floated a
boat quite rightly; all other boats stand on the water, or are fastened
in it; only his _float_ in it. It is very difficult to trace the reasons
of this, for the rightness of the placing on the water depends on such
subtle curves and shadows in the floating object and its reflection,
that in most cases the question of entirely right or entirely wrong
resolves itself into the "estimation of an hair": and what makes the
matter more difficult still, is, that sometimes we may see a boat drawn
with the most studied correctness in every part, which yet will not
swim; and sometimes we may find one drawn with many easily ascertainable
errors, which yet swims well enough; so that the drawing of boats is
something like the building of them, one may set off their lines by the
most authentic rules, and yet never be sure they will sail well. It is,
however, to be observed that Turner seemed, in those southern coast
storms, to have been somewhat too strongly impressed by the
disappearance of smaller crafts in surf, and was wont afterwards to give
an uncomfortable aspect even to his gentlest seas, by burying his boats
too deeply. When he erred, in this or other matters, it was not from
want of pains, for of all accessories to landscape, ships were
throughout his life those which he studied with the greatest care. His
figures, whatever their merit or demerit, are certainly never the
beloved part of his work; and though the architecture was in his early
drawings careful, and continued to be so down to the Hakewell's Italy
series, it soon became mannered and false whenever it was principal. He
would indeed draw a ruined tower, or a distant town, incomparably better
than any one else, and a staircase or a bit of balustrade very
carefully; but his temples and cathedrals showed great ignorance of
detail, and want of understanding of their character. But I am aware of
no painting from the beginning of his life to 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. Take for instance:

1. Lord Yarborough's Shipwreck.
2. The Trafalgar, at Greenwich Hospital.
3. The Trafalgar, in his own gallery.
4. The Pas de Calais.
5. The Large Cologne.
6. The Havre.
7. The Old Temeraire.

I know no fourteen pictures by Turner for which the