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 Library 
 
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 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013542489 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
"Veritas temporis Jilia 
 
JOHN RUSKIN 
 
 Plate I 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 WITH A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 WILLIAM WARD :: BY WILLIAM C. WARD 
 
 AND AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 ALFRED MANSFIELD BROOKS 
 
 MARSHALL JONES COMPANY 
 BOSTON :: MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 ^<v 
 
COPYRIGHT • 1922 • BY 
 MARSHALL JONES COMPANY 
 
 f\ S^'5-\^V 
 
 MADE IN THE U'S- A 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PLATE PAGE 
 
 I John Ruskin Frontispiece 
 
 II William Ward Facing i8 
 
 III Section of letter dated May 28, 1858 . . 60 
 
 IV Section of letter dated May 28, 1858 . . 60 
 
 V Shell by William Ward 74 
 
 VI Section of letter dated February 6, 1863. 76 
 
 VII Letter dated February 15, 1863 78 
 
 VIII Letter dated March 23, 1863 80 
 
 IX Section of letter dated August 15, 1867 88 
 
 X Letter dated December 3, 1869 102 
 
 XI Letter dated December 18, 1869 104 
 
 XII Section of letter dated July 30, 1871. . 108 
 
 XIII Letter dated February 14, 1872 112 
 
 XIV Section of letter dated January 20, 1874 122 
 XV Section of letter dated November 2, 1875 130 
 
 XVI Section of letter dated February 26, 1877 136 
 
 XVII Letter dated August 2, 1877 138 
 
 XVIII Section of letter dated November 24, 1880 154 
 
 XIX Section of letter dated January i, 1881 . 156 
 
 XX Letter dated January 8, 1881 158 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE published letters of famous men are too 
 often only those written to other famous 
 men; too often about what are called the impor- 
 tant questions of the day. That John Ruskin's 
 letters of this kind mount into many volumes is 
 good. But it is not the whole good. Again and 
 again in letters to men like Carlyle and Norton 
 he touches with gentleness amounting to affec- 
 tion, with satire amounting to savageness, upon 
 political and economic questions, or questions of 
 art. Many a time will one who is familiar with 
 The Stones of Venice, Modern Painters, The 
 Seven Lamps of Architecture, with Fors Clavi- 
 gera, or Praeterita, hark back to such an epistolary 
 sketch knocked off in a moment of love or wrath, 
 which was later developed into one of his great 
 passages — page or chapter. The reward, in terms 
 of deeper understanding, which this brings is close 
 kin to the reward which waits upon the discovery 
 of the connection between a painter's sketch, his 
 
 [7] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 slightest pencil note even, and his finished picture. 
 Often it is the golden and only key to the gate of 
 appreciation. This Goethe made passing plain 
 when he said to Eckerman that drawings are in- 
 valuable because they give, in its purity, the men- 
 tal intention of the artist — the mood of his mind 
 at the moment of creation. 
 
 It is not in letters to famous men only that Rus- 
 kin does this thing. It could not be so with a man 
 whose temper was such as to convince him that 
 "the peace of God rested on all the kindly hearts 
 of the laborious poor; and that the only constant 
 form of pure religion was in useful work, faithful 
 love, and stintless charity." To numberless men 
 who were the utmost remove from famous he 
 wrote letters, hundreds of them, every word a 
 burning witness to the faith which his life kept 
 with this, his creed. Such are these letters to 
 William Ward, now for the first time published, 
 though some of them were printed for private 
 circulation in 1893. The impression, however, 
 was limited to a few copies only. 
 
 Who William Ward was, and how his acquaint- 
 ance with Ruskin came about, and how it ripened 
 into an enduring friendship, is told in the memoir 
 by his son, William C. Ward. If it takes two to 
 
 [8] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 quarrel, surely it takes two to be friends. The 
 pity is we have not Ward's letters to Ruskin, for 
 then we should have the beautiful story of that 
 sort of friendship, "peculiar boon of heaven," 
 which is frequently implied, but nowhere more 
 strongly than in a postscript in which Ruskin 
 says, "Always write to me when it does you good, 
 as it does me good, too." Forgetful of any bal- 
 ance; to give and take only! Two human beings 
 seeking, solely, each other's good, "in useful work, 
 faithful love and stintless charity." That is the 
 legend on the shield of this blessed relation; one 
 side of which, Ruskin's, we happily can know in 
 full; the other side of which, Ward's, we may 
 conceive of in such degree as we ourselves have 
 plumbed the deeps of friendship; have the right 
 to bear its shield. 
 
 In his writing upon art, Ruskin many times 
 points out how the best pictures are composed pri- 
 marily of two main areas; one, light; the other, 
 shade: and how the light finds its way into the 
 darkness, even to the point of seeming impene- 
 trability. So it was with his life and interests. 
 His interest in the beauty of nature, and of all 
 such art as is true to her, constituted his area of 
 light ; misery of human kind, the dark. The con- 
 
 [9] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 stant struggle to justify the ways of God, coupled 
 with his adoration for whatsoever things are pure, 
 true and lovely, made him and kept him pro- 
 foundly religious, though he could never commit 
 himself to any specific theological confines; less 
 and less so as his years lengthened towards eighty. 
 Midway upon the journey of his life, with Unto 
 This Last, the cleavage between the two areas 
 makes itself clear and the picture passes to the 
 shadow. Before this his dominating interests had 
 been those of Modern Painters, Stones of Venice 
 and The Seven Lamps. Now they were those of 
 Time and Tide, and Fors Clavigera; social prob- 
 lems and the alleviation of suffering. But he fails 
 utterly to understand this remarkable man who 
 fails to see how his dark area was penetrated by 
 innumerable rays of light, as the darkness of a fine 
 Rembrandt is; lit up by a consuming ardor for 
 natural beauty and its counterpart in every form 
 of art: ardor typified at the age of three and a 
 half years, when he asked to have the background 
 of his portrait painted with "blue hills." 
 
 Now this man, artist, critic, economic theorist, 
 social reformer and philanthropist, realized per- 
 fectly that teaching, in the ordinary sense, by writ- 
 ing books, and by personal example, however 
 
 [lo] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 good, is but half done unless it produces teachers 
 who shall spread and carry forward the work of 
 the master. The fact is that Ruskin was, before 
 all else, the teacher. As such, one of his chief 
 interests, but not the chief, as many people 
 wrongly think, was the incomparable depiction of 
 landscape by the painter, J. M. W. Turner. To 
 teach others (many) to know and enjoy Turner was 
 with Ruskin a passion; Turner who did in the 
 medium of line and color the very thing Words- 
 worth did in words; namely, give to what in na- 
 ture is short-lived, immortal life in art. Together, 
 these two, through their works which live after 
 them, and in which they live, have opened closed 
 eyes and hard hearts innumerable to the inmost 
 and unspeakable delights of earth and sea and sky 
 and growing plants. So to make Turner known 
 Ruskin set to work in his earliest manhood. In 
 his twenty-fifth year the first volume of Modern 
 Painters appeared. It was devoted to the praise 
 of Turner and the relation of his landscape to that 
 of all other painters who ever lived. Its like was 
 never seen before. But this is not the place to dis- 
 cuss what is so well known. It is, however, the 
 place to point out the fact that Ruskin, with great 
 wisdom, realized that not by speaking and writ- 
 
 [II] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 ing only, though with tongue almost angelic, with 
 pen apocalyptic, could he spread appreciation of 
 his revered landscapist. Men must see his pic- 
 tures, as well as be told what to see in them, and 
 how to study them; for seeing, he felt assured, 
 would be believing. And, further, people must 
 know something of the technical and intellectual 
 difficulties of actually making the picture through 
 which, and in after days, the imagination and 
 understanding of the artist shall make themselves 
 felt. In a word, they must be taught what good 
 drawing is, and how to do it. Precept without 
 practice Ruskin would have none of. To his mind 
 constant use of the pencil was at least as essential 
 as close study of what others had done with the 
 pencil. Out of such a system of instruction he 
 felt there would come more general grasp of fact 
 presaging, as a corollary, an increasing public 
 sense of beauty and truth in art and in nature, 
 and thus leading up to God; establishing a vir- 
 tuous circle, so to speak. To see and to feel, yes; 
 but to do so in order to express seeing and feeling ; 
 never to do so for the mere sake of doing ; activity 
 for the illumination of purpose, never to display 
 adroitness. Drawing was so to be understood and 
 taught in Ruskin's scheme. No man ever more 
 
 [12] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 forcibly declared, by word and deed, the futility 
 of work for work's sake. 
 
 As a book, however able and alluring, Ruskin 
 could hope Modern Painters would reach but one 
 class of people and comparatively few of them. 
 The same of Ruskin, the lecturer. This was the 
 class of the well-to-do and the rich. These like- 
 wise were the only ones who could possess Tur- 
 ner's pictures, or the costly engraved reproduc- 
 tions of them. It is true that he reached vastly 
 more in such ways, and does yet, through Modern 
 Painters, than even he could have dared hope. 
 But making assay of every way was the only way 
 to satisfy the demands which his generosity and 
 enthusiasm laid upon him. There were the work- 
 ing classes, and the poor whom he had always 
 with him in strictly scriptural sense. These, too, 
 should have their chance to know Turner and, 
 through his interpretation, more of the beauty of 
 art and nature. They should be taught to draw 
 both as an end in itself, and as a means to the fur- 
 ther end of appreciation. The teaching, too, 
 should be the very best. And some, he hoped, 
 among the teachers and the taught would be able 
 ultimately to copy Turner so sympathetically, 
 which means with extreme intelligence of heart 
 
 [13] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 and hand, as to constitute their copies truthful and 
 inspiring representatives of the originals. To 
 bring this about, he offered his services as drawing 
 master at the Working Men's College, 1854. Not 
 only did he aim to teach drawing himself but to 
 make good drawing teachers as well. Among 
 these William Ward was facile princeps. He 
 was soon appointed under drawing-master. The 
 year 1857 was that in which Elements of Drawing 
 was published. In the preface Ruskin recom- 
 mended Ward as a teacher. The story is told in 
 the letters. 
 
 At this time, too, Ward began to copy Turner. 
 The growth of his power in this direction and the 
 unique place he finally made for himself forms a 
 rare chapter in the history of art. The letters 
 tell the story actually, and by implication, in a 
 fascinating manner; a story of struggle, incessant 
 work, discouragement, success, on Ward's part; 
 encouragement, severe criticism, minute, literally 
 microscopic attention, unswerving faith and, in the 
 end, jubilant praise and satisfaction on Ruskin's 
 part: on the part of both of them common under- 
 standing, common enthusiasms, mutual respect, 
 love. 
 
 Such a letter as that of Sept. 14th, '79, set the 
 
 [14] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 last seal of the master upon the pupil-master's 
 work. "The drawing goes to Mr. Ross today, 
 very prettily, though I say it, altered from 'J. M. 
 W. Turner' to 'W. Ward after J. M. W. T.' with 
 'seen with delight J. Ruskin' below." And on 
 April 30th, '81, Ruskin writes Ward of making 
 "copying more understood as artists' work." 
 Would it were so today! 
 
 The degree of accuracy coupled with feeling 
 which Ruskin required in every copy before he 
 would put his name and approval to it, thus mak- 
 ing it marketable, was a hard test but one which 
 Ward met again and again with complete satis- 
 faction. It was through Ruskin that Charles 
 Eliot Norton, name to be held in perpetual respect 
 by Americans who care for the finer things of life, 
 met Ward. It was he who created a demand for 
 Ward's copies of Turner on this side of the Atlan- 
 tic, where they were bought generously. 
 
 Not a few proofs of Ruskin's humour, based, as 
 good humour always is, upon serious foundations, 
 as Shakspeare's and Charles Lamb's is, and more 
 than one touch of his wit, are scattered through 
 these letters. By way of example: "There are 
 beautiful people — beautiful in sense of all good- 
 ness — in the world, here and there; the worst of 
 
 [15] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 it is, most of them are apt to be foolish." And: 
 "I'm glad you like little Chalky. You needn't 
 put in the double moon (a sketch made after din- 
 ner) ? !" That the great majority of Ruskin's read- 
 ers persist in denying wit and humour to him, repu- 
 tation which keeps and has kept many from him 
 who would enjoy him, is but part of the strange 
 illusion, peculiarly American, which holds — 
 Shakspeare, Fielding, Hogarth, Lamb, Thack- 
 eray, Dickens and scores more notwithstanding — 
 that Englishmen the lacking in these respects! 
 
 Kindness, twin-sister of humour, is even more in 
 evidence as one reads on. Not to get over-tired, 
 not to strain eyesight, not to hold back from asking 
 when need might be, together with plans, accom- 
 panied by the wherewithal, for little journeys of 
 relaxation and change of scene, as well as work, 
 picture Ruskin, the man, as one would have his 
 dearest relative or best friend pictured. It re- 
 calls, "a great portrait is always more a portrait 
 of the painter than the painted." And with all his 
 generosity he appears, as he actually was, a shrewd 
 business man and will have what belongs to him. 
 To give a good article, the very best possible, 
 whether a Turner copy, one of the sets of photo- 
 graphs which in later years Ward sold with due 
 
 [i6] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 authority as illustration of Ruskin's writings, or 
 a number of Fors, and to be fairly paid for it, was 
 his principle. His punctilious care for other peo- 
 ple's time and for keeping appointments is in the 
 same line, and not least, though last, his dislike 
 of "guessing." 
 
 And yet, as if these letters were meant to have 
 been a miniature epitome of Ruskin's life, traces 
 of irritability, signs of depression, references to 
 frequent illness, heart-break and loss are not 
 omitted. As the shadow, but not less the light, 
 such is life, they say. 
 
 Turning to the practical matter of learning and 
 teaching to draw, they will be found most useful, 
 for they contain rule upon rule concerning funda- 
 mental points set forth in the simplest and most 
 direct of language. Often the rule is accompanied 
 by an illustration, a pen scrawl which, however 
 rough and hurried it may appear, will, upon care- 
 ful study, prove to be all that the case required. 
 The cause for this is not far to seek. Ruskin is 
 giving instruction to a pupil, but a pupil who had 
 in him the makings of an artist. At another time 
 Ruskin is instructing this same pupil how to teach 
 the elementary things in drawing to others, his 
 own pupils; a pupil who had in him the makings 
 
 [17] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 of a teacher. It will not fail to interest anyone 
 who is familiar with the Elements of Drawing to 
 trace the many similarities between it and the pas- 
 sages relating to drawing, even the rapid pen 
 sketches, in these letters. That we have here the 
 first attempt to give drawing as a University Ex- 
 tension course is as interesting today as it was a 
 natural development of the Working Men's Col- 
 lege idea in the middle fifties. But, after all, as 
 looking at pictures is more profitable than hearing 
 and reading about them, so, up to a certain point 
 at least, these letters from John Ruskin to William 
 Ward are worth more at first hand than anything 
 that can be said about them. 
 
 Alfred Mansfield Brooks 
 
 [i8] 
 
pRCSTOM 
 
 
 WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Plate II 
 
WILLIAM WARD 
 
 By William C. Ward 
 
 MY FATHER, William Ward, was born at 
 Thornton Heath, Croydon, in the county 
 of Surrey, on the 23rd of April, 1829. He was 
 the first-born child of William and Sarah Ward. 
 His school education was somewhat desultory. 
 Of the various schools which he attended as a boy, 
 the most notable was Alcott House School, at 
 Ham Common, near Richmond in Surrey, then 
 conducted by Mr. and Miss Wright. I do not 
 know whether Mr. A. Bronson Alcott was actually 
 concerned in the foundation of this school, but it 
 certainly took its name from him, and was inspired 
 by his principles. Moncure D. Conway records 
 a meeting there of the "friends of human prog- 
 ress" in 1842, which was addressed by Mr. Al- 
 cott.* To this school my father was sent as a 
 boarder in the spring of 1840. The choice of 
 
 * "Emerson at Home and Abroad" — London, 1883, P- 257. 
 
 [19] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 school was eminently characteristic of my grand- 
 father, but, I know not for what reason, the boy's 
 residence there was brief. In his old age I have 
 heard my father speak with warm appreciation 
 of Alcott House School, and of the good which 
 he gained from it. 
 
 But if his school education was desultory, home 
 influences largely supplied its deficiencies. My 
 grandfather was a remarkable man; versatile, in- 
 tellectual, with strongly idealistic tendencies, and 
 deeply concerned in the education of his children. 
 During my father's boyhood, and onward to the 
 end of his own life, he was engaged as traveller 
 to a firm of wholesale cloth merchants in the City 
 of London; driving his own horse and chaise, as 
 was the custom in those days when railroads were 
 few, and visiting many parts of England in the 
 course of his travels on business. In his frequent 
 absences from home he corresponded diligently 
 with his eldest son, and, by good fortune, many 
 of his letters have been preserved. From these 
 I shall quote a few passages hereafter, to show 
 their character and tendency; meanwhile I will 
 only express my conviction that what he learned 
 from these letters, and from more immediate inter- 
 course witji the writer of them, constituted quite 
 
 [20] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 the most valuable part of my father's education. 
 That the relation between the father and the 
 son may be more clearly understood, it seems de- 
 sirable to give some brief account of my grand- 
 father's earlier career. He was born on the 20th 
 of March, 1806 — I believe, in London. His par- 
 ents were members of the Moravian community, 
 but from them he was separated at a very early 
 age, and the family in which he was brought up 
 belonged to the Established Church of England. 
 This early training, however, failed to reconcile 
 him to the Established Church. He did not find 
 true knowledge of religion among those of its 
 members with whom he was in contact, and pre- 
 ferred Dissenters as more consistent. In his thir- 
 teenth year he ran away to sea, and joined a mer- 
 chant vessel. Later, he enlisted in the army, and 
 was certainly a soldier in his eighteenth year. He 
 had the habit of keeping a journal, and that part 
 of it which has been preserved (from 1828 on- 
 wards) reveals a deeply religious soul, striving 
 earnestly and consistently, through many outward 
 changes, to get to the root of the matter. There 
 is much of the fervent temper of a seventeenth- 
 century Puritan in this journal. The writer ac- 
 cuses himself of wild and loose conduct in his 
 
 [21] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 youth, but this kind of self-accusation is a com- 
 mon feature of Puritan introspection. On the 
 other hand, he writes: "From a child I can ac- 
 knowledge to having been sensible of something 
 within me reproving me for evil and inviting me 
 to Goodness." This disposition was encouraged by 
 letters from a brother, afterwards a preacher 
 among the Baptists, and by the reading of relig- 
 ious books. He writes again: "The allurements 
 of the world were too strong for one so much in- 
 clined as myself to the gratification of the senses, 
 and it was not until about the i8th year of my 
 age that I became at all decided. I had many 
 times resolved to reform, and, retired from the 
 society of men into secret places, with tears prayed 
 for a clean heart and a right spirit." He was at 
 this time, as I said, a soldier, and it was one night 
 in hospital that the final resolution to repent and 
 reform came suddenly upon him, with immediate 
 results which occasioned no little disturbance to 
 the other patients in the ward. He resolved never 
 to return to the course he had long pursued, and 
 appears, indeed, to have kept his resolution. 
 
 At the end of the year 1826 a British expedi- 
 tionary force was sent to Portugal to support the 
 constitutional government against the rebels who 
 
 [22] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 were invading the country from Spain, with the 
 connivance and assistance of the Spanish authori- 
 ties. With this expedition my grandfather served. 
 He was more than a year in Portugal, returning 
 to England in the spring of 1828. Upon his return 
 he was stationed at Croydon, where he renewed 
 acquaintance with Sarah Furner, a girl about two 
 years younger than himself, the daughter of a 
 fellow soldier. Farrier Thomas Furner. He had 
 first met this girl some four years previously, and 
 a mutual attachment had sprung up ; but the ac- 
 quaintance was broken off by Miss Furner in con- 
 sequence, as her lover admits, of the unsteadiness 
 of his conduct. On its renewal in 1828, however, 
 matters went more smoothly between them; they 
 were married the same year at Croydon, on the 
 17th of July. 
 
