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DILECTA. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE, DIARY NOTES, AND 
 EXTRACTS FROM BOOKS, 
 
 IIXUSTRATIN(; 
 
 PR^TERITA. 
 
 ARR.I.W.liD HY 
 
 JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D., 
 
 HONORARY STUDENT Of CHRrST CHURCH 
 AND HONORARY FELLOW OF CORI'US CHRISTI COLLEGE. OXFORD 
 
 PART I. 
 
 GEORGE ALLEN, 
 
 SUNNYSIDE, ORPINGTON, KENT, 
 1886, 
 
 Price One Shilliiio-. 
 
DI LECTA. 
 
D I LECT A. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. DIARY NOTES, AND 
 EXTRACTS FROAI BOOKS, 
 
 ILLUSTRATING 
 
 PR/ETERITA, 
 
 ARRANGED BY 
 
 JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D., 
 
 HONORARY STUDENT OF CHKlbT CHURCH, 
 AND HONOKAKY FELLOW OF CORPl'S CHRIST! COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 GEORGE ALLEN, 
 
 bUNN'YblDE. ORPINGTON, KENT. 
 1886. 
 
/^ZjC'Oc^*^t>''*''iy<'<-<^ 
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I ^HE readers of Pr^terita must by 
 ■^ this time have seen that the Hmits 
 of its design do not allow the insertion 
 of any but cardinal correspondence. They 
 will, of course, also know that during a 
 life like mine, I must have received many 
 letters of general interest, while those of 
 my best-regarded friends are often much 
 more valuable than my own sayings. Of 
 these I will choose what I think should 
 not be lost, which, with a few excerpts 
 of books referred to, I can arrange at odd 
 times for the illustration of Preterit a, 
 while yet the subscribers to that work 
 need not buy the supplemental one unless 
 they like. But, for the convenience of 
 those who wish to have both, their form 
 and type will be the same. 
 
 9 5'2^ 
 Ml 
 
 ivi636889 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 The letters will not be arranged chrono- 
 logically, but as they happen, at any time, 
 to bear on the incidents related in the 
 main text. Thus I begin with some of 
 comparatively recent date, from my very 
 dear friend Robert Leslie, George Leslie's 
 brother, of extreme importance in illustra- 
 tion of points in the character of Turner 
 to which I have myself too slightly referred. 
 The pretty scene first related in them, 
 however, took place before I had heard 
 Turner's name. The too brief notes of 
 autobiography left by the quietly skilful 
 and modest painter, the " father who was 
 staying at Lord Egremont's," C. R. Leslie, 
 contain the truest and best-written sketches 
 of the leading men of his time that, so far 
 as I know, exist in domestic literature. 
 
 J. RUSKIN. 
 
 Brantwood, 2bth June, iSS6. 
 
DILECTA. 
 
 " 6, MoiRA Place, Southampton, 
 ''June ^th. 1S84. 
 
 " My father was staying at Lord 
 Egremont's ; it was in September, I 
 believe, of 1832. The sun had set 
 beyond the trees at the end of the 
 little lake in Petworth Park ; at the 
 other end of this lake was a solitary 
 man, pacing to and fro, watching five 
 or six lines or trimmers, that floated 
 outside the water lilies near the bank. 
 * There,' said my father, * is Mr. Turner, 
 the great sea^ painter.' He was smoking 
 
 * I have put ' sea ' in italics, because it is 
 a new idea to me that at this time Turner's 
 fame rested on his marine paintings — all the 
 early drawings passing virtually without notice 
 from the Art world. 
 
 1 
 
2 DILECTA. 
 
 a cigar, and on the grass, near him, 
 lay a fine pike. As we came up, 
 another fish had just taken one of the 
 baits, but, by some mischance, this Hne 
 got foul of a stump or tree root in the 
 water, and Turner was excited and very 
 fussy in his efforts to clear it, knotting 
 together bits of twine, with a large 
 stone at the end, which he threw over 
 the line several times with no efi^ect. 
 * He did not care,' he said, * so much 
 about losing the fish as his tackle.' My 
 father hacked off a long slender branch 
 of a tree and tried to poke the line 
 clear. This also failed, and Turner told 
 him that nothing but a boat would 
 enable him to get his line. Now it 
 chanced that, the very day before, Chantrey, 
 the sculptor, had been trolling for jack, 
 rowed about by a man in a boat nearly 
 all day ; and my father, thinking it hard 
 that Turner should lose his fish and a 
 valuable line, started across the park to 
 
DILECTA. 3 
 
 a keeper's cottage, where the key of the 
 boathouse was kept. When we returned, 
 and while waiting for the boat. Turner 
 became quite chatty, rigging me a Httle 
 ship, cut out of a chip, sticking masts 
 into it, and making her sails from a 
 leaf or tw^o torn from a small sketch- 
 book, in which I recollect seeing a 
 memorandum in colour that he had made 
 of the sky and sunset. The ship was 
 hardly ready for sea before the man and 
 boat came lumbering up to the bank, 
 and Turner was busy directing and helping 
 him to recover the line, and, if possible, 
 the fish. This, however, escaped in the 
 confusion. When the line was got in, 
 my father gave the man a couple of 
 shillings for bringing the boat ; while 
 Turner, remarking that it was no use 
 fishing any more after the water had 
 been so much disturbed, reeled up his 
 other lines, and, slipping a finger through 
 the pike's gills, walked cff with us 
 
4 DILECTA. 
 
 toward Petworth House. Walking behind, 
 admiring the great fish, I noticed as 
 Turner carried it how the tail dragged 
 on the grass, while his own coat-tails 
 were but little further from the ground ; 
 also that a roll of sketches, which I 
 picked up, fell from a pocket in one of 
 these coat-tails, and Turner, after letting 
 my father have a peep at them, tied 
 the bundle up tightly with a bit of the 
 sacred line. I think he had taken some 
 twine off this bundle of sketches when 
 making his stone rocket apparatus, and 
 that this led to the roll working out of 
 his pocket. My father knew little about 
 fishing or fishing-tackle, and asked Turner, 
 as a matter of curiosity, what the line 
 he had nearly lost was worth. Turner 
 answered that it was an expensive one, 
 worth quite half a crown. 
 
 *' Turner's fish was served for dinner 
 that evening; and, though I was not 
 there to hear it, my father told me how 
 
DILECTA. 5 
 
 old Lord Egremont joked Chantrey much 
 about his having trolled the whole of the 
 day without even a single run, while 
 Turner had only come down by coach 
 that afternoon, gone out for an hour, and 
 brought in this big iish. Sir Francis was 
 a scientific fisherman, and president of the 
 Stockbridge Fishing Club, and, no doubt, 
 looked upon Turner, with his trimmers, 
 as little better than a poacher. Still there 
 was the fish, and Lord Egremont's banter 
 of Chantrey must have been an intense 
 delight to Turner as a fisherman. 
 
 *' It was about this time that I first 
 went with my father to the Royal Academy 
 upon varnishing days, and, wandering about 
 watching the artists at work, there was no 
 one, next to Stanfield and his boats, that 
 I liked to get near so much as Turner, 
 as he stood working upon those, to my 
 eyes, nearly blank white canvases in their 
 old academy frames. There were always 
 a number of mysterious liltle gallipots and 
 
6 DILECTA. 
 
 cups of colour ranged upon drawing stools 
 in front of his pictures ; and, among other 
 bright colours, I recollect one that must 
 have been simple red-lead. He used short 
 brushes, some of them like the writers 
 used by house decorators, working with 
 thin colour over the white ground, and 
 using the brush end on, dapping and writing 
 with it those wonderfully fretted cloud 
 forms and the ripplings and filmy surface 
 curves upon his near water. I have seen 
 Turner at work upon many varnishing 
 days, but never rejnember his using a 
 maul-stick.^ He came, they said, with the 
 carpenters at six in the morning, and 
 worked standing all day. He always had 
 on an old, tall beaver hat, worn rather 
 off his forehead, which added much to 
 his look of a North Sea pilot. 
 
