's father died
in 1830 he was succeeded by a withered and sluttish old woman named Danby.
The whole house was dreary, dirty, damp, and full of litter. The master
had a fancy for tailless--Manx--cats, and these made their beds everywhere
without disturbance. In the gallery were thirty thousand fine proofs of
engravings piled up and rotting. His studio had a fair north light from
two windows, and was surrounded by water-color drawings. His sherry-bottle
was kept in an old second-hand buffet.

About 1813 or 1814 Turner purchased a place at Twickenham; he rebuilt the
house, and called it Solus Lodge. The rooms were small, and contained
models of rigged ships which he used in his marine views; in his
jungle-like garden he grew aquatic plants which he often copied in
foregrounds. He kept a boat for fishing and marine sketching; also a gig
and an old cropped-eared horse, with which he made sketching excursions.
He made at this time the acquaintance of Rev. Mr. Trimmer, the rector of
the church at Heston, who was a lover of art, and often took journeys with
Turner. While visiting at the rectory Turner regularly attended church in
proper form; and finally he wrote a note to Mr. Trimmer, alluding to his
affection for one of the rector's kinswomen, and suggesting: "If
Miss ---- would but waive bashfulness, or in other words make
an offer instead of expecting one, the same [Lodge] might change
occupiers." But Turner was doomed to disappointment, and never made
another attempt at matrimony. In 1814 Turner commenced his contributions
of drawings to illustrate "Cook's Southern Coast," and continued this
congenial work for twelve years, making forty drawings at the rate of
about twenty guineas each; the drawings were returned to the artist after
being engraved. In 1815 he exhibited the "Dido Building Carthage," and in
1817 a companion picture, the "Decline of the Carthaginian Empire," and
for these two pictures the artist refused five thousand pounds, having
secretly willed them to the National Gallery.

Ruskin divides Turner's art life into three periods: that of study, from
1800 to 1820; that of working out art theories toward an ideal, from 1820
to 1835; and that of recording his own impressions of nature, from 1835 to
1845, preceded by a period of development, and followed by a period of
decline, from 1845 to 1850. Besides his pictures painted on private
commission, Turner exhibited two hundred and seventy-five pictures at the
Aca