[Illustration: CATWATER.]
I have placed in the middle of the series those pictures which I think
least interesting, though the want of interest is owing more to the
monotony of their character than to any real deficiency in their
subjects. If, after contemplating paintings of arid deserts or glowing
sunsets, we had come suddenly upon this breezy entrance to the crowded
cove of Plymouth, it would have gladdened our hearts to purpose; but
having already been at sea for some time, there is little in this
drawing to produce renewal of pleasurable impression: only one useful
thought may be gathered from the very feeling of monotony. At the time
when Turner executed these drawings, his portfolios were full of the
most magnificent subjects--coast and inland,--gathered from all the
noblest scenery of France and Italy. He was ready to realize these
sketches for any one who would have asked it of him, but no consistent
effort was ever made to call forth his powers; and the only means by
which it was thought that the public patronage could be secured for a
work of this kind, was by keeping familiar names before the eye, and
awakening the so-called "patriotic," but in reality narrow and selfish,
associations belonging to well-known towns or watering-places. It is to
be hoped, that when a great landscape painter appears among us again, we
may know better how to employ him, and set him to paint for us things
which are less easily seen, and which are somewhat better worth seeing,
than the mists of the Catwater, or terraces of Margate.