Based on an undated sketch in the Beckford Sketchbook, I. p. 23, this is the only watercolour version of the composition known.

In a letter of 19 June, 1782, Beckford recorded his visit to Mirabello (sic) in the Euganean hills a few miles from Padua and he described the scenery there: 'Evening drawing on, and the breeze blowing fresh from the Adriatic, I reclined on a slope, and turned my eyes anxiously towards Venice; then upon some little fields hemmed in by chestnuts, where the peasants were making their hay, and from thence, to a mountain, crowned by a circular grove of fir and cypress. In the centre of these shades some monks have a comfortable nest; perennial springs, a garden of delicious vegetables, and, I dare say, a thousand luxuries besides, which the poor mortals below never dream of'