Rogers's
"Poems" (Fig. 75), and seventeen for an extended edition of Byron. He was
in the habit at this time of frequently walking to Cowley Hall, the
residence of a Mr. Rose, where he was kindly welcomed. He was there called
"Old Pogey." One day Mrs. Rose asked him to paint her favorite spaniel; in
amazement he cried, "My dear madam, you do not know what you ask;" and
always after this the lady went by the title of "My dear madam." Mr. Rose
tells how he and Turner sat up one night until two o'clock drinking cognac
and water, and talking of their travels. When Mrs. Rose and a lady, a
friend, visited Turner in a house in Harley Street, in mid-winter, they
were entertained with wine and biscuits in a cold room, without a fire,
where they saw seven tailless cats, which Turner said were brought from
the Isle of Man.

[Illustration: FIG. 75.--ILLUSTRATION FROM ROGERS'S POEMS.]

For three years Turner travelled in France, and made studies and sketches
up and down its rivers. These were first published as "Turner's Annual
Tour," but were afterward brought out by Bohn as "Liber Fluviorum." These
sketches have been highly praised by Ruskin; but Hammerton, who certainly
knows French scenery far more accurately than Ruskin, while praising the
exquisite beauty of Turner's work, challenges its accuracy, and especially
as to color, saying that "Turner, as a colorist, was splendid and
powerful, but utterly unfaithful." Leitch Ritchie, who was associated with
Turner in this work, could not travel with him, their tastes were so
unlike; and he says that Turner's drawings were marvellously exaggerated,
that he would make a splendid picture of a place without a single correct
detail, trebling the height of spires and throwing in imaginary
accessories. Turner always claimed the right to change the groupings of
his landscapes and architecture at will, preferring to give a general and
idealized view of the landscape rather than a precise copy thereof.

In 1835 he exhibited "Heidelberg Castle in the Olden Time,"
"Ehrenbreitstein," "Venice from the Salute Church," and "Line-fishing off
Hastings." In 1836 he exhibited a "View of Rome from the Aventine Hill,"
and the "Burning of the House of Lords and Commons," which last was almost
entirely painted on the walls of the exhibition. At this time it was the
custom to have what were called "varnishing days" at the exhibition,
during which time artists retouched, and finished up their pictures. They