,,the ,,complete ,,works ,,of ,,john ,,ruskin ,,volume ,,xxiv 99 99 99 99 99 ,,our ,,fathers ,,have ,,told ,,us ,,storm-,,cloud ,,of ,,the ,,nineteenth ,,century ,,hortus ,,inclusus 99 99 99 99 99 ,,hortus ,,inclusus ,,messages ,,from ,,the ,,wood ,,to ,,the ,,garden1 ,,sent ,,in ,,happy ,,days ,,to ,,the ,,sister ,,ladies ,,of ,,the ,,thwaite1 ,,coniston4 ,,dedicated ,,with ,,grateful ,,thanks ,,to ,,my ,,dear ,,friends ,,professor ,,ruskin ,,and ,,albert ,,fleming4 ,s4 ,b4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,preface4 ,the ladies to whom these letters were written have been1 throughout their brightly tranquil lives1 at once sources and loadstones of all good to the village in which they had their home1 and to all loving people who cared for the village and its vale and secluded lake1 and whatever remained in them or around of the former peace1 beauty1 and pride of ,english ,shepherd ,land4 ,sources they have been of good1 like one of its mountain springs1 ever to be found at need4 ,they did not travel2 they did not go up to ,london in its season2 they did not receive idle visitors to jar or waste their leisure in the waning year4 ,the poor and the sick could find them always2 or rather1 they watched for and prevented all poverty and pain that care or tenderness could relieve or heal4 ,loadstones they were1 as steadily bringing the light of gentle and wise souls about them as the crest of their guardian mountain gives pause to the morning clouds3 in themselves1 they were types of perfect womanhood in its constant happiness1 queens alike of their own hearts and of a ,paradise in which they knew the names and sympathized with the spirits of every living creature that ,god had made to play therein1 or to blossom in its sunshine or shade4 ,they had lost their dearly-loved younger sister1 ,margaret1 before ,i knew them4 ,mary and ,susie1 alike in benevolence1 serenity1 and practical judgment1 were yet widely different1 nay1 almost contrary1 in tone and impulse of intellect4 ,both of them capable of understanding whatever women should know1 the elder was yet chiefly interested in the course of immediate ,english business1 policy1 and progressive science1 while ,susie lived an aerial and enchanted life1 possessing all the highest joys of imagination1 while she yielded to none of its deceits1 sicknesses1 or errors4 ,she saw1 and felt1 and believed all good1 as it had ever been1 and was to be1 in the reality and eternity of its goodness1 with the acceptance and the hope of a child2 the least things were treasures to her1 and her moments fuller of joy than some people's days4 ,what she had been to me1 in the days and years when other friendship has been failing1 and others' loving1 mere folly1 the reader will enough see from these letters1 written certainly for her only1 but from which she has permitted my ,master of the ,rural ,industries at ,loughrigg1 ,albert ,fleming1 to choose what he thinks1 among the tendrils of clinging thought1 and mossy cups for dew in the ,garden of ,herbs where ,love is1 may be trusted to the memorial sympathy of the readers of ,frondes ,agrestes4 ,j4 ,r4 ,,brantwood1 ,june1 #ahhg4 ,,introduction4 ,often during those visits to the ,thwaite which have grown to be the best-spent hours of my later years1 ,i have urged my dear friend ,miss ,beever to open to the larger world the pleasant paths of this her ,garden ,inclosed4 ,the inner circle of her friends knew that she had a goodly store of ,mr4 ,ruskin's letters1 extending over many years4 ,she for her part had long desired to share with others the pleasure these letters had given her1 but she shrank from the fatigue of selecting and arranging them4 ,it was1 therefore1 with no small feeling of satisfaction that ,i drove home from the ,thwaite one day in ,february last with a parcel containing nearly two thousand of these treasured letters4 ,i was gladdened also by generous permission1 both from ,brantwood and the ,thwaite1 to choose what ,i liked best for publication4 ,the letters themselves are the fruit of the most beautiful friendship ,i have ever been permitted to witness1 a friendship so unique in some aspects of it1 so sacred in all1 that ,i may only give it the praise of silence4 ,i count myself happy to have been allowed to throw open to all wise and quiet souls the portals of this ,armida's ,garden1 where there are no spells save those woven by love1 and no magic save that of grace and kindliness4 ,here my pleasant share in this little book would have ended1 but ,mr4 ,ruskin has desired me to add a few words1 giving my own description of ,susie1 and speaking of my relationship to them both4 ,to him ,i owe the guidance of my life1--all its best impulses1 all its worthiest efforts2 to her some of its happiest hours1 and the blessings alike of incentive and reproof4 ,in reading over ,mr4 ,ruskin's ,preface1 ,i note that1 either by grace of purpose or happy chance1 he has left me one point untouched in our dear friend's character4 ,her letters inserted here give some evidence of it1 but ,i should like to place on record how her intense delight in sweet and simple things has blossomed into a kind of mental frolic and dainty wit1 so that even now in the calm autumn of her days1 her friends are not only lessoned by her ripened wisdom1 but cheered and recreated by her quaint and sprightly humor4 ,in the ,royal ,order of ,gardens1 as ,bacon puts it1 there was always a quiet resting-place called the ,pleasaunce2 there the daisies grew unchecked1 and the grass was ever the greenest4 ,such a ,pleasaunce do these ,letters seem to me4 ,here and there1 indeed1 there are shadows on the grass1 but no shadow ever falls between the two dear friends who walk together hand in hand along its pleasant paths4 ,so may they walk in peace till they stand at the gate of another ,garden1 where ,co' fiori eterni1 eterno il frutto dura4 ,a4 ,f4 ,,neaum ,,crag1 ,,loughrigg1 ,,ambleside4 ,,preface ,,to ,,the ,,third ,,edition4 ,since these letters were published fourteen years ago1 both ,mr4 ,ruskin and ,miss ,beever have passed to the country he longed to find1 where the flowers do not fade4 ,in this new ,edition some of the earlier letters have been withdrawn1 and others1 of possibly wider interest1 are inserted in their place4 ,i have also added a reproduction of ,mr4 ,ruskin's last letter to ,miss ,beever4 ,it was written about the #bjth ,october1 #ahic1 and was read to her on her death-bed4 ,he was then himself in broken health1 and it took him three weary hours to write this little note of eight lines4 ,i believe this to be the last complete letter that ever came from his pen4 ,miss ,beever sent it to me with the wish that some day ,i might use it1 and ,i now fulfill that wish by inserting it here as the pathetic close to a correspondence1 in which there was so much of a gay and playful nature2 commending it to the memorial sympathy claimed by him for his earlier letters4 ,the word ,phoca is a signature often used by him in writing to his old friend4 ,i have been asked to add illustrations to this ,edition2 and some fresh explanatory notes and dates will also be found4 ,a4 ,f4 ,,neaum ,,crag1 ,,ambleside1 #aijb4 ,,hortus ,,inclusus4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood1 #afth ,march1 #ahgd4 ,,my ,,dearest ,,susie1-- ,in a state of great defeat and torment1 this morning--having much to do with the weather and--not living on milk1 ,i have been greatly helped by--one of my own books6#a ,it is the best ,i ever wrote--the last which ,i took thorough loving pains with--and the first which ,i did with full knowledge of sorrow4 ,will you please read in it--first--from #fe at the bottom of page #gib as far as and not farther than1 #fg in page #ha4 ,that is what helped me this morning4 ,then1 if you want to know precisely the state ,i am in1 read the account of the ,myth of ,tantalus1 beginning at #bj--p4 #bd and going on to #be--page #ca4 ,it is a hard task to set you1 my dear little ,susie2 but when you get old1 you will be glad to have done it1 and another day1 you must look at page #id1 and then you must return me my book1 for it's my noted copy and ,i'm using it4 ,the life of ,tantalus doesn't often admit of crying3 but ,i had a real cry--with quite wet tears yesterday morning1 over what--to me is the prettiest bit in all ,shakespeare ,pray1 be content2 ,mother1 ,i am going to the market-place-- ,chide me no more4#c ,and almost next to it1 comes 7to me1 always ,i mean in my own fancy7 ,virgilia1 ,yes1 certain2 there's a letter for you2 ,i saw it4#d ,ever your loving ,j4 ,r4 ,footnote #a3 ,the ,queen of the ,air4 ,see page #gj4 ,footnote #b3 ,cf4 contemporary edition4 ,footnote #c3 ,coriolanus1 ,act iii4 scene #b4 ,footnote #d3 ,coriolanus1 ,act ii4 scene #a4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,sacristan',s ,,cell4 ,,assisi1 #adth ,april1 #ahgd4 ,i got to-day your lovely letter of the #fth1 but ,i never knew my ,susie could be such a naughty little girl before2 to burn her pretty story#e instead of sending it to me4 ,it would have come to me so exactly in the right place here1 where ,st4 ,francis made the grasshopper 7cicada1 at least7 sing to him upon his hand1 and preached to the birds1 and made the wolf go its rounds every day as regularly as any ,franciscan friar1 to ask for a little contribution to its modest dinner4 ,the ,bee and ,narcissus would have delighted to talk in this enchanted air4 ,yes1 that is really very pretty of ,dr4 ,john ,brown to inscribe your books so1 and it's so like him4 ,how these kind people understand things6 ,and that bit of his about the child is wholly lovely2 ,i am so glad you copied it4 ,i often think of you1 and of ,coniston and ,brantwood4 ,you will see1 in the ,may ,fors1 reflections upon the temptations to the life of a ,franciscan4 ,there are two monks here1 one the sacristan who has charge of the entire church1 and is responsible for its treasures2 the other exercising what authority is left to the convent among the people of the town4 ,they are both so good and innocent and sweet1 one can't pity them enough4 ,for this time in ,italy is just like the ,reformation in ,scotland1 with only the difference that the ,reform movement is carried on here simply for the sake of what money can be got by ,church confiscation4 ,and these two brothers are living by indulgence1 as the ,abbot in the ,monastery of ,st4 ,mary's in the ,regent ,moray's time4 ,the people of the village1 however1 are all true to their faith2 it is only the governing body which is modern-infidel and radical4 ,the population is quite charming1--a word of kindness makes them as bright as if you brought them news of a friend4 ,all the same1 it does not do to offend them2 ,monsieur ,cavalcasella1 who is expecting the ,government order to take the ,tabernacle from the ,sanctuary of ,st4 ,francis1 cannot1 it is said1 go out at night with safety4 ,he decamped the day before ,i came1 having some notion1 ,i fancy1 that ,i would make his life a burden to him1 if he didn't1 by day1 as much as it was in peril by night4 ,i promise myself a month of very happy time here 7happy for me1 ,i mean7 when ,i return in ,may4 ,the sacristan gives me my coffee for lunch1 in his own little cell1 looking out on the olive woods2 then he tells me stories of conversions and miracles1 and then perhaps we go into the ,sacristy and have a reverent little poke out of relics4 ,fancy a great carved cupboard in a vaulted chamber full of most precious things 7the box which the ,holy ,virgin's veil used to be kept in1 to begin with71 and leave to rummage in it at will6 ,things that are only shown twice in the year or so1 with fumigation6 all the congregation on their knees2 and the sacristan and ,i having a great heap of them on the table at once1 like a dinner service6 ,i really looked with great respect at ,st4 ,francis's old camel-hair dress4 ,i am obliged to go to ,rome to-morrow1 however1 and to ,naples on ,saturday4 ,my witch of ,sicily#f expects me this day week1 and she's going to take me such lovely drives1 and talks of excursions which ,i see by the map are thirty miles away4 ,i wonder if she thinks me so horribly old that it's quite proper4 ,it will be very nice if she does1 but not flattering4 ,i know her mother can't go with her1 ,i suppose her maid will4 ,if she wants any other chaperon ,i won't go4 ,she's really very beautiful1 ,i believe1 to some people's tastes1 7,i shall be horribly disappointed if she isn't1 in her own dark style17 and she writes1 next to ,susie1 the loveliest letters ,i ever get4 ,now1 ,susie1 mind1 you're to be a very good child while ,i'm away1 and never to burn any more stories2 and above all1 you're to write me just what comes into your head1 and ever to believe me your loving ,j4 ,r4 ,footnote #e3 ,the ,bee and ,narcissus4 ,footnote #f3 ,miss ,amy ,yule4 ,see ,praeterita1 ,vol4 ,,iii41 ,chap4 vii4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,naples1 #b;d ,may1 #ahgd4 ,i heard of your great sorrow#g from ,joan six days ago1 and have not been able to write since4 ,nothing silences me so much as sorrow1 and for this of yours ,i have no comfort4 ,i write only that you may know that ,i am thinking of you1 and would help you if ,i could4 ,and ,i write to-day because your lovely letters and your lovely old age have been forced into my thoughts often by dreadful contrast during these days in ,italy4 ,you who are so purely and brightly happy in all natural and simple things1 seem now to belong to another and a younger world4 ,and your letters have been to me like the pure air of ,yewdale ,crags breathed among the ,pontine ,marshes2 but you must not think ,i am ungrateful for them when ,i can't answer4 ,you can have no idea how impossible it is for me to do all the work necessary even for memory of the things ,i came here to see2 how much escapes me1 how much is done in a broken and weary way4 ,i am the only author on art who does the work of illustration with his own hand2 the only one therefore--and ,i am not insolent in saying this--who has learned his business thoroughly2 but after a day's drawing ,i assure you one cannot sit down to write unless it be the merest nonsense to please ,joanie4 ,believe it or not1 there is no one of my friends whom ,i write so scrupulously to as to you4 ,you may be vexed at this1 but indeed ,i can't but try to write carefully in answer to all your kind words1 and so sometimes ,i can't at all4 ,i must tell you1 however1 to-day1 what ,i saw in the ,pompeian frescoes--the great characteristic of falling ,rome1 in her furious desire of pleasure1 and brutal incapability of it4 ,the walls of ,pompeii are covered with paintings meant only to give pleasure1 but nothing they represent is beautiful or delightful1 and yesterday1 among other calumniated and caricatured birds1 ,i saw one of my ,susie's pets1 a peacock2 and he had only eleven eyes in his tail4 ,fancy the feverish wretchedness of the humanity which in mere pursuit of pleasure or power had reduced itself to see no more than eleven eyes in a peacock's tail6 ,what were the ,cyclops to this8 ,i hope to get to ,rome this evening1 and to be there settled for some time1 and to have quieter hours for my letters4 ,footnote #g3 ,the death of ,miss ,margaret ,beever4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,rome1 ,,hotel ,,de ,,russie1 #hth ,may1 '#gd4 ,i have your sweet letter about ,ulysses1 the leaves1 and the ,robins4 ,i have been feeling so wearily on this journey1 the want of what--when ,i had it1 ,i used--how often6 to feel a burden--the claim of my mother for at least a word1 every day4 ,happy1 poor mother1 with two lines--and ,i--sometimes--nay--often--thinking it hard to have to stay five minutes from what ,i wanted to do--to write them4 ,i am despising1 now1 in like senseless way1 the privilege of being able to write to you and of knowing that it will please you to hear--even that ,i can't tell you anything6 which ,i cannot1 this morning--but only1 it is a little peace and rest to me to write to my ,susie4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,rome1 #bc;d ,may1 #ahgd4 ,a number of business letters and the increasing instinct for work here as time shortens1 have kept me too long from even writing a mere mamma-note to you2 though not without thought of you daily4 ,i have your last most lovely line about your sister--and giving me that most touching fact about poor ,dr4 ,john ,brown1 which ,i am grieved and yet thankful to know1 that ,i may better still reverence his unfailing kindness and quick sympathy4 ,i have a quite wonderful letter from him about you2 but ,i will not tell you what he says1 only it is so very1 very true1 and so very1 very pretty1 you can't think4 ,i have written to my bookseller to find for you1 and send a complete edition of ,modern ,painters1 if findable4 ,if not1 ,i will make my assistant send you down my own fourth and fifth volumes1 which you can keep till ,i come for them in the autumn4 ,there is nothing now in the year but autumn and winter4 ,i really begin to think there is some terrible change of climate coming upon the world for its sin1 like another deluge4 ,it will have its rainbow1 ,i suppose1 after its manner--promising not to darken the world again1 and then not to drown4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,rome1 #bdth ,may1 #ahgd 7,whit-,sunday74 ,i have to-day1 to make the day whiter for me1 your lovely letter of the #aeth1#h telling me your age4 ,i am so glad it is no more2 you are only thirteen years older than ,i1 and much more able to be my sister than mamma1 and ,i hope you will have many years of youth yet4 ,i think ,i must tell you in return for this letter what ,dr4 ,john ,brown said1 or part of it at least4 ,he said you had the playfulness of a lamb without its selfishness4 ,i think that perfect as far as it goes4 ,of course my ,susie's wise and grave gifts must be told of afterwards4 ,there is no one ,i know1 or have known1 so well able as you are to be in a degree what my mother was to me4 ,in this chief way 7as well as many other ways7 7the puzzlement ,i have had to force that sentence into grammar671 that ,i have had the same certainty of giving you pleasure by a few words and by any little account of what ,i am doing4 ,but then you know ,i have just got out of the way of doing as ,i am bid1 and unless you can scold me back into that1 you can't give me the sense of support4 ,tell me more about yourself first1 and how those years came to be lost4 ,i am not sure that they were2 though ,i am very far from holding the empty theory of compensation2 but much of the slighter pleasure you lost then is evidently still open to you1 fresh all the more from having been for a time withdrawn4 ,the ,roman peasants are very gay to-day1 with roses in their hair2 legitimately and honorably decorated1 and looking lovely4 ,oh me1 if they had a few ,susies to take human care of them what a glorious people they would be6 ,footnote #h3 ,see page #ii4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,lost ,,church ,,in ,,the ,,campagna4 ,,rome1 #b;d ,june1 #ahgd4 ,ah if you were but among the marbles here1 though there are