Constable spent seven weeks in the Lake District between 1 September and 19 October 1806. The first fortnight he spent on Lake Windermere and the last three weeks in Borrowdale: in between he explored the area to the north. He did both pencil drawings and watercolours. In its technique, sombre colouring and lowering sky, this watercolour is particularly close to two views of 21 and 22 September 1806, Saddleback and Part of Skiddaw and Vale of Newlands (repr. I. Fleming-Williams, Constable: Landscape Watercolours and Drawings, London, 1976, pp.34-5 fig.24 and colour pl.9)