 It was about this time that he left the army, my 
 grandmother insisting upon this step as a condi- 
 tion of their marriage. By the spring of 1829, if 
 not sooner, he was working as a gardener at 
 Thornton Heath. A year later he had removed 
 with his wife and infant son to London, and was 
 following the occupation of a milkman at Cam- 
 berwell. Still another year, and his commercial 
 career may be said to have begun with his engage- 
 
 [23] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 ment as warehouseman by a firm of silk merchants 
 in the City of London. About 1833 he commenced 
 travelling on business, and, with (I believe) some 
 interruptions, he remained a commercial traveller 
 for the rest of his life. 
 
 At the time of his marriage my grandfather, 
 like his wife, was a Wesleyan Methodist. Two 
 or three years later we find him attending meet- 
 ings of the Society of Friends, and he presently 
 became a member of this body, though, as he char- 
 acteristically notes in his journal (Dec, 1830) : 
 "Being joined to any people in the outward sense 
 is nothing." Through all his outward changes, 
 it was ever the inward spiritual truth of which he 
 was in quest. Later letters and journals evince a 
 mind continually developing, the old zeal and 
 earnestness directed to ever widening issues. 
 Idealism was the predominant feature of his faith. 
 He was one of the early English admirers of 
 Emerson, between whose turn of thought and his 
 own, at least in his later years, there was no little 
 affinity. A tendency to mysticism is observable in 
 his writings: he named one of his sons after Jacob 
 Behmen, and his journal contains long extracts 
 from the writings of James Pierrepoint Greaves, 
 with whom he was personally acquainted. He 
 
 [24] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 wrote much, but printed little; as far as I know, 
 three or four pamphlets represent the sum of his 
 published work. 
 
 Yet with all his idealism he was also, in some 
 respects, a man of the world. It is certain that he 
 was highly esteemed by his fellow commercials 
 "on the road" as a man of wit and a genial com- 
 panion. One of them has left a lively sketch of 
 him, under the sobriquet of Sambo Bookworm, in 
 allusion both to the "nigger" songs with which he 
 would occasionally entertain his companions, and 
 to his intense love of reading.* A few sentences 
 may be worth quoting. "I think that, as a char- 
 acter, this man stands more prominently forward 
 than any it ever fell to my lot to meet with. In- 
 deed, I know of no one who has played so many 
 parts on the stage of life, throwing into each so 
 much of truth and nature as to render it a com- 
 plete and perfect whole." " He is always humor- 
 ous, never commonplace; he delights in a hearty 
 but not practical joke ; and usually, to enliven the 
 long winter evenings, he produces a social feeling 
 by performing admirably upon one of the best 
 toned accordions (presented to him by a few com- 
 
 * "Sketches from the Diary of a Commercial Traveller" — By- 
 Throne Crick. London, 1847, pp. 92-96. 
 
 [25] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 mercial friends as a token of esteem) I have ever 
 listened to. His vocal efforts, too, especially his 
 comics and niggerisms, are inimitable; and, al- 
 though he never forces them upon your time or 
 attention, he readily and cheerfully complies with 
 your wish upon a first solicitation. 
 
 "For years Master Bookworm has had the 
 moral courage to establish principles of action — 
 peculiarly his own, too — and for a time, to carry 
 them out, to the astonishment of everybody. He 
 has successively professed — and, I believe, with 
 perfect sincerity — ^Methodism, Quakerism, Owen- 
 ism, and every other ism, often changing his relig- 
 ion,t yet, I apprehend, without religion ever 
 having changed him. Throughout, he has main- 
 tained a degree of consistency, stamping him as the 
 possessor of a powerful mind, though somewhat 
 impaired by caprice and a desire for change — or 
 rather by an anxiety to read and study life in all 
 its various phases." 
 
 Of my grandfather's letters to my father, the 
 earliest which I possess is dated May lo, 1840, and 
 is addressed to the boy, then just turned eleven, 
 at Alcott House School. He writes: "I hope 
 
 t It must be noted that the word "religion" is here used 
 in a purely external sense. 
 
 [26] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 that every day your thoughts may be higher and 
 deeper. You cannot tell how thankful I shall be 
 to receive from you the expression of your own in- 
 generated ideas. What did you see at Hampton 
 Court? Were you particularly interested with any 
 of the objects? I would suggest the propriety of 
 your thoroughly investigating one fine painting or 
 piece of sculpture, and to write down all the sen- 
 sations it seems to occasion in you. The mere 
 superficial observers receive only a superficial de- 
 light in whatever they observe. But those who 
 can penetrate into the hidden beauties enjoy the 
 substance which is lasting and remains when the 
 appearance is removed." 
 
 Such letters as this, addressed to a boy of eleven, 
 cast an interesting light on the characters both of 
 the parent who wrote them and the son who, at so 
 tender an age, could be expected to understand 
 and respond to their teaching. A few months 
 later he inquires what his son is doing "in the in- 
 tellectual way." "Are you making new discov- 
 eries, is your mind growing, or are you merely 
 burdening your memory with words which you 
 understand not?" He utilizes his commercial 
 journeys to give his son occasional lessons on the 
 geography of the counties through which he is 
 
 [27] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 travelling. But it is with the development of the 
 boy's character that he is principally concerned. 
 Before the completion of his twelfth year the son 
 is told: "You are now arrived at an age capable 
 of discovering your true interests." "Go heartily 
 to work," the father bids him ; "no work is of value 
 that is heartless." 
 
 My father was intended for a commercial ca- 
 reer, and, about the end of February, 1844, was 
 placed with a draper at Yarmouth. His father's 
 letter to him on this change in his circumstances 
 is extremely characteristic. "The first act of your 
 life has passed," he writes, "the drop scene is fall- 
 ing over your years of childhood, and shortly it 
 will again be raised to exhibit you in the second 
 act. May you enter upon it with the resolute 
 determination that Truth shall be your motiving 
 spirit upon all occasions and under all circum- 
 stances. ... I am sure that you are too far ad- 
 vanced in moral consciousness to consider the con- 
 duct of others as the license for your departure 
 from the paths of rectitude. William, my boy, 
 there is a divine germ within your human spirit, 
 and much depends upon your conduct as to 
 whether it shall grow up in you as your second 
 nature, your new life, or be as it is in most, buried 
 
 [28] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 and hidden. William, I tell you, now that you are 
 about to enter upon a new act of your life, that not 
 to mej not to us, you must look. Our relationship 
 to you is but secondarily to be thought of. You 
 hold a primary relation to God, and the all-impor- 
 tant consideration with you must be, how may this 
 relationship be most perfectly established. . . . 
 I regret that I cannot avoid placing you in condi 
 tions where you will be surrounded by tempta- 
 tion, especially, perhaps, to prevaricate and mis- 
 represent things. Do not, for the divine germ's 
 sake, commence such conduct. Let this be your 
 firm determination." 
 
 I know not how long my father remained in 
 this situation at Yarmouth. The latest letter which' 
 I can ascertain to have been sent to him at this 
 address bears the date of April 23, 1845; but the 
 addresses of most of the letters are lost. Nor can 
 I tell what his business conditions were during the 
 years immediately succeeding this. At a later 
 period he became clerk to a firm of linen mer- 
 chants in the City of London. This position he 
 held at the time of his marriage, and until his con- 
 nection with Ruskin had changed the whole course 
 and prospects of his career. 
 
 In April, 1844, his father again writes to him at 
 
 [29] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Yarmouth : "Remember that you have no need to 
 condescend to the mean practices of business gen- 
 erally; do your business as your duty to Truth. 
 Let Truth be your master. . . . Our employment 
 is burdensome only when Pure Love is not the end 
 for which we work. I am much pleased with your 
 epistle. Continue to think, and practice writing 
 your thoughts in a free manner. Imitate no man 
 or party, but be one by yourself. Your experience 
 belongs to you, and none can possess it but your- 
 self." In the same letter he adds: "Tell me 
 whether you can understand Emerson ; it is a valu- 
 able book." 
 
 He sends queries for his son to answer, some- 
 times referring directly to conditions of business, 
 as when he asks, "What is the difference between 
 a tradesman and a man in trade?" To this topic 
 he returned in a later letter (Sept. 12, 1845) • 
 "Do not be a man of trade, but a man in trade. 
 Man is always above circumstance." In July, 
 1845, he complains that my father (then sixteen) 
 has not given a clear answer to his question as to 
 the difference between Constitutional and Insti- 
 tutional religion ; a few months later, however, he 
 finds him possessed of "just ideas" on that subject. 
 To my grandfather. Institutional religion was of 
 
 [30] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 value only as a mode of expressing Constitutional 
 religion. In a letter of March 15, 1846, he writes: 
 "It is indeed impossible by education or religion 
 or anything institutional, to produce that change 
 which is necessary in the constitution. The hu- 
 man constitution needs regeneration. Instruction, 
 reformation, remodification and refinement result 
 from education and other institutional conditions; 
 but the highest species of intellectual or religious 
 refinement is not regeneration, and leaves the 
 merely improved being only a refined degenerate 
 being." 
 
 From 1849, if not earlier, my grandfather was 
 for some years an ardent, though I would not say 
 a bigoted, vegetarian. Like his other "isms," 
 vegetarianism was to him always a means, never 
 an end. My father was also a vegetarian in early 
 manhood, and indeed for some time after his mar- 
 riage; but in process of time they both discon- 
 tinued the practice — I believe, in both cases, from 
 considerations of health. 
 
 Both father and son were, throughout their lives, 
 readers and lovers of books. In December, 1849, 
 the elder man writes to his son, in a strain which 
 Emerson, at least, would have heartily approved : 
 "You will find both Emerson and Carlyle to be 
 
 [31] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 good conditions for you, while you treat them as 
 conditions, believing only in the Centre. Adopt 
 not, but be adopted. Let the Centre Love adopt 
 you to be its executive organ. Let both Emerson 
 and Carlyle bow to the Spirit in you. When Em- 
 erson and Carlyle bring you to the Spirit within, 
 bid them adieu and commence with it. I love to 
 talk with • these illuminated authors about God, 
 but I prefer hearing the Lord God in the cool of 
 my own garden." 
 
 Of my father's early years I know little beyond 
 the few facts already recounted. He began draw- 
 ing when very young ; in fact, an aptitude for draw- 
 ing seems to have been common in the family, 
 though my father was the only one who developed 
 it seriously in after life. As a youth he attended 
 a school of art, but his true art-education can 
 hardly be said to have commenced before his con- 
 nection with Ruskin and the Working Men's Col- 
 lege. 
 
 On the 7th of March, 1853, my father was mar- 
 ried, in the Unitarian Chapel at Coventry, to Au- 
 gusta Ellen Clack, daughter of Thomas Clack, a 
 schoolmaster in that town. It was, in the best 
 sense, a happy marriage. My mother was a true 
 helpmeet, who shared her husband's joys and sor- 
 
 [32] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 rows for many years, and proved herself capable 
 of sustained sympathy with him, not only in his 
 feelings, but in his thoughts and pursuits. She, 
 too, was a lover of reading, and at a later period 
 acquired the habit, confirmed through a long 
 course of years, of reading aloud to my father in 
 the evenings. In this way they enjoyed together 
 a great deal of the best English literature — poetry, 
 the drama (especially Shakspeare), philosophy, 
 history, etc. Nor was prose fiction neglected, par- 
 ticularly in its earlier examples. They derived 
 much pleasure, not only from Scott, but from the 
 novelists of the eighteenth century — Richardson, 
 Fielding, Fanny Burney and others, including 
 some of the less known authors, of that period. 
 The humour of "Tristram Shandy," indeed, was 
 a little outside my mother's scope, though my 
 father had a high admiration for that unique book. 
 Dickens and Thackeray they read, and of course 
 enjoyed, but fiction of a later date seems to have 
 attracted them comparatively seldom. Among 
 contemporary authors (besides Ruskin) Carlyle, 
 Emerson and the two Brownings were prime fa- 
 vorites; above all, perhaps, Emerson, whose writ- 
 ings, both in prose and in verse, my father always 
 delighted in. I have more than once heard him say 
 
 [33] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 that of all men Emerson seemed to him to have 
 known best how to live. 
 
 My father's introduction to Ruskin is best de- 
 scribed in his own words. "Some time in 1854, a 
 friend, Mr. Henry Swan, late curator of the Rus- 
 kin Museum at Sheffield, called upon me, bring- 
 ing with him Ruskin's "Seven Lamps of Architec- 
 ture," of which he read a few pages. The words 
 came like a revelation, and made a deep impres- 
 sion upon me. I longed to know more ; and, learn- 
 ing that the author was actually teaching a draw- 
 ing class at the Working Men's College (then at 
 No. 31, Red Lion Square) I as soon as possible 
 enrolled myself as a pupil. I well remember the 
 first evening. Upon entering the class-room, full 
 of the expectation of seeing the man whose words 
 had so charmed me, I saw, walking between the 
 easels at which the men were seated, two teacher^ 
 — one, a dark bearded man with a fine head, look- 
 ing every inch an artist; the other, fair and some- 
 what slightly built, with deep penetrating eyes, and 
 an inexpressible charm of manner. The former 
 was Lowes Dickenson; the latter, John Ruskin. 
 
 "I was first set to copy a white leather ball, sus- 
 pended by a string, and told to draw exactly what 
 I saw — making no outline, but merely shading the 
 
 [34J 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 paper where I saw shade. The result was rather 
 a feeble afifair; but I remember that Mr. Ruskin 
 was much taken with my attempt at extreme ac- 
 curacy by putting in even the filaments of the 
 string. After the ball came plaster casts of leaves, 
 fruit, and various natural objects. A tree, cut 
 down by Mr. Ruskin's directions, was also sent 
 from Denmark Hill, and fixed in a corner of the 
 class room for light and shade studies. To our 
 great delight, Mr. Ruskin used continually to 
 bring us treasures from his own collection — min- 
 erals, shells, Rembrandt etchings, Albert Diirer 
 and Turner engravings, drawings by William 
 Hunt, Turner and others. His delightful way of 
 talking about these things afforded us most valu- 
 able lessons. To give an example : he one evening 
 took for his subject a cap, and with pen and ink 
 showed us how Rembrandt would have etched, 
 and Albert Durer engraved it. This at once ex- 
 plained to us the different ideas and methods of 
 the two masters. On another evening he would 
 take a subject from Turner's "Liber Studiorum," 
 and, with a large sheet of paper and some char- 
 coal, gradually block in the subject, explaining 
 at the same time the value and effect of the lines 
 and masses. 
 
 [35] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 "Ruskin was a rare presence among us, teaching 
 us to feel and see the beauty in things, not how to 
 draw them prettily. He made everything living 
 and full of interest, and disliked servile copying 
 and 'niggling.' Excessive care he admired, but 
 not work for work's sake. To show this, he would 
 make a rapid drawing by the side of a student's 
 work, that he might see how, with all his elabo- 
 ration, he had missed the 'go' of the thing. . . . 
 
 "A delightful reminiscence of old times is that 
 of some pleasant rambles a few of us (who could 
 command the leisure) had with Mr. Ruskin 
 through Dulwich Wood — now, alas! covered with 
 villas. On these occasions we took our sketching 
 materials, and sitting in a favourable spot, per- 
 haps opposite a broken bank partly covered with 
 brambles and topped by a few trees, spoiled a few 
 sheets of paper in trying to make something of it. 
 The result on paper was not worth much ; but Mr. 
 Ruskin's criticisms, and a few touches on our work, 
 gave us some ideas that were worth a great deal. 
 As a wind-up to these sketching parties we ad- 
 journed to the Greyhound to tea and some very in- 
 teresting talk. Upon one of these occasions I gave 
 Mr. Ruskin a favourite book of mine, the Poems 
 of Ralph Waldo Emerson, which he had not seen. 
 
 [36] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 He told me at a subsequent meeting that the poem 
 he liked best was "The Mountain and the Squir- 
 rel."* He afterwards gave me the Poems of 
 Samuel Rogers, illustrated with Turner's ex- 
 quisite vignettes. These were a great delight and 
 I felt myself in possession of a small Turner 
 gallery. 
 
 "In 1857 Mr. Ruskin published his "Elements of 
 Drawing," and the reference to my name in the 
 preface brought me some work in the way of teach- 
 ing and corresponding. At this time Turner's 
 pictures and drawings, bequeathed by him to the 
 nation, were exhibited at Marlborough House. I 
 was at once sent by Mr. Ruskin to make copies for 
 him ; and this copying was continued at the South 
 Kensington Museum, whither the pictures were 
 removed ; and afterwards at the National Gallery, 
 where they now rest. How deeply Mr. Ruskin was 
 interested in this work the following letters will 
 abundantly prove. In the year 1877 the Fine Art 
 Society opened in New Bond Street with an ex- 
 hibition of my Turner copies, kindly lent by Mr. 
 Ruskin. 
 
 "As a relief from this close work at the National 
 Gallery, Mr. Ruskin sent me, in company with 
 
 * The short poem entitled "Fable." 
 
 [37] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Mr. George Allen,* for a walking tour up the 
 valley of the Meuse, to see and sketch some of the 
 subjects of Turner's drawings. I afterwards went 
 to Luxemburg, a favourite sketching-ground of 
 Turner's, with the same object. It was not an 
 easy matter to discover Turner's points of view, 
 but when they were discovered, I always found that 
 I required two pages of my sketch book to get in 
 as much of the subject as Turner had compressed 
 into one page of his. 
 
 "The only subject which still remains to be no- 
 ticed, is, I think, that of the photographs referred 
 to in the letters. These photographs Mr. Ruskin 
 caused to be taken and collected for instruction 
 to his students, and he appointed me agent for 
 their distribution. Other sets were planned, to 
 which Mr. Ruskin intended writing notes, but 
 these plans were never carried out." 
 
 Under Ruskin's training my father made rapid 
 progress. About 1857 he relinquished his com- 
 mercial career to become a teacher of drawing on 
 Ruskin's system. Pupils were not wanting, some 
 of whom became personal and even intimate 
 friends; he acted also as under drawing-master 
 
 * Afterwards Ruskin's publisher. This tour took place in 
 the late summer and autumn of 1867, 
 
 [38] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 to Ruskin at the Working Men's College. My 
 grandfather lived to see him embarked upon his 
 new profession, but died soon afterwards, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1858. In a letter to his son dated the 7th 
 of September, 1855 — the latest which I possess — 
 he refers to Ruskin. "I congratulate you," he 
 writes, "on the intimacy of your acquaintance with 
 such a man as Ruskin." Then follows the admir- 
 able advice : "Be not overpowered by him .... 
 unite with him in heart, and leave room for orig- 
 inality in your artistical development. By all 
 means avail yourself of the valuable aid of such 
 a man, but you know what I mean." Riper years 
 and cooler judgment could not fail to modify, to 
 some extent, my father's early enthusiasm for Rus- 
 kin, but he always held him in true and affectionate 
 regard, and retained a hearty admiration for his 
 great qualities. 
 
 For the first few years after his marriage my 
 father continued to reside in London. In 1863 he 
 removed to Twickenham, then a far more rural dis- 
 trict than it is at present; and, to finish at once with 
 his changes of residence, he left Twickenham at 
 Michaelmas in 1874, ^^^ settled at Richmond Sur- 
 rey, in the house (No. 2 Church Terrace) which 
 he occupied during the remainder of his life. 
 
