The harbours of England . ance of the other,and the town, of course, becomes a moreimportant object. The persistence in one conception fur-nishes evidence of the very highest imagina-tive power. On a common mind, what ithas seen is so feebly impressed, that it mixesother ideas with it immediately; forgets it II. — RAMSGATE *] \ —modifies it—adorns it,—does anything butkeep hold of it. But when Turner had onceseen that stormy hour at Ramsgate harbour-mouth, he never quitted his grasp of it. Hehad seen the two vessels; one go in, theother out. He could have only seen them atthat one moment—from
The harbours of England . ance of the other,and the town, of course, becomes a moreimportant object. The persistence in one conception fur-nishes evidence of the very highest imagina-tive power. On a common mind, what ithas seen is so feebly impressed, that it mixesother ideas with it immediately; forgets it II. — RAMSGATE *] \ —modifies it—adorns it,—does anything butkeep hold of it. But when Turner had onceseen that stormy hour at Ramsgate harbour-mouth, he never quitted his grasp of it. Hehad seen the two vessels; one go in, theother out. He could have only seen them atthat one moment—from one point; but theimpression on his imagination is so strong,that he is able to handle it three years after-wards, as if it were a real thing, and turn itround on the table of his brain, and look atit from the other corner. He will see thebrig near, instead of far off: set the wholesea and sky so many points round to thesouth, and see how they look, so. I nevertraced power of this kind in any other man. PLYMOUTH. III.—PLYMOUTH The drawing for this plate is one of Turnersmost remarkable, though not most meritorious,works : it contains the brightest rainbow heever painted, to my knowledge ; not thebest, but the most dazzling. It has beenmuch modified in the plate. It is very likeone of Turners pieces of caprice to introducea rainbow at all as a principal feature in sucha scene; for it is not through the coloursof the iris that we generally expect to beshown eighteen-pounder batteries and ninety-gun ships. Whether he meant the dark cloud (in-tensely dark blue in the original drawing),with the sunshine pursuing it back into dis-tance ; and the rainbow, with its base set ona ship of battle, to be together types of warand peace, and of the one as the foundation J 6 THE HARBOURS OF ENGLAND of the other, I leave it to the reader to de-cide. My own impression is, that althoughTurner might have some askance symbolismin his mind, the present design is, like theformer one, in m
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