 * Italics mine. I have often told my pupils, 
 and, I hope, printed for them somewhere, that 
 all fine painting involves the play, or sweep, 
 of the arm from the shoulder. 
 
DILECTA. 7 
 
 (Parenthetic.) " Have you noticed the 
 sky lately in the north-west when the 
 sun is about a hand's breadth above the 
 horizon ; also just after sunset, when your 
 * storm cloud ' has been very marked, 
 remaining like a painted sky, so still, that 
 it might have been photographed over 
 and over again by the slowest of processes ? 
 
 (From a following letter) : — 
 
 ** The only thing I am not cer- 
 tain about is the exact date of that first 
 sight of Turner. I know that in 1833 
 I did not go to Petworth, as my father 
 took us all to America in the autumn of 
 that year, returning again in the spring 
 of '34 ; and I am inclined to think that 
 the scene in the park, which I tried to 
 describe, must have taken place in the 
 September of '34. I remember it all as 
 though it were yesterday ; I must then 
 have been eight years old. I was always 
 with my father, and we spent every 
 
8 DILECTA. 
 
 autumn at Petworth for many years, 
 both before and after then. I did not 
 think it worth mentioning, but I had 
 been allowed to spend the whole of the 
 day before with Sir Francis Chantrey in 
 that boat, and recollect his damning 
 the man very much, once during the 
 day, for pulling ahead rather suddenly, 
 whereby Sir Francis, who was standing 
 up in the boat, was thrown upon his 
 back in the bottom of her — no joke for 
 such a heavy man. 
 
 " I think the foundation of the ship 
 was a mere flat bit of board or chip, cut 
 out for me by my father, and that Con- 
 stable, the artist, had stuck a sail in it 
 for me some days before (he was also at 
 Petworth). I must have mentioned this 
 to Turner, as I have a recollection of his 
 saying, as he rigged it, * Oh, he don't 
 know anything about ships,' or * What 
 does he know about ships ? this is how 
 it ought to be,' sticking up some sails 
 
DILECTA. 9 
 
 which looked to my eyes really quite 
 ship-shape at that time. 
 
 " I saw Turner painting at the R.A. 
 on more than one varnishing day, as my 
 father took me with him for several 
 years in succession. Every academician, 
 in those good old times of maiiy varnishing 
 days, was allowed to take an assistant or 
 servant with him, to carry about and 
 clean his brushes, etc. ; and my father 
 and others always took their sons. This 
 went on for some years, and I recollect my 
 disappointment when my father told me 
 he could not take me any more, as there 
 had been a resolution passed at a council 
 meeting against the custom. I know 
 that most of the pictures which I saw 
 Turner working upon, just as I have 
 described to you, were the Venetian sub- 
 jects. Mr. Turner was always rather 
 pleasant and friendly with me, on account, 
 I think, of my love of the sea. I have 
 been to his house in Oueen Anne Street 
 
1 DILECTA. 
 
 many times with my father, and recoHect 
 once that he took us into his dining-room 
 and uncorked a very fine old bottle of 
 port for us. I was much older then, 
 perhaps fifteen or sixteen. I can never of 
 course forget a few kind words which he 
 spoke to me when I was myself an ex- 
 hibitor at the R.A. My picture was a 
 scene on the deck of a ship of two sailors 
 chaffing a passenger, called 'A Sailor's Yarn.' 
 Turner came up to the picture, and after 
 looking at it for a minute, said, * I like 
 your colour.' I have the picture now, and 
 always think of him when I look at it. 
 
 " I have written all this in great haste 
 to answer your questions, dear Mr. Ruskin ; 
 and am sorry I have so little to tell, and 
 that I am obliged to bring miyself forward 
 so much in the matter. 
 
 " I have often thought that Turner went 
 out to catch that pike because he knew that 
 Chantrey had been unsuccessful the day before. 
 
 ** I don't know whether vou were ever 
 
DILECTA. I I 
 
 a fisherman ; if you were, you would 
 understand the strange fascination that the 
 water has from which you snatched your 
 first fish, after feeUng the tug and sweep 
 of it upon the hne. Now the lake in 
 Petworth Park had that fascination for my 
 early fishy mind. Most boys' minds are 
 very fishy, and shooty too,* as you have 
 pointed out, and I was no exception ; but 
 I was always intensely boaty as well, caring 
 less for rowing than sailing ; and when 
 I could not get afloat myself, I was 
 never tired, even as a big boy, of doing 
 so in imagination in any form of toy 
 sailing-boat I could devise or get hold 
 of. Hence it was that when I saw 
 Turner's fish upon the grass, and was told 
 that he was a sea painter, I looked upon 
 
 * Denr Leslie, might we not as well say they 
 were bird's-nesty cr dog-fighty ? Really useful 
 fishing is not play; and to watch a trout is indeed, 
 whether for boy or girl, greater pleasure than to 
 catch it, if they did but know ! 
 
1 2 DILECTA. 
 
 him at once as something to fall down 
 and worship — a man who could catch a 
 big fish, and paint sea and boats ! My 
 father, though he had much of the back- 
 woodsman in his nature, and could make 
 himself a bootjack in five minutes when 
 he had mislaid or lost his own, was no 
 sportsman, and cared little for boating 
 beyond taking a shilling fare sometimes 
 from Hungerford Stairs in a wherry. 
 
 *'As to my recollections of Turner upon 
 the varnishing days, you must bear in mind 
 that, as I had been used to spend from a 
 child many hours a day in a painting- 
 room, I never recollect a time when I 
 was not well up in all matters relating to 
 paint and brushes ; and the first thing 
 that struck me about Turner, as he 
 worked at the R.A., was, that his way of 
 work was quite unlike that of the other 
 artists ; and it had at once a great interest 
 for me, so that I believe I watched him 
 often for long spells at a time. I noticed. 
 
DILECTA. 1 3 
 
 as I think I told you, that his brushes 
 were few, looked old, and that among 
 them were some of those common little 
 soft brushes in white quill used by house- 
 painters for painting letters, etc., with. 
 His colours were mostly in powder, and 
 he mixed them with turpentine, sometimes 
 with size, and water, and perhaps even with 
 stale beer, as the grainers do their umber 
 when using it upon an oil ground, binding 
 it in with varnish afterwards ; this way 
 of painting is fairly permanent, as one 
 knows by the work known to them as 
 wainscotting or oak-graining. Besides red- 
 lead, he had a blue which looked very like 
 ordinary smalt ; this, I think, tempered 
 with crimson or scarlet lake, he worked 
 over his near waters in the darker lines. 
 I am almost sure that I saw him at work 
 on the 'Temi'raire, and that he altered the 
 effect after I first saw it. In fact, I believe 
 he worked again on this picture in his 
 house long after I first saw it in the R.A. 
 
14 DILECTA. 
 
 I remember Stanfield at work too, and what 
 a contrast his brushes and whole manner 
 of work presented to that of Turner. 
 