 [39] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 It was in 1858 that he began the work with 
 which, in later years, his name came to be pecu- 
 liarly associated — the copying of Turner's water- 
 colour drawings. For this task he was exception- 
 ally fitted, both by his intimate appreciation of 
 Turner's art, and by the conscientiousness and in- 
 stinctive delicacy of his own work, and it is no 
 ■wonder that, with advancing skill in technique, 
 his Turner copies became unrivalled in their kind. 
 With few exceptions, they were all from drawings 
 in the National collection; the exceptions being 
 from some of Ruskin's own Turner drawings, 
 which he lent to my father from time to time for 
 this purpose. Among the latter I remember par- 
 ticularly the great drawings of Heysham,* Flue- 
 len, and Coblentz. The close study of Turner 
 which this work involved, bore fruit in a profound 
 knowledge and skilled judgment of that master's 
 art, upon which, in course of time, my father be- 
 came an acknowledged authority. 
 
 With all this teaching and copying, he found 
 time for a considerable amount of original work, 
 especially during the eleven years of his residence 
 at Twickenham. His subjects were landscape and 
 
 * My father's copy of "Heysham" is now in the Fogg Art 
 Museuni of Harvard University. 
 
 [40] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 still-life; his medium was, almost exclusively, 
 water-colour. In default of any pronounced gift 
 of composition, the distinguishing feature of his 
 original work is to be found in the exquisite sense 
 of colour which his drawings display. He loved 
 the rich mystery of twilight, and many of his land- 
 scapes depict effects of sunset or later evening. 
 The sense of form, though by no means defective, 
 was in him, I think, secondary to that of colour. 
 Perhaps his most marked originality appears in 
 his treatment of skies. At Twickenham, his bed- 
 room window faced the east, and for twelve 
 months together he made a practice of rising be- 
 fore sunrise in order to sketch the effect. His still- 
 life shows something of the influence of William 
 Hunt, from whom he received a few lessons in 
 1859; but here also originality is not wanting. 
 Between i860 and 1876 (both years included) he 
 exhibited seventeen original drawings at the Royal 
 Academy, and during the same period a good 
 many of his water-colours found places on the 
 walls of other exhibitions, notably the Dudley Gal- 
 lery in Piccadilly. 
 
 After this period his original output became 
 less and less in quantity and finally ceased, the 
 Turner copying now occupying most of his time. 
 
 [41 J 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 This, too, in its turn, was gradually abandoned, 
 my father finding the strain upon his eyes of such 
 close work too severe for his advancing years. It 
 was relinquished altogether about 1890, and he 
 then turned his whole attention to an occupation 
 which he had already, for some time, combined 
 with his other employment— that of a dealer in 
 prints and drawings, specializing, as he was so well 
 qualified to do, in the works of Turner and Rus- 
 kin, but including, in his periodic catalogues of 
 things offered for sale, many other fine works of 
 art, particularly by English artists of the eigh- 
 teenth and early nineteenth centuries. In quite 
 early years he had been in the habit of procuring 
 prints, etc., for his pupils ; later, his work as agent 
 for the distribution of Ruskin's photographs had 
 largely increased his connection; so that by the 
 time his first catalogue was issued (in 1885) there 
 were already not a few lovers of art to whom his 
 name was well known, and who were glad to buy 
 from a dealer upon whose knowledge and judg- 
 ment they could so safely rely. Such catalogues 
 he continued to issue during the rest of his life, the 
 business resulting from them, in which he was now 
 assisted by his eldest son, producing a return suffi- 
 cient for his moderate requirements. 
 
 [42] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Externally, his life was uneventful — a quiet 
 life, devoted to art and books and the care of his 
 home. In all things he was a lover of the good, 
 the true, and the beautiful. He took great pleasure 
 in good music, though his technical knowledge 
 of it was not considerable, and, with my mother, 
 attended the best concerts from time to time. Not 
 less was the delight which they both took in the 
 theatre, especially when Shakspeare was per- 
 formed, but, after the removal to Twickenham, 
 the distance from London rendered this a rare en- 
 joyment. His house at Twickenham was very 
 small, but had a good garden, well stocked with 
 fruit and vegetables, in the cultivation of which 
 he found relaxation. At Richmond, the garden 
 was much missed, though the house — a red brick 
 building of late seventeenth century — ^was pleas- 
 anter and of superior accomodation. 
 
 His home life was interrupted by occasional ex- 
 cursions, for the purpose of sketching, to various 
 parts of England and Scotland. On several oc- 
 casions also he visited the Continent, to make draw- 
 ings of architectural subjects for Ruskin. In Sep- 
 tember, 1868, he was working in this way at Abbe- 
 ville, in Ruskin's company. He writes to my 
 mother (Sept. 13th) : "If you've any idea that I 
 
 [43] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 am out for a holiday you may dismiss it as soon as 
 you like. You know how J. R. regulates his time 
 by the hour. Very well, we have to fall into the 
 same system, and there's no time lost I can tell you. 
 He begins with Crawley (his valet) at 5 :30 and 
 with me at 7:00. An hour's walk before breakfast 
 with physical and metaphysical discussions just to 
 give you an appetite. At 9 sharp off to your subject 
 in the market place or elsewhere, lunch at i and 
 off for drawing again from 3 till 7; then dinner 
 and bed. R. goes to bed at 9 130, but I can't stand 
 that. . . . We have had some lovely walks and 
 talks." Two of my father's Abbeville drawings 
 were placed by Ruskin in his drawing-school at 
 Oxford University. A tour in Belgium and Lux- 
 emburg has been already mentioned. One of his 
 longest visits to the Continent was to Mont St. 
 Michel (in 1873), where he spent two or three 
 months making drawings in the cloisters. On this 
 journey my mother accompanied him. 
 
 In September, 1879, the heaviest blow of my 
 father's life fell upon him in the death, at the age 
 of twenty-one years, of his second surviving son, 
 Thomas Lawrence Ward, a youth of singular 
 promise as an artist. The unmistakable dawn of 
 genius in this boy had already marked him out 
 
 [44] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 as the hope of the family, and my father felt the 
 blow deeply and permanently, though silently as 
 was his custom. 
 
 My mother died in May, 1896, after several 
 years of continuous and distressing ill-health. Two 
 or three years later my father was again married. 
 His second wife was Miss Sarah Young, a lady 
 who early engaged the esteem and warm regard of 
 all his family, and to whose untiring care and de- 
 votion the happiness of the last years of his life 
 was largely due. During these years he enjoyed, 
 for the most part, good health, his advanced age 
 being considered. He still attended to his business, 
 though the more active duties connected with it 
 were left more and more to the care of his son. 
 But his interest in it was unfailing down to the 
 time of his last brief illness. He died, from the 
 effects of influenza, at Richmond, in the house in 
 which he had lived for upwards of thirty-three 
 years, on Sunday, the 8th of March, 1908. 
 
 I have dwelt somewhat particularly upon my 
 grandfather's share in his son's development, from 
 the belief that his teaching and influence were re- 
 flected in my father's character even to the end of 
 his days. Notable differences there were between 
 them: the younger man had little of the elder's 
 
 [45] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 versatility, and was in temperament more silent 
 and reserved. I can hardly imagine my father, at 
 any stage of his life, addressing a public meeting, 
 as his father had done on occasion ; though he could 
 talk, and talk well, in private, on subjects that in- 
 terested him. But these differences were perhaps 
 superficial. They were both, in the manliest and 
 noblest sense, good men; and in deeper traits of 
 character, in their love of truth, their idealist ten- 
 dencies and thirst for spiritual enlightenment, the 
 resemblance between them was strong. Quite late 
 in his life my father sought to satisfy these tenden- 
 cies in becoming a member of the Hermetic and 
 Theosophical Societies. His interest in the teach- 
 ing and sympathy with the general aim of both, 
 in opposition to the materialism of the age, were 
 very sincere ; but the satisfaction he derived from 
 them was, I think, imperfect. Among truly phil- 
 osophical teachers, the well-beloved Emerson con- 
 tinued to hold the first place in his esteem. 
 
 Of sorrows and disappointments he had his 
 share; of happiness also a share. Indeed, if hap- 
 piness be interpreted in that high sense which the 
 old Platonists attached to the word — eudaimonia, 
 a state of spiritual well-being — his share, like his 
 father's, must be pronounced considerable. 
 
 [46] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 
 London, S. E. 
 
 1855 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am much obliged to you for both your letters, 
 and for this last the more in acknowledging the 
 first. I should be glad indeed if I thought that 
 so many of the workmen * were of your mind as to 
 admit of your using that large "we would relieve 
 ourselves." At all events I am truly glad to know 
 whom I can count upon to help themselves in 
 such a spirit. 
 
 But, as I said to you, I do not count upon such 
 a temper as an available practical element. All I 
 hope for is to be able to shew, and to make men 
 understand, how they may live more comfortably 
 — get better wages — and be happier and wiser than 
 they are at present. If, after that, they are led on 
 
 * The students at the Working Men's College. 
 
 [49] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 to better things — well! But at present, it seems 
 to me, that good fellowship — reciprocal help — ex- 
 ercise of brains with the hands — and such other 
 matters, may be got out of (or into) thousands who 
 would not listen for a moment if one were to begin 
 talking to them of the Influences of the Holy 
 Spirit. All these things are His influences; but I 
 think we have to advise and preach them just as 
 simply as one would advise children, who were 
 fighting in a ditch, to get out of it, wash their faces, 
 and be friends, — without endeavouring, at that mo- 
 ment, to instil into them any very high principles 
 of religion. 
 
 I am very glad you are thinking of the Protest- 
 ant Convent plan.* I have no doubt we shall 
 carry it out, and that all over the country; but 
 just because it is so important a scheme, we must 
 not attempt it till we are sure of succeeding. Let 
 us all work, but still the main word for us all must 
 be patience. 
 
 * A scheme of Ruskin's for a community of Art Workers 
 who should labor under certain self-imposed restrictions which 
 would tend to promote the common good. As such this scheme 
 came to naught, but the Guild of St. George, an institution 
 founded upon the same ideas, though quite different in details, 
 was in reality a later development of the "Protestant G)nvent 
 Plan." 
 
 [50] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 I hope to meet you then at Norwood on Sat- 
 urday. 
 
 Truly yours always, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 London, 
 
 February <,th, 1855 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I was just going to write to you about your draw- 
 ing, which is very good, though I can't give you 
 much for it, or I should unjustifiably raise the 
 hopes of the other men. We must finish a little 
 more before we can command price. I am only 
 going to give you Ten Shillings for this. It is 
 worth that to me, though more to you ; but as you 
 get on you will put more value on your work, in 
 less time. I will send you a prettier model; and 
 then, I think, you will make a very lovely drawing. 
 
 Don't allow yourself to dwell on the evil, or you 
 will fall into despair; and you will come across 
 veins of good some day. There are beautiful peo- 
 ple — beautiful in sense of all goodness — in the 
 world, here and there; the worst of it is, most of 
 them are apt to be foolish. 
 
 I am more oppressed and wonderstruck by peo- 
 
 [51] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 pie's absurdity than anything else in the world; 
 and then, what wonderful power a single fool has 
 — the wrong way ! 
 
 But you know all your annoyance, as well as 
 mine, comes of sheer disbelief. If you really sup- 
 pose there is a master to the household, you have 
 nothing to do but to attend to his business, and 
 be quiet and comfortable. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Always write to me when it does you good, as 
 it does me good too. 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 February 2^th, 1856 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 As I expect another drawing tonight from you, 
 I have doubled what I said. 
 
 I think I may soon want a drawing master under 
 me, to refer pupils to whom I have not time to 
 undertake. I think you might soon fit yourself for 
 this, and that it might soon enable you to change 
 your mode of life. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 J. R(uskin) 
 
 [52] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 (Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 Dear Ward, March 14th, 1856) 
 
 I want you to begin Drawing Master on Mon- 
 day. I consider you at present worth about five 
 shillings a lesson, which therefore you are to ask; 
 but not including therein any omnibus fare, which 
 I shall tell the people I send you to pay. 
 
 On Monday, at 10 o'clock, evening, I want you 
 to go to Miss Oldfield, 11 Gloucester Gardens, 
 Hyde Park; and to shew her how to draw leaves 
 like this of yours. I have told her that she is to 
 expect nothing more from you than mere instruc- 
 tion in drawing from nature. You must just work 
 a little bit before her, as well as you can; but I 
 wish you could come out here tomorrow evening 
 (Saturday), about eight o'clock, to have a talk. 
 Write if you cannot, and I will then send you your 
 
 drawings on Monday. ^ , 
 
 ° ^ 1 ruly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 (Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 March, 1856) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Look out at the Architectural Museum, Canon 
 Row, Westminster (where the fly-leaf of this note 
 
 [53] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 will get you admission) a pretty, not too difficult, 
 cast of a leaf. Pack it nicely, and send it to Miss 
 Agnes Harrison, Elmhurst, Upton, Essex. 
 With it send a copy, consisting of a little bit of 
 cast, drawn with the brush, in grey, not in sepia, 
 three times over. The first, to show how to begin ; 
 the second, carried further; the third, finished. 
 Explain, as well as you can in a letter, the mode 
 of working. A very little hit will do. 
 
 I have told Miss Harrison that she is to pay 
 you two shillings a letter, of course returning your 
 drawing when done with, which will then do for 
 other pupils. You will keep a note of expenses 
 of packing, etc. She will write to you, with her 
 copies, for further instruction.* 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 How did you get on the other night? Monday 
 or Tuesday will do for Miss H(arrison)'s letter. 
 
 • Here we have an early attempt to do what is now-a-days 
 known as College Extension Work. In drawing it has not 
 gone far. It is doubtful if it ever will. But in this letter, 
 as in the preceding, such specific and simple prescriptions for 
 teacher and pupil, whether in each other's presence or not, 
 are a model of good method ; a whole rule of pedagogy, theory 
 and practice alike. 
 
 [54] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 (Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 1856) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Consider, and tell me at the tea meeting, if there 
 is any objection now — on your part — to being 
 named in a little book of mine,* just coming out, 
 as a person to whom reference may be made for 
 first lessons, copies, etc. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. R(USKIN) 
 If you make up your mind at once, you can let 
 me know at once. 
 
 (Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 1857) 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I have no doubt that you will draw landscape 
 very beautifully; both because I know your care- 
 fulness and feeling, and because yoU so entirely 
 understand the Turnerian character ; very few peo- 
 ple perceive it in that way. You are quite right 
 about that character of inimitable, unattainable 
 
 * The "Elements of Drawing." 
 
 [55] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 inspiration. There is nothing quite like it, that I 
 know of, in Art. 
 
 My book* for beginners actually goes in to the 
 publishers tomorrow, and will not take long to 
 print. Don't be discouraged. I have tried your 
 patience sadly, but hold out for two months more. 
 
 I must have a talk with you some day soon, 
 before term opens. I will write to you when I 
 can see you. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Blair Athol, 
 August 22nd, 1857 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I'm very glad you have got the Turners, and 
 like them. I have told Allen to pay for them. 
 
 I hope you will be able to live in the way you 
 enjoy; indeed, I have no doubt of it. But all en- 
 joyments become mixed with pain eventually, how- 
 ever our life may be occupied ; and there is a cer- 
 tain enjoyment resulting from escape from what is 
 irksome to us, which is itself worth much. 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 J, RuSKIN 
 * The "Elements of Drawing." 
 
 [56] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 November i^th, 1857 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 Whatever you do, don't strain your eyes. I hope 
 to be able to help you soon. I certainly shall be 
 able to do so some time next year; how soon de- 
 pends on how people like my book, a good deal. 
 But keep your mind easy ; I will certainly get you, 
 someway, out of your present position, — but if 
 you hurt your eyes with candlelight work, you 
 would put it out of my power. I know now what 
 you can do, and would almost as soon that till 
 Christmas you did nothing. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 I have crippled myself this year by giving a 
 larger sum to Oxford Museum. 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 (circa 1857 or 1858) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Send a delicate study of leaves, to Mr. Thos. 
 Dixon,* foot of Mill St., Sunderland. The study 
 
 * It was to this Mr. Dixon that Ruskin addressed the 
 series of letters published in 1867 under the title of "Time and 
 Tide by Weare and Tyne." 
 
 [57] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 to be in grey colour; with a word or two of explan- 
 ation of the way to work the colour with the point. 
 Keep an account against me for postage, and for 
 the price of every letter — ^which I arranged the 
 student should pay — when I tell you to send let- 
 ters to people who cannot afford the payment. 
 
 Yours truly always, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 January 2^th, 1858 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I will bring a cheque for ten pounds with me 
 to the college on Thursday — which will be due to 
 you from New Year's day for six weeks and a bit 
 — ^which please keep account of. 
 
 Don't make any appointment for Friday or Sat- 
 urday, but come to Marlborough House, as I want 
 to employ you there on some drawings* for me. 
 But call as soon as possible between ten and eleven, 
 morning, on Mrs. La Touche, 10 Great Cumber- 
 
 * At this time Turner's pictures and drawings were on 
 exhibition at Marlborough House, 
 
 [58] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 land St. She wishes you to teach her daughter.* 
 Draw the ball with her first — then casts. 
 
 Truly yours always, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 Be at Marlborough House next Friday morn- 
 ing, at eleven o'clock, with some pencils — lamp 
 black — and pen — and white paper on small boards, 
 a foot or so square — and wait till I come. 
 
 Rheinfelden, 
 
 May z^rd, 1858. 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I have your sketches, which are quite what I 
 want. 
 
 If a Mrs. Elizabeth Beeby writes to you from 
 Croydon, will you be so good as to give her what 
 help you can, without making any charge. She 
 wants to teach drawing in our way, and seems to me 
 a deserving person. 
 
 Please make for me another outline of that Gen- 
 eva^ at Marlborough House, and send it to me by 
 post as soon as you can. Make it on thin paper, 
 dip it in boiling milk, and send it folded in a let- 
 ter. I'll put it to rights here. If you send it to- 
 
 * Miss Rose La Touche. See Praeterita. 
 
 t A pencil drawing by Turner in the National Gallery. 
 
 [59] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 morrow week, direct: Poste Restante, Schwytz, 
 Switzerland. 
 
 Always truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Baumgarten, 
 
 May zSth, 1858 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Please put stamps on, and forward, enclosed 
 letters; and I think if you put up the other leaf of 
 this in an envelope, address it to Mr. Wornum,* 
 and deliver it yourself, he will allow you to make 
 a copy (Plates III, IV) for me of parts of two of 
 the Naples outlines, — one with a temple on right, 
 with goats, and Indian fig trees, — and another with 
 a stone pine under the town — so. Make me first the 
 bit of the upper one, with trees and rocks in mid- 
 dle distance, and send it me as soon as ever you can 
 to Poste Restante, Lucerne. If you have anything 
 to ask me in answer to this, a letter would find me 
 at Bellinzona, Canton Tessin, Switzerland. 
 
 (J. Ruskin) 
 
 * Ralph Nicholson Wornum, keeper of the National Gallery. 
 
 [60] 
 

 f 
 
 r 
 
 F=:k 
 
 7-. 
 
 "A, 
 
 "^.V/ 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ ^. 
 
 vi 
 
 
 j?^^ 
 
 -^ 
 
 W " 
 
 
 JT1 1 f 
 
 !^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 c^^^ 
 
 ^. 
 

 m 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Bellizona, 
 Switzerland, 
 
 June 2lst, 1858 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I have your letter with the sketch of Geneva, 
 which is very nice, and useful to me. I do not 
 know, however, if you got a letter requesting you 
 to do some Naples subjects for me — or whether 
 Mr. Wornum gave you leave to copy them.* He 
 speaks in a letter I have today of looking over the 
 Naples subjects for you, so I hope it is all right. 
 But please send me a line addressed Poste Rest- 
 ante, Bellinzona, and tell me all about what is 
 going on. And please bear apologies from me, 
 respectfully, to Miss Helps for my carelessness 
 in not leaving out the Libers,f as I said I would. 
 I was so driven the last day that I left (as you 
 know) very important documents of my own be- 
 hind me, and on the morning of starting I locked 
 up everything in a heap where no one can get at 
 them. Those I left with you are for your pupils 
 generally, and I wish you to have them in service 
 
 * Pencil drawings by Turner in the National Gallery. See 
 preceding letter. 
 
 t Plates of Turner's Liber Studiorum, or book of landscape 
 subjects etched and mezzotinted by himself and others after 
 his own drawings in pen and sepia wash. 
 
