In 1829, Constable began to prepare for the publication of a series of mezzotint engravings from his pictures, and the project, English Landscape Scenery, occupied him until his death seven years later. As stated in the introduction to the May 1833 edition, he wished to increase interest in the rural scenery of England and hoped to convey the principle of composition by means of the alternation of light and shade. Through the set of twenty-two prints, with commentaries on the chosen scenes, advice on the observation of nature, descriptions, histories, and extracts of poetry, Constable hoped to gain the reputation he had so far failed to achieve through his paintings in his own country.

For the project he was fortunate to engage the engraver David Lucas, a young man of twenty-seven years and a pupil of S. W. Reynolds. Lucas worked under the scrutiny of a perfectionist; Constable was indecisive and made continual revisions and alterations to the plates. The medium he chose, mezzotint, was one particularly associated with painterly, rather than naturalistic, effects, and this seemed to contradict Constable's entire theory of art. Mezzotint was well-suited to rendering the vigorous impasto and chiaroscuro technique of tonal variations; but, the contrasts of velvety blacks and stark whites were quite alien to the fresh daylight and subtle atmospheric effects Constable captured in oils. Despite suggestions by his friend, John Fisher, to employ engraving or lithography, Constable chose mezzotint, reflecting the gloominess of his later life, the influence of Turner's similar commercial venture, Liber Studiorum, and his previous contact with the mezzotints by S. W. Reynolds after George Morland and Rembrandt. The difference in size from Constable's large oil paintings to the smaller copper plates for printing made the process of translation extremely difficult for Lucas. Not only did he lose detail, but he also lost the effect of the thick, sweeping brushstrokes. Especially difficult were his later works, like Hadleigh Castle, and his less specific smaller studies, where Constable depended partly on the paint itself to convey the emotion. 

Two versions of the painting Hadleigh Castle exist as prints. The Wake Forest version was printed for English Landscape Scenery, and the other was printed from one of six larger plates worked by Lucas after Constable's death. Our print was based on the large oil painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1829, and now at the Yale Center for British Art. The plan to engrave Hadleigh Castle was proposed in 1829 and was eventually begun in 1831, when Lucas was asked to bring Constable a sketch of the "Nore" with descriptions of his intentions. When Constable finally received a proof in May 1832 he was quite displeased: 

"I am so sadly greived [sic] at the proof you now send me of the Castle that I am most anxious to see you. Your art may have resources of which I know nothing - but so deplorably deficient in all feeling is the present state of the plate that I can suggest nothing at all -- to me it is utterly utterly hopeless."

"The desert joys Wildly, 
though all his melancholy bounds Rude ruins glitter; and the briny deep, Seen from some pointed promontory's top, Far to the dim horizon's utmost verge Restless, reflects a floating gleam.

In the end Lucas proved superb as an interpretive engraver of Constable's work, and his plates were faithful translations of the painter's intentions. Even though it failed as a commercial venture, the final product was 'the lovely amalgamation' of the works of two artists, and Constable was well-pleased. Lucas did not find another employer like Constable, but he did make some prints after works by Constable after the painter's death. Lucas died an alcoholic at the workhouse in Fulham in August 1881.