the benefit of decayed painters,' and the property destined to provide for this grand scheme of benevolence has, thanks to his self-denying habits, increased so largely, that he is believed to have left behind him upwards of £100,000 devoted to this object. His property has been sworn under £140,000, but is likely to prove much larger, and should it escape the depleting effects of a Chancery suit, will afford abundant funds for the realisation of his long-cherished project. Unfortunately, to save a little expense, Mr. Turner was his own will-maker, and, as a very natural consequence, his intentions are so obscurely indicated that no one but the Lord Chancellor seems likely to unravel them. It contains several conflicting codicils, written at considerable intervals, and is in some respects irregular and informal. We have been assured, however, that its oversights and contradictions are not of a kind to prove fatal to the wishes of the testator.

In 1807 Turner was appointed Professor of Perspective to the Royal Academy, and no painter could have been selected for the office whose works bore testimony to a more perfect practical knowledge of the subject. He had

'The only land, however, which now stands in the name of Mr. Turner, at Twickenham, is about three quarters of an acre on the fourth road side of the Common, which he bought at the time the Richmond and Twickenham Railroad was forming. He had previously held about half an acre (bought in 1818) at the foot of the railway bridge which crosses from Richmond, and was called upon to sell it to the Company. When the usual notice was served upon him he was much puzzled what to do, and addressed himself to Mr. John Williams, the Duke of Northumberland's land steward. This gentleman exerted himself so effectually that he obtained, to the astonishment of Mr. Turner, who had not the remotest idea of the Railway value of land, £550 for it. "But," said Mr. Turner, after recovering from his surprise, "the expenses will, I suppose, swallow up a considerable part of it." "Not a shilling," said Mr. Williams, "beyond a small fee to the surveyor; the Company pay all the rest." He expressed himself highly satisfied, muttered a few thanks, and parted without any further recognition of the service.

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displayed the power of aerial perspective on his canvass with a degree of truth almost magical. He could exhibit in his pictures any extent of distance accessible to the naked eye; but unhappily he had not acquired the art of conveying his knowledge in any other way than by his pencil. The defects of his early education rendered the difficulty of orally expounding his principles insurmountable, and after a short time he appears to have abandoned the attempt. Although he retained the office of Professor of Perspective until 1837, nearly thirty years, he lectured only during two or three, which caused some dissatisfaction. The various stories which are intended to illustrate the exclusiveness of our great painter in making a strict secret of any discoveries he may have made in the preparation or application of his colours, or the legerdemain by which he produced certain effects of light and shade, which really seemed to have been called into existence by enchantment, are in a great degree disproved by facts that are within the personal knowledge of all his contemporaries of the Royal Academy. A portion of each of his exhibited pictures is known to have been painted on the days appointed for retouching and varnishing, and on such occasions his brother artists had abundant opportunities of acquainting themselves with the secrets of his practical operations. He could not, at such times, at least, have concealed the character of the colours on his palette, or his mode of applying them.

In 1808 Mr. Turner added a country house, at the end of the Upper Mall, Hammersmith, to his town residence; and in 1812 he removed from Harley Street to 47, Queen Anne Street, West. Two years afterwards he left Hammersmith for a villa at Twickenham, which he first called Solus Lodge, but soon altered to the more euphonious designation of Sandycombe Lodge.' Of this villa an en

Sandycombe Lodge, which stands on between two and three acres of

graving, by the elder Cooke, was published in 1814, (in his 'Thames Scenery,') from a sketch by Havell. Turner seldom visited Twickenham after 1826, (when he sold Sandycombe to Mr. Todd,) but that he retained his affection for it is evident by his will, which directs his proposed houses for decayed artists to be built in this beautiful locality.