 " My brother George tells me to-day 
 that he too has seen Turner at work, 
 once at the R.A., and describes him as 
 seeming to work almost with his nose 
 close to the picture. He says that the 
 picture was that one of the railway engine 
 coming towards us at full speed. But my 
 brother is nearly ten years younger than 
 1 am. Turner was always full of lie tie 
 mysterious jokes and fan with his brother 
 artists upon these varnishing days ; and 
 my father used to say that Turner looked 
 upon them as one of the greatest privi- 
 leges of the Academy. It is such a 
 pleasure to me to think that I can be of 
 any use to you, that I have risked sending 
 this after my other letters. I have always 
 been a man more or less of lost opportu- 
 nities, and when living some fifteen years 
 ado at Deal one occurred to me that I 
 
DILECTA. 1 5 
 
 have never ceased to regret. My next- 
 door neighbour was an old lady of the 
 name of Cato ; her maiden name was 
 White ; and she told me that she knew 
 Turner well as a young man, a^so the 
 young lady he was in love with. She 
 spoke of him as being very delicate, and 
 said that he often came to Margate for 
 health. She seemed to know little of 
 Turner as the artist. I cannot tell you 
 how much I regret now not having 
 pushed my inquiries further at that time ; 
 but twenty years ago I was more or less 
 an unregenerate ruffian in such matters ; 
 and though I have always felt the same 
 for Turner as the artist, I cared little 
 to know much more than I remembered 
 myself of him as a man, 
 
 ** Trusting you will forgive the haste 
 again of this letter, 
 
 " Believe me, dear Mr. Ruskin, 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " RoBT. Leslie." 
 
1 6 DILECTA. 
 
 ** Out of many visits to the house in 
 Queen Anne Street, I never saw or was 
 admitted to Turner's working studio, though 
 he used to pop out of it upon us, in a 
 mysterious way, during our stay in his 
 gallery, and then leave us again for a 
 while. In fact, I think my father had 
 leave to go there when he pleased. I 
 particularly remember one visit, in company 
 with my father and a Yankee sea captain, 
 to whom Turner was very polite, evidently 
 looking up to the sailor capacity, and 
 making many little apologies for the want 
 of ropes and other details about certain 
 vessels in a picture. No one knew or 
 felt, I think, better than Turner the want 
 of these mechanical details, and while the 
 sea captain was there he paid no attention 
 to any one else, but followed him about 
 the gallery, bent upon hearing all he said. 
 As it turned out, this captain and he became 
 good friends, for the Yankee skipper's eyes 
 were sharp enough to see through all the 
 
DILKCTA. 17 
 
 fog and mystery of Turner, how much of 
 real sea feeling there was in him and his 
 work. Captain Morgan, who was a great 
 friend of Dickens, my father, and many 
 other artists, used to send Turner a box 
 of cigars almost every voyage after that 
 visit to Oueen Anne Street. 
 
 " Nothing I can ever do or write for 
 you would repay the good you have done 
 for me and mine in your books ; and will 
 you allow me to say, that in reading them 
 I am not (much as I admire it) carried 
 actually off my legs by your style, but that 
 I feel more and more, each day I live, 
 the plain practical truth of all you tell 
 us. I cannot bear to hear people talk and 
 write as they do of your style, and your 
 being the greatest master of it, etc , while 
 they sneer at the matter, etc. Nothing 
 lowers the present generation of what are 
 called clever men more to me than this " 
 (nay, is not their abuse of Carlyle's manner 
 worse than their praise of mine ?). *' I 
 
 2 
 
1 8 DILECTA. 
 
 am rather thankful, even, that my best 
 friends here do not belong to this class, 
 being mostly pilots, sea captains, boat- 
 builders, fishermen, and the like. 
 
 " I shall, in a day or two, be with my 
 mother at Henley-on-Thames, and if I 
 learn anything more from her about 
 Turner, will let you know. She is now 
 eighty-four, but writes a better letter, in 
 a finer hand, without glasses, than I can 
 with them. 
 
 " 6. MoiRA Place, Southampton, 
 ''June 2$th, 1884. 
 
 "Dear Mr. Ruskin, 
 
 ** I have before me the engraving by 
 Wilmore of the Taneraire. I think it was 
 Stanfield who told me that the rigging 
 of the ship in this engraving was trimmed 
 up and generally made intelligible to the 
 engraver bv some mechanical marine artist 
 or other. I am not sure now who, but 
 think it was Duncan ; whether or no, the 
 rigging is certainly not as Turner painted 
 
DILECTA. ig 
 
 it ; while the black funnel of the tug 
 in the engraving is placed abaft her mast 
 or flagpole, instead of before it, as in 
 Turner's picture ; his first, strong, almost 
 prophetic idea of smoke, soot, iron, and 
 steam, coming to the front in all naval 
 matters, being thus changed and, I venture 
 to think, weakened by this alteration. 
 You most truly told us years ago that 
 * Take it all in all, a ship of the line is 
 the most honourable thing that man, as 
 a gregarious animal, has ever produced.' 
 I shall not therefore hesitate to ask you 
 to put on your best spectacles and look 
 for a moment at the enclosed photograph, 
 which I have had taken for you from 
 a model of the Temeraire, which we 
 have here now in a sort of museum. 
 The model is nearly three feet long, and 
 belonged to an old naval man ; it was 
 made years ago by the French prisoners 
 in the hulks at Potsmouth out of their 
 beef-bones! Even if we were at war with 
 
20 DILECTA. 
 
 France, and had the men and ships hkely 
 to do it, it would be impossible to catch 
 any prisoners now who could make such 
 a ship as this out of anything, much 
 less of beef-bones ; and as I foresee that 
 this lovely little ship must soon, in the 
 nature of things, pass away (some unfeeling 
 brute has already robbed her of all her 
 boats), and that there will be no one living 
 able to restore a rope or spar rightly 
 once they are broken or displaced in her, 
 I felt it almost a duty to have this record 
 taken and to send you a copy of it. I 
 focussed the camera myself, but there is, 
 unavoidably, some exaggeration of the 
 length of her jibboom and flying-jibboom. 
 These spars, however, in old ships really 
 measured, together with the bowsprit, 
 nearly the length of the foremast from 
 deck to truck. In fact, the bowsprit, with 
 its spritsail and spritsail-topsailyards, formed 
 a sort of fourth mast. 
 
 " I have just returned from a visit to 
 
DILECTA. 2 1 
 
 my dear old mother at Henley, and she 
 told me of how Turner came up to our 
 house one evening by special appointment 
 to sup upon Welsh rabbit (toasted cheese). 
 This must have been about the year 1 840 
 or '41, as it was at the time my father 
 was engaged upon a portrait of Lord 
 Chancellor Cottenham ; and during the 
 evening Turner went into the painting- 
 room, where the robes, wig, etc., of the 
 Chancellor were arranged upon a lay- 
 figure ; and, after a little joking, he was 
 persuaded to put on the Lord Chancellor's 
 wig, in which, my mother says. Turner 
 looked splendid, so joyous and happy, 
 too, in the idea that the Chancellor's 
 wig became him better than any one 
 else of the party. 
 
 " I must have been away from home 
 then, I think in America, for I never 
 should have forgotten Turner being at our 
 house ; and this, I believe, is the only 
 time he ever was there. 
 
22 DILECTA. 
 
 " Turner, my father, and the Yankee 
 captain were excellent friends about this 
 time, as the captain took a picture of 
 Turner's to New York which my father 
 had been commissioned to buy for Mr. 
 Lenox. There used to be a story, which 
 I daresay you have heard, of how Turner 
 was one day showing some great man 
 or other round his gallery, and Turner's 
 father looked in through a half-open door 
 and said, in a low voice, * That 'ere's 
 done,' and that Turner taking no apparent 
 notice, but continuing to attend his visitor, 
 the old man's head appeared again, after 
 an interval of five or six minutes, and said, 
 in a louder tone, * That 'ere will be spiled.' 
 I think Landseer used to tell this story 
 as having happened when he and one of 
 his many noble friends were going the 
 round of Turner's gallery about the time 
 that Turner's chop or steak was being 
 cooked. 
 
DILKCTA. 23 
 
 " 6, MoiRA Place, Southampton, 
 ^' yune 30M, 1884. 
 
