grandparents in Mount Street. In 1868 age 14 he enrolled in the Government School of Art. On the 1871 census he is described as a lace curtain designer, and in 1872 he was awarded the 'Queen's Prize for a Design of a Lace Curtain'. Other prizes followed and in 1877 he was again awarded the Queen's Prize, this time for the design for a damask table Cloth. Hammond was an indefatigable worker, and soon began to use his skills as a draftsman to record aspects of the changing town. He began showing his work at local venues in 1882 and in 1890 exhibited for the first time at the Royal academy. His real hobby was black and white sketching in charcoal. He drew about 350 pictures all together mainly scenes of a Nottingham he knew but which has largely passed away today. Extracted from 'The Changing Face of Tom Hammond's Nottingham' by John Beckett which is the introductory essay in 'A City in the Making Drawings of Tom Hammond'. This picture represents a very charming and well known view in the Nottingham Castle grounds, showing the ascent from the Castle Green to the Terrace which commands such a glorious prospect of the vale of the Trent. The history of Nottingham Castle is full of interest, but unfortunately very little of the medieval fortress remains visible. After a long history as a royal palace and garrison it eventually accomplished its final work when it was held by the parliamentarian forces under Colonel Hutchinson during the wars between King Charles and his parliament. At the conclusion of hostilities it was 'slighted', and its usefulness as a place of arms was destroyed in the year 1651. Before the outbreak of hostilities it had been granted by James I to the Earl of Rutland, and upon the Restoration it was inherited by the Duke of Buckingham who sold it in 1674 to the first Duke of Newcastle who at once commenced the erection of a great palace, the main portion of which remains to us today as Nottingham Castle Art Museum. The building was completed in 1679 and remained intact until 1831 when it was burned by the Reform Bill Rioters. The architecture details shown in this picture were part of the pleasure grounds of this Palace, and it is interesting to remember that it was completed in the same year that witnessed the passing of the Habeas Corpus Act. In 1875 the building was acquired by the Nottingham Corporation on a long lease and restored and remodelled to its present condition, after which it was opened in 1878 by the late King Edward and his Queen Alexandra. Image and descriptive text taken from 'Nottingham Past and Present', published in 1926.