He retained his residence in Queen Anne Street until the day of his death: it is situated on the South side of the street, and has for many years past borne all the exterior signs of a house in Chancery. It seems doubtful if its windows have been cleaned, or its doors painted, for more than twenty years. Such was the monomania of the painter that he permitted much of the valuable property it contained to be irreparably injured, and some to be altogether destroyed, rather than incur the expense of an occasional fire. An old porter and an older female domestic, who had been in the service of his father, and whose habits ground at the north-east corner of the gardens of North End House, the residence of the present publisher, was built by or for Mr. Turner, and was inhabited by him in the summer for several years between 1810 and 1826. He bought the land in 1807, with a small cottage on it, which he converted into the present pretty villa, and was, it is said, his own architect. It is reported that he built it on the model of some nobleman's fishing lodge. Mr. Turner is still very well recollected, by more than one septuagenarian neighbour, as a parsimonious recluse, fond of fishing, who was nicknamed Blackbirdy by the boys, from his chasing them away from the blackbird's nests which were plentiful in his garden. It is said that he parted with the house because favoured with more visits than comported with his economy, from brother artists who had discovered his pleasant retreat, and too often made him part of their Richmond excursions. The house and grounds are now the property of G. Barber Beaumont, Esq. While resident here, Turner kept a pony, which he used to drive on his sketching excursions, and which, in his own words, "would climb a hill like a cat and never get tired." He was much attached to it; but there seems to have been little return of affection, as the restive creature was always at issue with him. Once, when the pony was ill, Turner prescribed for him himself, having a great objection to farriers' bills. In struggling one night to free himself from his toils, for he had to be fastened up with chains, he got strangled. Turner grieved over him sincerely, and gave him decent burial in his garden.

were almost as economical as those of their master, were the sole occupants of the house during the long absences of the painter.

Mr. Turner's conduct to his father has been much misrepresented. No sooner had the son achieved the honours of the Academy than he shut up the shop in Maiden Lane, and took the old man to his own home, where he treated him invariably with kindness and respect.

Anecdotes have been long current of the elder Turner having acted as porter to his son, and received the gratuities of visitors; and we have even heard artists affirm that they have often dropped a shilling into his extended palm within the last twenty years. Such stories are wholly destitute of foundation, and must have originated in misconception, as the elder Turner died in 1830,1 and never, we have reason to believe, acted in the capacity here referred to. But as the old man was quite as economical as his son, he would always, when possible, spare the outlay of a shilling by fetching and carrying parcels, especially books.

During the forty-nine years that Mr. Turner was a member of the Royal Academy, he was absent only on four occasions from its walls, namely in 1815, 1821, 1824, and 1851.

The prices of his pictures, during a large portion of the best period of his career, were exceedingly moderate. Up to 1815 they ranged from 100 to 300 guineas. Lord de Tabley paid him the last-mentioned sum for "The Wreck,'

'He lies buried in one of the vaults of St. Paul, Covent Garden, and a neat marble tablet with the following inscription is placed within the church, on the south wall:

"In the vault beneath, and near this place, are deposited the remains of William Turner, an inhabitant of this parish, who died Sept. 21, 1830. To his memory, and his wife Mary Ann, their son J. M. W. Turner, R.A., has placed this tablet, August 1832."

engraved by Charles Turner, but the commercial value of that picture now exceeds four times that sum.

For his drawings for the ceived, at so late a date as

England and Wales,' he re1825, only 25 guineas, (and

thirty proofs.) Yet these drawings have since fetched

prices varying from 80 to 150 guineas each.

Flint Castle,' for example, was lately sold by Messrs. Christie and Manson, by public auction, for £125. For his small bookvignettes he received from 12 to 20 guineas.

His reluctance to part with his pictures is notorious. It was next to impossible for publishers to purchase from him, direct, any of his more important works. In 1825, the writer accompanied the late Mr. J. O. Robinson, of the firm of Hurst, Robinson and Co., to his house, by appointment, to look at a picture which had been recommended by Mr. John Pye for engraving as a companion to the "Temple of Jupiter,' purchased by that firm for 500 guineas, and splendidly engraved by Mr. Pye. But although 750 guineas was the sum Mr. Turner had himself named for this picture (his Carthage') only a few days before, he had in the interim increased his demand to 1000 guineas. Mr. Robinson objected that he could not consent to so large an increase of price, without obtaining the sanction of his partners; but before they had had time to make up their minds, Mr. Turner sent them a verbal message, declining to dispose of it at all: he considered it, he said, his chef d'œuvre.1

In the picture market and at auctions the prices of Turner's pictures never underwent the fluctuations common to those of contemporary painters; but this was not altogether owing to their acknowledged excellence. Many of the

For this picture Turner afterwards refused 5000 guineas, offered for it by a party of gentlemen who were anxious to purchase it for the purpose of presenting it to the National Gallery.