 "My dear Mr. Ruskin, 
 
 " After sending you that photograph 
 of the Temeraire, it occurred to me to see 
 if I could find out anything about the ship 
 or her building in an old book I have 
 (Charnock's * Marine Architecture '), and I 
 was surprised to find there, in a list of 
 ships in our navy between the years 1700 
 and 1800, TWO ships of that name — one 
 a seventy-four, taken from the French in 
 1759, the other a ninety-eight gun ship, 
 built at Chatham in 1798. This made 
 me look again at Mr. Thornbury's account 
 of the ship and her title, and leads me 
 to doubt three things he has stated : first, 
 that the ship (if she was the French 
 'Timer aire) * had no history in our navv 
 before Trafalgar ; ' secondly, that ' she was 
 taken at the battle of the Nile ; ' and, 
 thirdly, that the Temeraire which fought 
 at Trafalgar was French at all. 
 
24 DILECTA. 
 
 " The model we have here, and which has 
 the name Ttfmeraire carved upon her stern, 
 is a ninety-eight gun ship, and would be 
 the one built at Chatham in 179H. But 
 what I am driving at, and the point to 
 which all this confusion leads, is, that 
 after all, perhaps, dear old Turner was 
 perfectlv right in his first title for his 
 picture of * The Fighting Teenier aire^ for 
 if she was the old seventy-four gun ship 
 (and in the engraving she looks like a 
 two-decker) that he saw being towed to 
 the shipbreaker's yard, she, having been 
 in our navy for years, may have been 
 distinguished among sailors from the other 
 and newer 'Temeraire by that name ; while 
 it is significant (if true) that Turner, 
 when he reluctantly gave up his title, 
 said, *Well, then, call her the Old 
 Temeraire.' 
 
 " Thornbury's book, which I have not 
 seen since it was published until I borrowed 
 it a few days back, appears to me a sort 
 
DILECTA. 25 
 
 of hashed-up life of Brown, Jones, and 
 Robinson, with badly done bits of Turner 
 floating about in it. I have copied the 
 passage from it referring to the Te'meraire 
 upon a separate sheet, also the history of 
 the capture of the French Temeraire from 
 the Gentleman s Magazine. 
 
 " I have only now to add, in answer to 
 your last and kindest of notes, that I read 
 French in a humbly sort of way, like a 
 French yoke of oxen dragging a load of 
 stone uphill upon a cross road, but that 
 my wife reads it easily. Twice, dear 
 Mr. Ruskin, you have said, * Is it not 
 strange you should have sent me some- 
 thing about Turner just as I was employ- 
 ing a French critic to write his life ? ' 
 Now, I believe that nothing is really 
 strange between those where on the 
 one side there is perfect truth and 
 honesty of purpose, and on the other 
 faith in, and love and reverence for, that 
 purpose. 
 
26 DILECTA. 
 
 " Forgive me if I have said too much ; 
 and beUeve me, yours faithfully and 
 affectionately, 
 
 " RoBT. C. Leslie." 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A LIST OF SHIPS IN OUR NAVY 
 BETWEEN THE YEARS 1700 AND 1800. 
 
 '' Thm^raire, 1,685 tons, 74 guns, taken 
 
 from the French, 1759. 
 
 ^^ Temeraire, 2,121 tons, 98 guns, built at 
 
 Chat ham y 1798." 
 
 Charnock's "Marine Architecture" (1802). 
 
 " Saturday, Sept. 15th, 1759, Admiral 
 Boscawen arrived at Spithead with His 
 Majestie's ships NamuVy etc., and the 
 Mode St e and TemerairCy prizes. The Teme- 
 raire is a fine seventy-four- gun ship, 
 forty-two-pounders below, eight fine brass 
 guns abaft her mainmast, ten brass guns 
 on her quarter, very little hurt." 
 
 Gentleffian's Magazine, September, 1759. 
 
DILECTA. 27 
 
 HOW THE OLD TEMERAIRE WAS TAKEN. 
 
 Extract of a letter from Admiral Bos- 
 cawen to Mr. Cleveland, Secretary of the 
 Admiralty, dated off Cape St. Vincent, 
 August 20th, 1759: — 
 
 " I acquainted you in my last of my 
 return to Gibraltar to refit. As soon as 
 the ships were near ready, I ordered the 
 hy^ne and Gibraltar frigates, the first to 
 cruise off Malaga, and the last from Este- 
 pona to Ceuta Point, to look out, and 
 give me timely notice of the enemy's 
 approach. On the 17th, at 8 p.m., 
 the Gibraltar made the signal of their 
 appearance, fourteen sail, on the Barbary 
 shore. ... I got under sail as fast as pos- 
 sible, and was out of the bay before 
 10 p.m., with fourteen sail of the line. 
 At daylight I saw the Gibraltar, and soon 
 after seven sail of large ships lying to ; 
 but on our not answering their signals 
 they made sail from us. We had a fresh 
 gale, and came up with them fast till 
 
28 DILECTA. 
 
 about noon, when it fell little wind. 
 About half an hour past two some of 
 the headmost ships began to engage, but 
 I could not get up to the Ocean till near 
 four. In about half an hour my ship 
 the Namurs mizen-mast and both topsail- 
 yards were shot away ; the enemy then 
 made all the sail they could. I shifted 
 my flag to the Neirark^ and soon after 
 the Centaur, of seventy-four guns, struck. 
 
 " I pursued all night, and in the morn- 
 ing of the 19th saw only four sail of the 
 line standing in for the land. . . . We 
 were not above three miles from them, 
 and not above five leagues from the shore, 
 but very little wind. About nine the 
 Ocean ran amongst the breakers, and the 
 three others anchored. I sent the Intrepid 
 and America to destroy the Ocean. Capt. 
 Pratten, having anchored, could not get 
 in ; but Capt. Kirk performed that service 
 alone. On his first firing at the Ocean she 
 struck. Capt. Kirk sent his officers on 
 
DILECTA. 29 
 
 board. M. de la Clue, having one leg 
 broke, and the other wounded, had been 
 landed about half an hour ; but they 
 found the captain, M. La Comte, De Carne, 
 and several officers and men on board ; 
 Capt. Kirk, after taking them out, finding 
 it impossible to bring the ship off, set her 
 on fire. Capt. Bentley, of the Warspite^ 
 was ordered against the Temeraire^ of 
 seventy-four guns, and brought her off 
 with little damage, the officers and men 
 all on board. At the same time, Vice- 
 Admiral Broderick, with his division, 
 burnt the Redoutable^ her officers and men 
 having quitted her, being bulged ; and 
 brought the Modesty of sixty-four guns, off 
 very little damaged. I have the pleasure 
 to acquaint their Lordships, that most of 
 His Majestie's ships under my command 
 sailed better than those of the enemy." . . . 
 
 From the Goitleiuan' s Magazine for September, 1759. 
 
 ** I could not resist copying this letter 
 in full.— R. L." 
 
30 DILECTA. 
 
 ** I have just read the appendix to 
 your * Art of England,' and was particularly- 
 interested in the account of how you felt 
 that cold south-west wind up in Lancashire. 
 This is the second, if not third season, that 
 we have remarked them here in the south 
 of England, though I think the south- 
 westers of this spring were more bitter 
 than usual. I told you, I believe, that my 
 wife and I started away for Spain this 
 April. Now, on all this journey, down the 
 west coast of France, across the north of 
 Spain, to Barcelona, in lat. 41°, and up 
 through Central France again, I watched 
 and noted day by day the same strange 
 sky that we have with us, the same white 
 sun, with that opaque sheet about him, 
 or else covered by dark dull vapours, from 
 which now and then something fell in 
 unexpected drops, followed by still more 
 unexpected clearing- ups. There were one 
 or two days of intense sunshine, followed 
 always by bad pale sunsets, and often 
 
DILECTA. 3 1 
 
 accompanied by driving storms of wind 
 and dust. But, returning to the cold 
 south-westers, I don't suppose you care 
 much for the why of them, even if I am 
 right, which is, that I think we owe them 
 to the very great and early break-up for 
 the last year or two of the northern ice,* 
 which in the western ocean was met with 
 before March this year, several steamers 
 being in collision with it, while one report 
 from Newfoundland spoke of an iceberg 
 aground there I am afraid to say how 
 many miles long and over a hundred feet 
 high. Now, when I was young (I am 
 fifty-eight), and a good deal upon that sea, 
 it was always thought that there was no 
 chance of falling in with ice earlier than 
 quite the e?id of May, and this was excep- 
 tional, the months of July and August 
 being the iceberg months. (I have seen 
 
 * Yes ; but what makes the ice break up ? 
 I think the plague-wind blows every way, every- 
 where, all round the world. — J. R. 
 
