demy. The "Rivers of England" was published in 1824, with sixteen
engravings after Turner; another series contained six illustrations of the
"Ports of England"--second-class cities. In 1826 the "Provincial
Antiquities of Scotland" was published, with thirteen illustrations by
Turner. The same year he sold his house at Twickenham, because, he said,
"Dad" was always working in the garden, and catching abominable colds. In
1827 Turner commenced the "England and Wales" on his own account, and
continued it for eleven years. It consisted of a hundred plates,
illustrating ports, castles, abbeys, cathedrals, palaces, coast views, and
lakes. In 1828 Turner went to Rome by way of Nismes, Avignon, Marseilles,
Nice, and Genoa; and this year painted his "Ulysses Dividing Polyphemus,"
of which Thornbury says: "For color, for life and shade, for composition,
this seems to me to be the most wonderful and admirable of Turner's
realisms." Ruskin calls it his central picture, illustrating his perfect
power.

Of Turner's wonderful versatility, Ruskin says: "There is architecture,
including a large number of formal 'gentlemen's seats;' then lowland
pastoral scenery of every kind, including nearly all farming operations,
plowing, harrowing, hedging and ditching, felling trees, sheep-washing,
and I know not what else; there are all kinds of town life, court-yards of
inns, starting of mail coaches, interiors of shops, house-buildings,
fairs, and elections; then all kinds of inner domestic life, interiors of
rooms, studies of costumes, of still-life and heraldry, including
multitudes of symbolical vignettes; then marine scenery of every kind,
full of local incident--every kind of boat, and the methods of fishing for
particular fish being specifically drawn--round the whole coast of
England; pilchard-fishing at St. Ives, whiting-fishing at Margate, herring
at Loch Fyne, and all kinds of shipping, including studies of every
separate part of the vessels, and many marine battle-pieces; then all
kinds of mountain scenery, some idealized into compositions, others of
definite localities, together with classical compositions; Romes and
Carthages, and such others by the myriad, with mythological, historical,
or allegorical figures; nymphs, monsters, and spectres, heroes and
divinities.... Throughout the whole period with which we are at present
concerned, Turner appears as a man of sympathy absolutely infinite--a
sympathy so all-embracing that I know not