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country. Great master as he was, and great as he would almost certainly have been in any surrounding, he owed unquestionably the full training of his powers of expression to the large experience of nature in all her moods which came to him as a result of ceaseless observation of the atmosphere of his native land.

The same can be said of Cox, of De Wint, Copley Fielding, Cotman, and of all the other painters who helped to raise water-colour landscape to its great position as an essentially British phase of artistic achievement. Cox's open-air notes with their tender breezy skies, and gleams of sunlight, De Wint's broad, serene, and dignified studies with their large massing of tones, Fielding's luminous landscapes and sea-pieces full of movement reflect absolutely the impressions made by local characteristics upon temperaments sensitive and responsive. In all this work there is a revelation of personal views about the ways in which nature can be interpreted which is exceedingly instructive, and there is also plainly expressed an intention to assert these views with a sincere