32 DILECTA. 
 
 a large one off the Banks in September.) 
 This early arrival of the northern ice 
 seems to show that the mild winters 
 have extended up even into the Arctic 
 Circle, and points to some real increase 
 in the power or heat of the sun.* 
 
 ** I have many things I should like to 
 talk over with you, but fear that will 
 never be, unless you are able to come 
 some time and have a few days' rest and 
 boating with me." 
 
 * I don't believe it a bit. I think the sun's 
 going out. — J. R. 
 
DILECTA. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE, DFARY NOTES, AND 
 EXTRACTS FROM BOOKS, 
 
 II.LUSTRATlNii 
 
 PR^TERITA. 
 
 ARRANiiliD FV 
 
 JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D., 
 
 HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH 
 AND HONORARY FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRIST! COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 GEO'RGE ALLEN, 
 
 SUNNYSIDE, ORPINGTON, KBNT 
 
 1887, 
 
 Price One Shilling. 
 
DI LECTA. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE, DIARY NOTES, AND 
 EXTRACTS FROM BOOKS, 
 
 ILLUSTRATING 
 
 PRyETERITA, 
 
 ARRAXGED BY 
 
 JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D., 
 
 HONORAKV STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, 
 AND HONORARY FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTl COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 GEORGE ALLEN, 
 
 SUNNYSIDE, ORPINGTON, KENT. 
 
 1887. 
 
Printed by Hiuell, Watson, & Viney, I-d-, London and Aylesbury. 
 
DILECTA. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Mr. Leslie's notes on the Temeraire 
 and her double have led to some farther 
 correspondence respecting both this ship 
 and Nelson's own, which must still take 
 precedence of any connected with the 
 early numbers of * Prsterita.' 
 
 "Dearest Mr. Ruskin, 
 
 '*Mr. W. Hale White, of the Ad- 
 miralty, has, as you will see, written 
 to me about the Temeraires, and I 
 thought you ought to know what he 
 has to say on the subject, especially 
 that; postscript to his note about placing 
 some short history of the ship under 
 
 3 
 
34 UILECTA. 
 
 Turner's picture. Also the fact of the 
 old French ship being sold in the year 
 1784, when there could have been no 
 tugs on the river, and when Turner was 
 only nine years old, seems to settle the 
 point as to which of the two ships 
 it was, in favour of * the English 
 Temeraire! Still, as boyish impressions 
 in a mind like Turner's must have been 
 veyy strongs it is just possible that he 
 may have seen the last of both ships 
 when knocking about the Thames below 
 London. 
 
 ** In the pictu?'t\ as I said before, the 
 ship is a /le^i?- decker, and her having 
 her spars and sails bent to the yards 
 looks very like a time before steam, 
 when a hulk without some kind of 
 jury-rig would be almost useless, even 
 to a ship-breaker, if he had to /nove 
 her at all. 
 
 " Ever aifectionatelv, 
 
 " RoBT. C. Leslie." 
 
DILECTA. 
 
 35 
 
 " Admiralty, Whitehall, S.W., 
 " 20th Novcviber, 1886. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " I see in Mr. Ruskin's * Dilecta * 
 a letter of yours about the Temeraire. 
 Perhaps you will like to know the 
 facts about the two vessels you name. 
 
 " The T erne r aire taken by Admiral 
 Boscawen from the French in 1759 
 was sold in June 1784. 
 
 " The T^emerah'e which Turner saw 
 was consequently the second Temeraire. 
 She was fitted for a prison ship at 
 Plymouth in 1812. In 18 19 she 
 became a receiving ship, and was sent 
 to Sheerness. There she remained till 
 she was sold in 1838. 
 
 " What Mr. Thornbury means by * the 
 grand old vessel that had been taken 
 prisoner at the Nile ' I do not know. 
 I may add that it cannot be ascer- 
 tained now, at any rate without pro- 
 longed search amongst documents in 
 
36 DILECTA. 
 
 the Record Office, whether the second 
 Taneraire was sold ' all standing,' that 
 is to say, with masts and yards as 
 painted ; but it is very improbable, as 
 she had been a receiving ship, that 
 her masts and yards were in her when 
 she left the service. 
 
 " Truly yours, 
 
 *'W. Hale White. 
 " R. C. Leslie, Esq. 
 
 '* It seems to me a pity, considering 
 the importance of the picture, that the 
 truth about the subject of it should 
 not somewhere be easily accessible to 
 everybody who cares to know it — say 
 upon the picture-frame. I would under- 
 take to put down in tabular form the 
 principal points in the vessel's biography, 
 if it were thought worth while." 
 
 I should at all events be most grateful 
 if Mr. Hale White would furnish me 
 with such abstract, as, whether used in 
 
DILECTA. 
 
 37 
 
 the National Gallery or not, many people 
 would like to have it put beneath the 
 engraving. 
 
 In a subsequent note from Mr. Leslie 
 about the pike fishing at Lord Egremont's, 
 he gives me this little sketch of the way 
 Turner rigged his ship for him with 
 leaves torn out of his sketch book. 
 
 The following note, also from Mr. 
 Leslie, with its cutting from »S"/. James's 
 Gazette ; and the next one, for which 
 I am extremely grateful, on the words 
 * dickey ' and * deck,' bear further on 
 Turner's meaning in the little black 
 steamer which guides the funeral march of 
 the line of battle ship, — and foretell the 
 
38 DILECTA. 
 
 time now come when ships have neither 
 masts, sails, nor decks, but are driven under 
 water with their crews under hatches. 
 
 " Dearest Mr. Ruskin, 
 
 "I have just finished *The State of 
 Denmark,' which is delightful, especially 
 the story of the row of expectant little 
 pigs. They are wonderful animals — our 
 English elephant I think as to mental 
 capacity. But they always have an in- 
 terest to me above other edible live stock, 
 in the way they make the best of life 
 on shipboard ; and when you can spare 
 time to look at the enclosed little paper 
 of mine, you will find that others have 
 found their society cheerful. 
 
 " I have been reading all the old sea 
 voyages I can get hold of lately, with a 
 view to learn all I can about the way they 
 handled their canvas in the days of sails 
 (for my * Sea- Wings '), and I come con- 
 stantly across the pig on board ship in 
 
DILECTA. 39 
 
 such books. For some reason or other, 
 sailors don't care to have parsons on 
 board ship. This perhaps dates back to 
 time of Jonah ; and your passages in this 
 
 * Prsterita,' in which you describe and 
 dispose of the teaching of some modern 
 ones, are quite perfect, and in your 
 
 * making short work ' best style. 
 
 " Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 " RoBT. C. Leslie." 
 
 "In smaller vessels, carrying no passengers, 
 pigs and goats were seldom home-fed; but 
 were turned loose to cater for themselves 
 among the odds and ends in the waist or 
 deck between the poop and forecastle. 
 Some of the poultry, too, soon became 
 tame enough to be allowed the run of this 
 part of a ship ; the ducks and geese find- 
 ing a particular pleasure in paddling in the 
 wash about the lee scuppers. Pigs have 
 always proved a thriving stock on a ship- 
 farm, and the one that pays the best. 
 