none finer than that you so strangely discerned in my study2 but they are as a white company innumerable1 ghost after ghost4 ,and how you would rejoice in them and in a thousand things besides1 to which ,i am dead1 from having seen too much or worked too painfully--or1 worst of all1 lost the hope which gives all life4 ,last ,sunday ,i was in a lost church found again1--a church of the second or third century1 dug in a green hill of the ,campagna1 built underground2--its secret entrance like a sand-martin's nest4 ,such the temple of the ,lord1 as the ,king ,solomon of that time had to build it2 not the mountains of the ,lord's house shall be established above the hills1 but the cave of the ,lord's house as the fox's hole1 beneath them4 ,and here1 now lighted by the sun for the first time 7for they are still digging the earth from the steps71 are the marbles of those early ,christian days2 the first efforts of their new hope to show itself in enduring record1 the new hope of a ,good ,shepherd3--there they carved ,him1 with a spring flowing at ,his feet1 and round ,him the cattle of the ,campagna in which they had dug their church1 the very self-same goats which this morning have been trotting past my window through the most populous streets of ,rome1 innocently following their shepherd1 tinkling their bells1 and shaking their long spiral horns and white beards2 the very same dew-lapped cattle which were that ,sunday morning feeding on the hillside above1 carved on the tomb-marbles sixteen hundred years ago4 ,how you would have liked to see it1 ,susie6 ,and now to-day ,i am going to work in an eleventh century church of quite proud and victorious ,christianity1 with its grand bishops and saints lording it over ,italy4 ,the bishop's throne all marble and mosaic of precious colors and of gold1 high under the vaulted roof at the end behind the altar2 and line upon line of pillars of massive porphyry and marble1 gathered out of the ruins of the temples of the great race who had persecuted them1 till they had said to the hills1 ,cover us1 like the wicked4 ,and then their proud time came1 and their enthronement on the seven hills2 and now1 what is to be their fate once more8--of pope and cardinal and dome1 ,peter's or ,paul's by name only1--,my house1 no more a house of prayer1 but a den of thieves4 ,i can't write any more this morning4 ,oh me1 if one could only write and draw all one wanted1 and have our ,susies and be young again1 oneself and they6 7,as if there were two ,susies1 or could be67 ,ever my one ,susie's very loving ,j4 ,,ruskin4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,regrets4 ,,assisi1 ,june #ith 7#ahgd74 ,yes1 ,i am a little oppressed just now with overwork1 nor is this avoidable4 ,i am obliged to leave all my drawings unfinished as the last days come1 and the point possible of approximate completion fatally contracts1 every hour to a more ludicrous and warped mockery of the hope in which one began4 ,it is impossible not to work against time1 and that is killing4 ,it is not labor itself1 but competitive1 anxious1 disappointed labor that dries one's soul out4 ,but don't be frightened about me1 you sweet ,susie4 ,i know when ,i must stop2 forgive and pity me only1 because sometimes1 nay often my letter 7or word7 to ,susie must be sacrificed to the last effort on one's drawing4 ,the letter to one's ,susie should be a rest1 do you think8 ,it is always more or less comforting1 but not rest2 it means further employment of the already extremely strained sensational power4 ,what one really wants6 ,i believe the only true restorative is the natural one1 the actual presence of one's helpmeet4 ,the far worse than absence of mine reverses rest1 and what is more1 destroys one's power of receiving from others or giving4 ,how much love of mine have others lost1 because that poor sick child would not have the part of love that belonged to her6 ,i am very anxious about your eyes too4 ,for any favor don't write more extracts just now4 ,the books are yours forever and a day--no loan2 enjoy any bits that you find enjoyable1 but don't copy just now4 ,i left ,rome yesterday1 and am on my way home2 but1 alas6 might as well be on my way home from ,cochin ,china1 for any chance ,i have of speedily arriving4 ,meantime your letters will reach me here with speed1 and will be a great comfort to me1 if they don't fatigue you4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,frondes ,,agrestes4 ,,perugia1 #abth ,june 7#ahgd74 ,i am more and more pleased at the thought of this gathering of yours1 and soon expect to tell you what the bookseller says4 ,meantime ,i want you to think of the form the collection should take with reference to my proposed re-publication4 ,i mean to take the botany1 the geology1 the ,turner defense1 and the general art criticism of ,modern ,painters1 as four separate books1 cutting out nearly all the preaching1 and a good deal of the sentiment4 ,now what you find pleasant and helpful to you of general maxim or reflection1 must be of some value2 and ,i think therefore that your selection will just do for me what no other reader could have done1 least of all ,i myself2 keep together1 that is to say1 what may be right and true of those youthful thoughts4 ,i should like you to add anything that specially pleases you1 of whatever kind2 but to keep the notion of your book being the didactic one as opposed to the other picturesque and scientific volumes1 will ,i think help you in choosing between passages when one or other is to be rejected4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,how ,,he ,,fell ,,among ,,thieves4 ,,assisi1 #agth ,june 7#ahgd74 ,i have been having a bad time lately1 and have no heart to write to you4 ,very difficult and melancholy work1 deciphering what remains of a great painter#i among stains of ruin and blotches of repair1 of five hundred years' gathering4 ,it makes me sadder than idleness1 which is saying much4 ,i was greatly flattered and petted by a saying in one of your last letters1 about the difficulty ,i had in unpacking my mind4 ,that is true2 one of my chief troubles at present is with the quantity of things ,i want to say at once4 ,but you don't know how ,i find things ,i laid by carefully in it1 all moldy and moth-eaten when ,i take them out2 and what a lot of mending and airing they need1 and what a wearisome and bothering business it is compared to the early packing1--one used to be so proud to get things into the corners neatly6 ,i have been failing in my drawings1 too1 and ,i'm in a horrible inn kept by a ,garibaldian bandit2 and the various sorts of disgusting dishes sent up to look like a dinner1 and to be charged for1 are a daily increasing horror and amazement to me4 ,they succeed in getting everything bad2 no exertion1 no invention1 could produce such badness1 ,i believe1 anywhere else4 ,the hills are covered for leagues with olive trees1 and the oil's bad2 there are no such lovely cattle elsewhere in the world1 and the butter's bad2 half the country people are shepherds1 but there's no mutton2 half the old women walk about with a pig tied to their waists1 but there's no pork2 the vine grows wild anywhere1 and the wine would make my teeth drop out of my head if ,i took a glass of it2 there are no strawberries1 no oranges1 no melons1 the cherries are as hard as their stones1 the beans only good for horses1 or ,jack and the beanstalk1 and this is the size of the biggest asparagus-- ,illustration3 hand-drawn sketch of asparagus stalk ,i live here in a narrow street ten feet wide only1 winding up a hill1 and it was full this morning of sheep as close as they could pack1 at least a thousand1 as far as the eye could reach1--tinkle tinkle1 bleat bleat1 for a quarter of an hour4 ,footnote #i3 ,cimabue4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,in ,,paradise4 ,,assisi1 ,,sacristan',s ,,cell1 #beth ,june 7#ahgd74 ,this letter is all upside down1 and this first page written last2 for ,i didn't like something ,i had written about myself last night when ,i was tired1 and have torn it off4 ,that star you saw beat like a heart must have been a dog star4 ,a planet would not have twinkled4 ,far mightier1 he1 than any planet2 burning with his own planetary host doubtless round him2 and1 on some speckiest of the specks of them1 evangelical persons thinking our sun was made for them4 ,ah1 ,susie1 ,i do not pass1 unthought of1 the many sorrows of which you kindly tell me1 to show me--for that is in your heart--how others have suffered also4 ,but1 ,susie1 you expect to see your ,margaret again1 and you will be happy with her in heaven4 ,i wanted my ,rosie here4 ,in heaven ,i mean to go and talk to ,pythagoras and ,socrates and ,valerius ,publicola4 ,i shan't care a bit for ,rosie there1 she needn't think it4 ,what will gray eyes and red cheeks be good for there8 ,these pious sentiments are all written in my sacristan's cell4 ,this extract book#aj of yours will be most precious in its help to me1 provided it is kept within somewhat narrow limits4 ,as soon as it is done ,i mean to have it published in a strong and pretty but cheap form1 and it must not be too bulky4 ,consider1 therefore1 not only what you like1 but how far and with whom each bit is likely to find consent and service4 ,you will have to choose perhaps1 after a little while1 among what you have already chosen4 ,i mean to leave it wholly in your hands2 it is to be ,susie's choice of my writings4 ,don't get into a flurry of responsibility1 but don't at once write down all you have a mind to2 ,i know you'll find a good deal6 for you are exactly in sympathy with me in all things4 ,footnote #aj3 ,frondes ,agrestes4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,assisi1 #ith ,july1 #ahgd4 ,your lovely letters are always a comfort to me2 and not least when you tell me you are sad4 ,you would be far less in sympathy with me if you were not1 and in the everything right humor of some1 even of some really good and kind persons1 whose own matters are to their mind1 and who understand by ,providence the power which particularly takes care of them4 ,this favoritism which goes so sweetly and pleasantly down with so many pious people is the chief of all stumbling-blocks to me4 ,i must pray for everybody or nobody1 and can't get into any conceptions of relation between ,heaven and me1 if not also between ,heaven and earth1 7and why ,heaven should allow hairs in pens ,i can't think74 ,i take great care of myself1 be quite sure of that1 ,susie2 the worst of it is1 here in ,assisi everybody else wants me to take care of them4 ,catharine brought me up as a great treat yesterday at dinner1 ham dressed with as much garlic as could be stewed into it1 and a plate of raw figs1 telling me ,i was to eat them together6 ,the sun is changing the entire mountains of ,assisi into a hot bottle with no flannel round it2 but ,i can't get a ripe plum1 peach1 or cherry4 ,all the milk turns sour1 and one has to eat one's meat at its toughest or the thunder gets into it next day4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,foam ,,of ,,tiber4 ,,perugia1 #agth ,july 7#ahgd74 ,i am made anxious by your sweet letter of the #fth saying you have been ill and are not much better4 ,the letter is all like yours1 but ,i suppose however ill you were you would always write prettily1 so that's little comfort4 ,about the ,narcissus1 please4 ,i want them for my fishpond stream rather than for the bee-house one4 ,the fishpond stream is very doleful1 and wants to dance with daffodils if they would come and teach it4 ,how happy we are in our native streams4 ,a thunder-storm swelled the ,tiber yesterday1 and it rolled over its mill weirs in heaps1 literally1 of tossed water1 the size of haycocks1 but black brown like coffee with the grounds in it1 mixed with a very little yellow milk4 ,in some lights the foam flew like cast handfuls of heavy gravel4 ,the chief flowers here are only broom and bindweed1 and ,i begin to weary for my heather and for my ,susie2 but oh dear1 the ways are long and the days few4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,lucca1 #bith ,july 7#ahgd74 ,i'm not going to be devoured when ,i come1 by anybody1 unless you like to4 ,i shall come to your window with the birds1 to be fed myself4 ,and please at present always complain to me whenever you like4 ,it is the over boisterous cheerfulness of common people that hurts me2 your sadness is a help to me4 ,you shall have whatever name you like for your book provided you continue to like it after thinking over it long enough4 ,you will not like ,gleanings1 because you know one only gleans refuse--dropped ears--that other people don't care for4 ,you go into the garden and gather with choice the flowers you like best4 ,that is not gleaning6 99 99 99 99 99 ,,lucca1 #ajth ,august 7#ahgd74 ,i have been grieved not to write to you2 but the number of things that vex me are so great just now1 that unless by false effort ,i could write you nothing nice4 ,it is very dreadful to live in ,italy1 and more dreadful to see one's ,england and one's ,english friends1 all but a field or two1 and a stream or two1 and a one ,susie and one ,dr4 ,brown1 fast becoming like ,italy and the ,italians4 ,i have too much sympathy with your sorrow to write to you of it4 ,what ,i have not sympathy with1 is your hope2 and how cruel it is to say this6 ,but ,i am driven more and more to think there is to be no more good for a time1 but a reign of terror of men and the elements alike2 and yet it is so like what is foretold before the coming of the ,son of man that perhaps in the extremest evil of it ,i may some day read the sign that our redemption draws nigh4 ,now1 ,susie1 invent a nice cluster of titles for the book and send them to me to choose from1 to ,hotel de l',arno1 ,florence4 ,i must get that out before the day of judgment1 if ,i can4 ,i'm so glad of your sweet flatteries in this note received to-day4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,florence1 #beth ,august 7#ahgd74 ,i have not been able to write to you1 or any one lately1 whom ,i don't want to tease1 except ,dr4 ,brown1 whom ,i write to for counsel4 ,my time is passed in a fierce steady struggle to save all ,i can every day1 as a fireman from a smoldering ruin1 of history or aspect4 ,to-day1 for instance1 ,i've been just in time to ascertain the form of the cross of the ,emperor1 representing the power of the ,state in the greatest political fresco of old times--fourteenth century4 ,by next year1 it may be next month1 it will have dropped from the wall with the vibration of the railway outside1 and be touched up with new gilding for the mob4 ,i am keeping well1 but am in a terrible spell 7literally1 spell1 enchanted maze1 that ,i can't get out of7 of work4 ,i was a little scandalized at the idea of your calling the book word-painting4 ,my dearest ,susie1 it is the chief provocation of my life to be called a word-painter instead of a thinker4 ,i hope you haven't filled your book with descriptions4 ,i thought it was the thoughts you were looking for8 ,posie would be pretty4 ,if you ask ,joanie she will tell you perhaps too pretty for me1 and ,i can't think a bit to-night1 for instead of robins singing ,i hear only blaspheming gamesters on the other side of the narrow street4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,florence1 #ast ,september 7#ahgd74 ,don't be in despair about your book4 ,i am sure it will be lovely4 ,i'll see to it the moment ,i get home1 but ,i've got into an entirely unexpected piece of business here1 the interpretation of a large chapel#aa full of misunderstood1 or not at all understood1 frescoes2 and ,i'm terribly afraid of breaking down1 so much drawing has to be done at the same time4 ,it has stranded botany and everything4 ,i was kept awake half of last night by drunken blackguards howling on the bridge of the ,holy ,trinity in the pure half-moonlight4 ,this is the kind of discord ,i have to bear1 corresponding to your uncongenial company4 ,but1 alas6 ,susie1 you ought at ten years old to have more firmness1 and to resolve that you won't be bored4 ,i think ,i shall try to enforce it on you as a very solemn duty not to lie to people as the vulgar public do4 ,if they bore you1 say so1 and they'll go away4 ,that is the right state of things4 ,how am ,i to know that ,i don't bore you1 when ,i come1 when you're so civil to people you hate8 ,footnote #aa3 ,spanish chapel in ,s4 ,maria ,novella4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,pass ,,of ,,bocchetta1 #ast ,october 7#ahgd74 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,all that is lovely and wonderful in the ,alps may be seen without the slightest danger1 in general1 and it is especially good for little girls of eleven who can't climb1 to know this--all the best views of hills are at the bottom of them4 ,i know one or two places indeed where there is a grand peeping over precipices1 one or two where the mountain seclusion and strength are worth climbing to see4 ,but all the entirely beautiful things ,i could show you1 ,susie2 only for the very highest sublime of them sometimes asking you to endure half an hour of chaise a porteurs1 but mostly from a post-chaise or smoothest of turnpike roads4 ,but1 ,susie1 do you know1 ,i'm greatly horrified at the penwipers of peacocks' feathers6 ,i always use my left-hand coat-tail1 indeed1 and if only ,i were a peacock and a pet of yours1 how you'd scold me6 ,sun just coming out over sea 7at ,sestri71 which is sighing in towards the window1 within your drive1 round before the door's breadth of it1#ab seen between two masses of acacia copse and two orange trees at the side of the inn courtyard4 ,footnote #ab3 ,that is1 within that distance of the window4--,j4 ,r4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,geneva1 #aith ,october 7#ahgd74 ,how ,i have been neglecting you6 ,perhaps ,joanie may have told you that just at my last gasp of hand-work1 ,i had to write quite an unexpected number of letters4 ,but poor ,joanie will think herself neglected now1 for ,i have been stopped among the ,alps by a state of their glaciers entirely unexampled1 and shall be a week after my latest possible day1 in getting home4 ,it is eleven years since ,i was here1 and very sad to me to return1 yet delightful with a moonlight paleness of the past1 precious of its kind4 ,i shall be at home with ,joan in ten days now1 ,god willing4 ,i have much to tell you1 which will give you pleasure and pain2 but ,i don't know how much it will be--to tell you--for a little while yet1 so ,i don't begin4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,oxford1 #bfth ,october 7#ahgd74 ,home at last with your lovely1 most lovely1 letter in my breast pocket4 ,i am so very grateful to you for not writing on black paper4 ,oh1 dear ,susie1 why should we ever wear black for the guests of ,god8 99 99 99 99 99 ,,wharfe ,,in ,,flood4 ,,bolton ,,abbey1 #bdth ,january1 #ahge4 ,the black rain1 much as ,i growled at it1 has let me see ,wharfe in flood2 and ,i would have borne many days in prison to see that4 ,no one need go to the ,alps to see wild water4 ,seldom unless in the ,rhine or ,rhone