The verses appended to the entry for No.35 in the 1800 R.A. catalogue refer specifically to the Bard who figures in the foreground of the view:

And now on Arvon's haughty tow’rs

The Bard the song of pity pours,

For oft on Mona's distant hills he sighs,

Where jealous of the minstrel band,

The Tyrant drench'd with blood the land,

And charm'd with horror, triumph'd in their cries.

The swains of Arvon round him throng,

And join the sorrows of his song.

The reference is to the extermination of the Bards by Edward I, popularised by Gray in his poem 'The Bard' and frequently used by painters as a theme for historical works (Thomas Jones, John Martin, etc). The same subject may have suggested the armies which straggle across the mountain valley in TB.IXX-Q, a North Welsh view on paper watermarked 1794. A study for a similar historical subject, with a group of figures round an old man, and distant armies, is LXX-N. Turner has allowed himself the licence of incorporating an anachronism - the tall-masted sailing ships moored round the distant castle, which figure in many of his drawings of Caernarvon.

The drawing was mounted on a grey washed mount and appears to have been finished off afterwards. In particular, it seems that Turner darkened the foreground and left and right repoussoirs with overlaid glazes of blue, brown and ochre.