[Illustration: SIDMOUTH.]
This drawing has always been interesting to me among Turner's sea
pieces, on account of the noble gathering together of the great wave on
the left,--the back of a breaker, just heaving itself up, and provoking
itself into passion, before its leap and roar against the beach. But the
enjoyment of these designs is much interfered with by their monotony: it
is seriously to be regretted that in all but one the view is taken from
the sea; for the spectator is necessarily tired by the perpetual rush
and sparkle of water, and ceases to be impressed by it. It would be
felt, if this plate were seen alone, that there are few marine paintings
in which the weight and heaping of the sea are given so faithfully.
For the rest it is perhaps more to be regretted that we are kept to our
sea-level at Sidmouth than at any other of the localities illustrated.
What claim the pretty little village has to be considered as a port of
England, I know not; but if it was to be so ranked, a far more
interesting study of it might have been made from the heights above the
town, whence the ranges of dark-red sandstone cliffs stretching to the
southwest are singularly bold and varied. The detached fragment of
sandstone which forms the principal object in Turner's view has long ago
fallen, and even while it stood could hardly have been worth the honor
of so careful illustration.