themselves at their rapids1 have ,i seen anything much grander4 ,an ,alpine stream1 besides1 nearly always has its bed full of loose stones1 and becomes a series of humps and dumps of water wherever it is shallow2 while the ,wharfe swept round its curves of shore like a black ,damascus saber1 coiled into eddies of steel4 ,at the ,strid1 it had risen eight feet vertical since yesterday1 sheeting the flat rocks with foam from side to side1 while the treacherous mid-channel was filled with a succession of boiling domes of water1 charged through and through with churning white1 and rolling out into the broader stream1 each like a vast sea wave bursting on a beach4 ,there is something in the soft and comparatively unbroken slopes of these ,yorkshire shales which must give the water a peculiar sweeping power1 for ,i have seen ,tay and ,tummel and ,ness1 and many a big stream besides1 savage enough1 but ,i don't remember anything so grim as this4 ,i came home to quiet tea and a black kitten called ,sweep1 who lapped half my cream jugful 7and yet ,i had plenty7 sitting on my shoulder1--and ,life of ,sir ,walter ,scott4 ,i was reading his great ,scottish history tour1 when he was twenty-three1 and got his materials for everything nearly1 but especially for ,waverley1 though not used till long afterwards4 ,do you recollect ,gibbie ,gellatly8 ,i was thinking over that question of yours1 ,what did ,i think8#ac ,but1 my dear ,susie1 you might as well ask ,gibbie ,gellatly what he thought4 ,what does it matter what any of us think8 ,we are but simpletons1 the best of us1 and ,i am a very inconsistent and wayward simpleton4 ,i know how to roast eggs1 in the ashes1 perhaps--but for the next world6 ,why don't you ask your squirrel what he thinks too8 ,the great point--the one for all of us--is1 not to take false words in our mouths1 and to crack our nuts innocently through winter and rough weather4 ,i shall post this to-morrow as ,i pass through ,skipton or any post-worthy place on my way to ,wakefield4 ,write to ,warwick4 ,oh me1 what places ,england had1 when she was herself6 ,now1 rail stations mostly4 ,but ,i never can make out how ,warwick ,castle got built by that dull bit of river4 ,footnote #ac3 ,of the things that shall be1 hereafter4--,j4 ,r4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,frondes4 ,,wakefield1 #beth ,january1 #ahge4 ,here's our book in form at last1 and it seems to me just a nice size1 and on the whole very taking4 ,i've put a touch or two more to the preface1 and ,i'm sadly afraid there's a naughty note somewhere4 ,i hope you won't find it1 and that you will like the order the things are put in4 ,such ill roads as we came over to-day1 ,i never thought to see in ,england4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,castleton1 #bfth ,january1 #ahge4 ,here ,i have your long dear letter4 ,i am very thankful ,i can be so much to you4 ,of all the people ,i have yet known1 you are the only one ,i can find complete sympathy in2 you are so nice and young without the hardness of youth1 and may be the best of sisters to me4 ,i am not so sure about letting you be an elder one2 ,i am not going to be lectured when ,i'm naughty4 ,i've been so busy at wasps all day coming along1 having got a nice book about them4 ,it tells me1 too1 of a delightful ,german doctor who kept tame hornets1--a whole nest in his study6 ,they knew him perfectly1 and would let him do anything with them1 even pull bits off their nest to look in at it4 ,wasps1 too1 my author says1 are really much more amiable than bees1 and never get angry without cause4 ,all the same1 they have a tiresome way of inspecting one1 too closely1 sometimes1 ,i think4 ,i'm immensely struck with the ,peak ,cavern1 but it was in twilight4 ,i'm going to stay here all to-morrow1 the place is so entirely unspoiled4 ,i've not seen such a primitive village1 rock1 or stream1 this twenty years2 ,langdale is as sophisticated as ,pall ,mall in comparison4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,wasp ,,stings4 ,,bolton ,,bridge1 ,saturday4 ,i never was more thankful than for your sweet note1 being stopped here by bad weather again2 the worst of posting is that one has to think of one's servant outside1 and so lose a day4 ,it was bitter wind and snow this morning1 too bad to send any human creature to sit idle in4 ,black enough still1 and ,i more than usual1 because it is just that point of distinction from brutes which ,i truly say is our only one1#ad of which ,i have now so little hold4 ,the bee ,fors#ae will be got quickly into proof1 but ,i must add a good deal to it4 ,i can't get into good humor for natural history in this weather4 ,i've got a good book on wasps which says they are our chief protectors against flies4 ,in ,cumberland the wet cold spring is so bad for the wasps that ,i partly think this may be so1 and the terrible plague of flies in ,august might perhaps be checked by our teaching our little ,agneses to keep wasps' nests instead of bees4 ,yes1 that is a pretty bit of mine about ,hamlet1 and ,i think ,i must surely be a little pathetic sometimes1 in a doggish way4 ,you're so dreadfully faithful6 said ,arthur ,severn to me1 fretting over the way ,i was being ill-treated the other day by ,r4 ,oh dear1 ,i wish ,i were at ,brantwood again1 now1 and could send you my wasp book6 ,it is pathetic1 and yet so dreadful1--the wasp bringing in the caterpillar for its young wasp1 stinging each enough to paralyze but not to kill1 and so laying them up in the cupboard4 ,i wonder how the clergymen's wives will feel after the next ,fors or two6 ,i've done a bit to-day which ,i think will go in with a shiver4 ,do you recollect the curious thrill there is--the cold tingle of the pang of a nice deep wasp sting8 ,well1 ,i'm not in a fit temper to write to ,susie to-day1 clearly4 ,footnote #ad3 ,i've forgotten what it was1 and don't feel now as if ,i had 'got hold' of any one4--,j4 ,r4 ,footnote #ae3 ,see ,fors ,clavigera1 ,letter ,,li4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,bolton ,,strid4 ,i stopped here to see the ,strid again--not seen these many years4 ,it is curious that life is embittered to me1 now1 by its former pleasantness2 while you have of these same places painful recollections1 but you could enjoy them now with your whole heart4 ,instead of the drive with the poor over-labored one horse through the long wet day1 here1 when ,i was a youth1 my father and mother brought me1#af and let me sketch in the ,abbey and ramble in the woods as ,i chose1 only demanding promise that ,i should not go near the ,strid4 ,pleasant drives1 with1 on the whole1 well paid and pleased drivers1 never with over-burdened cattle2 cheerful dinner or tea waiting for me always1 on my return from solitary rambles4 ,everything right and good for me1 except only that they never put me through any trials to harden me1 or give me decision of character1 or make me feel how much they did for me4 ,but that error was a fearful one1 and cost them and me1 ,heaven only knows how much4 ,and now1 ,i walk to ,strid1 and ,abbey1 and everywhere1 with the ghosts of the past days haunting me1 and other darker spirits of sorrow and remorse and wonder4 ,black spirits among the gray1 all like a mist between me and the green woods4 ,and ,i feel like a caterpillar1--stung just enough4 ,foul weather and mist enough1 of quite a real kind besides4 ,an hour's sunshine to-day1 broken up speedily1 and now veiled utterly4 ,footnote #af3 ,in #ahcg4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,herne ,,hill1 ,,london1 #aath ,february1 #ahge4 ,i have your sweet letter with news of ,dr4 ,john and his brother4 ,i have been working on the book to-day very hard1 after much interruption2 it is two-thirds done now4 ,so glad people are on tiptoe4 ,paddocks are frogs1 not toads in that grace4#ag ,and why should not people smile8 ,do you think that ,god does not like smiling graces8 ,he only dislikes frowns4 ,but you know when once habitual1 the child would be told on a cold day to say ,cold as paddocks2 and everybody would know what was coming4 ,finally the deep under-meaning1 that as the cold hand is lifted1 so also the cold heart1 and yet accepted1 makes it one of the prettiest little hymns ,i know4 ,i cannot tell you how very apposite to my work these two feathers are4 ,i am just going to dwell on the exquisite result of the division into successive leaves1 by which nature obtains the glittering look to set off her color2 and you just send me two feathers which have it more in perfection than any ,i ever saw1 and ,i think are more vivid in color4 ,how those boys must tease you6 but you will be rewarded in the world that good ,susies go to4 ,footnote #ag3 ,herrick's4 ,see ,fors ,clavigera1 ,letter ,,xliii4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,herne ,,hill1 #dth ,october 7#ahge74 ,all your letter is delicious1 but chiefest the last sentence where you say you like your ,chaucer so much4--,and you need never fear touching that wound of mine--,it is never more--never less--without its pain4 ,i like you to lay your pure--gentle hand on it4 ,but ,i am not despondent or beaten at all1 and ,i'm at work on your peacock's feathers--and oh me1 they should be put into some great arch of crystal where one could see them like a large rainbow--,i use your dear little lens deep in and in--and can't exhaust their wonderfulness4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,hotel ,,meurice1 ,,paris1 #bfth ,august1 '#gf4 ,i'm so very miserable just now that ,i can't write to you3 but ,i don't want you to think that ,i am going so far away without wishing to be near you again4 ,a fit of intense despondency coming on the top1 or under the bottom1 of already far-fallen fatigue leaves me helpless to-day1 my tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth4 ,oh dear1 the one pleasant thing ,i've to say is that it will make me know the blessings of ,brantwood and dearness of the ,thwaite1 twenty fold more1 when ,i get back4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,venice1 #ajth ,september1 '#gf4 ,i am a sad long way from the pretty garden steps of the ,thwaite1 now1 yet in a way1 at home1 here also--having perhaps more feeling of old days at ,venice than at any other place in the world1 having done so much work there1 and ,i hope to get my new ,stones of ,venice into almost as nice a form as ,frondes4 ,i'm going to keep all that ,i think ,susie would like1 and then to put in some little bits to my own liking1 and some other little bits for the pleasure of teasing1 and ,i think the book will come out quite fresh4 ,i am settled here for a month at least--and shall be very thankful for ,susie notes1 when they cross the ,alps to me in these lovely days4 ,love to ,mary--,i wish ,i could have sent both some of the dark blue small ,veronica ,i found on the ,simplon6 99 99 99 99 99 ,,venice1 #abth ,september1 #ahgf4 ,i must just say how thankful it makes me to hear of this true gentleness of ,english gentlewomen in the midst of the vice and cruelty in which ,i am forced to live here1 where oppression on one side and license on the other rage as two war-wolves in continual havoc4 ,it is very characteristic of fallen ,venice1 as of modern ,europe1 that here in the principal rooms of one of the chief palaces in the very headmost sweep of the ,grand ,canal there is not a room for a servant fit to keep a cat or a dog in 7as ,susie would keep cat or dog1 at least74 99 99 99 99 99 ,,venice1 #ahth ,september 7#ahgf74 ,i never knew such a fight as the good and wicked fairies are having over my poor body and spirit just now4 ,the good fairies have got down the ,st4 ,ursula for me and given her to me all to myself1 and sent me fine weather and nice gondoliers1 and a good cook1 and a pleasant waiter2 and the bad fairies keep putting everything upside down1 and putting black in my box when ,i want white1 and making me forget all ,i want1 and find all ,i don't1 and making the hinges come off my boards1 and the leaves out of my books1 and driving me as wild as wild can be2 but ,i'm getting something done in spite of them1 only ,i never can get my letters written4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,venice1 ,september #bith4 ,i have woeful letters telling me you also were woeful in saying good-bye4 ,my darling ,susie1 what is the use of your being so good and dear if you can't enjoy thinking of heaven1 and what fine goings on we shall all have there8 ,all the same1 even when ,i'm at my very piousest1 it puts me out if my drawings go wrong4 ,i'm going to draw ,st4 ,ursula's blue slippers to-day1 and if ,i can't do them nicely shall be in great despair4 ,i've just found a little cunning inscription on her bedpost1 ',,in ,,fanntia4' ,the double ,n puzzled me at first1 but ,carpaccio spells anyhow4 ,my head is not good enough for a bedpost4444,oh me1 the sweet ,grange6--,thwaite1 ,i mean 7bedpost again72 to think of it in this mass of weeds and ruin6 99 99 99 99 99 ,,st4 ,,ursula4 ,,venice1 #acth ,november 7#ahgf74 ,i have to-day your dear little note1 and have desired ,joan to send you one just written to her in which ,i have given some account of myself1 that may partly interest1 partly win your pardon for apparent neglect4 ,coming here1 after practically an interval of twenty-four years1--for ,i have not seriously looked at anything during the two hurried visits with ,joan1#ah--my old unfinished work1 and the possibilities of its better completion1 rise grievously and beguilingly before me1 and ,i have been stretching my hands to the shadow of old designs and striving to fulfill shortcomings1 always painful to me1 but now1 for the moment1 intolerable4 ,i am also approaching the close of the sixth year of ,fors1 and have plans for the ,sabbatical year of it1 which make my thoughts active and troubled4 ,i am drawing much1 and have got a study of ,st4 ,ursula which will give you pleasure2 but the pain of being separate from my friends and of knowing they miss me6 ,i wonder if you will think you are making me too vain1 ,susie4 ,such vanity is a very painful one1 for ,i know that you look out of the window on ,sundays now1 wistfully1 for ,joan's handkerchief4 ,this pain seems always at my heart1 with the other which is its own4 ,i am thankful1 always1 you like ,st4 ,ursula4 ,one quite fixed plan for the last year of ,fors1 is that there shall be absolutely no abuse or controversy in it1 but things which will either give pleasure or help2 and some clear statements of principle1 in language as temperate as hitherto violent2 to show1 for one thing1 that the violence was not for want of self-command4 ,i'm going to have a good fling at the ,bishops in next ,fors to finish with1 and then for ,january6--only ,i mustn't be too good1 ,susie1 or something would happen to me4 ,so ,i shall say naughty things still1 but in the mildest way4 ,i am very grateful to you for that comparison about my mind being as crisp as a lettuce4 ,i am so thankful you can feel that still4 ,i was beginning to doubt1 myself4 ,footnote #ah3 ,may #ahgj and ,june #ahgb4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,st4 ,,mark',s ,,doves4 ,,venice1 #b;d ,december 7#ahgf74 ,i have been very dismal lately4 ,i hope the next captain of ,st4 ,george's ,company will be a merrier one and happier1 in being of use4 ,i am inherently selfish1 and don't enjoy being of use4 ,and here ,i've no ,susies nor ,kathleens nor ,diddies1 and ,i'm only doing lots of good1 and ,i'm very miserable4 ,i've been going late to bed too4 ,i picked myself up last night and went to bed at nine1 and feel cheerful enough to ask ,susie how she does1 and send her love from ,st4 ,mark's doves4 ,they're really tiresome now1 among one's feet in ,st4 ,mark's ,place1 and ,i don't know what it will come to4 ,in old times1 when there were not so many idlers about1 the doves were used to brisk walkers1 and moved away a foot or two in front of one2 but now everybody lounges1 or stands talking about the ,government1 and the doves won't stir till one just touches them2 and ,i who walk fast#ai am always expecting to tread on them1 and it's a nuisance4 ,if ,i only had time ,i would fain make friends with the sea-gulls1 who would be quite like angels if they would only stop on one's balcony4 ,if there were the least bit of truth in ,darwinism1 ,venice would have had her own born sea-gulls by this time building their nests at her thresholds4 ,footnote #ai3 ,see ,fors ,clavigera1 ,letter ,,lxxxii4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,venice1 #aath ,december 7#ahgf74 ,my mouth's watering so for that ,thwaite currant jelly1 you can't think4 ,i haven't had the least taste of anything of the sort this three months4 ,these wretches of ,venetians live on cigars and garlic1 and have no taste in their mouths for anything that ,god makes nice4 ,the little drawing 7returned7 is nice in color and feeling1 but1 which surprises me1 not at all intelligent in line4 ,it is not weakness of hand but fault of perspective instinct1 which spoils so many otherwise good botanical drawings4 ,bright morning4 ,sickle moon just hiding in a red cloud1 and the morning stars just vanished in light4 ,but we've had nearly three weeks of dark weather1 so we mustn't think it poor ,coniston's fault--though ,coniston has faults4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,st4 ,,mark',s ,,rest4 #bc;d ,january1 #ahgg4 ,a great many lovely things happened to me this ,christmas1 but if ,i were to tell ,susie of them ,i am sure she would be frightened out of her bright little wits1 and think ,i was going to be a ,roman ,catholic4 ,i'm writing such a ,catholic history of ,venice1 and chiseling all the ,protestantism off the old ,stones as they do here the grass off steps4 ,all the pigeons of ,st4 ,mark's ,place send you their love4 ,st4 ,ursula adds hers to the eleven thousand birds' love4 ,and the darlingest old ,pope who went a pilgrimage with her1 hopes you won't be too much shocked if he sends his too6 7,if you're not shocked1 ,i am67 ,my new ,catholic history of ,venice is to be called ,st4 ,mark's ,rest4 99 99 99 99 99 #bgth ,january 7#ahgg74 ,joanie tells me you are writing her such sad little letters4 ,how can it be that any one so good and true as my ,susie should be sad8 ,i am sad1 bitterly enough and often1 but only with sense of fault and folly and lost opportunity such as you have never fallen into or lost4 ,it is very cruel of ,fate1 ,i think1 to make us sad1 who would fain see everybody cheerful1 and 7cruel of ,fate too7 to make so many cheerful who make others wretched4 ,the little history of ,venice is well on1 and will be clear and interesting1 ,i think1--more than most histories of anything4 ,and the stories of saints and nice people will be plenty4 ,such moonlight as there is to-night1 but nothing to what it is at ,coniston6 ,it makes the lagoon water look brown instead of green1 which ,i never noticed before4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,venice1 #dth ,february1 #ahgg4 ,your praise and sympathy do me double good1 because you could not praise me so nicely and brightly without pleasure of your own4 ,i'm always