CHAPTER X.

TURNER AS A CORRESPONDENT.

TURNER was notoriously a barred-up man, a man who would come to the threshold of his mind and talk to you perhaps, but would by no means throw open the door and show you in as a welcome guest into the palace; yet on this peculiarity, too, the tireless tongue of envy has been busy, and the fungi stalks of scandal have been used as pillars to support vast edifices of lies. Turner was cheerful and social among friends, loving them and beloved by them. I append here a batch of letters, trifling enough, but valuable, because Turner's letters are scarce. They convey a very fair notion of his epistolary manner in 1844.

"47, Queen Anne-street, Thursday, 18th inst. "DEAR MADAM,-Mr. Jenkins will take the benefit of the Act himself, and will (without asking counsel's opinion thereon) appear before the Court of Brookstreet on Wednesday, the 24th instant, quarter before seven o'clock, and abide by the same.

"I have the honour to be for Mr. Jenkins's case. "J. M. W. TURNER.

"To Mrs. Carrick Moore, 38, Brook-street, Grosvenor-square.”

"DEAR MADAM,-It is very, very, very unlucky for me that although dear Miss Rogers had induced me to hope for your kind invitation, it should be thwarted in any manner, and particularly by me, against my own inclination; but I have received a summons to attend the Council of the Royal Academy at half-past eight on Saturday evening, to consider on a case which friend Jones will tell you more about if you feel inclined to know why I am constrained to defer (I hope only in the present case) your kind and friendly feeling towards me.

"I have the honour to be, dear Madam,

"Yours most truly obliged,

"J. M. W. TURNER.

"To Mrs. Carrick Moore, 1, Saville-row."

66

Wednesday, 20th, 1841. "DEAR MISS MOORE,-I am very sorry to be engaged on the 29th, Friday, and therefore excluded from the happiness of being in Brook-street on that day.

"Very many thanks for the name of the church,* Redentori.

"Yours truly,

"J. M. W. TURNER."

"J. M. W. Turner presents his compliments to Miss Moore, and requests her to make his thanks to Mrs. Moore for the very kind offer of forgiveness to him, which he will avail himself of with very great

* “He had asked me to find the name of the church in Venice which contained three pictures by G. Bellini."-M.

230

AVALANCHE JENKINSON.

pleasure on Sunday next, at a quarter past six

o'clock.

"Feb. 3rd, 1840. 47, Queen Anne-street.

"To Miss H. Moore."

"47, Queen Anne-street, June 16th, 1847.

"MY DEAR MISS MOORE,-Very glad to hear Mr. Moore is quite well again, and hope Mrs. Moore will now be better, being relieved from the anxiety attendant on the illness of Mr. Moore.

"Many thanks for the news of the whereabouts of the Jones's, and his piece of your letter sent me inclosed!!! How we all grumble in search of happiness or benefits for others, yet find home at home.

"Yours truly,

"J. M. W. TURNER."

"47, Queen Anne-street, Dec. 9th, 1841.

"DEAR MADAM,-I am truly sorry in being engaged Tuesday and Wednesday next (out of town), particularly sorry on present occasion of your kind

invitations.

"Most sincerely,

"J. M. W. TURNER. "P.S.-Very low, indeed, for our loss in dear Chantrey.

"Mrs. Carrick Moore, Albemarle-street."

“J. M. W. Turner begs to present his respects to Miss Moore, and begs to say he is sorry an engagement for Christmas Day will prevent him offering his apology and contrition for his misdeeds and errors, regretted the more by him because he cannot but defer expressing his disappointment in person.

"Respects.

"To Miss H. Moore."

"DEAR MISS MOORE,-Charming weather for the arts; they must be fine this weather of uniformity. "Sorry to be likewise engaged on Sunday next, the 10th; best regards to Mr. and Mrs, Moore, yourself, and all the family.

"Yours truly,

"J. M. W. TURNER.

"Miss Moore, 11, Grafton-street, Bond-street."

"Tuesday night.

"DEAR MISS MOORE,-Jones must have pulled a feather from the wing of Time; so with your permission, and Mr. and Mrs. Moore's, I will be selfish, and try to borrow it on Saturday; but if I should be beyond a quarter past six pray ask him for the loan (for me), fearing others are like.

"Yours truly,

"J. M. W. TURNER.

"Miss Moore, 38, Brook-street, Grosvenor-square."

"Mr. Avalanche Jenkinson presents his thanks to Mrs. Moore for the kind invitation to Wonharns, which by some mischance he did not find till this morning, because ''twas not in sight,' and he feels his mishap the greater because the chance becomes the lesser, for the Exhibition closes to-day, the anniversary dinner on Monday, and the Spanish Fleet (alias pictures) will be removed from their present moorings to be scattered east, west, north, and south, like the Armada.

"Therefore Mr. Jenkinson fears he may be driven before the wind with his passport before the end of next week, but he begs to offer his sincere thanks,

though with slender hope of being able to have the pleasure of being at Wonhams until his return from Switzerland. Mr. Jenkinson, with great respect, becoming to all inquiring friends,

"Most sincerely,

"J. M. W. TURNER."

Mrs. Carrick Moore used to call him Mr. Jenkinson, as being a common insignificant name.

These letters, with their pithy brevity and cheerful jokes, are very characteristic of the man.

How drolly he rejoices in the nickname of "Mr. Avalanche Jenkinson," and throws in here and there a clever thought or kind remembrance. "The loss of dear Chantrey" shows how deeply his heart felt the loss of friends; Chantrey the "gay" and "good,” as he calls him in the following letter to his friend Jones, he seems especially to have loved.

I here interpolate a letter of as far back as 1830 (for these letters are too few to be worth arranging chronologically), written to his friend Jones when at Rome. He alludes in it with much feeling to the death of Lawrence and Dawe; to his father's death, too, and to the contingency of his own. He is quite sarcastic on the heartless custom of great people sending their empty carriages to public funerals, and hints at Academy intrigues. The allusion to "yellow," refers to the mustard tone of his later Italian pictures, which Chantrey seems good-naturedly to have joked him about :