grinding in the blanched teeth of the surges,-just enough left to be a token of utter destruction.

In conclusion, Mr. Ruskin says: "I am aware of no painting, from the beginning of his (Turner's) life till its close, containing modern shipping as its principal subject, in which he did not put forth his full strength, and pour out his knowledge of detail with a joy which renders those works as a series, among the most valuable he ever produced.”—From the Illustrative Text to Turner's Harbours of England, 1856.

TURNER AND LORD DE TABLEY.

Mr. Jerdan, in his Autobiography, relates the following:Turner, of whom Lord de Tabley had been a most liberal patron, spent a day or two at Tabley when I was there. In the drawing-room stood a landscape on an easel, on which his lordship was at work, as the fancy mood struck him. Of course, when assembled for the tedious half hour before dinner, we all gave our opinions on its progress, its beauties, and its defects. I stuck a blue wafer on, to show where I thought a bit of bright colour, or a light, would be advantageous; and Turner took the brush and gave a touch here and there, to mark some improvements. He returned to town, and, can it be credited, the next morning at breakfast, a letter from him was delivered to his lordship, containing a regular bill of charges for "instructions in painting." His lordship tossed it across the table indignantly to me, and asked if I could have imagined such a thing; and as indignantly, against my remonstrances, immediately sent a cheque for the sum demanded by the "drawing-master."

This was a deplorable instance of Turner's eccentricity, and not to be excused on any imaginable ground. Yet sometimes he was lavish in the midst of his general penuriousness. On a continental trip, Mr. Thomas Hunt, the well-known writer on Tudor architecture, accidentally encountered him on a continental excursion. Turner took a fancy to so excellent a boon companion, invited him to travel with him, and treated him in a princely style, without costing him a shilling through the whole of their tour.

PICTURES BY TURNER IN THE ART-TREASURES
EXHIBITION AT MANCHESTER, 1857.

Above twenty specimens of Turner's pictures, exhibiting pretty fairly his several manners, formed one of the most

interesting contributions to the Manchester saloons; but, of course, this great artist is to be thoroughly understood nowhere except in his own Collection, bequeathed to the nation. His first picture at Manchester was an example of his worst style -Pluto carrying away Proserpine. The next was a specimen of his very best manner-Cologne: the Arrival of a Packetboat, belonging to Mr. Naylor, by whom it was purchased in 1854 for two thousand guineas. The golden glow of the setting sun, the charming composition of the whole subject, and the bustle of the debarkation contrasted with the repose of the evening scene, form a whole not easily forgotten. The opposite effect of a sunrise was equally well shown in Mr. Wells's Mouth of the Thames, with Men of War; and Lord Yarborough's Vintage at Macon, exhibited in 1803, was another delicious feast of colour, in the early manner of the artist. Nor is Dolbadarn Castle-Turner's diploma picture on admission into the Royal Academy—a whit inferior. Saltash is a glorified vision of that picturesque town, bathed in a liquid amber light, such as one dreams of, but seldom-perhaps never-sees in this climate. We pass over some less remarkable specimens to come to Barnes Terrace, a beautiful evening view of that quiet and familiar Thames scene. With this may be compared Walton Bridge, also on the Thames; and one powerful Coast Scene may likewise be noticed.

The Van Tromp-in the later manner of Turner-is beyond the comprehension of ordinary mortals. It would puzzle any one to say which is sky, and which sea, of the splashes of crude paint that are crowded on the canvas. There is more

intelligible feeling in the Meeting of the Waters, but the colour is somewhat dark and indistinguishable. We recur to his earlier manner in Tabley Lake and Tower; but the picture is a strange idealization of a tame Cheshire mere-with a staring, modern mansion on its bank-into a kind of rough inland sea, bustling with varied and abounding shipping. The next picture bearing Turner's name — the Sun rising through Vapour—is full of poetry and magic. The sea and the shipping are such as Vandervelde never conceived, much less executed. And the Falls of Schaffhausen is a work of painted poetry, masterly and impressive in the highest degree. The last work of our greatest English painter which we shall touch upon is one of his most celebrated-Lord Yarborough's Wreck of the Minotaur. No artist has ever imagined anything more awful than the sweep of the surf on the iron-bound

coast. The colour unfortunately has somewhat failed, and the light seems scarcely strong enough in the place where the picture is hung. Lord Yarborough has caused this picture, and also his other great Turner, The Vintage at Macon, to be engraved at his own cost in aid of the Artists' Benevolent Institution. It is a matter for great congratulation that the noblest landscape-painter that England has produced should have been so well represented at Manchester.-Saturday Review, July, 1857.

APPRECIATION OF STOTHARD.

Turner exhibited a picture in 1828, Boccaccio relating the Tale of the Bird-cage, in imitation of Stothard, for whose works he had the profoundest admiration. "I only wish," said Turner to one of the Academy Professors, "he thought as much of my works as I think of his. I consider him the Giotto of the English school."

PAINTINGS OF FIRES.