sure a ,fors will be good if ,i feel it will please ,susie2--but ,i can only write them now as they're given me2 it all depends on what ,i'm about4 ,but ,i'm doing a great deal just now which you will enjoy--,i'm thankful to say1 ,i know you will4 ,st4 ,theodore's horse is delightful#bj--;and our ,venetian doggie--and some birds are coming too6 ,this is not a letter--but just a purr4 ,footnote #bj3 ,st4 ,theodore had a contest with a ,dragon1 and his horse gave considerable help1 trampling it down with its four feet4 ,the ,saint spoke first to the horse as to a man--,oh thou horse of ,christ comfort thee1 be strong like a man1 and come that we may conquer the contrary enemy4 ,see ,fors1 vol4 vii4 also ,st4 ,mark's ,rest1 99 99 99 99 99 ,,saints ,,and ,,flowers4 ,,venice1 #agth ,february 7#ahgg74 ,it is very grievous to me to hear of your being in that woeful weather while ,i have two days' sunshine out of three1 and starlight or moonlight always2 to-day the whole chain of the ,alps from ,vicenza to ,trieste shining cloudless all day long1 and the sea-gulls floating high in the blue1 like little dazzling boys' kites4 ,yes1 ,st4 ,francis would have been greatly pleased with you watching pussy drink your milk2 so would ,st4 ,theodore1 as you will see by next ,fors1 which ,i have ordered to be sent you in first proof1 for ,i am eager that you should have it4 ,what wonderful flowers these pinks of ,st4 ,ursula's are1 for life6 ,they seem to bloom like everlastings4 ,i get my first rosebud and violets of this year from ,st4 ,helena's ,island to-day4 ,how ,i begin to pity people who have no saints to be good to them6 ,who is yours at ,coniston8 ,there must have been some in the country once upon a time4 ,with their help ,i am really getting well on with my history and drawing1 and hope for a sweet time at home in the heathery days1 and many a nice afternoon tea at the ,thwaite4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,venice1 #hth ,march1 #ahgg4 ,that is entirely new and wonderful to me about the singing mouse4#ba ,douglas 7was it the ,douglas87 saying he had rather hear the lark sing than the mouse squeak needs revision4 ,it is a marvelous fact in natural history4 ,the wind is singing a wild tune to-night--cannot be colder on our own heaths--and the waves dash like our ,waterhead4 ,oh me1 when ,i'm walking round it again how like a sad dream all this ,venice will be6 ,footnote #ba3 ,a pleasant story that a friend sent me from ,france4 ,the mouse often came into their sitting-room and actually sang to them1 the notes being a little like a canary's4--,s4 ,b4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,venice1 #aeth ,may1 #ahgg4 ,i've not tumbled into the lagoons1 nor choked myself in a passion1 nor gone and made a monk of myself--nor got poisoned by the ,italian cooks4 ,i'm packing up1 and coming to the ,thwaite as soon as ever ,i can--after a little ,alpine breathing of high air4 ,i'm pretty well--if you'll forgive me for being so naughty--else ,i can't be even plain well--but ,i'm always your loving---- ,transcriber's ,note3 no ending to the sentence here4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,oxford1 #b;d ,december 7#ahgg74 ,i write first to you this morning to tell you that ,i gave yesterday the twelfth and last#bb of my course of lectures this term1 to a room crowded by six hundred people1 two-thirds members of the ,university1 and with its door wedged open by those who could not get in2 this interest of theirs being granted to me1 ,i doubt not1 because for the first time in ,oxford1 ,i have been able to speak to them boldly of immortal life4 ,i intended when ,i began the course only to have read ,modern ,painters to them2 but when ,i began1 some of your favorite bits interested the men so much1 and brought so much larger a proportion of undergraduates than usual1 that ,i took pains to reinforce and press them home2 and people say ,i have never given so useful a course yet4 ,but it has taken all my time and strength1 and ,i have not been able even to tell ,susie a word about it until now4 ,in one of my lectures ,i made my text your pretty peacock and the design#bc of him4 ,but did not venture to say what really must be true1 that his voice is an example of the ,devil sowed tares1 and of the angels letting both grow together4 ,my grateful compliments to the peacock4 ,and little 7but warm7 loves to all your little birds4 ,and best of little loves to the squirrels1 only you must send them in dream-words1 ,i suppose1 up to their nests4 ,footnote #bb3 ,an ,oxford ,lecture4 ,nineteenth ,century1 ,january1 #ahgh4 ,footnote #bc3 ,decorative art of his plumage4--,j4 ,r4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,herne ,,hill1 ,sunday1 #afth ,december 7#ahgg74 ,it is a long while since ,i've felt so good for nothing as ,i do this morning4 ,my very wristbands curl up in a dog's-eared and disconsolate manner2 my little room is all a heap of disorder4 ,i've got a hoarseness and wheezing and sneezing and coughing and choking4 ,i can't speak and ,i can't think1 ,i'm miserable in bed and useless out of it2 and it seems to me as if ,i could never venture to open a window or go out of a door any more4 ,i have the dimmest sort of diabolical pleasure in thinking how miserable ,i shall make ,susie by telling her all this2 but in other respects ,i seem entirely devoid of all moral sentiments4 ,i have arrived at this state of things1 first by catching cold1 and since by trying to amuse myself for three days4 ,i tried to read ,pickwick1 but found that vulgar1#bd and1 besides1 ,i know it all by heart4 ,i sent from town for some chivalric romances1 but found them immeasurably stupid4 ,i made ,baxter read me the ,daily ,telegraph1 and found that the ,home ,secretary had been making an absurd speech about art1 without any consciousness that such a person as ,i had ever existed4 ,i read a lot of games of chess out of ,mr4 ,staunton's handbook1 and couldn't understand any of them4 ,i analyzed the ,dock ,company's bill of charges on a box from ,venice1 and sent them an examination paper on it4 ,i think that did amuse me a little1 but the account doesn't4 ,l#a #hs4 #f;d4 for bringing a box two feet square from the ,tower ,wharf to here6 ,but the worst of all is1 that the doctor keeps me shut up here1 and ,i can't get my business done2 and now there isn't the least chance of my getting down to ,brantwood for ,christmas1 nor1 as far as ,i can see1 for a fortnight after it4 ,there's perhaps a little of the diabolical enjoyment again in that estimate2 but really the days do go1 more like dew shaken off branches than real sunrisings and settings4 ,but ,i'll send you word every day now for a little while how things are going on4 ,footnote #bd3 ,may ,i ask you to correct a false impression which any of your readers who still care to know my opinions would receive from the reference to ,dickens in your kind notice of my letters to ,miss ,beever4444,i have not the letters here1 and forget what ,i said about my ,pickwick's not amusing me when ,i was ill1 but it always does1 to this hour1 when ,i am well2 though ,i have known it by heart1 pretty nearly all1 since it came out2 and ,i love ,dickens with every bit of my heart1 and sympathize in everything he thought or tried to do1 except in his effort to make more money by readings which killed him4 ,letter to ,daily ,telegraph1 ,sandgate1 ,january #d1 #ahhh4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,corpus ,,christi ,,college1 ,,oxford1 #bfth ,december1 #ahgg4 ,i don't know really whether ,i ought to be at ,brantwood or here on ,christmas4 ,yesterday ,i had two lovely services in my own cathedral4 ,you know the cathedral of ,oxford is the chapel of ,christ ,church ,college1 and ,i have my own high seat in the chancel1 as an honorary student1 besides being bred there1 and so one is ever so proud and ever so pious all at once1 which is ever so nice1 you know2 and my own dean1 that's the ,dean of ,christ's ,church1 who is as big as any bishop1 read the services1 and the psalms and anthems were lovely2 and then ,i dined with ,henry ,acland and his family1 where ,i am an adopted son1--all the more wanted yesterday because the favorite son ,herbert died this year in ,ceylon1--the first death out of seven sons4 ,so they were glad to have me4 ,then ,i've all my ,turners here1 and shall really enjoy myself a little to-day1 ,i think2 but ,i do wish ,i could be at ,brantwood too4 ,oh dear1 ,i've scribbled this dreadfully4 ,can you really read my scribble1 ,susie8 ,love1 you may always read1 however scribbled4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,oxford1 #bgth ,december1 #ahgg4 ,by the way1 what a shame it is that we keep that word jealous in the second commandment1 as if it meant that ,god was jealous of images4 ,it means burning1 zealous or full of life1 visiting1 etc41 i4e41 necessarily when leaving the father leaving the child2 necessarily1 when giving the father life1 giving life to the child1 and to thousands of the race of them that love me4 ,it is very comic the way people have of being so particular about the second and fourth commandments1 and breaking all the rest with the greatest comfort4 ,for me1 ,i try to keep all the rest rather carefully1 and let the second and fourth take care of themselves4 ,cold quite gone2 now it's your turn1 ,susie4 ,i've got a love letter in ,chinese1 and can't read it6 99 99 99 99 99 ,,windsor ,,castle1 #b;d ,january1 #ahgh4 ,i'm horribly sulky this morning1 for ,i expected to have a room with a view1 if the room was ever so little1 and ,i've got a great big one looking into the ,castle yard1 and ,i feel exactly as if ,i was in a big modern county jail with beautiful turrets of modern ,gothic4 ,i came to see ,prince ,leopold1 who has been a prisoner to his sofa lately1 but ,i trust he is better2 he is very bright and gentle1 under severe and almost continual pain4 ,my dear little ,susie1 about that rheumatism of yours8 ,if it wasn't for that1 how happy we both ought to be1 living in ,thwaites and woods1 instead of nasty castles6 ,well1 about that ,shakespeare guide8 ,i cannot1 cannot1 at all fancy what it is4 ,in and out among the stars2 it sounds like a plan for stringing the stars4 ,i am so very glad you told me of it4 ,unwritten books in my brain8 ,yes1 but also in how many other brains of quiet people1 books unthought of1 ,in the ,book and ,volume which will be read some day in ,heaven1 aloud1 ,when saw we thee8 ,yes1 and ,when read we ourselves8 ,my dear ,susie1 if ,i were to think really lost1 what you for instance have new found in your own powers of receiving and giving pleasure1 the beautiful faculties you have1 scarcely venturing even to show the consciousness of them1 when it awakes in you1 what a woeful conception ,i should have of ,god's not caring for us4 ,he will gather all the wheat into ,his garner4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,ingleton1 #agth ,january 7#ahgh74 ,it's a charming post here1 and brings me my letters the first thing in the morning2 and ,i took care to tell nobody where ,i was going1 except people ,i wanted to hear from4 ,what a little busy bee of a ,susie you've been to get all those extracts ready by this time4 ,i've got nothing done all the while ,i've been away1 but a few mathematical figures1 and the less ,i do the less ,i find ,i can do it2 and yesterday1 for the first time these twenty years at least1 ,i hadn't so much as a plan in my head all day4 ,but ,i had a lot to look at in the moorland flowers and quiet little ancient ,yorkshire farmhouses1 not to speak of ,ingleborough1 who was1 ,i think1 a little depressed because he knew you were only going to send your remembrances and not your love to him4 ,the clouds gathered on his brow occasionally in a fretful manner1 but towards evening he resumed his peace of mind and sends you his remembrances and his blessing4 ,i believe he saves both you and me from a great deal of east wind4 ,well1 ,i've got a plan in my head this morning for the new extracts4 ,shall we call them ,lapides 7or ,marmora7 ,portici2 and put a little preface to them about the pavement of ,st4 ,mark's porch and its symbolism of what the education of a good man's early days must be to him8 ,i think ,i can write something a little true and trustworthy about it4 99 99 99 99 99 #bfth ,november4 ,i have entirely resigned all hope of ever thanking you rightly for bread1 sweet odors1 roses and pearls1 and must just allow myself to be fed1 scented1 rose-garlanded and bepearled as if ,i were a poor little pet dog or pet pig4 ,but my cold is better1 and ,i am getting on with this botany2 but it is really too important a work to be pushed for a week or a fortnight4 ,and ,mary and you will be pleased at last1 ,i am sure4 ,i have only to-day got my four families1 ,clarissa1 ,lychnis1 ,scintilla1 and ,mica1 perfectly and simply defined4#be ,see how nicely they come4 ,a4 ,clarissa changed from ,dianthus1 which is bad ,greek 7and all my pretty flowers have names of girls74 ,petal jagged at the outside4 ,b4 ,lychnis4 ,petal divided in two at the outside1 and the fringe retired to the top of the limb4 ,c4 ,scintilla4 7,changed from ,stellaria1 because ,i want ,stella for the house leeks47 ,petal formed by the two lobes of lychnis without the retired fringe4 ,d4 ,mica4 ,single lobed petal4 ,when once these four families are well understood in typical examples1 how easy it will be to attach either subordinate groups or specialities of habitat1 as in ,america1 to some kinds of them6 ,the entire order1 for their purity and wildness1 are to be named1 from ,artemis1 ,artemides1 instead of ,caryophyllaceae2 and next them come the ,vestals 7mints1 lavenders1 etc472 and then the ,cytheride ,viola1 ,veronica1 ,giulietta1 the last changed from ,polygala4 ,that third ,herb ,robert one is just the drawing that nobody but me 7never mind grammar7 could have made4 ,nobody6 because it means ever so much careful watching of the ways of the leaf1 and a lot of work in cramp perspective besides4 ,it is not quite right yet1 but it is nice4 ,footnote #be3 ,proserpina1 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is so nice to be able to find anything that is in the least new to you1 and interesting2 my rocks are quite proud of rooting that little saxifrage4 ,i'm scarcely able to look at one flower because of the two on each side1 in my garden just now4 ,i want to have bees' eyes1 there are so many lovely things4 ,i must tell you1 interrupting my botanical work this morning1 something that has just chanced to me4 ,i am arranging the caryophylls1 which ,i mass broadly into ,clarissa1 the true jagged-leaved and clove-scented ones2 ,lychnis1 those whose leaves are essentially in two lobes2 ,arenaria1 which ,i leave untouched2 and ,mica1 a new name of my own for the pearlworts of which the ,french name is to be ,miette1 and the representative type 7now ,sagina procumbens7 is to be in-- ,latin--,mica amica4 ,french--,miette l'amie4 ,english--,pet pearlwort4 ,then the next to this is to be-- ,latin--,mica millegrana4 ,french--,miette aux mille perles4 ,english--,thousand pearls4 ,now this on the whole ,i consider the prettiest of the group1 and so look for a plate of it which ,i can copy4 ,hunting all through my botanical books1 ,i find the best of all is ,baxter's ,oxford one1 and determine at once to engrave that4 ,when turning the page of his text ,i find3 ,the specimen of this curious and interesting little plant from which the accompanying drawing was made was communicated to me by ,miss ,susan ,beever4 ,to the kindness of this young lady1 and that of her sister1 ,miss ,mary ,beever1 ,i am indebted for the four plants figured in this number4 ,i have copied lest you should have trouble in looking for the book1 but now1 you darling ,susie1 please tell me whether ,i may not separate these lovely pearlworts wholly from the spergulas1--by the pearlworts having only two leaves like real pinks at the joints1 and the spergulas1 a cluster2 and tell me how the spergulas scatter their seeds1 ,i can't find any account of it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i would fain have come to see that ,st4 ,bruno lily2 but if ,i don't come to see ,susie and you1 be sure ,i am able to come to see nothing4 ,at present ,i am very deeply involved in the classification of the minerals in the ,sheffield ,museum1 important as the first practical arrangement ever yet attempted for popular teaching1 and this with my other work makes me fit for nothing in the afternoon but wood-chopping4 ,but ,i will call to-day on ,dr4 ,brown's friends4 ,i hope you will not be too much shocked with the audacities of the new number#bf of ,proserpina1 or with its ignorances4 ,i am going during my wood-chopping really to ascertain in my own way what simple persons ought to know about tree growth1 and give it clearly in the next number4 ,i meant to do the whole book very differently1 but can only now give the fragmentary pieces as they chance to come1 or it would never be done at all4 ,you must know before anybody else how the exogens are to be completely divided4 ,i keep the four great useful groups1 mallow1 geranium1 mint1 and wallflower1 under the head of domestic orders1 that their sweet service and companionship with us may be understood2 then the water-lily and the heath1 both four foils1 are to be studied in their solitudes 7,i shall throw all that are not four foils out of the ,ericaceae72 then finally there are to be seven orders of the dark proserpine1 headed by the draconids 7snapdragons71 and including the anemones1 hellebores1 ivies1 and forget-me-nots4 ,what plants ,i cannot get ranged under these #abdbgbe in all1 orders1 ,i shall give broken notices of1 as ,i have time1 leaving my pupils to arrange them as they like4 ,i can't do it all4 ,the whole household was out after breakfast to-day to the top of the moor to plant cranberries2 and we squeezed and splashed and spluttered in the boggiest places the lovely sunshine had left1 till we found places squashy and squeezy enough to please the most particular and coolest of cranberry minds2 and then each of us choosing a little special bed of bog1 the tufts were deeply put in with every manner of tacit benediction1 such as might befit a bog and a berry1 and many an expressed thanksgiving to ,susie and to the kind sender of the luxuriant plants4 ,i have never had gift from you1 dear ,susie1 more truly interesting and gladdening to me1 and many a day ,i shall climb the moor to see the fate of the plants and look across to the ,thwaite4 ,i've been out most of the forenoon and am too sleepy to shape letters1 but will try and get a word of thanks to the far finder of the dainty things to-morrow4 ,what loveliness everywhere in a duckling sort of state just now4 ,footnote #bf3 ,part #e4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood4 ,i hope you did not get a chill in the garden4 ,the weather is a little wrong again1 but ,i am thankful for last night's sunset4 ,you know our ,english ,bible is only of ,james #ast time--,stalk is a ,saxon word1 and gets into ,english ,i fancy as early as the ,plantagenets--but ,i