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what I had paid for it, besides advising him duly of the fact, curiously marks the intimate confidence between us: but alas, my respect for his judgment was at this time by these littlenesses gradually diminished; and my confidence in my own painfully manifested to him a very little while after he had permitted me the above stated measure of independence. The Turner drawings hitherto bought,- “Richmond,” “Gosport,” “Winchelsea,”-were all supplied by Mr. Griffith, an agent in whom Turner had perfect confidence, and my father none.¹ Both were fatally wrong. Had Turner dealt straight with my father, there is no saying how much happiness might have come of it for all three of us; had my father not been always afraid of being taken in my Mr. Griffith, he might at that time have bought some of the loveliest drawings that Turner ever made, at entirely fair prices. But Mr. Griffith’s art-salesmanship entirely offended my father from the first, and the best drawings were always let pass, because Mr.Griffith recommended them, while “Winchelsea” and “Gosport” were both bought-among other reasons-because Mr. Griffith said they were not drawings which we ought to have!

15. Among those of purest quality in his folios at this time was one I especially coveted, the “Harlech.”² There had been a good deal of dealers’ yea and nay about it, whether it was for sale or not; it was a smaller drawing than most of the England and Wales series, and there were many hints in the market about its being iniquitous in price. The private view day of the Old Water Colour came; and, arm in arm with my father, I met Mr. Griffith in the crowd. After the proper five minutes of how we liked the exhibition, he turned specially to me. “I have some good news for you; the Harlech is really for sale.” “I’ll take it then,” I replied, without so much as a glance at my father, and without asking the price. Smiling a little ironically, Mr. Griffith went on, “And-seventy,”-

¹ [For Mr. Griffith, see again, below, p. 305; and Vol. XIII. pp. 477 seq.]

² [The drawing was afterwards sold by Ruskin: see Vol. XIII. p. 601.]

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