The earliest oil painting of Turner’s that Mr. Fawkes bought was the beautiful sea-piece sometimes called _The Pilot Boat_, and sometimes _Red Cap_. This was exhibited, in the “one-man show” Turner held in his studio in 1809, under the title _Shoeburyness Fishermen hailing a Whitstable Hoy_. There is a pen-and-ink sketch of this picture inside the cover of the “Greenwich Sketch-Book” (cII, Turner Bequest), and on the fly-leaf appears the following record of drawings made, or to be made, for Mr. Fawkes:-- “4 Proofs of ‘Liber Studiorum.’ Mill. Sketch. Per Contra 1 Mill. Drawing. C. Draft. 2 Bardon Tower. Feb. 20. £100.” 3 Farnley. 4 Gordale. 5 Rocks. 7 Weathercote. 8 Geneva. 9 Bolton. 10 Thun.” And on page 52 of the same book there occurs the following still longer list:-- “Mill, finished. Mill, sketch. Bardon Tower. Armutic Rock. Farnley. Gordale. *The Strid. Weathercote. *Bolton Abbey, West. Lac de Thun. Lac de Geneve. Ps. V. (_Probably the Swiss waterfall known as the “Pisse Vache."_) *Bonneville. Ingleboro. Bolton. Blair’s Hut. Stourback. (_Evidently the Fall of the Staubbach._) Mt. Blanc. Vevey. Grundelwald. *Brintz.” (_The Lake of Brienz._) * These are among the drawings selected for reproduction in the present publication. These entries were made, I am inclined to think, either in the year 1809 or 1810. It is easy to identify most of the drawings referred to in this list, in spite of Turner’s rather arbitrary spelling. I can, however, find no trace of the drawings described as _Armutic Rock_ and _Gordale_, and I have never seen either the sketch or the finished drawing of the _Mill_. I am not even sure what mill it can have been. It was probably the one at Otley, which stands close to the lodge at the entrance to the Farnley Hall grounds. A _View of Otley Mills, with the River Wharfe and Mill Weir_, said to have been presented by Mr. Fawkes to the family of its owner, was sold at Christie’s in June 1890, and bought by the famous French dealer, M. Sedelmeyer. It was probably this drawing to which Mr. Fawkes refers in the only fragment of a letter in his handwriting which I have been able to discover among the Turner papers in the National Gallery. The body of the letter has been destroyed, but the last two paragraphs and the signature remain. This fragment says:-- “By to-morrow’s coach I shall send you a box containing two pheasants, a brace of partridges, and a hare--which I trust you will receive safe and good. We have tormented the poor animals very much lately and now we must give them a holiday. “Remember the Wharfdales--everybody is delighted with your Mill. I sit for a long time before it every day. “Ever very truly yrs., W. FAWKES.”