have not hunted it down4--,i'm just in the same mess with pith1 but ,i'm finding out a great deal about the thing though not the word1 for next ,deucalion1 in chopping my wood4 ,you know1 ,funckia won't last long4 ,i am certain ,i shall have strength enough to carry my system of nomenclature at least as far1 as to exclude people's individual names4 ,i won't even have a ,susia--stay--that's ,christian--yes1 ,i will have a ,susia4 ,but not a ,beeveria1 though---- 99 99 99 99 99 ,,to ,,miss ,,beever4 #bjth ,january1 #ahgi4 ,you will not doubt the extreme sorrow with which ,i have heard of all that was ordered to be1 of terrible1 in your peaceful and happy household4 ,without for an instant supposing1 but1 on the contrary1 utterly refusing to admit1 that such calamities#bg may be used to point a moral 7all useful morality having every point that ,god meant it to have1 perfectly sharp and bright without any burnishing of ours71 still less to adorn a tale 7the tales of modern days depending far too much upon ,scythian decoration with ,death's heads71 ,i1 yet1 if ,i had been ,mr4 ,chapman1 would have pointed out that all concealments1 even of trivial matters1 on the part of young servants from kind mistresses1 are dangerous no less than unkind and ungenerous1 and that a great deal of preaching respecting the evil nature of man and the anger of ,god might be spared1 if children and servants were only taught1 as a religious principle1 to tell their mothers and mistresses1 when they go out1 exactly where they are going and what they are going to do4 ,i think both you and ,miss ,susan ought to use every possible means of changing1 or at least checking1 the current of such thoughts in your minds2 and ,i am in hopes that you may have a little pleasure in examining the plates in the volume of ,sibthorpe's ,f4 ,graeca which ,i send to-day1 in comparison with those of ,f4 ,danica4 ,the vulgarity and lifelessness of ,sibthorpe's plates are the more striking because in mere execution they are the more elaborate of the two2 the chief point in the ,f4 ,danica being the lovely artistic skill4 ,the drawings for ,sibthorpe1 by a young ,german1 were as exquisite as the ,dane's1 but the ,english engraver and colorist spoiled all4 ,i will send you1 if you like them1 the other volumes in succession4 ,i find immense interest in comparing the ,greek and ,danish forms or conditions of the same ,english flower4 ,i send the second volume1 in which the ,rufias are lovely1 and scarcely come under my above condemnation4 ,the first is nearly all of grass4 ,footnote #bg3 ,one of our younger servants had gone on to the frozen lake2 the ice gave way1 and she was drowned4--,s4 ,b4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood1 #dth ,february 7#ahgi74 ,you know ,i'm getting my ,oxford minerals gradually to ,brantwood1 and whenever a box comes1 ,i think whether there are any that ,i don't want myself1 which might yet have leave to live on ,susie's table4 ,and to-day ,i've found a very soft purple agate1 that looks as if it were nearly melted away with pity for birds and flies1 which is like ,susie2 and another piece of hard wooden agate with only a little ragged sky of blue here and there1 which is like me2 and a group of crystals with grass of ,epidote inside1 which is like what my own little cascade has been all the winter by the garden side2 and so ,i've had them all packed up1 and ,i hope you will let them live at the ,thwaite4 ,then here are some more bits1 if you will be a child4 ,here's a green piece1 long1 of the stone they cut those green weedy brooches out of1 and a nice mouse-colored natural agate1 and a great black and white one1 stained with sulphuric acid1 black but very fine always1 and interesting in its lines4 ,oh dear1 the cold2 but it's worth any cold to have that delicious ,robin dialogue4 ,please write some more of it2 you hear all they say1 ,i'm sure4 ,i cannot tell you how delighted ,i am with your lovely gift to ,joanie4 ,the perfection of the stone1 its exquisite color1 and superb weight1 and flawless clearness1 and the delicate cutting1 which makes the light flash from it like a wave of the ,lake1 make it altogether the most perfect mineralogical and heraldic jewel that ,joanie could be bedecked with1 and it is as if ,susie had given her a piece of ,coniston ,water itself4 ,and the setting is delicious1 and positively must not be altered4 ,i shall come on ,sunday to thank you myself for it4 ,meantime ,i'm working hard at the ,psalter1 which ,i am almost sure ,susie will like4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood4 ,i am so very glad you like ,sir ,philip so much4 ,i've sent for1 and hope to get him for you4 ,he was shot before he had done half his ,psalter--,his sister finished it1 but very meanly in comparison1 you can tell the two hands on the harp at a mile off4 ,the photograph--please say--like all photos whatsoever1 is only nature dirtied and undistanced4--,if that is all one wants in trees1--they might be dead all the year round4 99 99 99 99 99 #beth ,may 7#ahgi74 ,this is a most wonderful stone that ,dr4 ,kendall has found--at least to me4 ,i have never seen anything quite like it1 the arborescent forms of the central thread of iron being hardly ever assumed by an ore of so much metallic luster4 ,i think it would be very desirable to cut it1 so as to get a perfectly smooth surface to show the arborescent forms2 if ,dr4 ,kendall would like to have it done1 ,i can easily send it up to ,london with my own next parcel4 ,i want very much to know exactly where it was found2 might ,i come and ask about it on ,dr4 ,kendall's next visit to you8 ,i could be there waiting for him any day4 ,what lovely pictures you would have made in the old butterfly times1 of opal and felspar6 ,what lost creatures we all are1 we nice ones6 ,the ,alps and clouds that ,i could have done1 if ,i had been shown how4 99 99 99 99 99 #bgth ,june 7#ahgi74 ,everybody's gone6 and ,i have all the new potatoes1 and all the asparagus1 and all the oranges and everything1 and my ,susie too1 all to myself4 ,i wrote in my diary this morning that really on the whole ,i never felt better in my life4 ,mouth1 eyes1 head1 feet1 and fingers all fairly in trim2 older than they were1 yes1 but if the head and heart grow wiser1 they won't want feet or fingers some day4 ,and ,i'll come to be cheered and scolded myself the moment ,i've got things a little to rights here4 ,i think imps get into the shelves and drawers1 if they're kept long locked1 and must be caught like mice4 ,the boys have been very good1 and left everything untouched2 but the imps2 and to hear people say there aren't any6 ,how happy you and ,i should always be if it weren't for them6 ,how gay you were and how you cheered me up after the dark lake4 ,please say ,john ,inglesant is harder than real history and of no mortal use4 ,i couldn't read four pages of it4 ,clever1 of course4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,herne ,,hill1 #adth ,august1 #ahhj4 ,i've just finished my ,scott paper3#bh but it has retouchings and notings yet to do4 ,i couldn't write a word before2 haven't so much as a syllable to ,diddie1 and only a move at chess to ,macdonald1 for1 you know1 to keep a chess player waiting for a move is like keeping ,st4 ,lawrence unturned4 ,footnote #bh3 ,fiction ,fair and ,foul1 ,no4 #c4 99 99 99 99 99 #bast ,august1 #ahhj4 ,i'm leaving to-day for ,dover1 and a line from you to-morrow or ,monday would find me certainly at ,poste ,restante1 ,abbeville4 ,i have not been working at all1 but enjoying myself 7only that takes up time all the same7 at ,crystal ,palace concerts1 and jugglings1 and at ,zoological ,gardens1 where ,i had a snake seven feet long to play with1 only ,i hadn't much time to make friends1 and it rather wanted to get away all the time4 ,and ,i gave the hippopotamus whole buns1 and he was delighted1 and saw the cormorant catch fish thrown to him six yards off2 never missed one2 you would have thought the fish ran along a wire up to him and down his throat4 ,and ,i saw the penguin swim under water1 and the sea lions sit up1 four of them on four wooden chairs1 and catch fish also2 but they missed sometimes and had to flop off their chairs into the water and then flop out again and flop up again4 ,and ,i lunched with ,cardinal ,manning1 and he gave me such a plum pie4 ,i never tasted a ,protestant pie to touch it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,now you're just wrong about my darling ,cardinal4 ,see what it is to be jealous6 ,he gave me lovely soup1 roast beef1 hare and currant jelly1 puff pastry like ,papal pretensions--you had but to breathe on it and it was nowhere--raisins and almonds1 and those lovely preserved cherries like kisses kept in amber4 ,and told me delicious stories all through lunch4 ,there6 ,and we really do see the sun here6 ,and last night the sky was all a spangle and delicate glitter of stars1 the glare of them and spikiness softened off by a young darling of a moon4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,amiens1 #bith ,august1 #ahhj4 ,you have been made happy doubtless with us by the news from ,herne ,hill4 ,i've only a telegram yet though1 but write at once to congratulate you on your little goddaughter4 ,also to say that ,i am very well1 and sadly longing for ,brantwood2 but that ,i am glad to see some vestige of beloved things here1 once more4 ,we have glorious weather1 and ,i am getting perfect rest most of the day--mere saunter in the sunny air1 taking all the good ,i can of it4 ,to-morrow we get 7,d4,v47 to ,beauvais1 where perhaps ,i may find a letter from ,susie2 in any case you may write to ,hotel ,meurice1 ,paris4 ,the oleanders are coming out and geraniums in all cottage windows1 and golden corn like ,etruscan jewelry over all the fields4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,beauvais1 #c;d ,september1 #ahhj4 ,we are having the most perfect weather ,i ever saw in ,france1 much less anywhere else1 and ,i'm taking a thorough rest1 writing scarcely anything and sauntering about old town streets all day4 ,i made a little sketch of the lake from above the ,waterhead which goes everywhere with me1 and it is so curious when the wind blows the leaf open when ,i am sketching here at ,beauvais1 where all is so differently delightful1 as if we were on the other side of the world4 ,i think ,i shall be able to write some passages about architecture yet1 which ,susie will like4 ,i hear of countless qualities being discovered in the new little ,susie6 ,and all things will be happy for me if you send me a line to ,hotel ,meurice saying you are happy too4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,paris1 #dth ,september 7#ahhj74 ,i have all your letters1 and rejoice in them2 though it is a little sadder for you looking at empty ,brantwood1 than for me to fancy the bright full ,thwaite1 and then it's a great shame that ,i've everything to amuse me1 and lovely ,louvres and shops and cathedrals and coquettes and pictures and plays and prettinesses of every color and quality1 and you've only your old1 old hills and quiet lake4 ,very thankful ,i shall be to get back to them1 though4 ,we have finished our ,paris this afternoon1 and hope to leave for ,chartres on ,monday4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,hotel ,,de ,,meurice1 ,,paris1 #dth ,september 7#ahhj74 ,is it such pain to you when people say what they ought not to say about me8 ,but when do they say what they ought to say about anything8 ,nearly everything ,i have ever done or said is as much above the present level of public understanding as the ,old ,man is above the ,waterhead4 ,we have had the most marvelous weather thus far1 and have seen ,paris better than ever ,i've seen it yet1--and to-day at the ,louvre we saw the ,casette of ,st4 ,louis1 the ,coffre of ,anne of ,austria1 the porphyry vase1 made into an eagle1 of an old ,abbe ,segur1 or some such name4 ,all these you can see also1 you know1 in those lovely photographs of ,miss ,rigbye's1 if you can only make out in this vile writing of mine what ,i mean4 ,but it is so hot4 ,i can scarcely sit up or hold the pen1 but tumble back into the chair every half minute and unbutton another button of waistcoat1 and gasp a little1 and nod a little1 and wink a little1 and sprinkle some eau de ,cologne a little1 and try a little to write a little1 and forget what ,i had to say1 and where ,i was1 and whether it's ,susie or ,joan ,i'm writing to2 and then ,i see some letters ,i've never opened that came by this morning's post1 and think ,i'd better open them perhaps2 and here ,i find in one of them a delightful account of the quarrel that goes on in this weather between the nicest elephant in the ,zoo' and his keeper1 because he won't come out of his bath4 ,i saw them at it myself1 when ,i was in ,london1 and saw the elephant take up a stone and throw it hard against a door which the keeper was behind1--but my friend writes1 ,i must believe from what ,i saw that the elephant knew he would injure the man with the stones1 for he threw them hard to the side of him1 and then stood his ground2 when1 however1 he threw water and wetted the man1 he plunged into the bath to avoid the whip2 not fearing punishment when he merely showed what he could do and did not4 ,the throwing the stone hard at the door when the keeper was on the other side of it1 must have been great fun for him6 ,i am so sorry to have crushed this inclosed scrawl4 ,it has been carried about in my pocket to be finished1 and ,i see there's no room for the least bit of love at the bottom4 ,so here's a leaf full from the ,bois de ,boulogne1 which is very lovely2 and we drive about by night or day1 as if all the sky were only the roof of a sapphire palace set with warm stars4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chartres1 #hth ,september 7#ahhj74 7,hotel du ,grande ,monarque47 ,i suppose ,i'm the grand ,monarque6 ,i don't know of any other going just now1 but ,i don't feel quite the right thing without a wig4 ,anyhow1 ,i'm having everything my own way just now1--weather1 dinner1 news from ,joanie and news from ,susie1 only ,i don't like her to be so very1 very sad1 though it is nice to be missed so tenderly4 ,but ,i do hope you will like to think of my getting some joy in old ways again1 and once more exploring old streets and finding forgotten churches4 ,the sunshine is life and health to me1 and ,i am gaining knowledge faster than ever ,i could when ,i was young4 ,this is just to say where ,i am1 and that you might know where to write4 ,the cathedral here is the grandest in ,france1 and ,i stay a week at least4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,chartres1 #acth ,september 7#ahhj7 ,i must be back in ,england by the #ast ,october1 and by the #ajth shall be myself ready to start for ,brantwood1 but may perhaps stay1 if ,joanie is not ready1 till she can come too4 ,anyway1 ,i trust very earnestly to be safe in the shelter of my own woodside by the end of ,october4 ,i wonder what you will say of my account of the ,five ,lovers of ,nature#bi and seclusion in the last ,nineteenth ,century8 ,i am a little ashamed to find that in spite of my sublimely savage temperament1 ,i take a good deal more pleasure in ,paris than of old1 and am even going back there on ,friday for three more days4 ,we find the people here very amiable1 and the ,french old character unchanged4 ,the perfect cleanliness and unruffledness of white cap1 is always a marvel1 and the market groups exquisite1 but our enjoyment of the fair is subdued by pity for a dutiful dog1 who turns a large wheel 7by walking up it inside7 the whole afternoon1 producing awful sounds out of a huge grinding organ1 of which his wheel and he are the unfortunate instruments4 ,him we love1 his wheel we hate6 and in general all ,french musical instruments4 ,i have become quite sure of one thing on this journey1 that the ,french of to-day have no sense of harmony1 but only of more or less lively tune1 and even1 for a time1 will be content with any kind of clash or din produced in time4 ,the ,cathedral service is1 however1 still impressive4 ,footnote #bi3 ,rousseau1 ,shelley1 ,byron1 ,turner1 and ,john ,ruskin4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,paris1 #ahth ,september1 #ahhj4 ,what a very sad little letter1 and how very naughty of my little ,susie to be sad because there are still six weeks to the end of ,october6 ,how thankful should we both be to have six weeks still before us of the blessed bright autumn days1 with their quiet mildnesses in the midst of northern winds2 and that these six weeks are of the year #ahhj--;instead of '#ha or '#hb--;and that we both can read1 and think1 and see flowers and skies1 and be happy in making each other happy4 ,what a naughty little ,susie1 to want to throw any of her six weeks away6 ,i've just sealed in its envelope for post the most important ,fors ,i have yet written1 addressed to the ,trades ,unions1#cj and their committees are to have as many copies as they like free1 for distribution1 free 7dainty packets of ,dynamite74 ,i suspect ,i shall get into hot water with some people for it4 ,also ,i've been afraid myself1 to set it all down1 for once6 ,but down it is1 and out it shall come6 and there's a nice new bit of article for the ,nineteenth ,century1 besides anyhow ,i keep you in reading1 ,susie--do you know it's a very bad compliment to me that you find time pass so slowly6 ,i wonder why you gave me that little lecture about being a city on a hill4 ,i don't want to be anything of the sort1 and ,i'm going to-night to see the ,fille du ,tambour-,major at the ,folies ,dramatiques4 ,footnote #cj3 ,fors1 vol4 viii41 ,letter #e4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood1 #afth ,february1 #ahha4 ,i've much to tell you to-day#ca of answer to those prayers you prayed for me4 ,but you must be told it by our good angels1 for your eyes must not be worn4 ,god willing1 you shall see men as trees walking in the garden of ,god1 on this pretty ,coniston earth of ours4 ,don't be afraid1 and please be happy1 for ,i can't be1 if you are not4 ,love to ,mary1 to ,miss ,rigbye1 and my own ,st4 ,ursula1#cb and mind you give the messages to all three1 heartily4 ,footnote #ca3 ,the motto on ,mr4 ,ruskin's seal4 ,see ,praeterita1 vol4 ii41 ,footnote #cb3 ,photograph of ,carpaccio's4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood1 #bb;d ,april1 #ahha4 ,i'm not able to scratch or fight to-day1 or ,i wouldn't let you cover me up with this heap of gold2 but ,i've got a rheumatic creak in my neck1 which makes me physically stiff and morally supple and unprincipled1 so ,i've put two pounds sixteen in my own till1 where it just fills up some lowering of the tide lately by ,german bands and the like1 and ,i've put ten pounds aside for ,sheffield ,museum1 now in instant mendicity1 and ,i've put ten pounds aside till you and ,i can have a talk and you be made reasonable1 after being scolded and scratched1 after which1 on your promise to keep to our old bargain and enjoy spending your little ,frondes income1 ,i'll be your lovingest again4 ,and for the two pounds