 [6ij 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 as much as you can; so that you must ask Miss 
 Helps to be kind enough to choose one, and finish 
 working from that, and then exchange it for an- 
 other; as I left you quite few enough for your 
 work. And so with all your pupils ; you had bet- 
 ter lend one only at a time, — it gains better atten- 
 tion for it. 
 
 I shall be able to answer anything you want to 
 ask me by return of post, if you send your letter to 
 Bellinzona within a couple of days after receiving 
 this. 
 
 Send me word especially how we stand in money 
 
 Yours always faithfully, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 P. S. — I have just got a letter from Mr. Wornum 
 involving some more business. 
 
 Please go to Mr. Rudland, at Marlborough 
 House. I don't know if he has got rid of the pack- 
 ets of my old Catalogue* by sending them any- 
 where, but I suppose not. Please take them away 
 with you, and put them into any cellar or lumber 
 
 * The "old Catalogue" is the first edition of Ruskin's "Cat- 
 alogue of the Sketches and Drawings by J. M. W. Turner, 
 R. A. exhibited in Marlborough House," published in 1857. 
 The "new Catalogue" is the second, enlarged edition, published 
 in 1858. 
 
 [62] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 room. I want you to be able to get at them, because 
 the prefatory remarks may be generally useful to 
 your pupils; and to other people to whom I may 
 want to send one, now and then. 
 
 Ask Mr. Rudland, also, how the new Catalogue 
 is selling; if he has made any progress with his 
 first batch, and is likely to want some more. Send 
 me one of the Catalogues here instantly, as I must 
 look it over before any more are printed. Send it 
 to Poste Restante, Beliinzona. 
 
 J. R. 
 
 Please call at 4 Russell Place, Fitzroy Square. 
 Enquire for Miss Hill,* and ask her to write a 
 line to me at the above address. 
 
 Also — find out Butterworth;t he was last stay- 
 ing at 2 Cold Harbour Place, Camberwell, Give, 
 or send, him the enclosed note. 
 
 * Miss Octavia Hill, one of Ruskin's pupils in drawing and 
 a believer in his philanthropic schemes who helped him reclaim 
 some lower-class dwellings in London, by improving the prop- 
 erty, giving the tenants fixity of tenure and requiring in re- 
 turn only a reasonable and moderate rent, 
 
 t George Butterworth — a carpenter whom Ruskin be- 
 friended and set to drawing, 
 
 [63J 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 borromean islands, 
 Lago Maggiore, Italy 
 
 July gth, 1858 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I have now received all your letters, and am 
 much obliged for all you have done. 
 
 I like the piece of Naples outline well, but it 
 has failed in some important way in the piece of 
 foliage in the centre. Please do that bit over again 
 with intense care, and send it me. 
 
 Your corrections of the Catalogue are all quite 
 true and useful. The Okehampton is a great mis- 
 take ; I intended to change the drawings, and for- 
 got to do so. The Carew Castle mistake (until 
 I get a new Catalogue prepared, which I will im- 
 mediately) may be a little mended by your going 
 up to Mr. Halsted's,* in Bond St., and getting a 
 print of Carew Castle — or proof if he has no 
 print — telling him to put it to my account. Get 
 a decent portable frame for it, and give it to Mr. 
 Rudlandt to show — or nail up — as he thinks best. 
 If Halsted has not a print, enquire before buying 
 a proof at any of the other print-shops; the old 
 
 * A well-known dealer in Turner prints, 
 t He was a curator of the Turner collection exhibited at 
 Marlborough House. 
 
 [64] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Wardour St. ones often have these things. A 
 print is quite as good (if neatly mounted it often 
 gives a better idea of the drawing than a proof) 
 for all that is wanted. If you buy a proof, don't 
 cut its margin, — if you buy a print, cut its mar- 
 gin, and give it a raised mount like the drawings. 
 Write to me to say if you have this to Poste 
 Restante, 
 
 Arona, 
 
 Lago Maggiore, 
 Italy. 
 
 Nothing can be better than all you are doing; 
 I am glad to hear of the coloured study. 
 
 You may comfort the young lady whose hand 
 runs away with her by telling her that when once 
 she has bridled it, properly, she will find many 
 places where she can give it a pleasant canter — 
 or even put it to speed — in sketching from nature. 
 But it must be well bitted (braceletted, perhaps, 
 would be a better word) at first. 
 
 Always most truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 [65] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 December i^th, 1858 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I'm very glad to hear Dr. Watson's report, 
 though I had little doubt about the matter before. 
 
 You may take a holiday immediately, if you can 
 leave your wife; any little extra expense I will 
 meet. Is there any place you have a fancy to go 
 to? You can cut teaching for a little, and learn to 
 walk. 
 
 I've got the Liber. 
 
 Send me word what you'd like to do. If you're 
 inclined for a go, come out tomorrow evening 
 about eight o'clock and we'll have a talk. Bring 
 the best Libers with you, as it's no use leaving them 
 in town when you're out of it. 
 
 Yours always, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 Xmas. 1858 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I'm very glad of your letter: you'll come all 
 right now. I'll send you some money soon. 
 
 [66] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Many pleasant Xmases to you. Don't draw too 
 much ; take plenty of exercise. I'm very glad it's 
 so nice a place.* I don't call cliffs 200 feet high 
 insignificant, — in the Alps I should call one dimin- 
 utive that was under 1,500. The last I saw there 
 ran up 9,000 in a great concave. But a 200 one is 
 as "significant" — if you have feeling for it! 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 J. R(uskin) 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 1859 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I'm very sorry you came here without telling me, 
 as I intended you to have stopped till you had got 
 really better. Mind what you're about now\ 
 
 I've got leave from Mr. Huntf for you to see 
 him paint. I'll give you six lessons, — that is to 
 say, six hours to sit by him (for you'll find he can't 
 
 * Tenby, in South Wales. My father had been sufEering 
 from nervous exhaustion, and was staying there to recruit 
 his health. W. C. W. 
 
 t William Hunt, famous for his water colour drawings of 
 still life subjects. 
 
 [67] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 tell you anything), as soon as he comes back to 
 town in two or three weeks. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 February c,th, i860 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 Do not sacrifice principle in any way at pres- 
 ent to school teaching. Be simply firm in stating 
 what can, and what must, be done, and reject the 
 pupils who will not work. No music master 
 would proceed with pupils who would not prac- 
 tise. 
 
 You may give Prout,* and large pen and ink out- 
 lines, in conjunction with the pen and ink finished 
 practice. But you must maintain the system firmly. 
 I quite understand the disappointment of the par- 
 ents, and I do not think at present any principal 
 of a school can introduce the right system. But 
 you must simply give up the school. 
 
 * Samuel Prout, an artist famous for his pencil drawings 
 and lithographs of architectural subjects, especially later medi- 
 aeval architecture. 
 
 [68] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Have a little more patience; things will go bet- 
 ter by and bye. 
 
 I hope to see you tomorrow. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill^ 
 London, S. E. 
 
 October ist, i860 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 Come any evening you like. Those drawings 
 by Miss Dundas* are wonderful — can't well be 
 better, except outline a little hard. Has she ex- 
 amined Hunt well in this respect? The landscapes 
 I will talk to you about. If she comes to town I 
 should like to see her; I can perhaps shew her 
 something about landscape which will save her 
 trouble. She don't seem to me to care enough 
 about it to bring out her strength. Her sense of 
 colour is superb — she ought never to work but 
 in colour, and pencil outline; she needn't do chi- 
 aroscuro separate from colour. 
 
 Come any evening about half past seven o'clock. 
 
 I'm so glad you like those economy papers.! 
 
 * Pupil in drawing. 
 
 t They formed Unto this Last. At this time they were 
 appearing in the Comhill Magazine. 
 
 [69] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 The next will be a smasher, — I'm only afraid they 
 won't put it in. If they don't, I'll print it sep- 
 arate. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill^ 
 London, S. E. 
 
 December ijth, i860 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I've told Allen* all about the drawings he has 
 to shew for examples of sketching. 
 
 Of the Turners, make him give you especially 
 the body colours out of table on my right hand. 
 The Rouen and Yarmouth storms in that series 
 are the most instructive drawings perhaps in the 
 house. 
 
 But if the Misses Dundas can manage to come on 
 Wednesday instead, I'll be home by then (though 
 they should come before to see the drawings) and 
 on Thursday, would stay at home for them. 
 
 If you don't come tomorrow, write both to Allen 
 here, and to me care of 
 
 * George Allen, engraver and subsequently Ruskin's pub- 
 lisher. 
 
 [70] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 The Earl of Lovelace, 
 
 Worsley Towers, 
 Ripley, 
 Surrey, 
 
 to say if Wednesday or Thursday, as I needn't 
 hurry home if the young ladies are away to Nice. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 J. R(USKIN) 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 December ijth, i860 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 It is a great disappointment and vexation to me 
 not to see the Misses Dundas; but I suppose it 
 can't be helped. I shall be back on Wednesday. 
 If they could delay their journey a day and come 
 on Thursday, I could keep the whole middle of 
 the day, or early morning, for them. But if not, 
 bring them out on Tuesday, by all means. I have 
 left orders with Crawley* to shew anything and 
 everything ; and among the rest a series of sketches 
 by Turner; and some (not quite so discouraging!) 
 of my own, as examples of various modes of sketch- 
 
 * Ruskin's valet for twenty years. 
 
 [71] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 ing from nature. I've numbered them, and left 
 a list, written. 
 
 Thanks for pamphlet.* But it is too mystical, 
 and repeats itself too much. I have no idea what 
 it means; and am none the wiser for the preface. 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill^ 
 
 London, S. E. 
 February 22nd, 1861 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I will furnish the materials — i.e., paper, pencils, 
 casts — but not drawing-boards or other apparatus 
 of room furniture. I think long tables, and rough 
 boards with a prop, will do well enough. 
 
 Take this note with you to Winsor and Newton's ; 
 and get what materials you want, after arranging 
 with Mr. Robinst about tables — and tell them to 
 put them to my account. 
 
 J. RuSKiN 
 * A pamphlet On the Propagation of Evil by Generation, 
 
 by William Ward, father of the William to whom these letters 
 
 were written. 
 
 t The Rev. C. M. Robins. He started the Colonnade 
 
 Working Men's Club, a drawing class of which was taught 
 
 by William Ward for a short period. 
 
 [72] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 
 London, S. E. 
 
 May zgth, 1861 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 If you can bring your pupil out on Monday, 
 
 about one o'clock, I will give you lunch, and you 
 
 can show her the pictures. I have — as you know — ■ 
 
 given up "showing" pictures myself, being tired 
 
 of saying the same things again and again. 
 
 Always most truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 Wm. Ward, Esq. 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 1862 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 Best thanks for letting me know of the etchings.* 
 I would gladly give 2^ guineas (which I believe 
 is the trade price) plus ten shillings, for the 
 Grenoble* I can't afford to buy any more; wish 
 I could — but I get requests now on the average 
 for about fifty pounds a week, and all difficult to 
 refuse, though sometimes necessary. Your credit 
 won't fail, however. I enclose 5 pounds, and am 
 
 always affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RuSKiN 
 * Turner's Liber Studiorum, of which series the Chain of 
 Alps from Grenoble to Chamberi is one. 
 
 l73l 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 MORNEX, 
 December zbth, 1862. 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I have your letter, and enclose the other half 
 note; please advise me of receipt. 
 
 Follow the lines of Prout individually, but 
 draw them quickly; as quickly as you suppose he 
 did. Do not correct mistakes; but make as few 
 as may be. The Raphael should be outlined with 
 pencil, then drawn with pen at once — and again 
 and again. 
 
 Gather some moss and grass, and outline bits 
 firmly with the pen; it will practise you in com- 
 plex lines. You may use black shade in inter- 
 stices. 
 
 Shells, drawn with pen, are good practice also. 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 MORNEX, 
 2nd Jan., 1863. 
 
 My DEAR Ward, 
 
 I have yours of the 30th and am glad to know 
 the reason of the too great neatness. It is not a 
 bad fault — slovenliness is a far worse one. I 
 must try and form your taste gradually. Send me 
 
 [74J 
 
CO 
 
 ea 
 
 H 
 
 X 
 H 
 
 O 
 
 H 
 E-i 
 ID 
 
 h 
 
 H 
 
 a 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 iz 
 
 Q 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 anything you have been doing lately that will bear 
 crushing. 
 
 Your perspective question is very simple. The 
 perspective never "gets v^rong," but at a great 
 height, the long line on the paper represents a 
 short one to the eye. Stand close to your window, 
 and looking up, trace on the glass any retiring 
 horizontal line high above you. You will find the 
 tracing run down a whole pane. It does the same 
 on paper, and seen from the proper point of sight 
 appears duly short. 
 
 I wish you a successful year. I wish I could 
 send you some of my weather. I was climbing in 
 the snow 4000 ft. above sea today, but in soft air, 
 calm frost — and intense sunshine and was too hot 
 when I got down again. 
 
 Always affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 MORNEX, 
 6th Feb., 1863 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am registering a parcel to 6 Chandos St., 
 Covent garden. If you will call there you will 
 find Mr. Davies has a note for you, with £10 
 cheque. I have yours and the little drawings safe. 
 
 [75] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 You must try and get simplicity and manliness 
 now in execution. Don't shade (Plate V) that 
 wa}, but (Plate VI) that way for some time to 
 come. Draw your shell surfaces as firmly as that. 
 Use a blunt bad pen always for everything now 
 for a long time. 
 
 I return one of your shells with a few touches. 
 You lose all your labour for want of a moment's 
 audacity. 
 
 Exercise, with, the arms, for a certain steady 
 time every day. Washing all over with cold 
 water, and diet will get rid of that giddiness, and 
 the coarser work, all the better. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 The Raphael copies not steady enough yet. 
 
 MORNEX, 
 
 Switzerland, 
 February i^th, 1863 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Try 4 Chandos St. Perhaps there's a Chandos 
 St. Strand. I am made anxious by your letter for 
 fear something has gone wrong with my next 
 paper for Eraser. 
 
 [76] 
 
aLJt , 
 
 4-^ 
 
 
 AC^r<. 
 
 
 «_«. 
 
 T~ 
 
 ■Co-S-zn 
 
 •v^ 
 
) ""^ 
 
 / ^ *■ 
 
 
 Plate VI 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Don't cover your paper so with lines. Use 
 fewer — and think about them. (Plate VII). 
 Ever ajfectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 MORNEX, 
 March z^d, 1863 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I will look over your drawings, and send you 
 instructions. As I am sending to Geneva today 
 I send your cheque at once. 
 
 Generally, your work is carelessly or rather 
 thoughtlessly fast. Not fast by economy and good 
 placing of slow line. Your shadows are (Plate 
 VIII) instead of A master's shadows are in- 
 deed as fast as that often, but in learning you must 
 be steady. 
 No local colour at present. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J.R. 
 
 23r</ May, 1863 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I did not answer your last letter for there is 
 something inexplicable to me in some particular 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 deficiencies in your work, which I can't deal with 
 in writing. I think when I get home, I shall set 
 you to entirely different work, namely, copying in 
 colour; delicately: you have a wonderful gift of 
 delicate handling, and I want to turn it to account. 
 With that you have this. 
 
 Poste Restante, Geneve; Suisse. 
 
 Always faithfully yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Chamounix, 
 
 September 2^th, 1863 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Thanks for your letter and account. I will send 
 you your money now more regularly (I hope 
 quite regularly, but have never succeeded in ac- 
 complishing entire precision yet in anything). I 
 am glad you have a pupil or two and remain in 
 town. I shall be back myself at the end of No- 
 vember, I hope, and will then decide about the 
 Turners, — but it depends on a decision of the 
 Trustees of the National Gallery about what is to 
 be done with them. 
 
 Believe me always, 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 [78] 
 
k.A^ (r^^*Tdi-i?t3 
 
 
 p 
 
 16*^ 
 
 c>o^^J^^ ^ 
 
 (Q;;^'XvK^ 
 
 Plate VII 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 I think whatever you will have to do for me 
 will be quite compatible with your living out of 
 town. 
 
 Mr. William Ward, 
 
 51 Elmore Street, 
 
 Islington, N. 
 
 {May 28, 1864) 
 My dear Ward^ 
 
 I send you a cheque for £25. But you must send 
 me some of the best of your bird drawings for this, 
 as it seems to me by this time you ought to be able 
 to make something by selling them, and if you do 
 not / must have some, as I only left you them in 
 the idea of your being able to get on a little sooner 
 without so much help. I could not call on Miss 
 Dundas. 
 
 I have been out of town. Edward Jones* is a 
 great colourist and a noble painter — though full of 
 faults. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 7th January, (1865) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Will you kindly come over if possible on Mon- 
 day afternoon. I want to point out the kind of 
 
 * Sir Edward Burne- Jones. 
 
 [79] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 fault which shows most in these chalk drawings. 
 It is evidently the right thing for you to do, but 
 you must try and be tender without elaboration — 
 easily. 
 
 I'll give you a cheque when you come. 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN, 
 About J/2 past two 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E, 
 April itth, 1866 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I'm just leaving town for a week or two, being 
 tired and ill. I can't think what has become of 
 your rabbit*; and I've given up all lending and 
 teaching now; — life's getting short with me, and 
 I must look after my own work. 
 
 Miss Dundas is quite able now to get on by what 
 
 she will see in exhibitions ; she is too far advanced 
 
 to need other help. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 Mr. Wm. Ward, 
 
 19, Trafalgar Sq., 
 
 Twickenham, S. W. 
 
 * A water color drawing by William Ward. 
 
 [80] 
 

 
 
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 O-r 
 
 ^ 
 
 Plate VIII 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 August Bth, 1866 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I have been abroad, and my friends have been 
 dying by twos and threes at a time, and I've been 
 nearly dead myself too. I'm very sorry your let- 
 ter was neglected. 
 
 Here are ten pounds, and I'll see you soon. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Send the cash account to me after getting what 
 else you want. 
 
 Nov. 2nd, 1866 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I'm immensely pleased. I Hope you will be able 
 to keep pretty closely at this work for me.* I'll 
 make arrangements at National Gallery directly. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 * This refers to Ward's copying of Turner drawings in 
 water cx)lour. 
 
 [81] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Waterhead, 
 Windermere, 
 August Sth, 1867 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 The two drawings are safe here, and I am much 
 pleased with them, on the whole ; though it seems 
 to me the Marseilles is not nearly so bright in the 
 vermilion as Turner's. I knew the finer condi- 
 tions of the drawing of forms to be impossible of 
 imitation, but I thought you would get these quite 
 vivid colours matched. 
 
 The sea is, however, remarkably well done — 
 and I expected that to fail ; and the form drawing 
 is more appreciated and more rightly done, as far 
 as it is achieved, than in any hitherto produced 
 work of yours. 
 
