In 1829 Turner

exhibited a fairly large group of 'England and Wales' watercolours in London,

and he did so again in what must have been a dazzling show in 1833, when 67

drawings went on display. In the 'England and Wales' designs almost all aspects

of British scenery and life are depicted, while Turner's unrivalled mastery of the

medium of watercolour is everywhere apparent. And throughout the 1820s and

'30s the painter was frantically busy producing marvellous watercolours for a

host of other engraving projects as well. These included topographical surveys of

the ports, rivers and east coast of England; explorations of the rivers of France

(part of a scheme to survey the rivers of Europe that never got further than

forays along the Seine and the Loire); and illustrations for books of the collected

poetry of Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Samuel Rogers and Thomas Campbell.

Moreover, Turner also found the time to produce illustrations for Scott's collected

prose works, and to depict the landscapes of the Bible. Although he had never

visited the Holy Land, he elaborated these works from sketches made by

travellers who had. Well might he have complained, as he had done in the mid-

1820s, that there was 'no holiday ever for me'.