ten1 and the ten1 ,i am really most heartily grateful1 meaning as they do so much that is delightful for both of us in the good done by this work of yours4 ,i send you ,spenser2 perhaps you had better begin with the ,hymn to ,beauty1 page #ci1 and then go on to the ,tears2 but you'll see how you like it4 ,it's better than ,longfellow2 see line #eb-- ,the house of blessed gods which men call skye4 ,now ,i'm going to look out ,dr4 ,kendall's crystal4 ,it must be crystal1#cc for having brought back the light to your eyes4 ,footnote #cc3 ,for a present to ,dr4 ,kendall4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood1 #abth ,july1 #ahha4 ,how delightful that you have that nice ,mrs4 ,howard to hear you say ,the ,ode to ,beauty1 and how nice that you can learn it and enjoy saying it6#cd ,i do not know it myself4 ,i only know that it should be known and said and heard and loved4 ,i am often near you in thought1 but can't get over the lake somehow4 ,there's always somebody to be looked after here1 now4 ,i've to rout the gardeners out of the greenhouse1 or ,i should never have a strawberry or a pink1 but only nasty gloxinias and glaring fuchsias1 and ,i've been giving lessons to dozens of people and writing charming sermons in the ,bible of ,amiens2 but ,i get so sleepy in the afternoon ,i can't pull myself over it4 ,i was looking at your notes on birds yesterday4 ,how sweet they are6 ,but ,i can't forgive that young blackbird for getting wild again4#ce ,footnote #cd3 ,i learnt the whole of it by heart1 and could then say it without a break4 ,i have always loved it1 and in return it has helped me through many a long and sleepless night4--,s4 ,b4 ,footnote #ce3 ,pages #aja et seqq4 99 99 99 99 99 ,last ,day of #ahha4 ,and the last letter ,i write on it1 with new pen4 ,i've lunched on your oysters1 and am feasting eyes and mind on your birds4 ,what birds8 ,woodcock8 ,yes1 ,i suppose1 and never before noticed the sheath of his bill going over the front of the lower mandible that he may dig comfortably6 ,but the others6 the glory of velvet and silk and cloud and light1 and black and tan and gold1 and golden sand1 and dark tresses1 and purple shadows and moors and mists and night and starlight1 and woods and wilds and dells and deeps1 and every mystery of heaven and its finger work1 is in those little birds' backs and wings4 ,i am so grateful4 ,all love and joy to you1 and wings to fly with and birds' hearts to comfort1 and mine1 be to you in the coming year4 99 99 99 99 99 ,easter ,day1 #ahhb4 ,i have had a happy ,easter morning1 entirely bright in its sun and clear in sky2 and with renewed strength enough to begin again the piece of ,st4 ,benedict's life where ,i broke off1 to lose these four weeks in ,london1--weeks not wholly lost neither1 for ,i have learned more and more of what ,i should have known without lessoning2 but ,i have learnt it1 from these repeated dreams and fantasies1 that we walk in a vain shadow and disquiet ourselves in vain4 ,so ,i am for the present1 everybody says1 quite good1 and give as little trouble as possible2 but people will take it1 you know1 sometimes1 even when ,i don't give it1 and there's a great fuss about me yet4 ,but you must not be anxious any more1 ,susie1 for really there is no more occasion at one time than another4 ,all the doctors say ,i needn't be ill unless ,i like1 and ,i don't mean to like any more2 and as far as chances of ordinary danger1 ,i think one runs more risks in a single railway journey1 than in the sicknesses of a whole year4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,herne ,,hill1 #hth ,june 7#ahhb74 ,you write as well as ever1 and the eyes must surely be better1 and it was a joyful amazement to me to hear that ,mary was able to read and could enjoy my child's botany4 ,you always have things before other people2 will you please send me some rosemary and lavender as soon as any are out8 ,i am busy on the ,labiatae1 and a good deal bothered4 ,also ,st4 ,benedict1 whom ,i shall get done with long before ,i've made out the nettles he rolled in4 ,i'm sure ,i ought to roll myself in nettles1 burdocks1 and blackthorn1 for here in ,london ,i can't really think now of anything but flirting1 and ,i'm only much the worse for it afterwards4 ,and ,i'm generally wicked and weary1 like the people who ought to be put to rest4 ,but you'd miss me1 and so would ,joanie2 so ,i suppose ,i shall be let stay a little while longer4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,sallanches1 ,,savoy1 #acth ,september 7#ahhb74 ,i saw ,mont ,blanc again to-day1 unseen since #ahgg2 and was very thankful4 ,it is a sight that always redeems me to what ,i am capable of at my poor little best1 and to what loves and memories are most precious to me4 ,so ,i write to you1 one of the few true loves left4 ,the snow has fallen fresh on the hills1 and it makes me feel that ,i must soon be seeking shelter at ,brantwood and the ,thwaite4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,genoa1 ,sunday1 #bdth ,september 7#ahhb74 ,i got your delightful note yesterday at ,turin1 and it made me wish to run back through the tunnel directly instead of coming on here4 ,but ,i had a wonderful day1 the ,alps clear all the morning all round ,italy--two hundred miles of them2 and then in the afternoon blue waves of the ,gulf of ,genoa breaking like blue clouds1 thunderclouds1 under groves of olive and palm4 ,but ,i wished they were my sparkling waves of ,coniston instead1 when ,i read your letter again4 ,what a gay ,susie1 receiving all the world1 like a ,queen ,susan 7how odd one has never heard of a ,queen ,susan671 only you are so naughty1 and you never do tell me of any of those nice girls when they're coming1 but only when they're gone1 and ,i never shall get glimpse of them as long as ,i live4 ,but you know you really represent the entire ,ruskin school of the ,lake ,country1 and ,i think these levees of yours must be very amusing and enchanting2 but it's very dear and good of you to let the people come and enjoy themselves1 and how really well and strong you must be to be able for it4 ,i am very glad to hear of those sweet1 shy girls1 poor things4#cf ,i suppose the sister they are now anxious about is the one that would live by herself on the other side of the ,lake1 and study ,emerson and aspire to ,buddhism4 ,i'm trying to put my own poor little fragmentary ,ism into a rather more connected form of imagery4 ,i've never quite set myself up enough to impress some people2 and ,i've written so much that ,i can't quite make out what ,i am myself1 nor what it all comes to4 ,footnote #cf3 ,florence1 ,alice1 and ,may ,bennett4 ,florence is gone4 ,alice and ,may still sometimes at ,coniston1 ,d4,g4 7,march #ahhg74--;,j4 ,r4 ,one ,companion1 ours no more1 sends you ,i doubt not ,christmas greeting from her ,home1--,florence ,bennett4 ,of her help to us during her pure brief life1 and afterwards1 by her father's fulfillment of her last wishes1 you shall hear at another time4--,fors ,clavigera1 vol4 viii4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,to ,,miss ,,beever4 #ajth ,january1 #ahhc4 ,i cannot tell you how grateful and glad ,i am1 to have your lovely note and to know that the ,bewick gave you pleasure1 and that you are so entirely well now1 as to enjoy anything requiring so much energy and attention to this degree4 ,for indeed ,i can scarcely now take pleasure myself in things that give me the least trouble to look at1 but ,i know that the pretty book and its chosen wood-cuts ought to be sent to you1 first of all my friends 7,i have not yet thought of sending it to any one else71 and ,i am quite put in heart after a very despondent yesterday1 passed inanely1 in thinking of what ,i couldn't do1 by feeling what you can1 and hoping to share the happy ,christmas time with you and ,susie in future years4 ,will you please tell my dear ,susie ,i'm going to bring over a drawing to show6 7so thankful that ,i am still able to draw after these strange and terrible illnesses7 this afternoon4 ,i am in hopes it may clear1 but dark or bright ,i'm coming1 about half past three1 and am ever your and her most affectionate and faithful servant4 99 99 99 99 99 #bdth ,september1 #ahhd4 ,i wandered literally up and down your mountain garden--7how beautifully the native rocks slope to its paths in the sweet evening light1 ,susiesque light67--with great happiness and admiration1 as ,i went home1 and ,i came indeed upon what ,i conceived to be--discovered in the course of recent excavations--two deeply interesting thrones of the ancient ,abbots of ,furness1 typifying their humility in that the seats thereof were only level with the ground between two clusters of the earth2 contemplating cyclamen1 and their severity of penance1 in the points of stone prepared for the mortification of their backs2 but truly1 ,susie's seat of repose and meditation ,i was unable as yet to discern1 but propose to myself further investigation of that apple-perfumed paradise1 and am ever your devoted and enchanted ,transcriber's ,note3 no ending to the sentence here4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,oxford1 #ast ,december 7#ahhd74 ,i gave my fourteenth1 and last for this year1 lecture this afternoon with vigor and effect1 and am safe and well 7,d4,g471 after such a spell of work as ,i never did before4 ,i have been thrown a week out in all my plans1 by having to write two new ,lectures1 instead of those the ,university was frightened at4 ,the scientists slink out of my way now1 as if ,i was a mad dog1 for ,i let them have it hot and heavy whenever ,i've a chance at them4 ,but as ,i said1 ,i'm a week late1 and though ,i start for the ,north this day week1 ,i can't get home till this day fortnight at soonest1 but ,i hope not later than to-morrow fortnight4 ,very thankful ,i shall be to find myself again at the little room door4 ,fancy ,mary ,gladstone forgiving me even that second naughtiness6#cg ,she's going to let me come to see her this week1 and to play to me1 which is a great comfort4 ,footnote #cg3 ,the first attack on ,mr4 ,gladstone is in ,fors1 ,september1 #ahge1 the apology and withdrawal in ,fors1 ,february1 #ahgh4 ,the second naughtiness will be found in ,arrows of the ,chace1 ,vol4 ,,ii41 and a final attack is made in an interview in the ,pall ,mall ,gazette1 #bast ,april1 #ahhd4 ,the subject is summarized in an article in the ,daily ,news of #dth ,july1 #ahih4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,st4 ,,susie1 #bgth ,november1 #ahhe4 ,behold ,athena and ,apollo both come to bless you on your birthday1 and all the buds of the year to come1 rejoice with you1 and your poor cat#ch is able to purr again1 and is extremely comfortable and even cheerful to-day4 ,and we will make more and more of all the days1 won't we1 and we will burn our candle at both beginnings instead of both ends1 every day beginning two worlds--the old one to be lived over again1 the new to learn our golden letters in4 ,not that ,i mean to write books in that world4 ,i hope to be set to do something1 there2 and what lovely receptions you will have in your little heavenly ,thwaite1 and celestial teas6 ,and you won't spoil the cream with hot water1 will you1 any more8 ,the whole village is enjoying itself1 ,i hear1 and the widows and orphans to be much the better for it1 and altogether1 you and ,i have a jolly time of it1 haven't we8 ,footnote #ch3 ,j4 ,r4 99 99 99 99 99 #bjth ,february1 #ahhf4 ,i haven't had anything nice to send you this ever so long1 but here's a little bird's nest of native silver which you could almost live in as comfortably as a tit4 ,it will stand nicely on your table without upsetting1 and is so comfortable to hold1 and altogether ,i'm pleased to have got it for you4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood1 #ast ,march1 #ahhf4 ,yes1 ,i knew you would like that silver shrine6 and it is an extremely rare and perfect specimen4 ,but you need not be afraid in handling it2 if the little bit of spar does come off it1 or out of it1 no matter4 ,but of course nobody else should touch it1 till you give them leave1 and show them how4 ,i am sorry for poor ,miss ,brown1 and for your not having known the ,doctor4 ,he should have come here when ,i told him4 ,i believe he would have been alive yet1 and ,i never should have been ill4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i believe you know more ,latin than ,i do1 and can certainly make more delightful use of it4 ,your mornings' ministry to the birds must be remembered for you by the angels who paint their feathers4 ,they will all1 one day1 be birds of ,paradise1 and say1 when the adverse angel accuses you of being naughty to some people1 ,but we were hungry and she gave us corn1 and took care that nobody else ate it4 ,i am indeed thankful you are better4 ,but you must please tell me what the thing was ,i said which gave you so much pain4 ,do you recollect also what the little bit in ,proserpina was that said so much to you8 ,were you not thinking of ,fors8 99 99 99 99 99 ,i am very thankful for all your dear letters always--greatly delighted above all with the squirrel one1 and ,chaucer4 ,didn't he love squirrels6#ci and don't ,i wish ,i was a squirrel in ,susie's pear trees1 instead of a hobbling disconsolate old man1 with no teeth to bite1 much less crack1 anything1 and particularly forbidden to eat nuts6 ,footnote #ci3 ,and many squireles1 that sett ,ful high upon the trees and ete ,and in his maner made festys4 ,the ,dethe of ,blaunche1 #dcj4 99 99 99 99 99 ,your precious letter1 showing me you are a little better1 came this morning1 with the exquisite feathers1 one1 darker and lovelier than any ,i have seen1 but please1 ,i still want one not in the least flattened2 all these have lost just the least bit of their shell-like bending4 ,you can so easily devise a little padding to keep two strong cards or bits of wood separate for one or two to lie happily in4 ,i don't mind giving you this tease1 for the throat will be better the less you remember it4 ,but for all of us1 a dark sky is assuredly a poisonous and depressing power1 which neither surgery nor medicine can resist4 ,the difference to me between nature as she is now1 and as she was ten years ago1 is as great as between ,lapland and ,italy1 and the total loss of comfort in morning and evening sky1 the most difficult to resist of all spiritual hostility4 99 99 99 99 99 #bb;d ,may1 #ahhf4 ,of course the little pyramid in crystal is a present4 ,with that enjoyment of ,pinkerton1#dj you will have quite a new indoors interest1 whatever the rain may say4 ,how very lucky you asked me what basalt was6 ,how much has come out of it 7written in falling asleep76 ,i've been out all the morning and am so sleepy4 ,but ,i've written a nice little bit of ,praeterita before ,i went out1 trying to describe the ,rhone at ,geneva4 ,i think ,susie will like it1 if nobody else4 ,that not enjoying the beauty of things goes ever so much deeper than mere blindness4 ,it is a form of antagonism1 and is essentially ,satanic4 ,a most strange form of demonology in otherwise good people1 or shall we say in good people8 ,you know we are not good at all1 are we now8 ,i don't think you've got any green in your mica4 ,i've sent you a bit inclosed with some jealous spots in4 ,footnote #dj3 ,pinkerton on ,petralogy4 99 99 99 99 99 #bfth ,november1 #ahhf4 ,do you know how to make sugar candy8 ,in my present abject state the only way of amusing myself ,i can hit on is setting the girls of the school to garden and cook6 ,by way of beginning in cooking ,i offered to pay for any quantity of wasted sugar if they could produce me a crystal or two of sugar candy4 7,on the way to ,twelfth cakes1 you know1 and sugar animals4 ,one of ,francesca's friends made her a life-size ,easter lamb in sugar47 ,the first try this morning was brought me in a state of sticky jelly4 ,and after sending me a recipe for candy1 would you please ask ,harry to look at the school garden8 ,i'm going to get the boys to keep that in order2 but if ,harry would look at it and order some mine gravel down for the walks1 and1 with ,mr4 ,brocklebank's authority 7to whom ,i have spoken already71 direct any of the boys who are willing to form a corps of little gardeners1 and under ,harry's orders make the best that can be made of that neglected bit of earth1 ,i think you and ,i should enjoy hearing of it4 ,i told a ,cambridge man yesterday that he had been clever enough to put into a shilling pamphlet all the mistakes of his generation4 99 99 99 99 99 #bgth ,november1 #ahhf4 ,for once1 ,i have a birthday stone for you1 a little worth your having1 and a little gladsome to me in the giving4 ,it is blue like the air that you were born into1 and always live in4 ,it is as deep as gentians1 and has their gleams of green in it1 and it is precious all through within and without1 as ,susie herself is4 ,many and many returns of all the birthdays that have gone away1 and crowds yet of those that never were here before4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,miscellaneous4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,corpus ,,christi ,,college1 ,,oxford1 #bdth ,december1 #ahgg4 ,this is just for ,christmas love1 and ,i'm quite well and up to work this morning1 and the first thing ,i opened here was ,st4 ,ursula from ,mr4 ,gould--and ,i hope the darling will be with me and you and him1 and all good lovers and laborers everywhere4 ,love to ,mary4 ,also to the servants4 ,also to the birds4 ,if any mice are about--also to them1--and in a hush-a-bye to the ,squirrels--wherever they are4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood4 ,this reminiscence of birds--entirely delightful--puts me on a thought of better work that you can do for me than even the ,shakespeare notes4 ,each day1 when you are in spirits1--never as an effort1 sit down and tell me--as in this morning's note--whatever you remember about birds--going back to very childhood--and just chatting on1 about all you have seen of them and done for them4 ,you will make a little book as delightful--nay1 much more delightful than ,white of ,selborne--and you will feel a satisfaction in the experience of your real knowledge--power of observation--and loving sentiment1 in a way to make them even more exemplary and helpful4 ,now don't say you can't--but begin directly to-morrow morning4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood1 #ahhj4 ,what am ,i about all this while8 ,well--,i wake every morning at four--can't help it--to see the morning light--,perhaps ,i go to sleep again--but never for long--then ,i do really very good work in the mornings--but by the afternoon ,i'm quite beaten and can do nothing but lie about in the wood4 ,however--the ,prosody and ,serpent lectures are just finishing off and then ,i shall come to see you in the morning6 while ,i am awake4 ,i went out before breakfast this morning1 half asleep--and saw what ,i thought was a red breasted woodpecker as big as a pigeon6 ,presently it came down on the lawn and ,i made up my mind it was only a robin about the size of a small partridge6 ,can it have been a cross-bill8 