 So on with good courage, and don't relax in 
 effort to make every drawing better than the last! 
 The more I look at this, the better I like it. It is 
 seen to great disadvantage without its mount; and 
 as I had a fifteen mile walk yesterday, including 
 a climb of 3,000 feet (Helvellyn), and one up 
 Skiddaw the day before, and had it unexpectedly 
 and severely hot for the last five miles yesterday, 
 I'm not quite fresh this morning; and one never 
 sees colour quite so bright when one is not quite 
 
 [82] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 fresh. But I am nearly certain the sail is not so 
 vivid as Turner's. The other drawing is wonder- 
 fully good, and both are great possessions to me. 
 Send me word of your health. I should like to 
 get a little total rest and change, before the winter 
 comes on. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 (Address still: — Post Office, Ambleside, West- 
 moreland.) 
 I am still better and better pleased with the 
 Marseilles, as I examine the fine touches with a 
 lens. The ship on the right is excellent in switch 
 of yard, and general form. I think there is no 
 doubt but you may soon command sale for these 
 copies, with my certificate ; still I never yet could 
 judge of the public mind. 
 
 The minglings of blue and purple are lovely. 
 
 William Ward 
 
 Ambleside, 
 Westmoreland, 
 August nth, 1867 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I think all you say is so very nice (and it makes 
 me hope more and more) about the colour and the 
 
 [83] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 "go." I will give you the means for a little holi- 
 day if you like to have one. 
 
 I'll write tomorrow. I'm tired today, and have 
 several things to say — which I shall say better by 
 waiting a day. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 (Ambleside, 
 Westmoreland) 
 
 August izth, 1867 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Write "Derwentwater Inn, Keswick," telling 
 me if you think a rest in the country would do you 
 good. I think you should not draw, but walk, and 
 rest, and eat, just as you feel inclined ; only, when 
 you are kept indoors by wet, practising such out- 
 line drawing as will not make you nervous or anx- 
 ious, but will confirm your hand. It ought to be 
 as unagitating as the practice of writing. 
 
 Yet, if you feel that you would be better for 
 some work from nature, I could suggest some 
 which would shew you what Turner meant. I 
 think a tour up or down the Meuse would be 
 highly useful to you, and to me. Suppose you go 
 and look at Luxemburg! The fortress you are 
 now drawing? And then walk up the bank of the 
 
 [84J 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Meuse, and draw Dinant for me ; the one you did 
 the yellow sunset of?* 
 
 I think you ought to fix your mind on this Tur- 
 ner work quite as the thing you have to do. You 
 know me well enough to trust me that I do not 
 say this to keep you captive for my own purposes. 
 If I thought you could be a successful artist, I 
 would not let you copy. But I think your art gifts 
 are very like mine; perfect sense of colour, great 
 fineness of general perception, and hardly any in- 
 vention. You might succeed in catching the pub- 
 lic with some mean fineness of imitation, and live 
 a useless, though pecuniarily, successful life; but 
 even that would be little likely. Whereas in ren- 
 dering Turner,t you will live a useful life; and 
 I think very probably, a highly prosperous one. 
 Always faithfully yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 * The Fortress of Luxemburg and the Sunset at Dinant are 
 Turner drawings which my father copied. W. C. W. 
 
 t "The work was both close and trying, and the copies pro- 
 duced were minutely examined by Mr. Ruskin with lens and 
 compasses. But I learned more of the marvellous subtleties 
 of Turner, and of nature than would have been possible by 
 any other means." By this time, 1867, the Turner copying 
 was well in hand. It is instructive from the point of view 
 of draughtsmanship and the mastery of colour which Ward's 
 later work shows, to consider carefuUy the sort of training 
 which, up to this time, these letters show him to have received. 
 
 [85] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 Denmark Hill, 
 
 Monday, iph Aug. (1867) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Please come tomorrow at 12. Everything shall 
 be then settled so that you and Allen may start as 
 soon as you please afterward. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Keswick, 
 lifth August, 1867 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I will write you a long (or sufficiently long) let- 
 ter this evening. Your work unquestionably 
 should be copying, and I have no doubt it will be 
 highly remunerative. But to copy rightly you 
 must continually draw from nature also.* Of 
 which more tonight. 
 
 Yours ever faithfully, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 * A thing little done by copyists and, even when they have 
 respectable powers, the reason for the general inferiority of 
 their work. 
 
 [86] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Keswick, 
 
 August i^th, 1867, 
 
 Evening 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am very glad that you feel disposed to work a 
 little during your holiday, it will be best so every 
 way. 
 
 The reason copying has been (justly) despised 
 is that people have never done it but for money 
 only, and have never therefore given their hearts 
 to it. I have known one or two exceptions (and 
 those have been generally ladies) happy and use- 
 ful in their work, — see note at end. 
 
 To copy Turner, and any one else rightly, you 
 must always know what he means; and this re- 
 quires constant looking at nature from his point 
 of view. There is no degradation in doing this 
 any more than in letting him, if he were alive, 
 teach you. For instance, your own point of view, 
 or De Wint's, or Constable's of a tree might relate 
 only to the green of its leaves, their quantity. Tur- 
 ner might disregard the colour, and imagine half 
 the leaves gone from the branches in autumn in 
 order to express the grace and anatomy of the 
 limbs. All these views are natural, — but in look- 
 ing at nature with a view to illustrate the work of 
 
 [87] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 any given Master, you must look at her not "with 
 his eyes" (which you cannot, and should not) but 
 from his place, and to his purpose. It will do you 
 great good to see more clearly what Turner means 
 by those odd touches and scratches in his outlines 
 of French towns and fortresses, and to see the char- 
 acter of the scenes he tried to render. 
 
 You and Allen are on good enough terms, are 
 you not? I should like to send you together; for 
 I want him to engrave your drawings, and I should 
 like you both to make memoranda on the spot of 
 the important features in scenes of Turner's views. 
 
 For instance, in that Dinant with yellow sun, — 
 I should like you to outline the two churches and 
 bridge, and any of the more interesting houses in 
 the towns, from the Turner point, — as near as you 
 could guess it. (Plate IX.) 
 
 Luxemburg I believe you can do nothing at, 
 the sentinels would stop you instantly. Turner 
 could draw with his hands in his coat-tails, or 
 while the sentinel walked the other way ; but you 
 cannot, and need not go out of your way to see it; 
 but if it comes easily into plan of tour, take it. 
 
 I hope to be at home by the 24th, and I should 
 like to see Allen and you, and that you should start 
 in the following week. I've no letter from Allen 
 
 [88] 
 
-/V UM 
 
 a;zzix_ ^ oCl/^ s2i u 
 
 -VJjS, <jVej^*V^ cKx^ ,__ J ^<<^^«ui. 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Plate IX 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 yet in answer to one I wrote on the subject. As 
 soon as I receive it, I will think over the best plan 
 of tour, and write to you again. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 If I had to make my own bread, I should at 
 once endeavour to get employment in copying the 
 great Italian frescos — while at least half my time 
 would then be spent in anatomical and other 
 studies from nature ; and I should feel myself quite 
 usefully and rightly employed putting my whole 
 energy into the business. I should do so, even 
 now, with far more satisfaction to myself than my 
 present desultory work, of teaching in various 
 ways, gives me ; but I do not feel justified in aban- 
 doning intellectual labour altogether, or giving up 
 the rudder which is in my hand. 
 
 (Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E.) 
 September Sth, 1867, 
 
 Sunday 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I got both your letters yesterday; they gave me 
 much pleasure. I was sure you would enjoy the 
 
 [89] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Meuse, and the Flemish architecture ; and, for my 
 own part, I can assure you that though for general 
 enjoyment in natural beauty, and for exercise, I 
 go to Switzerland; for purposes of art, I should 
 rarely go beyond the French and Flemish land- 
 scape and buildings. A river is, in most of its cir- 
 cumstances, far more picturesque than any lake. 
 You get two shores dovetailed together, instead of 
 a single independent one with an horizon-line; 
 and the motion of the water, and traffic, furnish 
 endless incident. 
 
 You will be much struck with Huy. But it has 
 been often drawn, and need not long detain you. 
 Give me a good account of the river above Dinant, 
 if it is interesting; it is little known. 
 
 I am very glad you get on so nicely together. I 
 will give what strength I have this winter to giv- 
 ing you both fair start in this Turner work. 
 
 Details of windows, roofs, boats, and the like, 
 will not bother you like whole landscape ; and will 
 explain much of Turner's obscure work. 
 
 Write to me often, but it need not be more than 
 a word or two, telling me how you get on. Of 
 course, when a wet day comes, I should like to 
 have more. Allen's letter also highly pleasing. 
 
 [90] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 With regards to you both, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 Mr. William Ward, 
 Poste Restante, 
 Dinant (Meuse), 
 Belgium. 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 September iSth, 1867 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I sent you a line yesterday to post office, Dinant; 
 and today I had yours from Dinant, which gives 
 me great pleasure (you could not have had an- 
 swer on 9th to yours of 6th). I've sent the cheque 
 to your wife, and, if you find the work is doing 
 you both good, you need not watch the decline of 
 your funds anxiously, as I am quite ready to pro- 
 long your stay somewhat, if you feel it would be 
 right that I should. 
 
 You cannot enjoy Turner's "fairy" work too 
 much. That is divine to the very day of his death. 
 
 But haste — ^weariness — Death, in its widest 
 sense, as it begins to seize on what is called old 
 age — all the effects of solitude, of absence of all 
 
 [91] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 human sympathy and understanding; and finally 
 sensuality proceeding clearly from physical dis- 
 ease of the brain, are manifest to me in those later 
 works in a degree which is proportionate to my 
 increasing reverence and worship of the divine 
 fact of them. 
 
 Allen is not to be jealous of my writing to you 
 instead of him ; — if he has any geological or other 
 questions to answer he shall have his turn. 
 
 I have no idea what that Dinant Rock is. Chalk, 
 I imagined, but am not sure. 
 
 You have two important views to analyze then ; 
 one mine in which I imagine the houses and the 
 cliflf are fine in detail, and the other the amber 
 sunset. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 (Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 October loth, 1867) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I'm afraid you've been plaguing the post office 
 in vain ; but I wanted to say a good deal, and now 
 can say nothing, except to send me word directly 
 what state the houses are in, under the cathedral, 
 
 [92] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 in the street between south transept and west front 
 — if any are left. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 J. R(uskin) 
 Ask tomorrow — I'll try and send another line. 
 Mr. W. Ward, 
 Poste Restante, 
 Rouen, (France) 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 October izth, 1867 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 This is only to keep you in countenance with the 
 Poste Restante. 
 
 Send me anything you have done, as soon as you 
 can, and I'll see how you are getting on. There 
 are still marvellous bits here and there in the old 
 streets. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 Mr. W. Ward, 
 
 Hotel d'Angleterre, 
 Rouen (France) 
 
 [93] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 October 26th, 1867 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I have just received the drawings, and am so 
 much pleased with them, that I leave it now 
 wholly to yourself to choose what you will do. If 
 you think Luxembourg can still be drawn in this 
 weather, you may go there; or anywhere else 
 where you feel inclined to go — not too far from 
 home. I will pay your expenses, and furnish your 
 wife with what she may further need while you 
 are away, if you will go on making drawings like 
 these of any architecture likely to perish. But if 
 you get nervous, or tired, come home, and go on 
 with the Turners. In any case, not staying out 
 beyond the end of November. 
 
 I enclose £20 cheque, which I have no doubt 
 the English bankers will cash if you show them 
 this note; if they won't, keep it and I'll send notes. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 John Ruskin 
 Mr. W. Ward, 
 Hotel de France, 
 Rouen. 
 
 [94J 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Denmark Hill, London, S. E. 
 
 October 31J/, 1867 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I have only time today to say that the house in 
 the square, with its beautifully well-judged omis- 
 sion of detail in shadow; and the tall street-view, 
 with the balcony on left, splendidly swept in, in 
 white; delighted me most. But all are good. 
 
 Try for a little more definiteness in outline; 
 they are a little too vague. Don't be afraid of a 
 falsely — strong line or two to express form, as long 
 as they are lines only. The eye always forgives 
 a well meant outline, but not a false colour, or a 
 careless form. Keep such outlines in colour har- 
 monious with their place. 
 
 You may write me whatever you like to talk 
 about, provided you write large and clear. You 
 may trust to the truth of my sympathy; but you 
 must remember that I am engaged in the investi- 
 gation of enormous religious and moral questions, 
 in the history of nations ; and that your feelings, or 
 my own, or anybody else's, at any particular mo- 
 ment, are of very little interest to me, — not from 
 want of sympathy, but from the small proportion 
 the individuality bears to the whole subject of my 
 enquiry. 
 
 [95] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 I have no affections, having had them, three 
 times over, torn out of me by the roots, — most 
 fatally the last time, within the last year. I hope 
 to be kind and just to all persons, and of course I 
 like and dislike; but my word "affectionately" 
 means only — that I should have loved people, if 
 I were not dead. 
 
 As a matter of practical fact, you may always 
 trust to my kindness in a due proportion, as you 
 stand among other people who require it; and to 
 my understanding sympathy in proportion also. 
 But I have no pleasure myself, now, in any human 
 relation. Knowing this, you will be able to un- 
 derstand a good deal in my ways of going on, 
 otherwise inexplicable. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 J, RUSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E, 
 
 November I2,th, 1867 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 The drawings are all safe, and very beautiful 
 they are ; — and the photographs, of great value to 
 me. The little view of the street and clock is a 
 
 [96] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 very lovely piece of tone, and everything you have 
 done is well. 
 
 At Luxembourg, however, do a few more pen- 
 cil outlines — they will contain more of what I 
 chiefly want, and be more quickly done. 
 
 If the enclosed cheque is unavailable, you have 
 time to write me for notes; but I always fancy 
 notes in more danger by post. I send a cheque to- 
 day of same amount to your wife. 
 
 And am, ever 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Mr. William Ward, 
 
 Hotel de Cologne, 
 Luxembourg. 
 
 I am very glad you stopped to see the Louvre; 
 it would be of use to you in every way. And now 
 you know what painting means, and can appreciate 
 those confounded Venetians. 
 
 (To Mrs. William Ward) 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 November i^th, 1867 
 
 Dear Mrs. Ward, 
 
 I enclose you a cheque for £10, with great 
 pleasure, at the same time, in being able to tell 
 
 [97] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 you that your husband is doing beautiful work; 
 and, I hope, will in future be happily confident 
 in his own powers; and sufficiently prosperous in 
 their exercise for his entire comfort, and yours. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 Put your name on the back of the cheque. 
 
 Hotel de France, 
 Abbeville, France, 
 Sept. yd (1868) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Would you please send me a line here, saying 
 whether you are doing any work for Mr. Norton,* 
 or have anything in hand that will need any time : 
 — and if you are not at any special work, or as soon 
 as you have done it, I should like you to come 
 over here for a few days to work on buildings 
 with me. 
 
 Write me word when I may expect you. There 
 is no hurry as I shall be here some time yet. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RuSKIN 
 Without further hearing from me, if you send 
 me word when you are coming, you may come as 
 
 * Professor Charles Eliot Norton. 
 
 [98] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 soon as you like. Bring what you have done for 
 me with you. 
 
 Denmark Hill, S. E. 
 [April, 1869] 
 My dear Ward. 
 
 I am not forgetting you. I have been terribly 
 overworked — but will assuredly make some 
 arrangement to get your drawings recommended 
 for sale this season. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 26th April, 1869 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Here are twenty Pounds: and please call at 
 Denmark Hill for a parcel addressed to you. 
 Eight drawings signed * by me on the back — of 
 those you have done. Call at Colnaghi's,t ask for 
 Mr. McKay, — say you come from me, — and I 
 hope you may arrange something about the draw- 
 ings satisfactory. 
 
 Every truly yours, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 * Ruskin, at this time, began the practice of signing Ward's 
 copies of Turner as a proof of their merit and value. 
 
 t The well-known picture dealers. 
 
 [99] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 ^th June, 1869 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 My address is Poste Restante, Verona, Italic. 
 I am more surprised and annoyed at the result 
 of my letter to Mr. McKay than you can be. And 
 after that — that anybody should say the public 
 care what I say or think! 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Verona, 
 
 July 6th, 1869 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 You may send any drawings you have by you at 
 present to America; I am very anxious that they 
 should be seen there, and become the means of 
 giving a more true impression of Turner than can 
 be received from engravings, or from any ordinary 
 copies. But send one or two finished vignettes in 
 transparent colour also (the Bolton * would be 
 very good), and explain the nature of the body- 
 colour studies yourself to the person to whom you 
 send them. 
 
 You may order small golden frames of my pat- 
 
 * Bolton Abbey, one of the vignette illustrations to Rogers's 
 Poems. 
 
 [100] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 tern from Foord for them; and send this letter to 
 accompany them, if you like. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 (The above, more formal, letter was enclosed 
 with the following: — ) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I send you cheque, and a letter which may be of 
 some use. Send them in nice golden frames, but 
 explain that your prices will not in future include 
 frames. I have no doubt, in spite of the dealers, 
 you will soon now establish connections enough to 
 keep you employed. 
 
 I think, at the prices pictures now fetch, you 
 may send these at 15 guineas; and oflfer to take 
 orders at 15 for the present year — but not after- 
 wards. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 November 1st, 1869 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I wish you had told me what you had been 
 doing. I am very much pleased with all the 
 
 [lOl] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 vignette drawings; all that you want now is deci- 
 sion of form. Draw everything you can from 
 nature in outline now, with a pen not finer than 
 this, and in one line — to give steadiness to your 
 hand. 
 
 I have ordered two soi-disant "Turners" * to be 
 left at the Gallery to your care, addressed to me. 
 Please tell me when they come, if I don't see you 
 before. 
 
 I shall see you this week, I hope. Here is your 
 cheque. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 Mr. Wm. Ward, 
 
 National Gallery. 
 
 Denmark Hill, S. E. 
 {^rd Dec, 1869) 
 
 Friday 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I never received your letter. I should not have 
 left it unanswered. 
 
 * "People were continually trying to get Mr. Ruskin's 
 opinion about their pictures in the hope that a treasure might 
 be found — ^which never happened so far as I know!" 
 
 William Ward. 
 
 [102] 
 
V/\<^~. C^U^ (tAXtTiA-Ji-^ ^U-^-JfJia-^ ViAa^*^ 
 
 '^^. 
 
 
 ii'-&-if^ y «*-v 
 
 
 Plate X 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 You can always employ yourself at Twicken- 
 ham advantageously in Pen outline. Your draw- 
 ings would now be exquisite with a little more 
 fineness of touch and edge. Draw trees, and 
 leaves (Plate X) real size in any quantity, with 
 one line. 
 
 And have you mastered my perspective?* I 
 may be able to make some use of your knowledge 
 soon. If you have not, set to work on that at once 
 or come here any day in the evening for a lesson. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 
 London, S. E. 
 December iSth, 1869 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Don't come out this evening, come Monday. 
 Please do me next this (Plate XI) of the Italy. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 J.R. 
 The birds are lovely. 
 
 * Ruskin's Elements of Perspective, published 1859. 
 [103] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Paris, 
 July zbth, 1870 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am sure there is much reason, in your long 
 hope deferred, for heart-sickness, considering all 
 the good work you have done. But don't lose 
 heart now, when I have just been able to bring 
 your work into true service at Oxford. 
 
 I shall be at home, D. V., on Thursday. If you 
 like to bring me the Martigny on Saturday even- 
 ing, it will be a pleasure to me to shake hands, and 
 — with good grounds — encourage you. 
 
 Always affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 August f)th, 1870 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 / don't want any of these leaves painted. You 
 are to work on them for practice, doing one or 
 two over and over again — fifty times, if needful. 
 
 Of course all painting — oil — ^water — fresco — 
 and everything, is done at one coup, when it is 
 right. But certain processes of colour require lay- 
 ing of two or three different colours over each 
 
 [104] 
 
ft.^ If ^'(H 
 
 
 
 
 Ma-, ^u^ 
 
 Plate XI 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 other; then the under one must dry first, etc. etc. 
 etc. All this mechanism you have to learn,* but 
 the French know hardly anything about it. 
 