Turner was always on the alert for any remarkable effects. In 1792, when he was eighteen years of age, the Pantheon in Oxford-street was burnt down. It happened to be a hard frost at the time, and huge icicles were seen the next morning depending from different parts of the ruins. The young artist quickly repaired to the spot, and his picture, The Pantheon on the Morning after the Fire, exhibited at the Royal Academy in the following May, witnessed the force with which the scene was impressed upon him. In like manner, the Burning of the Houses of Parliament forty years afterwards was an event that could not escape the pencil of Turner. He repaired to the spot to make sketches of the fire at different points, and produced two pictures, one for the Academy, and another for the British Institution. Here was

a glowing subject for his palette. Lord Hill, on looking close to the latter picture, exclaimed, "What's this? Call this painting Nothing but dabs!" But upon retiring and catching its magical effects, he added, "Painting! God bless me, so it is!" The picture of Hail, Rain, and Speed, with its wonderful interpretation of a night railway train, produced at a still later period of Turner's life, was another instance in which the great artist's attention had been caught by the hissing and puffing, and glowing fire of the locomotive.

TURNER'S RECREATIONS.

The great Painter was very fond of fishing, and would angle together for hours. This was Turner's chief source of relaxation. On the occasion of a professional visit to Petworth, it was remarked to Lord Egremont, "Turner is going to leave without having done anything; instead of painting, he does nothing but fish!" To the surprise of his patron he produced, as he was on the point of leaving, two or three wonderful pictures, painted with the utmost reserve during early morning before the family were up.

His conversation was sprightly, but desultory and disjointed. Like his works, it was eminently sketchy. He would converse in this manner for half an hour, and then be amused at finding his companion in doubt of what he had been talking about. He either never knew, or never would tell, his birthday. One who was a fellow-student with him at the Academy, and his companion from boyhood, once said to him, “William, your birthday can't be far off? when is it? I want to drink a glass of wine to my old friend." "Ah!" growled Turner, never mind that; leave your old friend alone." He was never married, and had no relations, excepting two or three cousins, to whom, probably, it never occurred to ascertain the day of his birth.

He wrote few letters, and these were, like his conversation, abrupt, and referred little to art. The following, accepting an invitation to dine with his valued friend and patron, Mr. Windus, of Tottenham, on the occasion of his birthday, is characteristic: "My dear Sir,-Yes, with very great pleasure. I will be with you on the B. D. Many of them to yourself and Mrs. Windus; and, with the compliments of the season, believe me, yours faithfully, J. M. W. TURNER."

PROFESSOR OF PERSPECTIVE.

In some of his earlier works, before he had gained the honours of the Academy, we find Turner making use of the architectural knowledge acquired, along with Girtin, in working for Porden. This led to his being selected, in 1808, for the Academic Professor of Perspective; and his drawings consisted chiefly of abbeys, churches, castles, palaces, and gentlemen's seats, with an occasional subject of a more imaginative kind, such as Morning-a study at Milbank, a small picture of much beauty and transparency, and of deep tone.

Turner's disjointed and diffuse manner of conversation rendered him, however, little qualified for the lecture-room; and although he retained the office of Professor of Perspective until 1837, he did not lecture more than two or three years out of the thirty, which caused occasional dissatisfaction. Wilkie jokingly dubbed the Professor, R.A., P.P.

TURNER'S BRILLIANCY.

It is not easy to estimate the loss of Turner's works from the walls of the Academy, where for so many years they had exercised an influence upon the pictures, not only of the landscape-painter, but of all that were hung in contact with them. Brilliancy was at all times a remarkable characteristic of Turner's colouring. When, at the annual Academy dinner, the gas was turned on, as is customary on the Sovereign's health being drunk, his pictures shone like so many suns upon the walls. While other meritorious works looked flat in comparison, there was an effulgence in Turner's, that seemed to grow upon the observer, making the contrast more apparent. 'They seem to represent so many holes cut in the wall," said a veteran connoisseur, at one of these art-festivals, through which you see Nature." This observation was probably suggested, however, by one made some years before by Northcote. Turner's pictures were always the terror of exhibitors, from showing whatever were the defects in colour of those placed near to them. Northcote had a dark picture in the Exhibition, and was very angry with the arrangers for putting a bright one of Turner's immediately below it. 'You might as well have opened a window under my picture," said the painter. The compliment was as handsome as it was unintentional.

VIEWS IN ENGLAND AND WALES.

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Mr. Alaric Watts, in his very interesting memoir prefixed to Bohn's edition of the Liber Fluviorum, relates the following particulars concerning the disposition of his England and Wales. "This fine work," says Mr. Watts, was to have consisted of thirty parts or more, but stopped short at the twenty-fourth, for want of sufficient encouragement. Having been undertaken on joint account between the engraver, Mr. Charles Heath, and his publishers, it became desirable, on the abrupt termination of the work in 1838, to sell off the stock and copper-plates, and balance the accounts. The whole