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood4 ,i've had this cold five days now and it's worse than ever1 and yet ,i feel quite well in other respects1 and the glorious sunshine is a great joy to me4 ,also ,prince ,leopold's words1#da seen to-day4 ,very beautiful in themselves--and--,i say it solemnly--just1 more than ever ,i read before of friend's sayings4 ,it is strange--,i had no conception he saw so far into things or into me4 ,it is the greatest help that has ever been given me 7in the view the public will take of it74 ,footnote #da3 ,in a speech delivered at the ,mansion ,house1 ,february #ai1 #ahgj1 in support of the extension of university teaching4 ,see ,cook's ,studies in ,ruskin1 p4 #de4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood4 ,a heap half a foot high of unanswered letters pouring and tottering across the table must pour and fall as they will1 while ,i just say how thankful ,i am for yours always1 and how1 to-day1 ,i must leave letters1 books and all to work on that lovely ,trientalis which ,mary sent me4 ,it has a peculiar set of trine leaves which ,linnaeus noticed and named it for--modern botanists have no notion of it4 ,i think both ,mary and you will be deeply interested in seeing it worked out4 ,i've been at it since seven o'clock4 ,yes1 if ,i had known you were in the garden6 ,alas--one never can know what one wants to--,i was all that afternoon seeing the blacksmith make a chopper6 99 99 99 99 99 ,,broadlands1 ,,romsey1 #aeth ,october 7#ahge74 ,i was very thankful for your letter this morning--having heard you were unwell and being a little despondent myself--more than of late--an ,italian nobleman is here who cares for nothing but shooting1 and everybody thinks it perfectly right6 ,it is a great joy to me that you find so much in the ,stones of ,venice--,i hope that book is worth the time it took me to write it1 every year of youth seems to me in looking back1 now so precious4 ,how very strange ,i should give you quietness1 myself being always disquieted in heart--a ,ghost of poor ,samuel--helpless--in sight of ruining ,israel4 ,to think of the difference between these two scenes1--,samuel at his feast sending the prepared portion to the expected ,saul4 ,and ,samuel the ,ghost--with his message4 ,well--this is a cheering letter to send my poor ,susie4 ,it's all that ,italian ,duke4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood4 ,if ever a ,gentiana ,verna demeans itself to you at ,brantwood--,i'll disown it and be dreadfully ashamed for it6 ,the other little things if they'll condescend to come shall be thanked and honored with my best4 ,only please now don't send me more asparagus6 ,i feel so piggish and rabbitish in eating you out of all your vegetables1 that ,i'm afraid to speak lest it should turn out grunting1 and to shake my head for fear of feeling flappy at the ears4 ,but--please--,is the bread as brown as it used to be8 ,i think you're cosseting me up altogether and ,i don't like the white bread so well6 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood4 ,what can you mean about your ignorance--or my astonishment at it8 ,indeed you are a naughty little ,susie to think such things4 ,i never come to the ,thwaite but you and your sister tell me all kinds of things ,i didn't know1 and am so glad to know4 ,i send a book of architect's drawings of ,pisa1 which ,i think will interest you--only you must understand that the miserable ,frenchman who did it1 could not see the expression of face in any of the old sculptures1 nor draw anything but hard mechanical outlines--and the charm of all these buildings is this almost natural grace of free line and color4 ,the little tiny sketch of mine1 smallest in the sheet of #d 7the other sheet only sent to keep its face from rubbing7 will show you what the things really are like--the whole front of the dome1 plate ,,xi4 7the wretch can't even have his numbers made legibly7 is of arches of this sweet variable color4 ,please can your sister or you plant a grain or grains of corn for me1 and watch them into various stages of germination4#db ,i want to study the mode of root and blade development4 ,and ,i am sure you two will know best how to show it me4 ,footnote #db3 ,proserpina1 99 99 99 99 99 ,,brantwood1 #cjth ,december1 #ahhc4 ,i heard with extreme sorrow yesterday of your mischance1 and with the greater1 that ,i felt the discomfort and alarm of it would be increased to you--in their depressing power by a sense of unkindness to you on my part in not having been to see you--nor even read the letter which would have warned me of your accident4 ,but you must remember that ,christmas is to me a most oppressive and harmful time--the friends of the last thirty years of life all trying to give what they cannot give--of pleasure1 or receive what--from me1 they can no more receive--the younger ones especially thinking they can amuse me by telling me of their happy times--which ,i am so mean as to envy and am doubly distressed by the sense of my meanness in doing so4 ,and my only resource is the quiet of my own work1 to which--these last days--,i have nearly given myself altogether4 ,yet ,i had read your letter as far as the place where you said you wanted one and then1 began to think what ,i should say--and read no further#dc that day--and now here is this harm that had befallen you--which ,i trust1 nevertheless1 is of no real consequence1 and this one thing ,i must say once for all1 that whatever may be my feelings to you--you must never more let yourself imagine for an instant they can come of any manner of offense8 ,that thought is real injustice to me4 ,i have never1 and never can have1 any other feeling towards you than that of the deepest gratitude1 respect1 and affection--too sorrowfully inexpressible and ineffectual--but never changing4 ,i will drive1 walk1 or row1 over to see you on ,new ,year's day--if ,i am fairly well--be the weather what it will4 ,i hope the bearer will bring me back a comforting report as to the effects of your accident and that you will never let yourself again be discomforted by mistrust of me1 for ,i am and shall ever be ,your faithful and loving servant1 ,,john ,,ruskin4 ,footnote #dc3 ,dante1 ,inferno1 v4 #add4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i never heard the like--my writing good6 and just now66 ,if you only saw the wretched notes on the back of lecture leaves6 ,but ,i am so very glad you think it endurable1 and it is so nice to be able to give you a moment's pleasure by such a thing4 ,i'm better to-day1 but still extremely languid4 ,i believe that there is often something in the spring which weakens one by its very tenderness2 the violets in the wood send one home sorrowful that one isn't worthy to see them1 or else1 that one isn't one of them4 ,it is mere ,midsummer dream in the wood to-day4 ,you could not possibly have sent me a more delightful present than this ,lychnis2 it is the kind of flower that gives me pleasure and health and memory and hope and everything that ,alpine meadows and air can4 ,i'm getting better generally1 too4 ,the sun did take one by surprise at first4 ,how blessedly happy ,joanie and the children were yesterday at the ,thwaite6 ,i'm coming to be happy myself there to-morrow 7,d4,v474 ,here are the two bits of study ,i did in ,malham ,cove2 the small couples of leaves are different portraits of the first shoots of the two geraniums4 ,i don't find in any botany an account of their little round side leaves1 or of the definite central one above the branching of them4 ,here's your lovely note just come4 ,i am very thankful that the ,venice gives you so much pleasure4 ,i have1 at least1 one certainty1 which few authors could hold so surely1 that no one was ever harmed by a book of mine2 they may have been offended1 but have never been discouraged or discomforted1 still less corrupted4 ,there's a saucy speech for ,susie's friend4 ,you won't like me any more if ,i begin to talk like that4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a sapphire is the same stone as a ruby2 both are the pure earth of clay crystallized4 ,no one knows why one is red and the other blue4 ,a diamond is pure coal crystallized4 ,an opal1 pure flint--in a state of fixed jelly4 ,i'm in a great passion with the horrid people who write letters to tease my good little ,susie4 ,i won't have it4 ,she shall have some more stones to-morrow4 ,i must have a walk to-day1 and can't give account of them1 but ,i've looked them out4 ,it's so very nice that you like stones4 ,if my father1 when ,i was a little boy1 would only have given me stones for bread1 how ,i should have thanked him4 ,what infinite power and treasure you have in being able thus to enjoy the least things1 yet having at the same time all the fastidiousness of taste and imagination which lays hold of what is greatest in the least1 and best in all things6 ,never hurt your eyes by writing2 keep them wholly for admiration and wonder4 ,i hope to write little more myself of books1 and to join with you in joy over crystals and flowers in the way we used to do when we were both more children than we are4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,to ,,miss ,,beever4 ,i am ashamed not to have sent you a word of expression of my real and very deep feelings of regard and respect for you1 and of my not fervent 7in the usual phrase1 which means only hasty and ebullient71 but serenely warm1 hope that you may keep your present power of benevolent happiness to length of many days to come4 ,but ,i hope you will sometimes take the simpler view of the little agate box than that of birthday token1 and that you will wonder sometimes at its labyrinth of mineral vegetable6 ,i assure you there is nothing in all my collection of agates in its way quite so perfect as the little fiery forests of dotty trees in the corner of the piece which forms the bottom4 ,i ought to have set it in silver1 but was always afraid to trust it to a lapidary4 ,what you say of the ,greek want of violets is also very interesting to me1 for it is one of my little pet discoveries that ,homer means the blue iris by the word translated violet4 99 99 99 99 99 ,thursday morning4 ,i'm ever so much better1 and the jackdaw has come4 ,but why wasn't ,i there to meet his pathetic desire for art knowledge8 ,to think of that poor bird's genius and love of scarlet ribbons1 shut up in a cage6 ,what it might have come to6 ,if ever my ,st4 ,george's schools come to any perfection1 they shall have every one a jackdaw to give the children their first lessons in arithmetic4 ,i'm sure he could do it perfectly4 ,now1 ,jack1 take two from four1 and show them how many are left4 ,now1 ,jack1 if you take the teaspoon out of this saucer1 and put it into that1 and then if you take two teaspoons out of two saucers1 and put them into this1 and then if you take one teaspoon out of this1 and put it into that1 how many spoons are there in this1 and how many in that8--and so on4 ,oh1 ,susie1 when we do get old1 you and ,i1 won't we have nice schools for the birds first1 and then for the children8 ,that photograph is indeed like a visit2 how thankful ,i am that it is still my hope to get the real visit some day6 ,i was yesterday and am always1 certainly at present1 very unwell1 and a mere trouble to my ,joanies and ,susies and all who care for me4 ,but ,i'm painting another bit of moss which ,i think ,susie will enjoy1 and hope for better times4 ,did you see the white cloud that stayed quiet for three hours this morning over the ,old ,man's summit8 ,it was one of the few remains of the heaven one used to see4 ,the heaven one had a ,father in1 not a raging enemy4 ,i send you ,rogers' ,italy1 that is no more4 ,i do think you'll have pleasure in it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i've been made so miserable by a paper of ,sir ,j4 ,lubbock's on flowers and insects1 that ,i must come and whine to you4 ,he says1 and really as if he knew it1 that insects1 chiefly bees1 entirely originate flowers2 that all scent1 color1 pretty form1 is owing to bees2 that flowers which insects don't take care of1 have no scent1 color1 nor honey4 ,it seems to me1 that it is likelier that the flowers which have no scent1 color1 nor honey1 don't get any attention from the bees4 ,but the man really knows so much about it1 and has tried so many pretty experiments1 that he makes me miserable4 ,so ,i'm afraid you're miserable too4 ,write to tell me about it all4 ,it is very lovely of you to send me so sweet a note when ,i have not been near you since the tenth century4 ,but it is all ,i can do to get my men and my moor looked after2 they have both the instinct of doing what ,i don't want1 the moment my back's turned2 and then there has not been light enough to know a hawk from a hand-saw1 or a crow from a ptarmigan1 or a moor from a meadow4 ,but how much better your eyes must be when you can write such lovely notes6 ,i don't understand how the strange cat came to love you so quickly1 after one dinner and a rest by the fire6 ,i should have thought an ill-treated and outcast animal would have regarded everything as a trap1 for a month at least1--dined in tremors1 warmed itself with its back to the fire1 watching the door1 and jumped up the chimney if you stepped on the rug4 ,if you only knew the good your peacock's feathers have done me1 and if you could only see the clever drawing ,i'm making of one from the blue breast6 ,you know what lovely little fern or equisetum stalks of sapphire the filaments are2 they beat me so1 but they're coming nice4 99 99 99 99 99 ,that is so intensely true what you say about ,turner's work being like nature's in its slowness and tenderness4 ,i always think of him as a great natural force in a human frame4 ,so nice all you say of the ,ethics6 ,and ,i'm a monster of ingratitude1 as bad as the ,dragon of ,wantley4 ,don't like ,dr4 ,brown's friend's book at all4 ,it's neither ,scotch nor ,english1 nor fish nor flesh1 and it's tiresome4 ,i'm in the worst humor ,i've been in this month1 which is saying much2 and have been writing the wickedest ,fors ,i ever wrote1 which is saying more2 you will be so angry4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i'm so very glad you will mark the bits you like1 but are there not a good many here and there that you don't like8--,i mean that sound hard or ironical4 ,please don't mind them4 ,they're partly because ,i never count on readers who will really care for the prettiest things1 and it gets me into a bad habit of expressing contempt which is not indeed any natural part of my mind4 ,it pleases me especially that you have read ,the ,queen of the ,air4 ,as far as ,i know1 myself1 of my books1 it is the most useful and careful piece ,i have done4 ,but that again--did it not shock you to have a heathen goddess so much believed in8 7,i've believed in ,english ones long ago74 ,if you can really forgive me for ,the ,queen of the ,air1 there are all sorts of things ,i shall come begging you to read some day4 99 99 99 99 99 #bast ,july4 ,i'm always looking at the ,thwaite1 and thinking how nice it is that you are there4 ,i think it's a little nice1 too1 that ,i'm within sight of you1 for if ,i hadn't broken1 ,i don't know how many not exactly promises1 but nearly1 to be back at ,oxford by this time1 ,i might have been dragged from ,oxford to ,london1 from ,london to ,france1 from ,france who knows where8 ,but ,i'm here1 and settled to produce1 as soon as possible1 the following works-- #a4 ,new number of ,love's ,meinie1 on the ,stormy ,petrel4 #b4 ,new ditto of ,proserpina1 on sap1 pith1 and bark4 #c4 ,new ditto of ,deucalion1 on clouds4 #d4 ,new ,fors1 on new varieties of young ladies4 #e4 ,two new numbers of ,our ,fathers1 on ,brunehaut1 and ,bertha her niece1 and ,st4 ,augustine and ,st4 ,benedict4 #f4 ,index and epilogue to four ,oxford lectures4 #g4 ,report and account of ,st4 ,george's ,guild4 ,and ,i've had to turn everything out of every shelf in the house1 for mildew and moths4 ,and ,i want to paint a little bank of strawberry leaves4 ,and ,i've to get a year's dead sticks out of the wood1 and see to the new oat field on the moor1 and prepare lectures for ,october6 ,i'm so idle4 ,i look at the hills out of bed1 and at the pictures off the sofa4 ,let us both be useless beings2 let us be butterflies1 grasshoppers1 lambs1 larks1 anything for an easy life4 ,i'm quite horrified to see1 now that these two have come back1 what a lot of books ,i've written1 and how cruel ,i've been to myself and everybody else who ever has to read them4 ,i'm too sleepy to finish this note4 99 99 99 99 99 #acth ,june4 ,i do not know when ,i have received1 or how ,i could receive so great an encouragement in all my work1 as ,i do in hearing that you1 after all your long love and watchfulness of flowers1 have yet gained pleasure and insight from ,proserpina as to leaf structure4 ,the examples you send me are indeed admirable4 ,can you tell me the exact name of the plant1 that ,i may quote it8 ,yes1 and the weather also is a great blessing to me--so lovely this morning4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i'm getting steadily better1 and breathing the sunshine a little again in soul and lips4 ,but ,i always feel so naughty after having had morning prayers1 and that the whole house is a sort of little ,bethel that ,i've no business in4 ,i'm reading history of early saints too1 for my ,amiens book1 and feel that ,i ought to be scratched1 or starved1 or boiled1 or something unpleasant1 and ,i don't know if ,i'm a saint or a sinner in the least1 in mediaeval language4 ,how did saints feel themselves1 ,i wonder1 about their saintship8 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is such a joy to hear that you enjoy anything of mine1 and a double joy to have your sympathy in my love of those ,italians4 ,how ,i wish there were more like you6 ,what a happy world it would be if a quarter of the people in it cared a quarter as much as you and ,i do1 for what is good and true3 ,that ,nativity is the deepest of all4 ,it is by the master of ,botticelli1 you know2 and whatever is most sweet and tender in ,botticelli he owes to ,lippi4 ,but1 do you know1 ,i quite forget about ,cordelia1 and where ,i said it6 please keep it till ,i come4 ,i hope to be across to see you to-morrow4 ,they've been doing photographs of me again1 and ,i'm an orang-outang as usual1 and am in despair4 ,i thought with my beard ,i was beginning to be just the least bit nice to look at4 ,i would give up half my books for a new profile4 ,what a lovely day since twelve o'clock6 ,i never saw the lake shore more heavenly4 ,i am very thankful that you like this ,st4 ,mark's so much1 and do not feel as if ,i had lost power of mind4 ,i think the illness has told on me more in laziness than foolishness4 ,i feel as if there was as much in me as ever1 but it is too much trouble to say it4 ,and ,i find myself reconciled to staying in bed of a morning to a quite woeful extent4 ,i have not been affected so much by melancholy1 being very thankful to be still alive1 and to be able to give pleasure to some people4 ,you have greatly helped me by