 Of course Meissonier paints at a blow; and his 
 work is like a plasterer's, as all French work is. 
 Titian also paints at a blow — but his work is not 
 like a plasterer's. Titian paints with a sense of 
 mystery, and Meissonier with none; and Titian 
 with a sense of true hue, and Meissonier with no 
 more sense of colour than a common stainer of 
 photographs. 
 
 But learn of anybody how to do what they do, 
 
 —it will always be useful. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 Mr. W. Ward. 
 
 Tuesday zc,th {Oct., 1870) 
 My dear Ward, 
 Come tomorrow — Wednesday at 12. 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 Bring all with you that you have, and all that 
 you have of my things. I want some to use and 
 others I can change. 
 
 * The mechanism of oil-painting is intended, which my 
 father was then studying. W. C. W. 
 
 [los] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 November 2()th, 1870 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 If you come out here on Monday next, I can 
 glance at your method, and say if it will do. I'm 
 obliged to spare myself in eyes and thought — even 
 to the least minutes — just now; not from actual 
 illness, but that I may keep out of danger of it. 
 Come at two o'clock. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 1st February, 1871 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I send you cheque for £20. Do not be 
 troubled about Fors.* It will be heard of. All 
 you have to do is to say there is such a book; and 
 that you have my positive order not to send any 
 human being a copy without previous reception of 
 the sum of sevenpence. I have desired Allen to 
 
 * Fors Clavigera, a series of monthly letters "to the Work- 
 men and Labourers of Great Britain," published for Ruskin 
 by Mr. George Allen. The first number was issued in 
 January, 1871. 
 
 [106] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 send you a parcel of fifty of the new ones, on that 
 
 condition. Of the sevenpence, one penny is for 
 
 postage: one penny is for yourself — and fivepence 
 
 for me. 
 
 Always truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Write to the people whom you've sent the book 
 to and say I insist on my sevenpence or you'll put 
 me out in all my accounts. 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 May ijth, 1 871 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am glad you like Fors* People will find it a 
 very intrusive "dream" in a little while, if I live. 
 
 Yours always faithfully, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 * Carlyle wrote Ruskin of Fors: "it is incomparable; a 
 quasi-sacred consolation to me, which almost brings tears to 
 my eyes! Every word is as if spoken, not out of my poor 
 heart only, but out of the eternal skies; words winged with 
 Empyrean wisdom, piercing as lightning, — and which I do not 
 really remember to have heard the like of. Continue, while 
 you have such utterances in you, to give them voice." 
 
 [107] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Matlock, 
 July 2,0th, 1 871 
 
 My dear Ward^ 
 
 I could not at once answer about the drawings; 
 they required thought, and I have not yet much 
 strength for thinking. 
 
 There is great advance in your own, but you will 
 have to paint backgrounds of real things, how- 
 ever ugly. That Kingfisher would look very well 
 on a little straw. — The others, of which the shell 
 is the best, would need some more elaborateness; 
 the peacock's feather on a bit of tapestry, or the 
 like. 
 
 Of the Turners. The red sunset is admirable ; I 
 can scarcely feel any difference from the original, 
 and it is most precious to me. 
 
 The white town and storm is excellent, but a 
 less precious drawing in the original. The Lux- 
 embourg is better than the old one. I think the 
 near tone about right ; the distance I must examine 
 with you. 
 
 The distance of the (Plate XII) seems to me a 
 total failure in the hillside ; the town is good, and 
 this red passage with spotty boats. 
 
 Your son shall have his Herodotus at last. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 [108] 
 

 Plate XII 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 September gth, 1871 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am greatly pleased with these skies — but re- 
 gret that you have done so many, and not carried 
 a few farther. There must have been many in 
 reality with more complex forms. But you make 
 rapid progress now. 
 
 I enclose cheque. It doesn't matter, I suppose, 
 being in Crawley's name. I am still weak, but 
 gaining steadily. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Some of these skies will do for Oxford. The 
 butterflies, shells, etc., shall be left at the National 
 Gallery, with the skies I don't want. 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 
 November, 1 871 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am very greatly and sincerely grieved to hear 
 of your illness. Would you kindly tell me — or let 
 Mrs. Ward do so — exactly its symptoms. 
 
 [109] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 I was much pleased with your drawings, but am 
 almost broken down with work. I want to see 
 you, and to have some help from you in bird 
 drawing. 
 
 I hear you gave great help and delight to Miss 
 Jermyn. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. R(USKIN) 
 
 (To Mrs. Wm. Ward) 
 Denmark Hill, 
 
 London, S. E. 
 December 6th, 1871 
 
 My dear Mrs. Ward, 
 
 I am sincerely obliged to you for all your letters 
 ■ — now you need not trouble to write more. I shall 
 trust that your husband goes on well, and I hope 
 that at last my books and work are in a state which 
 will enable me to do some justice to his powers, 
 and put him and you in some increase of security 
 for future comfort. 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 [1 10] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 
 London, S. E. 
 December zgth, 1871 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am very thankful that you are better, and if 
 any of these new sunrises are done since your ill- 
 ness, you are in no wise weaker in style of work. 
 But I trust you will not expose yourself to risk 
 any more. I shall soon have some more hand col- 
 ouring for you' to do, which will be a great rest 
 to you as compared with Turner, or sunset work. 
 
 I most heartily wish you and your family a good 
 New Year. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 January 2<)th, 1872 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I will be at the National Gallery as nearly after 
 two as may be, on Thursday. 
 Your butterfly looks well at the Dudley.* 
 If you had got a pretty foreground to some of 
 • The Dudley Gallery Exhibition, 
 [III] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 those skies, they would have been sold there. But 
 you are getting on, fast. 
 
 Always yours faithfully, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Denmark Hill, S. E. 
 
 (5M Feb., 1872) 
 
 With best thanks, and congratulations. Take 
 
 care of your health. This Turner copy is lovely 
 
 and your own very beautiful. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 W. Ward, Esq. 
 
 (Corpus Christi College 
 
 Oxford, 
 
 February i/^th, 1872) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 In the large picture by Marco Marziale,* as 
 you turn into the Italian room, is a greyish white 
 damask sleeve with a dark pattern on it, like this 
 (Plate XIII) . I want the white unshadowed part 
 copied most accurately, with pattern, for me to 
 have a paper made for my new house.t Arrange 
 
 * The Circumcision, in the National Gallery, 
 t Brantwood, Coniston. 
 
 [112] 
 

 c?/^ 
 
 
 Plate XIII 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 with Mr. Severn (Heme Hill) to meet and con- 
 sult on Friday, at the Gallery. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 J. R(uskin) 
 
 Denmark Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 April nth, 1872 
 Keep up your spirit — all will go well, I do not 
 doubt 1 
 
 I have put four of your vignettes* into Oxford 
 school, permanently. 
 
 Write tomorrow to Geneva; or on Saturday or 
 Monday to Turin, Italy. 
 
 Yours always, 
 J. R(USKIN) 
 
 Go on making drawings of your own. 
 
 Siena, 
 May zjth, 1872 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I enclose you a cheque which I have no doubt 
 will serve the turn at present 
 The dealers will take anything they think likely 
 * Copies of the Turner vignettes. 
 
 [113] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 to catch the eye in a window. You must keep up 
 your heart. It is only this year that you have shewn 
 real power. You must not hope to sell at once, 
 unless you had the particular cleverness needed 
 for the public. But go on fearlessly, and quietly 
 perfecting your power of decision, lately devel- 
 oped. 
 Write, if you like, to me at Verona, 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 {Nov. 1872) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Impossible today! — but the drawings very beau- 
 tiful. You must come to Oxford and have a study 
 with me. Come whenever convenient, for a week. 
 I take 14 of the drawings to Oxford with me to- 
 day and return the rest. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 [Feb. 1873J 
 Keep up your heart. I have sent some of the 
 vignettes and body colours to America, fixing price 
 £20 the body colours and £25 the vignettes. I 
 hope to get some custom there for you. 
 
 [114] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 It is utter nonsense about coming to town or 
 showing things off. 
 
 It is knack and dodge of hand that you want, 
 and you have not — and that's my fault partly — 
 ever learned your business thoroughly. 
 
 I did not know this till I put you on the bridge 
 at Oxford. 
 
 BrANTWOOD, 
 CONISTON 
 {March nth, 1873) 
 Yes — that lock and mill are very fine — but blunt 
 in touch. 
 
 Thanks for Chinese. 
 
 I can't answer % of my letters, now. I was glad 
 to get one that wasn't merely on business. 
 
 Corpus Christ: College, 
 
 Oxford 
 {May itth, 1873) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am quite out of all knowledge of girl educa- 
 tion now.* Mrs. Baynes, Mount View Hamp- 
 stead, is an entirely worthy and prudent school- 
 
 * I believe my father had consulted him as to a school for 
 his daughter. W. C. W. 
 
 [115] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 mistress and makes her girls happy. I know no 
 other place — could only guess — and I never like 
 guessing. 
 Enclosed cheque. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire 
 
 {July 27th, 1873) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Folio received safe. Much good quality in the 
 
 work, but scarcely any progress. You will not 
 
 study in the only direction in which progress is 
 
 possible. You must draw in Daylight and with 
 
 perfectly firm lines. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire 
 
 August 3r</, 1873 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 These outlines are exactly what you should do. 
 Introduce no shading at present. Draw easy 
 things rightly. Never tire yourself, — and never 
 do wrong for an instant, knowingly. 
 
 [116] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 I had not seen the brass candlestick when I 
 wrote. It is so good that I am going to send it to 
 you to have a white background put to it, and then 
 I will put it in my Oxford series. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 J. R(uskin) 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire 
 
 {Aug. i^th, 1873) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am greatly pleased with these drawings. The 
 houses cannot be better (I mean, as practice). 
 The tree is most careful and beautiful. Try to ex- 
 press the outlines of masses with less labour. I 
 send cheque and the drawings shall come, if not 
 today, by Monday train. 
 
 Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire 
 August iSth, 1873 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Would you like to take a trip to France, alone, 
 and do some more servile copying work, there, 
 
 [117] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 from nature? If so, get ready, and I'll send you 
 funds and directions, Mont St. Michel the first 
 place. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 J. R(USKIN) 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire 
 {Aug. 21 St, 1873) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I send cheque for 50. Start as soon as you can. 
 Get to Mont St. Michel, and send me word if you 
 can draw in the cloister of it. If so make me a 
 coloured sketch of any part that comes pretty, and 
 pencil outlines of any piece of castle, town or 
 (monument) you like and send me your address, 
 there. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire 
 
 September loth, 1873 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am delighted with your letter, and account of 
 St. Michel. I've half a mind to come off to you. 
 
 [118] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 I couldn't draw when I was there, for convicts.* 
 What sort of Inn are you in? 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 J. R(USKIN) 
 If I brought Mr. and Mrs. Severn, how should 
 we lodge? 
 
 Corpus Christi College, 
 
 Oxford 
 
 November itth, 1873 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am very glad you are safe at home again. 
 
 I wrote again about a fortnight since to St. 
 Michel, asking how you were to get away; but 
 I suppose you did not get my letter. Heaven stop 
 the steam demon from helping either you or me 
 there! But, God willing, I'll see it this coming 
 summer. 
 
 I look anxiously for the drawings. That moon- 
 light walk must be wonderful. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. R(USKIN) 
 Mr. Wm. Ward. 
 
 * At that time a political prison. 
 [119] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Corpus Christi College, 
 
 Oxford 
 
 November 30^/1, 1873 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Your time has been spent instructively to your- 
 self, and usefully to me ; — though the cloister sub- 
 jects are much less interesting than I expected, and 
 though you have rather too strictly carried out my 
 wishes about outline study. A few colour senti- 
 mental bits at St. Michsl's would have been very 
 desirable. But the outline work is all excellent, 
 and I doubt not you will find the good of it. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Corpus Christi College, 
 
 Oxford 
 {Dec. 2, 1873) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am glad to hear the detail of your work and 
 will, when I come to town, give you the cloister 
 to work on a little. You never had more whole- 
 some exercise and it is in many ways good and valu- 
 able but I thought the place was prettier. 
 
 [120] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Send me the bits of efifect when done. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 J. R. 
 Cheque enclosed. 
 
 Arthur Severn's, 
 Herne Hill, S. E. 
 Day before Christmas Day 
 (December z^th,) 1873 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am intensely delighted with your sketches, 
 finished sketches I ought to say, just received from 
 Oxford. 
 
 They are a complete reward to me for all my 
 patience and work with you, as I hope they will 
 bring reward to you for all your patience and faith 
 in me. 
 
 Send me a complete schedule to the end of the 
 year of your "liabilities," as the elegant modern 
 English commercial school call them, at that 
 period. 
 
 Attend to your health, be as cheerful as you 
 can, and in the beginning of the year (after 12th 
 day at latest) I will set you to correct work. I 
 
 [121] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 must see you first, and you shall choose of several 
 things to be done what you like best. In the mean- 
 time make pencil outlines of any portion of cloud 
 that stays long enough, especially upper ones of 
 delicate ramification. This is the only work I 
 will prescribe at Christmas time. 
 
 I wish you all good, with your family, and am, 
 
 Your faithful Master, 
 
 John Ruskin 
 Mr. Wm. Ward. 
 
 Corpus Christi College, 
 
 Oxford 
 January zoth, 1874 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am entirely delighted with these things — they 
 are wonderful. You have quite a singular gift 
 for skies ; I never saw anything more subtle or lu- 
 minous. Go on drawing cloud form with pencil, 
 
 portions, not whole skies. Finesse of outline 
 
 of bits is what I want you to learn. This (Plate 
 XIV) wants nothing of being a quiet magnificent 
 drawing, except entirely careful outline of the 
 clouds, — and dark boat. 
 
 [122] 
 

 «^/cm c^t-t^^ .fv..,^^*^ ^ 23^ ^^^ 
 
 cUi^^ — •'-'^^ *6co^l (^2f*q^ — ^^ 
 
 Plate XIV 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 I'll clear off all your debts,* as per schedule, 
 directly. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 I'm at Heme Hill again for a day or two. I 
 shall be at the National Gallery on Thursday and 
 Friday, if you like to come. 
 
 Paris, 
 April 1st, 1874 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 There was nothing to be said about the outlines, 
 or I should have said it. Every man must find his 
 own way of expressing himself. I supposed you 
 were not satisfied with them, and would do better 
 as you got practice. One can't be guided at every 
 instant with any good result. 
 
 I enclose cheque for 37 pounds, and I hear of 
 
 60 pounds' worth sold for you in America. This 
 
 should carry you on some while. Write always 
 
 care of Arthur Severn. When the weather gets 
 
 a little warmer I want you to make some outlines 
 
 * After making fun — serious fun — of the word, or use of 
 the word "liabilities" in the preceding letter, Ruskin himself 
 naturally uses "debts." It bears witness to his hatred of all 
 super-elegant slang whether of business or aesthetic matters; 
 his fear that such was, as it usually is, a makeshift for cover- 
 ing up slovenly and indefinite thinking. 
 
 [123] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 for me at Montfort, near the Seine, between Paris 
 and Rouen — but have not time to write more 
 
 ^' Yours always affectionately, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Assist, 
 
 nth April, (1874) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am greatly vexed at my carelessness, but hope 
 the double enclosure now sent will put you afloat 
 for some time. About twenty pounds more are 
 coming — completing the price of iour of your 
 drawings at £21 each, but Mr. Norton thinks the 
 fifth will sell also. 
 
 Be very economical now that the skies begin to 
 open. Write to Mr. Severn that you have received 
 these cheques. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J, RuSKIN 
 
 Herne Hill, 
 Tuesday {Dec. itth, 1874) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Your parcel unfortunately did not arrive until 
 I had left Cowley but I will have it sent to Oxford 
 and write to you of it on Sunday. 
 You shall have loan of a Goodwin directly. But 
 [124] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 what you really want is firm pen form drawing 
 with attentive and worked chiaroscuro. Goodwin 
 can compose, and you cannot; but he may be eas- 
 ily beaten by you in pure drawing which has al- 
 ways its value. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 
 Corpus Christi College, 
 Oxford. 
 20th April, (1875) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I only did not answer through pressure and fa- 
 tigue. 
 
 Goodwin's method is not so good as your own. 
 But he has invention and you haven't. You ought 
 to know both these facts better than I. But facts 
 they are. 
 
 I'll try to see you this week at National Gallery. 
 Be there on Thursday afternoon at three. I may or 
 mayn't come. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 J.R. 
 
 (Oxford, Mdy ibth, 1875) 
 My dear Ward, 
 I am greatly delighted with your vignette, but 
 
 must compare it with original carefully. Be in the 
 
 [125] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Gallery on Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday. 
 I hope to come on the first and shall not fail, if 
 well, on the second at latest. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 July Z^rd, 1875 
 
 My dear Ward^ 
 
 I am delighted with these two last copies. The 
 moonlight seems to me quite perfect ; the other, in 
 the water and rocks, also admirable and most sat- 
 isfactory. But I suspect error in the lines of the 
 temple, and incompletion in the distant houses — • 
 this I will see to, however, myself. 
 
 I rejoice most of all in hearing that the work 
 seems to come easier to you. I cannot doubt, now, 
 if I am spared, being able to place for you copies 
 I can recommend so unqualifiedly. 
 
 Always affectionately yours, 
 
 J, RUSKIN 
 
 (Oxford, July z^th, 1875) 
 My dear Ward, 
 Send the vignettes to Brantwood. 
 
 [126] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 I hope you are doing your best? I don't like 
 their being done quite so fast. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 I shall not be at Brantwood for ten days, as I 
 post. Look over your work carefully. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 August Sth, 1875 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I more and more admire these vignettes of yours 
 as I examine them. They are very wonderful. I 
 am certain of being able soon now to get orders 
 for you — as my own work is coming into form for 
 beginning systematic issue of it. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire. 
 17th Sept., 1875 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am now greatly pleased with your work but 
 I can pass none till I have compared it at the Gal- 
 lery; can you tell me when and for how long it 
 
 [127] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 closes? I shall be coming south in about ten days, 
 and will come to the Gallery as my chief business 
 before going to Oxford, I leave you to make your 
 own terms with any outside employers, being al- 
 ways ready myself to take the vignettes at ten 
 guineas. This one I consider worth more but I 
 can't afiford more; so I hope you will sell it for 
 a fair price to somebody else. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Bolton Abbey, 
 September z^-th, 1875 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I'm very sorry my careless addressing kept my 
 letter from you. I forget whether it said that you 
 might make any arrangement you liked about the 
 Turner vignettes for the present ; but on the whole 
 I think you ought to insist, from the public, on 
 twenty guineas as average price, rising to twenty- 
 five — never more; and falling to fifteen — never 
 less; for all small drawings, square or vignette, 
 according to the work in them. And that if you 
 can't get those prices, you should fall back on me 
 and my ready ten guineas, and not take that lower 
 price from anybody else. Those that / buy, I shall 
 
 [128] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 work on myself, and perhaps then let you make 
 some other arrangement about them, — but can't be 
 sure till I see how your own business prospers. 
 
 My kind regards to your good hostess — or are 
 you with Miss Dundas just now? 
 
 Write to Heme Hill. I shall call on Wornum 
 (if he is in town) on Monday afternoon — but prob- 
 ably he is holiday making like the rest of us. 
 
