"Walls [are] made largely of the igneous rock of the Snowdon area[...] and only walls which have been built of stone that was lying in the open for thousands of years before it was appropriated is there a neatness. The walls are richly mossed, and small-leaved ivy is thrown over them here and there, its stalks, self-coloured brownish grey like some of the stones, knotting in the crevices. There's one very odd thing about painters who like drawing architecture. They hardly ever like drawing the architecture of their own time. I know perfectly well I would rather paint a ruined abbey half-covered with ivy and standing among long grass than I would paint it after it has been taken over by the Office of Works, when they have taken all the ivy off and mown all the grass." (John Piper)