40 DILECTA. 
 
 Some old skippers assert, indeed, that, like 
 Madeira, pig is improved greatly by a 
 voyage to India and back round the 
 Cape ; and that none but those who have 
 tasted boiled leg of pork on board a 
 homeward bound Indiaman know much 
 about the matter. But here also, as in so 
 many other things, there was a drawback. 
 Pigs are such cheerful creatures at sea 
 that, as an old soft-hearted seaman once 
 remarked, you get too partial towards 
 them, and feel after dinner sometimes as 
 though you had eaten an old messmate. 
 Next to the pig the goat was the most 
 useful stock on a sea-farm. This animal 
 soon makes itself at home on shipboard ; 
 it has good sea- legs, and is blessed with 
 an appetite that nothing in the shape of 
 vegetable fibre comes amiss to, from an 
 armful of shavings from the carpenter's 
 berth to an old newspaper. Preserved 
 milk was, of course, unknown in those 
 times, and the officers of a large pas- 
 
DILECTA. 41 
 
 senger-ship would rather have gone to 
 sea without a doctor (to say nothing of 
 a parson) than without a cow or some 
 nannv-ffoats. Even on board a man-of- 
 war the admiral or captain generally had 
 at least one goat for his own use, while 
 space was found for live stock for other 
 ward-room othcers. But model-farming 
 and home-feeding was the rule then as 
 now in a King's ship ; and it is related 
 that, on board one of these vessels, the 
 first lieutenant ordered the ship's painter 
 to eive the feet and bills of the admiral's 
 geese that were stowed in coops upon the 
 quarter-deck a coat of black once a week, 
 so that the nautical eye might not be 
 offended by any intrusion of colour not 
 allowed in the service. 
 
 '* The general absence of colour among 
 real sea-fowl is very marked ; and when, 
 as it sometimes happened, a gay rooster 
 escaped overboard after an exciting chase 
 round the decks with Jemmy Ducks, and 
 
42 DILECTA. 
 
 fluttered helplessly down upon the bosom 
 of the sea, his glowing plumage looked 
 strangely out of harmony with things as 
 he sat drifting away upon the waste of 
 waters." 
 
 " Berkeley, Gloucestershire, 
 
 " Oct. 2()tJl, 1886. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " I notice in the first chapter of 
 * Prsterita ' that you profess yourself 
 unable to find out the derivation of the 
 word ' dickey ' as applied to the rumble 
 of a carriage. 
 
 " At the risk of being the hundredth 
 or so who has volunteered the informa- 
 tion, I send you an extract from Dr. 
 Brewer's * Dictionary of Phrase and 
 Fable ' :— 
 
 '* * Dickey. — The rumble behind a 
 carriage ; also a leather apron, a child's 
 bib, and a false shirt or .front. Dutch 
 dekkeUy Germ, decken^ Sax. thecan^ Lat. 
 tegOj to cover.' 
 
DILECTA. 43 
 
 " I suppose that the word * deck ' has 
 its derivation from the same source. 
 
 " Sincerely hoping that you may be 
 speedily restored to health, 
 ** I am, dear Sir, 
 " Yours very faithfully, 
 
 " Herbert E. Cooke." 
 
 The following extract from a letter 
 written to his sister by a young surgeon 
 on board the Victory, gives more interest- 
 ing lights on Nelson's character than I 
 caught from all Southey's Life of him : — 
 
 *' On my coming on board I found that 
 the recommendation which my former ser- 
 vices in the Navy had procured for me 
 from several friends, had conciliated towards 
 me the good opinion of his lordship and 
 his officers, and I immediately became one 
 of the family. It may amuse you, my 
 dear sister, to read the brief journal of a 
 day such as we here pass it at sea in this 
 
44 DILECTA. 
 
 fine climate and in these smooth seas, on 
 board one of the largest ships in the 
 Navy, as she mounts 1 1 o guns, one of 
 which, carrying a 241b. shot, occupies a 
 very distinguished station in my apartment. 
 
 "Jan. 12. — Off the Straits of Bonifacio, 
 a narrow arm of the sea between Corsica 
 and Sardinia. — We have been baffled in our 
 progress towards the rendezvous of the 
 squadron at the Madeline Islands for some 
 days past by variable and contrary winds, 
 but we expect to arrive at our destination 
 to-night or to-morrow morning. To re- 
 sume, my dear sister, the journal of a day. 
 At 6 o'clock my servant brings a light and 
 informs me of the hour, wind, weather, 
 and course of the ship, when I immediately 
 dress and generally repair to the deck, the 
 dawn of day at this season and latitude 
 being apparent at about half or three- 
 quarters of an hour past six. Breakfast 
 is announced in the Admiral's cabin, where 
 Lord Nelson, — Rear-Admiral Murray, the 
 
DILECTA. 45 
 
 Captain of the Fleet,-— Captain Hardy, 
 Commander of the Victory^ the chaplain, 
 secretary, one or two officers of the ship, 
 and your humble servant, assemble and 
 breakfast on tea, hot rolls, toast, cold 
 tongue, etc., which when finished we 
 repair upon deck to enjoy the majestic 
 sight of the rising sun (scarcely ever 
 obscured by clouds in this fine climate) 
 surmounting the smooth and placid waves 
 of the Mediterranean which supports the 
 lofty and tremendous bulwarks of Britain, 
 following in regular train their Admiral in 
 the Victory. Between the hours of seven 
 and two there is plenty of time for busi- 
 ness, study, writing, and exercise, which 
 different occupations, together with that of 
 occasionally visiting the hospital of the ship 
 when required by the surgeon, I endeavour 
 to vary in such a manner as to afford me 
 sufficient employment. At two o'clock a 
 band of music plays till within a quarter 
 of three, when the drum beats the tune 
 
4-6 DILECTA. 
 
 called 'The Roast Beef of Old En^- 
 land ' to announce the Admiral's dinner, 
 which is served up exactly at three o'clock, 
 and which generally consists of three 
 courses and a dessert of the choicest fruit, 
 together with three or four of the best 
 wines, champagne and claret not excepted; 
 and — what exceeds the relish of the best 
 viands and most exquisite wines, — if a 
 person does not feel himself perfectly at 
 his ease it must be his own fault, such is 
 the urbanity and hospitality which reign 
 here, notwithstanding the numerous titles, 
 the four orders of knighthood, worn by 
 Lord Nelson, and the well-earned laurels 
 which he has acquired. Coffee and 
 liqueurs close the dinner about half-past 
 four or five o'clock, after which the com- 
 pany generally walk the deck, where the 
 band of music plays for near an hour. At 
 six o'clock tea is announced, when the 
 company again assemble in the Admiral's 
 cabin, where tea is served up before seven 
 
DILECTA. 47 
 
 o'clock, and, as we are inclined, the party 
 continue to converse with his lordship, 
 who at this time generally unbends himself, 
 thou eh he is at all times as free from stiff- 
 ness and pomp as a regard to proper 
 dignity will admit, and is very communi- 
 cative. At eight o'clock a rummer of 
 punch with cake or biscuit is served up, 
 soon after which we wish the Admiral 
 a good night (who is generally in bed 
 before nine o'clock). For my own part, 
 not having been accustomed to go to 
 bed quite so early, I generally read an 
 hour, or spend one with the officers of the 
 ship, several of whom are old acquaintances, 
 or to whom I have been known by cha- 
 racter. Such, my dear sister, is the journal 
 of a day at sea in fine or at least moderate 
 weather, in which this floating castle goes 
 through the water with the greatest imagi- 
 nable steadiness, and I have not yet been 
 long enough on board to experience bad 
 weather." 
 
48 DILECTA. 
 
 I must find room for a word or two 
 
 more of Mr, Leslie's, for the old lioating 
 
 castles as against steam ; and then pass to 
 matters more personal to me. 
 
 "MoiRA Place, Srpf. lotli, 1S86. 
 
