Chapter L: E. X. inquires respecting the first work exhibited by the late J. M. W

Turner, R.A. The statement of the newspaper referred to was correct. The first work exhibited by Turner was a water-colour drawing of Lambeth Palace, and afterwards presented by him to a gentleman of this city, long since deceased. It is now in the possession of that gentleman's daughter, an elderly lady, who attaches no little importance to it. The fact is, that Mr. Turner, when young, was a frequent visitor at her father's house, and on such terms that her father lent Mr. Turner a horse to go on a sketching tour through South Wales. This lady has also three or four other drawings made at that time by Turner,--one a view of Stoke Bishop, near Bristol, then the seat of Sir Henry Lippincott, Bart., which he made as a companion to the Lambeth Palace; another is a small portrait of Turner by himself, of course when a youth. As the early indications of so great an artist, these drawings are very curious and interesting; but no person that knows anything of the state of water-colour painting at that period, and previous to the era when Turner, Girtin, and others began to shine out in that new and glorious style, that has since brought water-colour works to their present style of splendour, excellence, and value, will expect anything approaching the perfection of latter days.

J. WALTER, Marine Painter.

28. Trinity Street, Bristol.

Whether or not the work deemed by L. E. X. to be the first exhibited by Turner may have been in water-colours, or be still in existence, I leave to other replicants, availing myself of the occasion to ask him or you, whether in 1787 two works of W. Turner, at Mr. G. Turner's, Walthamstow, "No. 471. Dover Castle," "No. 601. Wanstead House," were not, in fact, his first tilt in that arena of which he was the champion at the hour of his {90} death? Whether in the two following years he appeared at all in the ring; and, if not, why not? although in the succeeding 1790 he again threw down the glaive in the "No. 644. The Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth," being then set down as "_T._ W. Turner;" reappearing in 1791 as "W. Turner, of Maiden Lane, Covent Garden," with "No. 494. King John's Palace, Eltham;" "No. 560. Sweakley, near Uxbridge." In the horizon of art (strange to say, and yet to be explained!) this luminary glows no more till 1808, when he had "on the line" (?) several views of Fonthill, as well as the "Tenth Plague of Egypt," purchased of course by the proprietor of that princely mansion, as it is found mentioned in Warner's _Walks near Bath_ to be that same year adorning the walls of one of the saloons.

J. H. A.

* * * * *

ETYMOLOGICAL TRACES OF THE SOCIAL POSITION OF OUR ANCESTORS.

(Vol. vii., p. 13.)

I was preparing to answer your correspondent E. S. TAYLOR by a reference to the conversation between Gurth and Wamba, _Ivanhoe_, chap. i., when a friend promised to supply me with some additional and fuller information. I copy from a MS. note that he has placed in my hands:

"Nec quidem temerè contigisse puto quod animalia viva nominibus
Germanicæ originis vocemus, quorum tamen carnem in cibum paratam
originis Gallicæ nominibus appellamus; puta,--bovem, vaccam, vitulum,
ovem, porcum, aprum, feram, etc. (an ox, a cow, a calf, a sheep, a hog,
a boar, a deer, &c.); sed carnem bubulam, vitulinam, ovinam, porcinam,
aprugnam, ferinam, etc. (beef, veal, mutton, pork, brawn, venison, &c.)
Sed hinc id ortum putaverim, quod Normanni milites pascuis, caulis,
haris, locisque quibus vivorum animalium cura agebatur, parcius se
immiscuerint[8] (quæ itaque antiqua nomina retinuerunt) quam macellis,
culinis, mensis, epulis, ubi vel parabantur vel habebantur cibi, qui
itaque nova nomina ab illis sunt adepti."--Preface to Dr. Wallis's
_Grammatica Linguæ Anglicanæ_, 1653, quoted by Winning, _Comparative
Philology_, p. 270.