582 DILECTA

in the Record Office, whether the second Téméraire was sold ‘all standing,’ that is to say, with masts and yards as painted; but it is very improbable, as she had been a receiving ship, that her masts and yards were in her when she left the service.

“Truly yours,

“W. HALE WHITE.¹

“R. C. LESLIE, ESQ.

“It seems to me a pity, considering the importance of the picture, that the truth about the subject of it should not somewhere be easily accessible to everybody who cares to know it-say upon the picture-frame. I would undertake to put down in tabular form the principal points in the vessel’s biography, if it were thought worth while.”

I should at all events be most grateful if Mr. Hale White would furnish me with such abstract, as, whether used in the National Gallery or not, many people would like to have it put beneath the engraving.²

¹ [For whom, see Vol. XXIX. p. 80.]

² [This abstract was duly supplied by Mr. Hale White in a subsequent letter, which Ruskin put into type but did not include in Dilecta. He sent it to Mr. Cook for use in his Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, where it appeared in an abbreviated form in the notes to the picture (No. 524). Mr. Hale White’s letter is here printed in extenso from a proof found among Ruskin’s papers:-

“PARK HILL, CARSHALTON, SURREY,

“12th December, 1886.

“MY DEAR MR. RUSKIN,-Mr. Leslie tells me you would like a note on the history of the Téméraire, and here it is.

“Please allow me to call your attention to what I have said about her being jury-rigged at the time she was sold. The beakhead peculiarity appears in the original drawing of the vessel exactly as Turner has painted it. If you print what I have sent you, will you kindly let me see a proof, as some of the technical terms are a little unusual, and my writing, as I get older, is not so plain as it used to be?

“With sincerest wishes for your health and happiness, faithfully and affectionately yours,

“W. HALE WHITE.

“JOHN RUSKIN, ESQ.”

“The Téméraire, second rate, ninety-eight guns, was begun at Chatham, July 1793, and launched on the 11th September 1798.

“She was named after an older Téméraire taken by Admiral Boscawen from the French in 1759, and sold in June 1784.

“The Chatham Téméraire was fitted at Plymouth for a prison ship in 1812, and in 1819 she became a receiving ship and was sent to Sheerness. She was sold on the 16th August 1838, to Mr. J. Beatson, for £5530.

“The Téméraire was at the battle of Trafalgar on the 21st October 1805. She was next to the Victory, and followed Nelson into action; commanded by Captain Eliab Harvey, with Thomas Kennedy as first lieutenant. Her main topmast, the

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