222 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



healthy, that they do not seem ever to have 

 had any difficulties to contend with. Never- 

 theless, what Hamerton says of him is entirely 

 justified by reference to his work itself. His 

 trees are conventional, but they are handsome, 

 massy, full of the sense of shadiness, and they 

 make us feel how much more beautiful the 

 world is because there are trees in it. 



No greater compliment was ever paid to 

 Claude than when Turner bequeathed two 

 pictures to the nation on condition that they 

 should hang side by side with two of Claude's 

 pictures in the National Gallery. Turner was 

 not the man to be proud of beating one who 

 was not worth beating ; and he has not beaten 

 Claude in every particular. There are purely 

 artistic qualities in Claude's work — qualities, 

 that is, apart from truthfulness of representation 

 — from which Turner learned much, and in 

 which he by no means always outshone his 

 predecessor. And for these qualities, such as 

 grace, suavity, and beauty of composition, 

 Claude has been, and doubtless always will be, 

 an exemplar from whom the greatest need not 

 be ashamed to learn. His influence has been 

 conspicuously great in modern English and 