 '* I believe that the whole of the 
 present depression in what is called trade 
 is entirely due to the exaggerated estimate 
 ot the economy ot steam, especially when 
 applied to the production of real wealth 
 upon the land ; also to the idea that 
 the wealth of the world is in anv way 
 increased by making a lawn tennis court 
 of it, the world, and knocking goods to 
 and fro as fast as possible across it by 
 steam. No doubt I shall be told that I 
 am quite out of my depth in this matter, 
 and that France (a really self-supporting 
 country) is at least five hundred vears 
 behind the times. I won't apologize 
 for sending you enclosed, which, for the 
 animal's sake alone, I fear is true. The 
 cutting is from the "Times of the i8th: — 
 
DILECTA. 49 
 
 " A writer in the lievue Scientifique 
 atiirms that, from a comparison of animal 
 and steam power, the former is the 
 cheaper power in France, whatever may be 
 the case in other countries. In the con- 
 version of chemical to mechanical energy, 
 90 per cent, is lost in the machine, against 
 68 in the animal. M. Sanson, the writer 
 above referred to, finds that the steam 
 horse-power, contrary to what is generally 
 believed, is often materially exceeded by 
 the horse. The cost of traction on the 
 Mount Parnasse-Bastille line of railway 
 he found to be for each car, daily, 57 f, 
 while the same work done by the horse 
 cost only 47 f. ; and he believes that for 
 moderate powers the conversion of che- 
 mical into mechanical energy is more 
 economically effected through animals than 
 through steam engines." 
 
 The following two letters from Turner 
 to Mr. W. E. Cooke, which I find among 
 various papers relating to his work given 
 
 4 
 
50 DILECTA. 
 
 to me at various times, are of great interest 
 in showing the number of points Turner 
 used to take into consideration before deter- 
 mining on anything, and his strict sense of 
 duty and courtesy. The blank line, of 
 which we are left to conjecture the mean- 
 ing, is much longer in the real letter : — 
 
 ^' IVednesday morning. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " I have taken the earliest opportunity 
 to return you the touched proof and 
 corrected St. Michael Mounts. I lament 
 that your brother could not forward 
 the Poole, or Mr. Bulmer the proof 
 sheets, for if the two cannot be sent so 
 as to arrive here before Tuesday next^ I 
 shall be upon the wing for London 
 again, where I hope to be in about a 
 fortnight from this time ; therefore, you'll 
 judge how practicable you can make 
 the sending the parcel in time, or 
 waiting until I get to Queen Ann 
 
DILECTA. 5 1 
 
 Street, N.W. Your number coming out 
 on the loth of December I think impos- 
 sible ; but to this I offer only an opinion 
 (what difference would it make if the 
 two numbers of the Coast, Daniel's 
 and yours, came out on the same 
 day?). All I can say, I'll not hinder 
 you, if I can avoid it, one moment. 
 Therefore employ Mr. Pye if you think 
 proper, but, as you know, there should 
 be some objection on my part as 
 to CO - operation with him without 
 
 — ; yet to forego the 
 
 assistance of his abilities for any feeling 
 of mine is by no means proper to the 
 majority of subscribers to the work. 
 *' Yours most truly, 
 
 **J. M. W. Turner. 
 " P.S. — I am not surprised at Mr. Ellis 
 writing such a note about his signature. 
 Be so good as put the enclosed into the 
 Twopenny Post Box. The book which 
 I now send be kind enough to keep for 
 
52 DILECTA. 
 
 me until I return, and expect it to be 
 useful in the descriptions of Cornwall." 
 
 ••Thursday E'- Dec''- i6, 1813. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " From your letter of this morning 
 I expected the pleasure of seeing you, 
 but being disappointed, I feel the necessity 
 of requesting you will, under the peculiar 
 case in which the MSS. of St. Michael 
 and Poole are placed, desire Mr. Coombe 
 to deviate wholly from them ; and if he 
 has introduced anything which seems to 
 approximate, to be so good as to remove 
 the same, as any likeness in the descrip- 
 tions (though highly complimentary to my 
 endeavours) must compel me to claim 
 them — by an immediate appeal as to 
 their originality. Moreover, as I now 
 shall not charge or will receive any 
 remuneration whatever for them, they 
 are consequently at my disposal, and 
 ultimately subject only to my use— in 
 
DILECTA. 
 
 53 
 
 vindication ; never do I hope they w^ill 
 be called upon to appear, but if ever 
 offer'd that they will be looked upon 
 with liberality and candour, and not 
 considered in any way detrimental to 
 the interests of the Proprietors of the 
 Southern Coast work. 
 
 " Have the goodness to return the 
 corrected proof of St. Michael, which I 
 sent from Yorkshire with the MS. of 
 Poole ; and desire Mr. Bulmer either 
 to send me all the proof sheets, or in 
 your seeing them destroyed you will 
 much oblige 
 
 " Yours most truly, 
 
 *'J. M. W. Turner." 
 
 I find in my father's diary of the 
 journey of 1833 some notes on the state 
 of Basle city and its environs at the time 
 of our passing through them, which are 
 extremely interesting to me in their cool- 
 ness, especially in connection with the 
 
54 DILECTA. 
 
 general caution which influenced my father 
 in all other kinds of danger. No man 
 could be more prudent in guarding against 
 ordinary chances of harm, and in what may 
 be shortly expressed as looking to the 
 girths of life. But here he is travelling 
 with his wife and son through a district 
 in dispute between not only military forces 
 but political factions, without appearing 
 for an instant to have contemplated 
 changing his route, or felt the slightest 
 uneasiness in passing through the area of 
 most active warfare. My mother seems 
 to have been exactly of the same mind, 
 — which is more curious still, for indeed 
 I never once saw the expression of fear 
 on my father's face, through all his life, 
 at anything ; but my mother was easily 
 frightened if postillions drove too fast, or 
 the carriage leaned threateningly aside ; 
 while here she passes through the midst 
 of bands of angry and armed villagers 
 without a word of objection. 
 
DILECTA. ^^ 
 
 ** Baden (Swiss Baden, 5th August, 
 1833). — ^^ heard here of the Basle 
 people fighting with peasantry and burn- 
 ing their villages ; and of a battle betwixt 
 Liechstal and Basle soldiers on Saturday ; 
 the latter were driven into the town ; 80 
 killed and 400 prisoners. We came to 
 Stein to dine ; a single house on the 
 borders of the Rhine, commanding a 
 beautiful view of that river and plains 
 beyond it, and Black Forest in the distance. 
 We had eighteen miles to go to Basle, 
 but, hearing Swiss gates were shut, we 
 crossed into Baden state at Rheinfeld, 
 where there are some very old buildings 
 and two wooden bridges ; the river rolls 
 like a troubled sea. Coming towards 
 Basle we saw soldiers with several large 
 brass cannon, in a field which the 
 peasants were ploughing, on an eminence 
 commanding the road. We arrived at 
 7 o'clock at Three Kings, Basle, and early 
 next morning I walked to cathedral ; 
 
56 DTLECTA. 
 
 found many of the first houses with 
 windows entirely closed, in mourning for 
 officers lost in battle of Saturday ; and a 
 report prevailed of there being a plot to 
 admit the peasantry into the town to 
 fire it in the night. The people were 
 much alarmed. 
 