 Truly yours always, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 {Oct. 31, 1875) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 It will be impossible for you to earn your bread 
 by Turner copying, as long as the world is under 
 this Egyptian plague, (now more terrible every 
 year for five years:) — you must just work in the 
 hour or two hours of the perhaps one, perhaps two 
 days in the week that let the sun shine as long. 
 I think a steady employment should now open itself 
 for you in hand colouring of examples of colour for 
 my published copying system. This last has long 
 been in my mind and I will now at once set about 
 it. Meantime take a piece of smooth (a Turner 
 vignette) paper the size of a page of Fors. Divide 
 it into 8 columns of twenty squares each, separated 
 
 [129] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S ^LETTERS 
 
 by seven white bars. In each column gradate 
 the colour named above it, from its full pitch in 
 the top square to white at the bottom, as evenly 
 as you can all the way. The black to go through 
 gray into white like the rest. 
 
 Do this not with extreme care, but roughly, to 
 let me see the effect and give further orders, and 
 send it to me to Oxford. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 J. R. 
 
 Corpus Christi College, 
 Oxford. 
 2nd Nov., 1875 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I enclose cheque. Keep the Forum* till next 
 Monday when I hope to be in National Gallery 
 by eleven, morning, at latest. 
 
 Tell the Photographic company to send their 
 account to me here. You can show or send them 
 this note. You are to sell the photographs,! post 
 free, mounted simply, for three shillings each after 
 I have seen them and sealed them as good : Mount 
 for post size as you say, and get boards ready for 
 
 * Turner's drawing. 
 
 t Ward was to act as Ruskin's agent for selling approved 
 photographs of pictures and buildings mentioned in his books. 
 
 [130] 
 
^e^ ^- "-^J^ ^iL*^^ •— !^ 
 
 ^ce/^ 
 
 
 Plate XV 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 dispatch and bring the sixty with you to the Gal- 
 lery on Monday. 
 
 The gradations are excellent — but they must be 
 as good as they possibly can be — for examples of 
 perfection, not of quickness or decision. Equal 
 therefore all the way thus (Plate XV), — not — . 
 
 And do them again without the black, therefore 
 a little wider. — Carmine, vermil(ion), cad- 
 (mium), gamboge, green, blue, violet. 
 
 Mix a prettier violet of cobalt and carmine 
 which will be more grammatical. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Corpus Christi College, 
 Oxford. 
 [Nov. 27, 1875) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I won't consider this an advance, but a proper 
 increase of price for the more laborious drawings. 
 You can't work in these days at the National Gal- 
 lery but can't you work at home in laying founda- 
 tions for other copies? rough work. Get half a 
 dozen of the Turner vignettes outlined and laid 
 in, taking exquisite care with one outline, and trac- 
 ing the rest from it. I want to make these draw- 
 
 [131J 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 ings known like engravings. You may get on much 
 faster so. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 The gradations won't do. I must try them my- 
 self, and see where the difficulty lies. 
 
 (London, Dec. 6th, 1875) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 You are not to take a farthing less than 15 
 guineas. You can't do the work properly for less; 
 and you must be content with my ten, till people 
 come to my terms. It is not possible that my words 
 should be of utterly no value, when once the Oxford 
 school is fairly understood. If you are going to 
 take anything less than 15 guineas I am your buyer. 
 As soon as people will give that, I'll let you have 
 some of your vignettes back, and you shall have 
 the extra 5 on them. Meantime, send me the last, 
 Isola Bella, down to Broadlands. 
 
 Get me the photographs marked with X in en- 
 closed list, and send them to Broadlands with your 
 vignette. 
 
 You must be very careful in packing those 
 
 [132] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 mounted photographs. Crawley has done them 
 too hastily I see. They should not have warped. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 J. R. 
 
 {Jan. loth, 1876) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am very glad of your more cheerful letter and 
 really hope better times are coming for you. 
 
 The one thing that beats me is the weather. It 
 drives me into mere despair and spoils my writing 
 and stops my drawing. But I'll be at National 
 Gallery on Wednesday if you'll bring the photo- 
 graphs to sign. 
 
 Always affectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 
 Corpus Christ: College, 
 Oxford. 
 February zgth, 1876 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 You may order a hundred* on condition of strict 
 examination, and return of all copies inferior to 
 my pattern. 
 
 * Photographs. 
 
 [133] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 If this accursed weather stops photography, just 
 when I want to use it, the Devil really deserves 
 some credit — five per cent, at least. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Corpus Christi College, 
 Oxford. 
 March loth, 1876 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am very glad of your note respecting the 
 mounting, and very willingly leave the matter in 
 your hands. But have you got any of the new 
 photos yet? I will look for those you sent here, 
 and send, if findable. I shall be in town, I hope, 
 in about ten days. 
 
 What you say of Fors much interests and pleases 
 me — also of snails. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 July 22rd, 1876 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I must be in town now in about a fortnight, and 
 will look over everything you can muster. Just 
 
 [134] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 let me know what arrangements, for closing, etc., 
 are to be made at the National Gallery, that I 
 may not come at a wrong time. 
 
 Send a Velasquez photo to Miss Louise Blandy, 
 57 Gloucester Place, Hyde Park. 
 
 I have tantalized you and myself about this 
 Ariadne long enough.* I've set at the proofs now, 
 for the last touch up, I trust, at last. 
 
 What arrangements have you finally made about 
 the price of vignettes and squares — in case I say 
 anything about price? 
 
 Always affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Venice, 
 
 September igth, 1876 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 The entry at Stationers' Hall is an excellent 
 idea,t but I won't part with the copyright of any 
 books or drawings. Enter it as mine, and act as 
 
 * In Ariadne Florentina mention was made of Ward's copies 
 of Turner. 
 
 t This refers to Ruskin's drawing of the Kingfisher, which 
 had been photographed to be used as one in the series of illus- 
 trations. 
 
 [135] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 my agent in these things, as Mr. Allen is for my 
 books. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 
 J, RUSKIN 
 How is that son of yours going on? 
 
 Venice, 
 
 February ijth, 1877 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am very glad of your letter, and will assuredly 
 make use of you as you suggest. I always intended 
 to do so, and it would have been done by this time 
 if this new Venice work had not hindered. 
 
 Burgess* has a photographf doing of a pencil 
 Turner, Bonneville, which I shall be thankful to 
 hear is in your hands. 
 
 You've got from me lots of signed photos, haven't 
 you?| The rest will come soon. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 * Arthur Burgess, the wood engraver. 
 
 t It was never made. 
 
 % The photographs signed by Ruskin were four — Madonna 
 and Child, by Filippo Lippi; bas relief of Leucothea; Ma- 
 donna and Child, by Titian; Infanta Margaret, by Velasquez. 
 They are referred to in Fors Clavigera. 
 
 [136] 
 
ii 
 
 '^%/ 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Venice, 
 26th Feb., 1877 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 It is really very bad of me not to have attended 
 to your good clients before, but I am very cautious 
 just now about over work and am at my wits — 
 proper-end every day with what I'm doing here. 
 
 R. T. H. Bruce,* 
 
 Do whichever you feel yourself you can at pres- 
 ent do with best spirit. 
 
 1. Tell's Chapel, Italy, 
 
 2. St. Maurice, Italy. 
 
 3. Vignette to Jacqueline (Swiss cottages) Poemst 
 
 Thos. Russell,t 
 
 The avenue (I forget its name! AlasM) beside 
 Seine of "Rivers of France."^ I've long wanted 
 a duplicate of this to be made. (Plate XVI). 
 
 Two more parcels of photographs sent Wednes- 
 day. 
 
 J.R. 
 
 * A gentleman who had given an order for a Turner copy, 
 t Roger's Poems. 
 
 % The drawing intended is Turner's "View on the Seine 
 between Mantes and Vernon," in the Rivers of France Series. 
 
 [137] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Venice^ 
 
 May 1 2th, 1877 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 By some mischance I mislaid your letter till 
 yesterday — came on it by lucky chance only. But 
 I am ordering sets to be made for you of all photo- 
 graphs mentioned at any length in Fors, and of the 
 two capitals. A hundred impressions of each will 
 be ready this next week, and dispatched before I 
 leave Venice — on the 23rd. 
 
 I will send you word of price and all. The 
 larger one enclosed is the Sheffield No. 5; the 
 smaller (January frying fish, March with rough 
 hair) is the size of No's 6 and 7. No. 5 costs a 
 shilling, here; and the other fivepence — so you 
 can guess. I send none dearer here than a shill- 
 ing, yet. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 I will put you in communication with a good 
 agent here. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 {Aug. 2d, 1877) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Nothing will "companion" that sunny river- 
 [138] 
 
Plate XVII 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 side,* quite, but the one with bridge under trees on 
 the right is very glorious in its way. Look at this 
 and the Rouen with rainbow and rosy boats and 
 avenue-^and see if you think you can do either. 
 The one sketched above (Plate XVII) is fearfully 
 freehand. — ^You might try it however, and if Mr. 
 Russell does not like it do the other. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 Oct. 1st (1878) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I hope the enclosed will obtain the permission 
 you want, and will you please first finish, or as 
 soon as possible, the Via Mala or St. Gothard sub- 
 ject and send it to me down here to look at. I 
 can't pass it, of course, till I see the original but 
 want to have it by me. 
 
 Yours always, 
 J. R. 
 
 * The "View on the Seine" referred to in the letter of 
 Feb. 26th. 
 
 [139] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 {^fh Oct., 1878) 
 Dear Ward^ 
 
 The Tell's Chapel you shall have, with pleasure, 
 and possibly the Fluelen, but I can't at present an- 
 swer about that, till I see your Heysham in which 
 I am deeply interested. Your St. Gothard shall 
 come tomorrow. Note my flourishes of white 
 on the glass, as indicating what I fancy Turner 
 did to some extent. I hope they haven't rubbed off 
 his chalk in cleaning or shifting frames!!? 
 
 Always yours, 
 J.R. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 October 20th, 1878 
 
 Dear Ward^ 
 
 The drawing* is safe here, and I am delighted 
 with it, — but much puzzled at not finding more 
 white chalk lines rounding the clouds — I thought 
 they were daubed on at the edges. 
 
 * Ward's copy of Turner's St. Gathard Pass. 
 [140] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Write me word about this before I sign the 
 drawing, as I should like to put a ^%ery much ap- 
 proved" — but am afraid of wishing afterwards to 
 "chalk it out." 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 March ^th, 1879 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Thanks for nice note from Miss K. I hope 
 your son is going on well. 
 
 You can have the Bellinzona when you like. 
 But I think I see myself letting the Rouen* travel 
 any more ! ! Or Flu el en/* 
 
 I think I can keep you quite well employed at 
 National Gallery. I shall be up in town, D. V., 
 in three weeks and will choose some I want for 
 myself. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 * Turner drawings which belonged to Ruskin. 
 
 [141] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 April 22rd, 1879 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I don't know when I've had so much pleasure as 
 in those paper bits about my dear Bishop ;* thank 
 Mrs. Ward ever so much for them. 
 
 I shall be delighted if that Spanish gentleman 
 will take the trouble to translate the Mornings.t 
 I wish they were mornings at Madrid, though — 
 or Granada — how does he think Spaniards will 
 care? 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 Mr. Wm. Ward, 
 2, Church Terrace, 
 Richmond, 
 Surrey. 
 
 Easter Sunday 
 {Apr., 1879) 
 My dear Ward, 
 I send you the signed Leucotheas today. They 
 
 * Some newspaper cuttings referring to Bishop Colenso. 
 t Mornings in Florence. 
 
 [142] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 are very fine proofs. Among them you will find 
 two bits of oak spray I've just done which would 
 make nice little drawing lessons if photographed, 
 and I will look out some sketches of better things 
 for you. I could not try in town nor do anything 
 there but must be up again in the course of the sum- 
 mer. As for choice of Seines to match the two 
 you have done, — it is not to be done, but the Hon- 
 fleur and Caudebec would make another lovely 
 pair. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 J, RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 July gth, 1879 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 lam delighted with the Griffin,* and shall be 
 able to refer to it with great pleasure — and also to 
 the oak sprays,t in time. Fesole has been stopped 
 
 * A photograph of Ruskin's drawing of a mediaeval griffin 
 engraved for Modern Painters. 
 
 t Also a photograph of a dravi^ing by Ruskin. 
 
 [143] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 by Deucalion* and Botany. What has stopped 
 Heysham}^ 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 How is your son getting on? 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 {Aug. 26th, 1879) 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I am signing your prints and you shall soon have 
 them. The Giotto Towers are splendid. It is 
 an immense power being able to produce such. 
 The Crucifixion I very good. I don't want any 
 special form of it, just a little clear one that will 
 take no room. Send me account for photographs of 
 griffin, plants, etc. 
 
 Always yours affectionately, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 * The Laws of Fesole and Deucalion, books which Ruskin 
 was issuing in parts. 
 
 t Ward was copying Turner's Heysham. The original 
 drawing belonged to Ruskin. 
 
 :|: Photograph of a study by Ruskin from Tintoret's picture. 
 
 [144 J 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 5fA Sept., '79 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I hope to be up in town on the 15th but have 
 telegraphed for the drawings as I must examine the 
 Heysham in time for you to make all necessary 
 corrections. 
 
 You are the best judge how far you can afford 
 to do such large drawings at that price. I wish 
 I could afford to hold them for you, and they 
 should not go so. I send you photographs signed 
 today but the Titians are a bad lot, and you must 
 not send me any more such. Why do you let the 
 people impose on you? 
 I enclose post order for photographs and am 
 Always affectionately yours, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 September gth, 1879 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 This Heysham is entirely wonderful to me — 
 this copy; far the most surprising you've done yet; 
 and faultless, as far as can be, I've nothing to 
 
 [145] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 trouble you with, except the softening of one line 
 of ground; and a little finer marking of the 
 branches in willow tree. You shall have it back 
 tomorrow. I must put my signature very plain 
 under the imitated Turner's, or it could not be 
 honestly let out of our hands. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 This note missed post yesterday ; and, after fur- 
 ther examining the copy, I am so entirely pleased 
 by it that I won't trouble you by sending it back. 
 I will touch the two places myself, and alter 
 "J. M. W. Turner" into "W. Ward after Turner"; 
 and send the drawing to Liverpool, at your friend's 
 order. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 J. R(USKIN) 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 Sunday i^th Sept. (1879) 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 The drawing goes to Mr. Ross* today, very 
 
 prettily, though I say it, altered from "J. M. W. 
 
 * Dr. Denman Ross. 
 
 [146] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Turner" to "W. Ward after J. M. W. T." with 
 "seen with delight J. Ruskin" below. 
 
 All that you tell me of Mr. Ross gives me ex- 
 treme pleasure. I got the telegram too late yes- 
 terday to send the drawings. I had no explicit 
 instructions before. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 {Sept. i^th, 1879) 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 Heysham went ofif by fast train to L.pool (Liv- 
 erpool) yesterday afternoon, so I trust all will be 
 right. I am so very glad it is a friend of Mr. Nor- 
 ton's who has got it. 
 
 I was still more impressed by the skill of your 
 work in the course of retouching. The extreme 
 caution necessary to preserve the harmony made 
 me wonder how you ever had got the drawing fin- 
 ished. 
 
 But do you really think you can make anything 
 of Fluelen? You know it is clear wash over %ths 
 of the surface, and even the stippling audaciously 
 
 [147] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 frank. You might produce a charming approxi- 
 mation, but I don't think a copy possible.* 
 
 However, I'll bring it up for you to look at. 
 Can you be at the National Gallery on Friday? — 
 and if so — at yi past eleven? 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 Canterbury, 
 zbth Sept., '79 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Your letter of the 24fh (which I received only 
 this morning) was a sorrowful astonishment to me: 
 for I had concluded from the firm and patient 
 work of that tempera picture that your son was 
 gaining health. f 
 
 But in most respects I cannot feel that you stand 
 in need of consolation. To me, personally, your 
 letter is a joy and strength, in assuring me further 
 and with so great clearness of the existence of a 
 spiritual world. Nor do I think the happiest and 
 
 * See letter of May 17th, 1882. 
 
 t This letter relates to the unexpected death of my brother, 
 Thomas Lawrence Ward, already mentioned in the memoir 
 of my father. The "tempera picture" was a copy, which he 
 had begun, of Filippo Lippi's Annunciation, in the National 
 Gallery. W. C. W. 
 
 [148] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 most prosperous fate to be chosen, if with no hope 
 of the future, before such blessed and such tempo- 
 rary sorrow as this of yours. 
 
 I do not understand from your note whether the 
 boy said himself, "silver to silver creep," etc., and 
 I want to know where these lines are.* For the 
 rest it seems to me things are all so darkening — 
 and brightening round us that you may not have 
 long to wait. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 I am at Miss Gale's 
 
 Burgate House 
 Canterbury 
 if you care to write again. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 March izth, 1880 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I shall rejoice in seeing the Fluelen, and in giv- 
 ing you a paragraph in the new Catalogue. I 
 think you are sure of me at Heme Hill on Satur- 
 
 * "Silver to silver creep and wind, 
 And kind to kind." 
 The lines are in Emerson's poem, "Celestial Love." W. C. W. 
 
 [149] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 day, if you come early enough. Breakfast at 9 
 or 1/4 P^st, would be best. 
 
 Giotto not forgotten* — but the trouble these 
 little things give me, when I'm busy at big ones, 
 you couldn't conceive! 
 
 Eiver affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire. 
 
 April Jth, 1880 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am so glad you like that drawing. t I think 
 it a most precious one, and am most anxious to 
 see it copied. But please make the sky just the 
 least bit more forcible. I am sure it is a little 
 faded, and I cannot now myself see the white cloud 
 at all except in the strongest lights. You may quite 
 safely give it a very definitely greater relief, keep- 
 ing the floating near clouds much as they are, — 
 but, throughout, allowing a little more, rather 
 
 * This refers to the Preface Ruskin promised to write for 
 a series of photographs of the sculptures of Giotto's Tower, 
 illustrating Part VI of Mornings in Florence. They were 
 issued, with the preface, in 1881. 
 
 t Turner's Aiguillette, owned by Ruskin. 
 
 [150] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 than less, weight to the defining shadows in sheep, 
 rocks and clouds. 
 
 Thanks for the Giotto references. I'm delighted 
 that the Fluelen has been so satisfactory. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 July Sth, 1880 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I am greatly delighted and interested by your 
 account of Mrs. Derbishire * — it is a great encour- 
 agement to me to know of such friends in America. 
 I am sure she will be able to do more good with 
 her land than I should, but I hope I shall see her 
 some day. It will be three weeks yet before I get 
 to London, and then not to lecture. Send Mrs. 
 Derbishire's cheque to St. George's credit at the 
 Union Bank. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 * An American, who was interested in Ruskin's philanthropic 
 schemes. She gave Ward £10. for the funds of St. George's 
 Guild, and offered two hundred acres of land in America. 
 
 [151] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire. 
 
 23r</ July, 1880 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 The enclosed letter from Mr. Horsfall * gives 
 me much pleasure and I should like you to set to 
 work directly on things you feel sure of doing 
 well. What I should like best myself, if you can 
 do it, would be one of the Tivolis, the one with St. 
 Peter's on horizon, if you think you can manage 
 it. (After that Heysham I think you may do any- 
 thing!) and the St. Maurice Vignette, or the 
 Aosta, or the Farewell, whichever you feel most 
 disposed to do. Or you might do one of those and 
 a body colour Seine and let Mr. Horsfall choose. 
 If you're not tired of the golden avenue do that 
 and if Mr. H. likes the vignette better I could take 
 the avenue for Sheffield. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 * Refers to an appreciative order for one of Ward's Turner 
 copies. 
 
 [152] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 July 2^th, 1880 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I hold for the Tivoli — the others teach nothing. 
 People who looked at that, must learn. Send Mr. 
 H. * the Aiguillette to look at; and, if he likes it at 
 all, say he shall have the original to compare it 
 with. 
 
