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The Life of John Ruskin by W. G. Collingwood The Life of John Ruskin by W. G. Collingwood THE LIFE OF JOHN RUSKIN by W. G. COLLINGWOOD M.A., F.S.A., Late Professor of Fine Art, University College, Reading 1911 PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION This book in its first form was written nearly twenty years ago with the intention of contributing a volume to a series of University Extension Manuals. For that purpose it included a sketch of Ruskin's "Work," with some attempt to describe the continuous development of his thought. It had the advantage--and the disadvantage--of being written under his eye; that is to say, he saw as much of it as his health allowed; and it received his general approval. page 1 / 392 To explain my venturing upon the subject at all, I may perhaps be allowed to state that I became his pupil in 1872 (having seen him earlier), and continued to be in some relation to him--as visitor, resident assistant, or near neighbour--until his death. After his death the biographical part of my book was enlarged at the expense of the description of his writings; and in revising once more I have thrown out much relating to his works, chiefly because they are now accessible as they were not formerly. W.G.C. CONISTON, May 1911 CONTENTS BOOK I THE BOY POET (1819-1842) CHAPTER I. HIS ANCESTORS II. THE FATHER OF THE MAN (1819-1825) page 2 / 392 III. PERFERVIDUM INGENIUM (1826-1830) IV. MOUNTAIN-WORSHIP (1830-1835) V. THE GERM OF "MODERN PAINTERS" (1836) VI. A LOVE-STORY (1836-1839) VII. "KATA PHUSIN" (1837-1838) VIII. SIR ROGER NEWDIGATE'S PRIZE (1837-1839) IX. "THE BROKEN CHAIN" (1840-1841) X. THE GRADUATE OF OXFORD (1841-1842) BOOK II THE ART CRITIC (1842-1860) I. "TURNER AND THE ANCIENTS" (1842-1844) II. CHRISTIAN ART (1845-1847) III. "THE SEVEN LAMPS" (1847-1849) IV. "STONES OF VENICE" (1849-1851) V. PRE-RAPHAELITISM (1851-1853) VI. THE EDINBURGH LECTURES (1853-1854) VII. THE WORKING MEN'S COLLEGE (1854-1855) VIII. "MODERN PAINTERS" CONTINUED (1855-1856) IX. "THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART" (1857-1858) X. "MODERN PAINTERS" CONCLUDED (1858-1860) BOOK III page 3 / 392 HERMIT AND HERETIC (1860-1870) CHAPTER I. "UNTO THIS LAST" (1860-1861) II. "MUNERA PULVERIS" (1862) III. THE LIMESTONE ALPS (1863) IV. "SESAME AND LILIES" (1864) V. "ETHICS OF THE DUST" (1865) VI. "THE CROWN OF WILD OLIVE" (1865-1866) VII. "TIME AND TIDE" (1867) VIII. AGATES, AND ABBEVILLE (1868) IX. "THE QUEEN OF THE AIR" (1869) X. VERONA AND OXFORD (1869-1870) BOOK IV PROFESSOR AND PROPHET (1870-1900) I. FIRST OXFORD LECTURES (1870-1871) II. "FORS" BEGUN (1871-1872) III. OXFORD TEACHING (1872-1875) IV. ST. GEORGE AND ST. MARK (1875-1877) V. "DEUCALION" AND "PROSERPINA" (1877-1879) page 4 / 392 VI. THE DIVERSIONS OF BRANTWOOD (1879-1881) VII. "FORS" RESUMED (1880-1881) VIII. THE RECALL TO OXFORD (1882-1883) IX. THE STORM-CLOUD (1884-1888) X. DATUR HORA QUIETI (1889-1900) THE LIFE OF JOHN RUSKIN BOOK I THE BOY POET (1819-1842) THE LIFE OF JOHN RUSKIN CHAPTER I HIS ANCESTORS If origin, if early training and habits of life, if tastes, and character, and associations, fix a man's nationality, then John Ruskin must be reckoned a Scotsman. He was born in London, but his family was from Scotland. He was brought up in England, but the friends and teachers, the standards and influences of his early life, were chiefly Scottish. The writers who directed him into the main lines of his page 5 / 392 thought and work were Scotsmen--from Sir Walter and Lord Lindsay and Principal Forbes to the master of his later studies of men and the means of life, Thomas Carlyle. The religious instinct so conspicuous in him was a heritage from Scotland; thence the combination of shrewd common-sense and romantic sentiment; the oscillation between levity and dignity, from caustic jest to tender earnest; the restlessness, the fervour, the impetuosity--all these are the tokens of a Scotsman of parts, and were highly developed in John Ruskin. In the days of auld lang syne the Rhynns of Galloway--that hammer-headed promontory of Scotland which looks towards Belfast Lough--was the home of two great families, the Agnews and the Adairs. The Agnews, of Norman race, occupied the northern half, centring about their island-fortress of Lochnaw, where they became celebrated for a long line of hereditary sheriffs and baronets who have played no inconsiderable part in public affairs. The southern half, from Portpatrick to the Mull of Galloway, was held by the Adairs (or, as formerly spelt, Edzears) who took their name from Edgar, son of Dovenald, one of the two Galloway leaders at the Battle of the Standard. Three hundred years later Robert Edzear--who does not know his descendant and namesake, Robin Adair?--settled at Gainoch, near the head of Luce Bay; and for another space of 300 years his children kept the same estate, in spite of private feud, and civil war, and religious persecution, of which they had more than their share. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, John Adair, the laird of Little Genoch, was married to Mary Agnew, a near kinswoman of the page 6 / 392 celebrated Sir Andrew, colonel of the Scots Fusiliers at Dettingen. The exact relationship of Mary Agnew to "the bravest man in the British army" remains undecided, but letters still extant from the Lady Agnew of the day address her as "Dear Molly," and end, "Your affectionate cousin" or "kinswoman." Her son Thomas succeeded his father in 1721, and, retiring with his captaincy, settled on the estate. He married Jean, daughter of Andrew Ross of Balsarroch and Balkail, a lady noted for her beauty, her wit, and her Latin scholarship, and a member of a family which has given many distinguished men to the army and navy. Among them Admiral Sir John Ross, the Arctic explorer, Sir Hew Dalrymple, and Field-Marshal Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross, were all her great-nephews, and her son, Dr. John Adair, was the man in whose arms Wolfe died at the taking of Quebec; it is he who is shown in Benjamin West's picture supporting the General. Dr. Adair's sister Catherine, the daughter of Thomas Adair and Jean Ross, married the Rev. James Tweddale, minister of Glenluce from 1758 to 1778, representative of an old Covenanting family, and holder of the original Covenant, which had been confided to the care of his great-aunt Catherine by Baillie of Jarviswood on his way to execution in the "killing time." The document was sold with his library at his death, his children being then under age, and is now in the Glasgow Museum. One of these children, Catherine, married a John Ruskin. The origin of the name of Ruskin is English, dating from the middle ages. Soon after the dissolution of Furness Abbey, Richerde Ruskyn and his family were land-owners at Dalton-in-Furness. One branch, and that page 7 / 392 with which we are especially concerned, settled in Edinburgh. John Ruskin--our subject's grandfather--when he ran away with Catherine Tweddale in 1781, was a handsome lad of twenty. His portrait as a child proves his looks, and he evidently had some charm of character or promise of power, for the escapade did not lose him the friendship of the lady's family. Major Ross, her uncle and guardian, remained a good friend to the young couple. She herself was only sixteen at her marriage--a bright and animated brunette, as her miniature shows, in later years ripening to a woman of uncommon strength, with old-fashioned piety of a robust, practical type, and a spirit which the trials of her after-life--and they were many--could not subdue. Her husband set up in the wine trade in Edinburgh. For many years they lived in the Old Town, then a respectable neighbourhood, among a cultivated and well-bred society, in which they moved as equals, entertaining, with others, such a man as Dr. Thomas Brown, the professor of philosophy, a great light in his own day, and still conspicuous in the constellation of Scotch metaphysicians. JOHN ADAIR, = MARY, cousin of Sir Andrew Agnew, of Lochnaw, of Little Genoch. | hereditary Sheriff of Wigtownshire. | | Capt. Thomas Adair, = Jean Ross, of Balsarroch, great-aunt of Sir of Little Genoch. | John Ross, the Arctic explorer, | of Sir Hew Dalrymple, and of Sir | Hew Dalrymple Ross. page 8 / 392 | +-----------------------+============+ | | | | Rev. = Isobel Dr. Mrs. Cath. = Rev. John Andrew McDouall, Adair, Maitland Adair | James Ruskin Adair, of of grand- | Twaddle, (1732- Minister Logan Quebec mother | of 1780) of and of | Glen- | Whithorn London J.E. | luce | Maitland | | of | | Kenmure | | Castle | | | | +---------+=======+ +==========+--------------+ | | | | | Cath. = James Cath. = John Margt. = Capt. Other Mactaggart | Tweddale, Tweddale| Ruskin Ruskin | Cox issue (aunt of | of (1765- | of (b. 1756)| of Sir John | Glen- 181[?]) | Edinburgh | Yarmouth Joseph Mactaggart, | laggan | (1761- | (1757- Severn Bart., M.P., | | 1812[?]) | 1789[?]) of of | | | Rome Ardwell) | | | | | | | +-+ +----+ +----+==+ +====+---+ | | | | | | | | George = Cath. | Peter = Jessie J.J. = Margaret Bridget= Mr. page 9 / 392 | Agnew, |Tweddale| Richard- | Ruskin Ruskin, | Cox Cox |Richard- | hered- | | son, | of | (1781- | son | itary | +----+ of | Billiter | 1871) | of | Sheriff- | | Bridgend,| Street | | Market | clerk | Other Perth | and | | Street, | of | isssue | Denmark | | Croydon | Wigtown | | Hill | | | | | (1785- | | | | | 1864) | | | | | | | | | | | | +-+------+ +-------+------+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+ | +-+++-+-+-+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Other Arthur = Joan Other James John John (d. issue Severn, | Ruskin issue (d. young), Ruskin in R.I., | Agnew John, of (b. 1819) Australia), of | Glasgow, William Hearne | William, M.D., George (of Hill | (Tunbridge Croydon) | Wells), Charles +-+-+++-+ Andrew (d.