aped his
attention, whether of earth, or sea, or sky. Probably no artist that ever
lived gave nature such careful and profound study. His studies of cloud
scenery were almost a revelation to mankind. In all this Turner drew his
instruction as well as his inspiration from nature. The critics did
nothing for him; he rather opened the eyes of even such men as Ruskin to
the wonders of the natural world. But these results all came later, and
were the fruit of and resulted from his constant and incessant studies.

[Illustration: FIG. 74.--NANTES. _By Turner._]

In 1794 and 1795 he made elaborate drawings of Rochester, Chepstow,
Birmingham, Worcester, Guildford, Cambridge, and other towns, for
magazines. In 1796 he did the same for Chester, Bristol, Leith,
Peterborough, and Windsor. Within the next four years he completed the
circuit of twenty-six counties in England and Wales, and he also exhibited
twenty-three highly finished drawings of cathedrals and churches. He was
slow to undertake oil-painting, preferring the more rapid touch and the
light-and-shade effect of the crayon, or the delicate and beautiful
effects of water-colors. He was always greater as a painter in
water-colors than in oils, and it is claimed by Redgrave that "the art all
but began with him," and that his water-color paintings "epitomize the
whole mystery of landscape art." Some of his paintings in this line have
been sold at enormous prices, and even in his own day his water-color
picture of Tivoli sold for eighteen hundred guineas. Turner became as fond
of Northern Yorkshire--which he first visited in 1797--as he was of
Southern Kent. He found there a great variety of scenery, from the sweet
and peaceful to the ennobling and grand. He visited and made studies from
all the old cathedrals, castles, and abbeys, and in 1798 he exhibited
pictures of Fountain and Kirkstall Abbeys, Holy Island Cathedral,
Buttermere Lake, Dunstanborough Castle, as well as "Morning Among the
Corriston Fells." He found in Yorkshire also some of his warmest friends
and most munificent patrons, notably Mr. Hawkesworth Fawkes, of Farnley
Hall, whose house was adorned with fifty thousand dollars' worth of
Turner's pictures. Some additions to Farnley Hall were designed by Turner,
and he was always a welcome visitor. Here he sketched, and at intervals
enjoyed himself greatly in hunting and fishing. It is said that the
Farnley portfolios still contain sketches not only of the hall and i