According to George Allen: '"One day," said Ruskin," Turner came to me with a bundle in a dirty piece of brown paper under his arm. It contained the whole of his drawings for the Rivers of France. 'You shall have the whole series, John,' said he, 'unbroken, for twenty-five guineas apiece.' And my father actually thought I was mad to want them!"' Some years later (11 February 1857) Ruskin paid £1000 for seventeen of the Loire drawings, which he eventually presented to Oxford ( Works, 13.li). (See also Ruskin's purchase of the Rouen watercolour.)