Part 4 (1/2)

In his second ter elected to the Christ Church Club, a very se: ”Simeon, Acland, and Mr Denison proposed him; Lord Carew and Broadhurst supported” And he had the opportunity ofletter recounts He writes on April 22, 1837:

”My Dearest Father,

”When I returned from hall yesterday--where a servitor read, or pretended to read, and Decanus growled at him, 'Speak out!'--I found a note onthe pleasure of ists, Lord Cole and Sir Philip Egerton I immediately sent a note of thanks and acceptance, dressed, and was there a minute after the last stroke of To-room, who soon afterwards came in with Lord Cole, introduced ists he did not hesitate to leave us together while he did what he certainly very much required--brushed up a little Lord Cole and I were talking about some fossils newly arrived from India He remarked in the course of conversation that his friend Dr B's room was cleaner and in better order than he remembered ever to have seen it There was not a chair fit to sit upon, all covered with dust, broken alabaster candlesticks, withered flower-leaves, frogs cut out of serpentine, broken models of fallen temples, torn papers, old manuscripts, stuffed reptiles, deal boxes, brown paper, wool, tow and cotton, and a considerable variety of other articles In caerton and his brother, whoraduate I was talking to hi over our wine after dinner, in caists of the day--a curious little aniuee_--and Mr Darhoical Society He and I got together, and talked all the evening”

The long vacation of 1837 was passed in a tour through the North, during which his advanced knowledge of art was shown in a series of ads Their subjects are chiefly architectural, though a few s are found in his sketch-book for that sus was no new thing, and it seems to have been the branch of art-study which was chiefly encouraged by his father During this tour aes and Yorkshi+re abbeys, a plan was formed for a series of papers on architecture, perhaps in answer to an invitation from his friend Mr

Loudon, who had started an architectural an to write ”The Poetry of Architecture; or, The Architecture of the Nations of Europe considered in its association with Natural Scenery and National Character,” and the papers orked off ht be, only terazine in January, 1839 They parade a good deal of classical learning and travelled experience; readers of the azine took their author for some dilettante Don at Oxford The editor did not wish the illusion to be dispelled, so John Ruskin had to choose a _no to nature”), for he had begun to read some Aristotle No phrase would have better expressed his point of view, that of commonsense extended by experience, and confirmed by the appeal to matters of fact, rather than to any authority, or tradition, or committee of taste, or abstract principles

While these papers were in process of publication ”Kata Phusin” plunged into his first controversy, as an opponent of ”Parsey's Convergence of Perpendiculars,” according to which vertical lines should have a vanishi+ng point, even though they are assu this controversy, and just before the summer tour of 1838 to Scotland, John Ruskin was introduced to Miss Charlotte Withers, a young lady as as fond ofThey discussed their favourite studies with eagerness, and, to settle the es of the Studies of Music and Painting,” in which he set painting as a means of recreation and of education far above music

Already at nineteen, then, we see hi some notice Towards the end of 1838 a question arose as to the best site for the proposed Scott azine_ quoted ”Kata Phusin” as the authority in suchthat it was obvious, after those papers of his, that design and site should be sis the favour of 'Kata Phusin' to let our readers have his opinion on the subject, which we certainly think of considerable importance”

So he discussed the question ofpaper, co, on the whole, a statue group with a colossal Scott on a rough pedestal, to be placed on Salisbury Crags, ”where the range gets low and broken towards the north at about the height of St Anthony's Chapel” His paper did not influence the Edinburgh Co extract shows

”BAYSWATER, _November_ 30, 1838

”DEAR SIR,-- Your son is certainly the greatest natural genius that ever it has been my fortune to become acquainted with, and I cannot but feel proud to think that at some future period, when both you and I are under the turf, it will be stated in the literary history of your son's life that the first article of his which was published was in _London's Magazine of Natural History_--Yours very sincerely,

”JC LOUDON”

CHAPTER VIII

SIR ROGER NEWDIGATE'S PRIZE (1837-1839)

Of all the prizes which Oxford could bestow, the Newdigate used to be the most popular Its fortunate winner was an ade when poetry was read, and he appeared in his glory at Co what the ladies could understand and admire The honour was attainable without skill in Greek particles or in logarith preacher, for the successful reciter ht be felt to have put his foot on the pulpit stairs John Ruskin was definitely meant for the Church, and he went to Oxford in the avowed hope of getting the Newdigate, if nothing else His last talk with Mr

Dale was chiefly about ways and un ”The Gipsies” for March, 1837

The prize on that year by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, afterwards Dean of Westminster Our candidate and his old schoolfellow, Henry Dart, of Exeter College, set to work on the next subject, ”The Exile of St

Helena,” and after the long vacation read their work to each other, accepting the hints and corrections of a friendly rivalry

Meantime his old nurse Anne (it is trivial, but a touch of nature), being at Oxford in attendance on the ladies, and keen, as she alas, for Master John's success, heard fro-rooht the news to his delighted mother ”He was pleased,” she writes, ”but says that he forms his own estimate of his poems, and reviews don't alter it; but 'How hted! Hoill crow!'” Which historiette repeated itself many a time in the family annals

In Lent term, 1838, he was hard at work on the new poeive an iate, which I et it I have much to revise You find many faults, but there are hundreds which have escaped your notice, and ether which you and I should wish to stay in The thing must be remodelled, and I must finish it while it has a freshness on it, otherwise it will not be written well The old lines are hackneyed in my ears, even as a very soft Orleans plum, which your Jewess has wiped and re-wiped with the corner of her apron, till its polish is perfect, and its teh his ”Set over; quite a joke, as everybody says when they've got through with the feathers on It's a kind of e, but dignified in an Oxonian--very Lowe very kind; Kynaston ditto--nice fellows--urbane How they _do_ frighten people! There was onewith mere fear Kynaston had to coax him like a child Poor fellow! he had soly People always take up logic because they fancy it doesn't require a goodhalf so productive of pluck; they _never_ know it I was very cool when I got into it; found the degree of exciterinned at Kynaston over the table as if _I_ had been going to pluck _hiate for 1838, for all his care and pains, on by Dart He was, at any rate, beaten by a friend, and with a poem which his own honourable sympathy and assistance had helped to perfect

Another trifling incident lets us get a gli poet The Queen's coronation in June, 1838, was a great event to all the world, and Mr Ruskin was anxious for his son to see it Much correspondence ensued between the parents, arranging everything for him, as they always did--which of the available tickets should be accepted, and whether he could stand the fatigue of the long waiting, and so forth Mrs Ruskin did not like the notion of her boy sitting perched on rickety scaffolding at dizzy altitudes in the Abbey Mr Ruskin, evidently determined to carry his point, went to Westminster, bribed the carpenters, climbed the structure, and reported all safe to stand a century, ”though,” said he, ”the gold and scarlet of the decorations appeared very paltry coern Alp” But he could not find No 447, and wrote to the Heralds' Office to know if it was a place froot Blue-ood place, and Lord Bro had just taken tickets for his sons close by Then there was the great question of dress He went to Owen's and ordered a white satin waistcoat with gold sprigs, and a high dress-coat with bright buttons, and asked his wife to see about white gloves at Oxford--a Court white neck-cloth or a black satin would do