 " Tuesday, 6th August, we left by a gate 
 just opened to let us pass, being sent from 
 another gate we tried, and which we 
 saw, after we got out, had its drawbridge 
 entirely cut away. The guns were placed 
 with twigs and basketwork in embrasures, 
 soldiers stood on the walls ready, and 
 looking out over the country with glasses. 
 The road lay through Liechstal, where 
 the strife was. It is a fine road, as the 
 best in England, generally much fre- 
 quented, and the country is beautiful and 
 rich in cultivation ; but on twenty-seven 
 miles of this fine road we met neither 
 carriage, diligence, gig, nor waggon. The 
 land seemed deserted, only a peasant 
 
DILECTA. ^J 
 
 occasionally in the fields. We soon met 
 a small band of armed peasants in the act 
 of stopping a small market-cart which 
 had preceded us. The man, when released, 
 went quickly off. They let us pass. We 
 then met two bands of armed peasants, 
 very Irish-like in costume, and having 
 guns swung behind or in their hands, 
 about fifteen or twenty in each body, — 
 part, we suppose, of the Liberals who 
 had defeated the Tories ot Basle.* They 
 looked, and lifted their hats, and said 
 nothing to us. Approaching Liechstal, 
 we met a Swiss car with eight or ten 
 gentlemen in plain clothes, well armed ; 
 also cars filled with armed peasants, and 
 a few soldiers at their side. We entered 
 Liechstal, and found every street barri- 
 
 * Papa cannot bring himself to think of 
 anybody in Irish-like costume as Conservative. 
 It was Basle that was liberally and Protcs- 
 tantially endeavouring to make the men of 
 Liechstal abjure their CathoHc errors. 
 
5^ DILECTA. 
 
 caded breast high with pine logs, except 
 at entrance, where an opening was left 
 just wide enough for cart or carriage, and 
 a gate at the other end. These gentle- 
 men, I was afterwards told, were Polish 
 refugees, who served the artillery of the 
 peasantry against the Basle people, who 
 had refused to shelter them, whilst the 
 Liechstal people had received them kindlv." 
 
 And so all notice of states of siege, 
 whether at Liechstal or anywhere else, 
 ends in mv father's diarv ; and he con- 
 tinues in perfect tranquillity to give account 
 of his notes on the roads, inns, and agri- 
 culture of Switzerland. 
 
 Of which, however, the reader will, I 
 think, have pleasure in seeing some fur- 
 ther passages, representing, not through 
 anv gilded mists of memory, but with 
 mercantile precision of entering day by 
 day, the aspect of Switzerland at the time 
 when we first saw it, half a centurv a2;o. 
 
DILECTA. 59 
 
 ** 1 8th July. We left Berne early, and 
 went eighteen miles to Thun. The road 
 is one of the best possible, beginning 
 through an avenue of trees, large and 
 fine, and proceeding to Thun through 
 fields of amazing beauty, bordered with 
 fruit trees ; the corn sometimes bordering 
 the road without enclosure. The cottages, 
 houses, farms, inns, all the way, each and 
 all remarkable for neatness, largeness, and 
 beauty. We left our carriage at the 
 Freyenhof Inn, and took boat, three 
 hours' rowing, to Neuhaus, then one league 
 in char-a-banc ; through Unterseen to 
 Interlachen, a sweet watering-place sort 
 of a village, with one hotel and many 
 very elegant boarding-houses, where per- 
 sons stop to take excursions to neigh- 
 bourins: hills. We took boat down lake 
 Brienz as far as waterfall of Giesbach, 
 the finest fall next to those of Rhine I 
 have yet seen ; but the best thing was 
 the Swiss family in the small inn up the 
 
6o DILECTA. 
 
 hill Opposite to the fall. The old man, 
 his son, and two daughters, sung Swiss 
 songs in the sweetest and most affecting 
 manner, injfinitely finer than opera singing, 
 because true alike to Nature and to 
 music ; * no grimace nor affectation, nor 
 strained efforts to produce effect. The 
 tunes were well chosen, and the whole 
 very delightful ; more so than any sing- 
 ing I remember. We returned to Inter- 
 lachen, where the Justice condemned 
 Salvador to pay twelve francs for a 
 carriage not used, which he had hired 
 to go to the Staubbach. Next morning 
 we returned by water to Than to break- 
 fast, and again to Berne, where we had 
 very nice rooms, with fine prospect. 
 
 *' The portico walks in almost every 
 street in Berne are very convenient for 
 
 * I shall make this sentence the text of 
 what I have to say, when I have made a few 
 more experiments in our schools here, of the 
 use of music in peasant education. 
 
DILECTA. 
 
 6l 
 
 rain or sun : it is in this like Chester, 
 though the one appearing a very new 
 town, and the other very old. We left 
 Berne 22nd July by a narrow but not 
 bad road through Summiswald ; dined at 
 Hutwyl; slept at Sursee, in the Catholic 
 canton of Lucerne. The hill and dale 
 country we passed through to the very 
 end of the Berne canton was a scene of 
 unequalled loveliness out of this canton. 
 The face of the country was varied, but 
 the richness of cultivation the same, and 
 the houses so large, and yet so neat and 
 comfortable. This is, indeed, a country for 
 which a man might sigh, and almost die, 
 of reeret, to be exiled from. I have seen 
 nothing at all approaching to it in the 
 neatest parts of England. The town of 
 Berne is equally remarkable for good 
 though not lofty buildings, and for clean- 
 liness and neatness. The street-sweepers 
 were women ; and I never saw a city or 
 town so beautifully kept. I walked up 
 
62 DILECTA. 
 
 many back streets and lanes, all in the 
 most perfect order ; and the country seen 
 from the cathedral terrace and ramparts 
 is just suited to such a town. There is 
 no formed, squared, or trimmed neatness, 
 but every field, and hedge, and tree, and 
 garden, seem to be tended and kept in 
 the finest state possible. The variety of 
 scenery on the grandest scale, — the snowy 
 Alps, the lower Alps, the woods on un- 
 dulating grounds, or sloping down from 
 the mountain tops ; the fine river passing 
 round the town ; the rich cornfields, 
 meadows, and fruit trees, abounding over 
 all ; nature doing so much, and man just 
 bestowing the care and culture required, 
 and applying art only where it seems to 
 improve nature. 
 
 " If any country on earth can be deemed 
 perfect as far as nature and art can make 
 it, the canton of Berne is that country. 
 The farm houses are each a picture, and 
 the peasantry are as beautiful and healthy 
 
DILECTA. 63 
 
 as the country. They express contentment. 
 Their costume is handsome, excepting the 
 black, stiff, whalebone-lace ears of immense 
 size from the women's heads ; when they 
 wear black lace over their heads partially, 
 the rest of their dress is extremely be- 
 coming. On Wednesday, July 17th, we 
 rode to Hofwyl Farm, Mr. Fellenberg's 
 Institution, combining a large fine boarding- 
 house for eighty to ninety young gentlemen 
 of fortune, where all branches of education 
 are taught, and agriculture added if they 
 choose ; and a school for poor boys and 
 girls, and for masters of country schools 
 to learn. 
 
 " Some Russian princes have attended 
 the boarding school. The expense, about 
 three thousand francs yearly. Everything is 
 made on the farm — bread, butter, clothes, 
 shoes, etc. There are from two hundred 
 and eighty to three hundred acres of land 
 in cultivation, lying in a sort of basin 
 sloping gently away from house towards 
 
64 DILECTA. 
 
 a piece of water. It is impossible to con- 
 ceive anything so beautiful for a farm as 
 this. There being four hundred people 
 about it there is no want of labour; and 
 added to the usual Swiss neatness, there 
 is the completeness of an amateur farmer 
 possessing ample means. There were 
 fifty-four milk cows kept on hay and 
 potatoes under cover. (The want of cattle 
 in the field is always a drawback to a 
 foreign landscape.) The oxen very hand- 
 some. The system of farming same as 
 Scotch, only one new product seen by a 
 Scotch amateur whom we met. Italian 
 rye grass, very fine. The poorer young 
 men cutting hay, all very happy. The 
 workshops, the washing-houses, the out- 
 houses all very perfect, but in implements 
 or machinery nothing new. It was the 
 beauty of the situation on a fine day, and 
 the fulness and apparent comfort, that 
 struck the observer particularly." 
 
 (P 
 
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