Griggs represents a final phase in the tradition of English landscape etching begun by Whistler and Seymour Haden. He was devoted to mediaeval architecture and nearly all his prints are of architectural subjects, some real, but mostly imaginary. His architecture is not "visionary," like that of Boullee, but is nostalgic and harks back to days long gone with a strong sense of melancholy. In contrast to may contemporary etchers, Griggs evolved an art which is highly representational, so much so that the distinction between the real and the imaginary almost ceases to exist. His plates are highly finished and in many wasy are more like engravings than etchings.
The Fen Monastery is an imaginary scene. In its fourth state this superbly sombre plate bore the inscription "Tabernaculum meum vastatum est, funiculi mei dirupti sunt, filii mei exierunt a me, et non subsistunt."