 Burgess is doing the Photos for lecture,t but 
 he's abroad just now. Say they'll be ready by end 
 of year. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Herne Hill, S. E. 
 
 {Nov. 2/[.th, 1880) 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 Of course I'll do that, but I want you to write 
 
 for me all you know now of Turner's modes of 
 
 work to add to, or change, what I've said.:j: 
 
 Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 J. R. 
 
 * Mr. T. C. Horsfall, referred to in the preceding letter. 
 
 t A Caution to Snakes, delivered at the London Institution 
 in 1880. 
 
 I My father wrote for Ruskin a detailed analysis of the 
 method employed by Turner in his body-colour drawings on 
 
 [153] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Do this quickly, as shortly as you can, of course, 
 but all you know. 
 
 If you have nothing to do, begin one of this 
 drawing for me. 
 
 Herne Hill, S. E. 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 Nothing can be better than this general state- 
 ment of yours, but I should be very grateful for a 
 complete account of the actual process of all the 
 parts in the avenue one which you copy (Plate 
 XVni) so beautifully; how the trunks are laid on 
 the sky, how the red windows into the houses, 
 etc.. etc.* 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 
 grey paper, selecting for his example the "View on the Seine 
 between Mantes and Vernon" already referred to in these let- 
 ters. The information was, I believe, desired by Ruskin for use 
 in an elaborate Catalogue of the Turner Drawings in the Na- 
 tional Gallery, which he was at this time projecting; but his 
 plan was frustrated by ill health, and the short catalogue which 
 he published in 1881 did not admit of such detail. My father's 
 analysis was subsequently printed, in the Library Edition of 
 Ruskin's V^orks, Vol. XIII, pp. 613-614. W. C. W. 
 
 * See note to preceding letter. 
 
 [1 54 J 
 
HERME HILL. 
 S.E. 
 
 
 
 Plate XVIII 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 December Sth, 1880 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 This account is admirable, just what I want. 
 I've lost a note of yours that came yesterday — was 
 it about the loan of new drawings? I'll get one 
 off to you this week — it's a small body-colour, of 
 which I've long wanted one for myself to hand 
 about — and I'll send you a big one after you've 
 done it. 
 
 Catalogue getting on, but tires me. But I think 
 you'll all like it — especially that good Oldham.* 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J, RUSKIN 
 
 {lyth Dec, 1880) 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 There's one of the Roman sketches, I think, 
 with Bernini's portico, somehow like this, I've lost 
 its number. 
 
 Also please tell me, with as much outline as the 
 above! what numbers 251, 260, and 267 are like. 
 I believe we shall have it out before Christmas.f 
 
 * William Oldham, curator of the Turner water colours in 
 the National Gallery. 
 
 t This refers to Ruskin's catalogue of the Turner drawings 
 in the National Gallery, 1881. 
 
 [155] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 I'm glad you like little Chalky.* You needn't 
 put in the double moon, (a sketch made after din- 
 ner?! — you'll see it's lovely by candlelight.) 
 Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 J.R. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 1st January, 1881 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I wish you a happy and busy New Year; and 
 hope to promote both your pleasure and work not 
 a little, but I knocked myself up with trying to 
 finish catalogue for Christmas, and am only now 
 setting to work on it again. But it is nearly done. 
 
 I have no note in my list of two drawings of the 
 Swiss sketch series, the first the original of my 
 own St. Gothard, very brown with lots of stones; 
 the second a beautiful and far carried Kussnacht, 
 with white village over golden lake (Plate XIX). 
 realized for Mr. Munro.f Please tell me the 
 numbers of these. You will see in the new history 
 
 * The body-colour drawing by Turner mentioned in the 
 preceding letter. 
 
 t One of Turner's earliest patrons. 
 [156] 
 

 ^f-u^ (JJbl ^i^^-^ '<^ ~~t^ -^^^^-^^ 
 
 Plate XIX 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 book* your work cut out for you in selling pho- 
 tographs. I am writing today to Amiens to pro- 
 vide you with starting lot. Weather, here, more 
 abominable and oppressive than I've ever known 
 it. 
 
 Ever ajfectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire. 
 
 2nd Jan., 1881 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I believe you will find the people to whose prin- 
 cipal this enclosed letter is addressed, very pleas- 
 ant correspondents. They keep the best shop in 
 Amiens, and will be agents for my book. A father 
 and daughter (or niece) and an aunt I fancy, or 
 it may be just papa and mama and miss, but they're 
 all nice. 
 
 The people who are doing the photographic 
 negatives for me however are an original old Ger- 
 man and his two daughters, Mr. Kaltenbacher, 
 5 and 6 Galerie de Commerce, Amiens. 
 
 * Ruskin's Bible of Amiens. A series of photographs from 
 the Cathedral was issued to illustrate this book. 
 
 [157] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 I'm going to send them a poker up today. 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire. 
 
 {Jan. Sth, 1881) 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 Neither of these sketches you mean, are those I 
 miss. My St. Gothard you would know in a mo- 
 ment, and the other is finished like a drawing, a 
 white village over a golden lake. 
 
 Jowett has the first half of catalogue today cor- 
 rected and is to send you two copies (one for Old- 
 ham) which please compare with numbers and 
 correct where wrong. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 
 The (Plate XX) is near Altorf. Mine is all 
 brown and near Faido. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire. 
 
 March 2ist, 1881 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I've been pretty well past the rough water this 
 week back; but have not cared to do much since 
 
 [158] 
 
ui A N..,4.. ft..^ , _ u^L^ c€zz '^^ — 
 
 
 Plate XX 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 I got out of it. I am coming round gradually; 
 and send you today some parcels of Amiens photos 
 — which I should be glad if you would count and 
 get mounted. You will see that they are nearly all 
 of the central wooden Fleche — the south transept 
 — and its porch; there is only one of the grand 
 west front, of which I am ordering more. 
 
 I must try to arrange some system of consecutive 
 numbering now, for all the photos you sell. 
 
 The Turner Catalogue is a load on my con- 
 science, but I can't touch it just now. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 April T,rd, 1881 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I am greatly relieved by your proposal to finish 
 the Catalogue for me. I will look out the proof 
 sheets tomorrow — it is short post today, and I must 
 settle about photos. 
 
 Yes, keep your list continuous and unchanged, 
 and add as I name other plates. Send me those 
 four capitals to look at, — that "Porta della Carta" 
 must be a wrong reference. I have got myself 
 
 [159] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 nearly into working trim, but eyes not strong 
 enough to examine your drawing yet. 
 
 Don't mount the new photos, of course, if people 
 like them better as they are! 
 
 I will write out a list of nine more varieties of 
 subject, from 41 to 50, and then we will begin 
 Amiens with 51, the three porches of the west 
 front; 52, the south porch; 53, the south porch and 
 transept; 54, the central Fleche. I must get prices 
 from the shop, unless you know them. 
 
 What am I to give you for this Rhine copy? 
 It can be retouched at any time. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 la^th April (1881) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am not forgetting you. I am choosing a set of 
 twelve out of the thirty-six caps of the arcade,* 
 and writing a list of all, straight, with references 
 to Stones of Venice and a few more useful com- 
 ments on the twelve I choose. Three, of the four 
 you have, are among the best. The other nine I 
 will send you proofs of, which you will have to 
 get copied in a systematic and regular way, and it 
 
 * Ducal Palace, Venice. 
 
 [160] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 will go hard but I shall get custom for you. The 
 fact is, if I had died in any of these illnesses, you 
 would have felt your own feet and used them, but 
 hitherto I've not only left you unhelped but kept 
 you from helping yourself. 
 
 I do think however you might have done, with 
 Bunney's* help, something better to illustrate the 
 Stones of Venice, whether I was dead or alive. I 
 shall have all ready for you by the end of week 
 and shall send off on Easter Monday. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 
 As soon as you can get to Gallery again, I want 
 a copy for myself of the Rouen Cathedral fagade, 
 but chiefly for the color and effect. You may do it 
 fast and easily. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 Sunday, iBth April, 1881 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I send you £20 but you must look upon the 
 difficulty of this study simply as practice — you 
 
 * John W. Bunney, a pupil and assistant of Ruskin's. He 
 was then living in Venice. 
 
 [161] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 cannot charge your customers for the things you 
 had to learn, still less your teacher! 
 
 I did your drawing injustice in my first languor 
 of sight. It is very good and, like the rest of your 
 work now, very wonderful in accuracy. 
 
 However, for income, I fancy the sale of photo- 
 graphs etc. in connection with my books may be- 
 come a more sure one, but I must get you into good 
 order. 
 
 The large photographs I sent you are first hand. 
 They are not from Gorges but M. Kaltenbacher, 
 6 Galerie de Commerce, Amiens, and I will get 
 the prices for you. The main thing is to get my 
 own book out. 
 
 Of the four capitals you must at once cancel this 
 "Porta della Carta." Where you got it I can't 
 think. I will send you a proper list of all. But 
 those with the bills stuck on them should be re- 
 served for special customers, in relation to Tors. 
 
 I cannot sign any more photographs. My hand 
 has written enough and it is at last — tired. I re- 
 turn the parcel unopened. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 
 [162] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire. 
 Easter Tuesday. 
 {April igth, 1881.) 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 An unexampled following of fine days, and the 
 currant leaves coming out, have checked me a 
 little on the marble leaves — but they're very nearly 
 ready now, — only first let me know what you can, 
 to your present knowledge, get done in reduplica- 
 tion. If I send you twelve, i.e., nine more of the 
 size of your little ones, can you get them repeated 
 from my examples of the same size — or larger — 
 with good precision? I can send you larger ones, 
 but all my larger prints seem partly faded. I think 
 if you would call on Mr. Spooner in the Strand, 
 and shew him this note, he might be able to supply 
 me with some new proofs of better colour. 
 
 Anyhow, you shall have a list of the 36 caps, 
 with comments on the twelve.* Or, I could make 
 out a set of twenty — if you liked to risk so many. 
 
 How wide is the circle of my patrons, and yours 
 — after my forty years of talk? 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 * A project for photographs of the Ducal Palace (Venice) 
 capitals with special notes by Ruskin. It was not carried out. 
 
 [163J 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 {Apr. 2oth/Si) 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 At last I send you the twelve photographs with 
 list enclosed and my memorandum of the entire 
 series. If you can substitute any better views of 
 these capitals you may yet — but your sages and 
 fates can't I think be bettered. 
 
 When you have got the series ready, send me 
 proofs and I'll add a word or two to each with a 
 bit of preface. 
 
 I can't break up my room just now as I am ner- 
 vous and ill enough still and I must manage to 
 find you a living without spoiling my own bed- 
 room. 
 
 Have you begun the Rouen? 
 I shall send you when I come on them your 
 views on the Meuse to be penned in. They are 
 too faint (for my old eyes at least). 
 
 I think that gentleman may like to have Mr. 
 Severn's copy of St. Gothard. It is carefully done, 
 and I want to make copying more understood as 
 artists' work. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 
 [164] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 May zoth, 1881 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 It is a great delight to me to hear of the Rouenh 
 being finished. I wrote to ask the price of the 
 Amiens photographs a month ago — but the man 
 who does them is the unmanageablest log, with 
 good timber in it, only no pith, I've ever chopped 
 at. I make another try today. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 May 25th, 1 88 1 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 Enclosed cheque for £25 is 15 for Rouen, and 
 ID for your Giotto expenses, which you may put 
 to the credit of anything you do for me when the 
 book refunds you — if it does. 
 
 Enclosed also, two pages of preface,* which I 
 hope are fairly clear-written, and to the purpose. 
 I have just given to be packed for rail or post all 
 
 * To The Shepherd's Tower, a series of photographs from 
 the sculptures on Giotto's Tower in Florence. See note to 
 letter of March 12th, 1880. 
 
 [165] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 the materials for Catalogue* in lump; which, if 
 you will put them into form, at Aylesbury — I have 
 written to Jowett to do your bidding there — I'll 
 glance over in the final proofs. There must be 
 an apology to Eastlaket for the recast of every- 
 thing, anyhow. 
 
 The Rouen is well worth £15 to me, and figures 
 do well enough till I come to town to look. 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Herne Hill, 
 London, S. E. 
 May 17th, 1882 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 In enclosing you cheque for the very moderate 
 charge on Bridge of Meulan,X let me very fully 
 congratulate you on the extreme skill you have 
 now acquired in rendering Turner's best and most 
 finished water-colour work. Your large copy of 
 my Fluelen achieved what I had thought impos- 
 sible in the facsimile of his clearest and purest 
 washes of broad colour; and the drawing of More 
 Park, on which I saw you yesterday engaged, was 
 
 * Turner catalogue. 
 
 t Mr. C. L. Eastlake, Keeper of the National Gallery. 
 
 :|: Copy of Turner's Drawing. 
 
 [166] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 — so far as you have carried it — perfection itself 
 in the seizure of the most subtle results of Turner's 
 elaborate and almost microscopic execution, in 
 that and its contemporary drawings. 
 
 I am therefore happy in putting it in your power 
 to produce a facsimile of Turner's mighty draw- 
 ing of the Coblentz; and I sincerely trust that your 
 laboriously acquired skill, and unflinching fidelity, 
 may be at last acknowledged, and justly rewarded. 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 
 3ljf Jan. (1883) 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 The drawings are safe here, and are as I used 
 to write, admirable and an immense delight to me 
 myself. But I don't see the prices marked on them, 
 and I had no idea so many were unsold. I think 
 Mrs. Talbot should choose for herself one of the 
 Rouens: for the grey ones, what would you take 
 for the lot? 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 Mr. W. Ward 
 
 [167] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Brantwood^ 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire 
 
 Candlemas, 1883. 
 {Postmark February 2nd, '83.) 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I send you £31 10. o. for the two Romes, which 
 I buy for St. George. I shall present them at once 
 (with the eight Rivers, which I am greatly glad 
 of) to Whitelands College, Chelsea. I have sent 
 to Mrs. Talbot the Rouen Cathedral of my own, 
 telling her, if she likes it, she may have it for £21 
 o. o. (it having been done for me cheap at 15), 
 and that she is to send the cheque to you. You 
 shall work out the 15 for me soon. 
 
 In haste — and utter darkness! 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 4.th July, 1883 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 You have been very good in not worrying me 
 lately. I have been thinking much and often of 
 you. 
 
 [168] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Your penning in of your own sketches disap- 
 pointed me badly, or you would have had more 
 work of that kind, but I've got some at Oxford 
 ready for another trial, on Turner himself. I want 
 some faint photographic outlines carefully deep- 
 ened with reference to the originals and I hope to 
 get back these in a fortnight, and send for you. 
 
 Meantime, I want some more vignettes for Ox- 
 ford. Have you an Aosta forward? or a Jacque- 
 line Alps? If not, begin that, — you have seldom 
 done it. Or if some other student is at work on it, 
 — the first of the Italy, Lake of Geneva — or the 
 last. Farewell. I hope the light will be pretty good 
 after this fit of thunder and rain. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 m July, '83 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I am extremely glad to know that you disliked 
 those outlines yourself, but you ought to be able to 
 put spirit into a dead outline by other people in- 
 stead of losing what was in your own. Anyhow, 
 
 [169] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 I hope you will be able to reinforce some Turners 
 for me and I'm partly in hopes you may be able 
 to do some etching from them. I have much 
 planned, and am at present well and able for work, 
 if I can only keep within compass. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J.R. 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 March i/^th, 1884 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 Please send the drawing to Alex. Macdonald 
 Esq., 84 Woodstock Road, Oxford. 
 
 I'm so glad you like the Fors. Some more nice 
 bits would come, if only I could get a breath of 
 time. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 J. R(USKIN) 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 17th March, 1884 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I shall be delighted to look at the drawing and 
 I know the original quite well enough to be sure 
 
 [170] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 in my certificate, or to suggest any possible im- 
 provement.* You may send it here at once. 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 July e^th, 1884 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I am greatly pleased with this drawing of the 
 Portico. t Let me know your full price for it to a 
 stranger, and I will give it to you with pleasure. 
 
 Be so good as to spare half an hour to a girl who 
 has some blundering gift which may be useful to 
 her in china painting, if you explain to her the 
 frightful coarseness of her Turner — so called — 
 copies. I have told her she may write to you to 
 make an appointment; but very probably she 
 won't, as I have sent her a letter as sharp as she 
 deserves — at least I have sent it to her brother — 
 perhaps he won't read it to her. 
 
 I hear from Mr. Horsfall that he has finished 
 
 * An interesting expression of Ruskin's opinion as to his 
 own memory and knowledge of Turner's drawings, 
 t Copy of Turner's St. Peter's in Rome. 
 
 [171] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 his work in Manchester, and am going to send him 
 notes on your copies. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire. 
 
 July yth, 1884 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I enclose cheque with true pleasure, and many 
 thanks for your promise to help the girl — if she 
 will be helped. 
 
 The news from Manchester are extremely pleas- 
 ant to me. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire. 
 
 {Mar. 8, '85) 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 Drawing not come but I am glad to hear of it, 
 — you, and your son, and enclose cheque for £10, 
 for a New Year's gift — whether I keep the draw- 
 ing or not. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 J.R. 
 [172 J 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Mr. Severn's, Herne Hill, 
 
 Friday 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I'm shut up with a cold, but if you feel able to 
 run out here I'll sign the Datur Hora * for you if 
 I like it (I know the original well enough now!), 
 and the Bellinzona you can bring with you. I 
 shall be at home tomorrow also if you prefer work- 
 ing at the Gallery in this really bright day. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 J.R. 
 
 Herne Hill, 
 London, S. W. 
 Wednesday, May iph, 1885 
 
 Dear Ward 
 
 Can you bring Florence, and your copy, here 
 any time tomorrow — after 12 and before 4? I'll 
 criticize and pay, and we'll have a general chat. 
 
 I liked your son's drawing, but not his choice 
 in the part of picture.t 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 * Datur Hora Quieti, the Turner vignette in Roger's Poems, 
 t The principal group in Bellini's Peter Martyr. 
 
 [173J 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 Herne Hill^ 
 London, S. W. 
 May z()th, 1885 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I quite forget what I wrote to you ! But I want 
 to see the Florence* Can you bring it out with 
 the original on Monday morning, before one? 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 July 2nd, 1885 
 
 My dear Ward, 
 
 I am so very sorry not to have replied before 
 about the TealA I shall be most grateful to Mr. 
 Eastlake if he will allow it to be taken down for 
 you. 
 
 Send me my Florence here. I am satisfied you 
 have done your best in restoring. 
 
 How about Zug? 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RuSKIN 
 
 * Ward's copy of Turner's drawing. 
 
 t A drawing by Turner in the National Gallery. 
 
 [174] 
 
TO WILLIAM WARD 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNiSTON, Lancashire. 
 
 January 31J/, 1886. 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 I am glad to hear of you again, and to be able 
 to write to you. 
 
 Miss G's * work is admirable — from nature ; 
 the decorative I doubt. I don't believe the Irish 
 one is rightly copied, but I should be delighted to 
 see her work reproduced — only — how is it to be 
 done? 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 J, RUSKIN 
 
 Brantwood, 
 CoNisTON, Lancashire. 
 
 November 20th, 1886 
 
 Dear Ward, 
 
 No drawing of mine is ever to leave my walls 
 more, while / live. But I am open to purchase of 
 anything you can do with ease to yourself from 
 the National Gallery. You know how long I've 
 
 * Miss Gittins, a teacher of drawing. 
 [175] 
 
JOHN RUSKIN'S LETTERS 
 
 been wanting some of the bigger sketches — St. 
 Gothards, Romes, etc. 
 Send me some talk and news. 
 
 Always affectionately yours, 
 
 J. RUSKIN 
 
 [176]