Rose and a lady, a friend, visited Turner in a house in Harley Street, in mid-winter, they were entertained with wine and biscuits in a cold room, without a fire, where they saw seven tailless cats, which Turner said were brought from the Isle of Man. [Illustration: FIG. 75.--ILLUSTRATION FROM ROGERS'S POEMS.] For three years Turner travelled in France, and made studies and sketches up and down its rivers. These were first published as "Turner's Annual Tour," but were afterward brought out by Bohn as "Liber Fluviorum." These sketches have been highly praised by Ruskin; but Hammerton, who certainly knows French scenery far more accurately than Ruskin, while praising the exquisite beauty of Turner's work, challenges its accuracy, and especially as to color, saying that "Turner, as a colorist, was splendid and powerful, but utterly unfaithful." Leitch Ritchie, who was associated with Turner in this work, could not travel with him, their tastes were so unlike; and he says that Turner's drawings were marvellously exaggerated, that he would make a splendid picture of a place without a single correct detail, trebling the height of spires and throwing in imaginary accessories. Turner always claimed the right to change the groupings of his landscapes and architecture at will, preferring to give a general and idealized view of the landscape rather than a precise copy thereof. In 1835 he exhibited "Heidelberg Castle in the Olden Time," "Ehrenbreitstein," "Venice from the Salute Church," and "Line-fishing off Hastings." In 1836 he exhibited a "View of Rome from the Aventine Hill," and the "Burning of the House of Lords and Commons," which last was almost entirely painted on the walls of the exhibition. At this time it was the custom to have what were called "varnishing days" at the exhibition, during which time artists retouched, and finished up their pictures. They were periods of fun and practical jokes, and Turner always enjoyed, and made the most of them. He frequently sent his canvas to the Academy merely sketched out and grounded, and then coming in as early as four in the morning on varnishing days, he would put his nose to the sketch and work steadily with thousands of imperceptible touches until nightfall, while his picture would begin to glow as by magic. About this time he exhibited many pictures founded on classical subjects, or with the scenes laid in Italy or Greece, as "Apollo and Daphne in the Vale of Tempe," "Regulus Leaving Rome to Return to Carthage," the "Parting of Hero and Leander," "Phryne Going to the Public Baths as Venus," the "Banishment of Ovid from Rome, with Views of the Bridge and Castle of St. Angelo." A year later he exhibited pictures of "Ancient Rome," a vast dreamy pile of palaces, and "Modern Rome," with a view of the "Forum in Ruins."