this dear little note4 ,and the bread's all right1 brown again1 and ,i'm ready for asparagus of any stoutness1 there6 ,are you content6 ,but my new asparagus is quite visible this year1 though how much would be wanted for a dish ,i don't venture to count1 but must be congratulated on its definitely stalky appearance4 ,i was over the water this morning on school committee4 ,how bad ,i have been to let those poor children be tormented as they are all this time6 ,i'm going to try and stop all the spelling and counting and catechising1 and teach them only--to watch and pray4 ,the oranges make me think ,i'm in a castle in ,spain6 99 99 99 99 99 ,your letters always warm me a little1 not with laughing1 but with the soft glow of life1 for ,i live mostly with la mort dans l'ame4 7,it is curious that the ,french1 whom one thinks of as slight and frivolous1 have this true and deep expression for the forms of sorrow that kill1 as opposed to those that discipline and strengthen47 ,and your words and thoughts just soften and warm like west wind4 ,it is nice being able to please you with what ,i'm writing1 and that you can tell people ,i'm not so horrid4 ,here's the ,fors you saw the proof of1 but this isn't quite right yet4 ,the ,willy#dd quotations are very delightful4 ,do you know that naughty ,cowley at all8 ,there's all kind of honey and strawberries in him4 ,it is bitter cold here these last days4 ,i don't stir out1 but must this afternoon4 ,i've to go out to dinner and work at the ,arundel ,society4 ,and if you only knew what was in my thoughts you would be so sorry for me1 that ,i can't tell you4 ,footnote #dd3 ,shakespeare4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,corpus ,,christi ,,college1 ,,oxford4 ,what a sad little letter6 written in that returned darkness4 ,how can you ever be sad1 looking forward to eternal life with all whom you love1 and ,god over all8 ,it is only so far as ,i lose hold of that hope1 that anything is ever a trial to me4 ,but ,i can't think how ,i'm to get on in a world with no ,venice in it4 ,you were quite right in thinking ,i would have nothing to do with lawyers4 ,not one of them shall ever have so much as a crooked sixpence of mine1 to save him from being hanged1 or to save the ,lakes from being filled up4 ,but ,i really hope there may be feeling enough in ,parliament to do a right thing without being deafened with lawyers' slang4 ,i have never thanked you for the snowdrops4 ,they bloomed here beautifully for four days4 ,then ,i had to leave them to go and lecture in ,london4 ,it was nice to see them1 but my whole mind is set on finding whether there is a country where the flowers do not fade4 ,else there is no spring for me4 ,people liked the lecture1 and so many more wanted to come than could get in1 that ,i had to promise to give another4 99 99 99 99 99 ,here's your little note first of all4 ,and if you only knew how my wristbands are plaguing me you'd be very sorry4 ,they're too much starched1 and would come down like mittens2 and now ,i've turned them up1 they're just like two horrid china cups upside down1 inside my coat1 and ,i'm afraid to write for fear of breaking them4 ,and ,i've a week's work on the table1 to be done before one o'clock1 on pain of uproar from my friends1 execution from my enemies1 reproach from my lovers1 triumph from my haters1 despair of ,joanie1 and--what from ,susie8 ,i've had such a bad night1 too2 woke at half-past three and have done a day's work since then--composing my lecture for ,march1 and thinking what's to become of a godson of mine whose---- ,well1 never mind4 ,i needn't give you the trouble1 poor little ,susie1 of thinking too4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i'm going to ,oxford to-day 7,d4,v471 really quite well1 and rather merry4 ,i went to the circus with my new pet1 and saw lovely riding and ball play2 and my pet said the only drawback to it all1 was that she couldn't sit on both sides of me4 ,and then ,i went home to tea with her1 and gave mamma1 who is ,evangelical1 a beautiful lecture on the piety of dramatic entertainments1 which made her laugh whether she would or no2 and then ,i had my ,christmas dinner in advance with ,joanie and ,arfie and ,stacy ,marks1 and his wife and two pretty daughters1 and ,i had six kisses--two for ,christmas1 two for ,new ,year's ,day1 and two for ,twelfth ,night--and everybody was in the best humor with everybody else4 ,and now my room is ankle deep in unanswered letters1 mostly on business1 and ,i'm going to shovel them up and tie them in a parcel labeled ,needing particular attention2 and then that will be put into a cupboard in ,oxford1 and ,i shall feel that everything's been done in a business-like way4 ,that badger's beautiful4 ,i don't think there's any need for such beasts as that to turn ,christians4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i am indeed most thankful you are well again1 though ,i never looked on that deafness very seriously2 but if you like hearing watches tick1 and boots creak1 and plates clatter1 so be it to you1 for many and many a year to come4 ,i think ,i should so like to be deaf1 mostly1 not expected to answer anybody in society1 never startled by a bang1 never tortured by a railroad whistle1 never hearing the nasty cicadas in ,italy1 nor a child cry1 nor an owl4 ,nothing but a nice whisper into my ear1 by a pretty girl4 ,ah well1 ,i'm very glad ,i can chatter to you with my weak voice1 to my heart's content2 and you must come and see me soon now4 ,all that you say of ,proserpina is joyful to me4 ,what a ,susie you are1 drawing like that6 and ,i'm sure you know ,latin better than ,i do4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i am better1 but not right yet4 ,there is no fear of sore throat1 ,i think1 but some of prolonged tooth worry4 ,it is more stomachic than coldic1 ,i believe1 and those tea cakes are too crisply seductive6 ,what can it be1 that subtle treachery that lurks in tea cakes1 and is wholly absent in the rude honesty of toast8 ,the metaphysical effect of tea cake last night was1 that ,i had a perilous and weary journey in a desert1 in which ,i had to dodge hostile tribes round the corners of pyramids4 ,a very sad letter from ,joanie tells me she was going to ,scotland last night1 at which ,i am not only very sorry but very cross4 ,a chirping cricket on the hearth advises me to keep my heart up4 99 99 99 99 99 ,your happy letters 7with the sympathetic misery of complaint of dark days7 have cheered me as much as anything could do4 ,the sight of one of my poor ,companions of ,st4 ,george1 who has sent me1 not a widow's but a parlor-maid's 7an old school-mistress7 all her living1 and whom ,i found last night1 dying1 slowly and quietly1 in a damp room1 just the size of your study 7which her landlord won't mend the roof of71 by the light of a single tallow candle--dying1 ,i say1 slowly1 of consumption1 not yet near the end1 but contemplating it with sorrow1 mixed partly with fear1 lest she should not have done all she could for her children6 ,the sight of all this and my own shameful comforts1 three wax candles and blazing fire and dry roof1 and ,susie and ,joanie for friends6 ,oh me1 ,susie1 what is to become of me in the next world1 who have in this life all my good things6 99 99 99 99 99 ,what a sweet1 careful1 tender letter this is6 ,i re-inclose it at once for fear of mischief1 though ,i've scarcely read1 for indeed my eyes are weary1 but ,i see what gentle mind it means4 ,yes1 you will love and rejoice in your ,chaucer more and more4 ,fancy1 ,i've never time1 now1 to look at him1--obliged to read even my ,homer and ,shakespeare at a scramble1 half missing the sense1--the business of life disturbs one so4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,herne ,,hill4 ,illustration3 ,plan of ,ruskin's room ,here's your letter first thing in the morning1 while ,i'm sipping my coffee in the midst of such confusion as ,i've not often achieved at my best4 ,the little room1 which ,i think is as nearly as possible the size of your study1 but with a lower roof1 has to begin with--,a1 my bed2 ,b1 my basin stand2 ,c1 my table2 ,d1 my chest of drawers2 thus arranged in relation to ,e1 the window 7which has still its dark bars to prevent the little boy getting out72 ,f1 the fireplace2 ,g1 the golden or mineralogical cupboard2 and ,h1 the grand entrance4 ,the two dots with a back represent my chair1 which is properly solid and not un-easy4 ,three others of lighter disposition find place somewhere about4 ,these with the chimney-piece and drawer's head are covered1 or rather heaped1 with all they can carry1 and the morning is just looking in1 astonished to see what is expected of it1 and smiling--7yes1 ,i may fairly say it is smiling1 for it is cloudless for its part above the smoke of the horizon line7--at ,sarah's hope and mine1 of ever getting that room into order by twelve o'clock4 ,the chimney-piece with its bottles1 spoons1 lozenge boxes1 matches1 candlesticks1 and letters jammed behind them1 does appear to me entirely hopeless1 and this the more because ,sarah1#de when ,i tell her to take a bottle away that has a mixture in it which ,i don't like1 looks me full in the face1 and says she won't1 because ,i may want it4 ,i submit1 because it is so nice to get ,sarah to look one full in the face4 ,she really is the prettiest1 round faced1 and round eyed girl ,i ever saw1 and it's a great shame she should be a housemaid2 only ,i wish she would take those bottles away4 ,she says ,i'm looking better to-day1 and ,i think ,i'm feeling a little bit more1--no1 ,i mean1 a little bit less demoniacal4 ,but ,i still can do that jackdaw beautifully4 ,footnote #de3 ,our ,herne ,hill parlor-maid for four years4 ,one of quite the brightest and handsomest types of ,english beauty ,i ever saw1 either in life1 or fancied in painting4--,j4 ,r4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i am quite sure you would have felt like ,albert ,duerer1 had you gone on painting wrens4 ,the way ,nature and ,heaven waste the gifts and souls they give and make1 passes all wonder4 ,you might have done anything you chose1 only you were too modest4 ,no1 ,i never will call you my dear lady2 certainly1 if it comes to that1 something too dreadful will follow4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i am most interested in your criticism of ,queen ,mary4 ,i have not read it1 but the choice of subject is entirely morbid and wrong1 and ,i am sure all you say must be true4 ,the form of decline which always comes on mental power of ,tennyson's passionately sensual character1 is always of seeing ugly things1 a kind of delirium tremens4 ,turner had it fatally in his last years4 ,i am so glad you enjoy writing to me more than any one else4 ,the book you sent me of ,dr4 ,john ,brown's on books1 has been of extreme utility to me1 and contains matter of the deepest interest4 ,did you read it yourself8 ,if not ,i must lend it to you4 ,i am so glad also to know of your happiness in ,chaucer4 ,don't hurry in reading4 ,i will get you an edition for your own1 that you may mark it in peace4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i send you two books1 neither ,i fear very amusing1 but on my word1 ,i think books are always dull when one really most wants them4 ,no1 other people don't feel it as you and ,i do1 nor do the dogs and ponies1 but oughtn't we to be thankful that we do feel it4 ,the thing ,i fancy we are both wanting in1 is a right power of enjoying the past4 ,what sunshine there has been even in this sad year6 ,i have seen beauty enough in one afternoon1 not a fortnight ago1 to last me for a year if ,i could rejoice in memory4 ,i have a painter friend1 ,mr4 ,goodwin1 coming to keep me company1 and ,i'm a little content in this worst of rainy days1 in hopes there may be now some clearing for him4 ,our little kittens pass the days of their youth up against the wall at the back of the house1 where the heat of the oven comes through4 ,what an existence6 and yet with all my indoor advantages ,i am your sorrowful and repining ,j4 ,r4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i am entirely grateful for your letter1 and for all the sweet feelings expressed in it1 and am entirely reverent of the sorrow which you feel at my speaking thus4 ,if only all were like you6 ,but the chief sins and evils of the day are caused by the ,pharisees1 exactly as in the time of ,christ1 and they make broad their phylacteries in the same way1 the ,bible superstitiously read1 becoming the authority for every error and heresy and cruelty4 ,to make its readers understand that the ,god of their own day is as living1 and as able to speak to them directly as ever in the days of ,isaiah and ,st4 ,john1 and that ,he would now send messages to ,his ,seven ,churches1 if the ,churches would hear1 needs stronger words than any ,i have yet dared to use1 against the idolatry of the historical record of ,his messages long ago1 perverted by men's forgetfulness1 and confused by mischance and misapprehension2 and if instead of the ,latin form ,scripture we put always writing instead of written or write in one place1 and ,scripture as if it meant our ,english ,bible1 in another1 it would make such a difference to our natural and easy understanding the range of texts4 ,the peacock's feathers are marvelous4 ,i am very glad to see them4 ,i never had any of their downy ones before4 ,my compliments to the bird1 upon them1 please4 ,i found a strawberry growing just to please itself1 as red as a ruby1 high up on ,yewdale crag yesterday1 in a little corner of rock all its own2 so ,i left it to enjoy itself4 ,it seemed as happy as a lamb1 and no more meant to be eaten4 ,yes1 those are all sweetest bits from ,chaucer 7the pine new to me72 your own copy is being bound4 ,and all the ,richard1--but you must not copy out the ,richard bits1 for ,i like all my ,richard alike from beginning to end4 ,yes1 my seed pearl bit is pretty1 ,i admit2 it was like the thing4 ,the cascades here1 ,i'm afraid1 come down more like seed oatmeal4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i believe in my hasty answer to your first kind letter ,i never noticed what you said about ,aristophanes4 ,if you will indeed send me some notes of the passages that interest you in the ,birds1 it will not only be very pleasant to me1 but quite seriously useful1 for the ,birds have always been to me so mysterious in that comedy1 that ,i have never got the good of it which ,i know is to be had4 ,the careful study of it put off from day to day1 was likely enough to fall into the great region of my despair1 unless you had chanced thus to remind me of it4 ,please1 if another chance of good to me come in your way1 in another brown spotty-purple peacock's feather1 will you yet send it to me1 and ,i will be always your most grateful and faithful ,j4 ,r4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,herne ,,hill4 ,what translation of ,aristophanes is that8 ,i must get it4 ,i've lost ,i can't tell you how much knowledge and power through false pride in refusing to read translations1 though ,i couldn't read the original without more trouble and time than ,i could spare2 nevertheless1 you must not think this ,english gives you a true idea of the original4 ,the ,english is much more ,english in its temper than its words4 ,aristophanes is far more dry1 severe1 and concentrated2 his words are fewer1 and have fuller flavor2 this ,english is to him what currant jelly is to currants4 ,but it's immensely useful to me4 ,yes1 that is very sweet about the kissing4 ,i have done it to rocks often1 seldom to flowers1 not being sure that they would like it4 ,i recollect giving a very reverent little kiss to a young sapling that was behaving beautifully in an awkward chink1 between two great big ones that were ill-treating it4 ,poor me1 7,i'm old enough1 ,i hope1 to write grammar my own way17 my own little self1 meantime1 never by any chance got a kiss when ,i wanted it1--and the better ,i behaved1 the less chance ,i had1 it seemed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i never thought the large packet was from you2 it was thrown aside with the rest1 till evening1 and only opened then by chance4 ,i was greatly grieved to find what ,i had thus left unacknowledged4 ,the drawings are entirely beautiful and wonderful1 but1 like all the good work done in those bygone days1 7,donovan's own book being of inestimable excellence in this kind17 they affect me with profound melancholy in the thought of the loss to the entire body of the nation of all this perfect artistic capacity1 and sweet will1 for want of acknowledgment1 system1 and direction4 ,i must write a careful passage on this matter in my new ,elements of ,drawing4 ,your drawings have been sent me not by you1 but by my mistress ,fors1 for a text4 ,it is no wonder1 when you can draw like this1 that you care so much for all lovely nature4 ,but ,i shall be ashamed to show you my peacock's feather2 ,i've sent it1 however4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is very sweet of you to give me your book1 but ,i accept it at once most thankfully4 ,it is the best type ,i can show of the perfect work of an ,english lady in her own simple peace of enjoyment and natural gift of truth1 in her sight and in her mind4 ,and many pretty things are in my mind and heart about it1 if my hands were not too cold to shape words for them4 ,the book shall be kept with my ,bewicks2 it is in nowise inferior to them in fineness of work4 ,the finished proof of next ,proserpina will1 ,i think1 be sent me by ,saturday's post4 ,much more is done1 but this number was hindered by the revisal of the ,dean of ,christ ,church1 which puts me at rest about mistakes in my ,greek4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is a great joy to me that you like the ,wordsworth bits2 there are worse coming2 but ,i've been put into a dreadful passion by two of my cleverest girl pupils going off pious6 ,it's exactly like a nice pear getting sleepy2 and ,i'm pretty nearly in the worst temper ,i can be in1 for ,w4 ,w4 ,but what are these blessed feathers8 ,everything that's best of grass and clouds and chrysoprase4 ,what incomparable little creature wears such things1 or lets fall6 ,the fringe of flame is ,carlyle's1 not mine1 but we feel so much alike1 that you may often mistake one for the other now4 99 99 99 99 99 ,you cannot in the least tell what a help you are to me1 in caring so much for my things and seeing what ,i try to do in them4 ,you are quite one of a thousand for sympathy with everybody1 and one of the ten times ten thousand1 for special sympathy with my own feelings and tries4 ,yes1 that second column is rather nicely touched1 though ,i say it1 for hands and eyes of sixty-two2 but when once the wind stops ,i hope to do a bit of primrosey ground that will be richer4 99 99 99 99 99 ,here1 not ,i1 but a thing with a dozen of colds in its head1 am6 ,i caught one cold on ,wednesday last1 another on ,thursday1 two on ,friday1 four on ,saturday1 and one at every station between this and ,ingleborough on ,monday4 ,i never was in such ignoble misery of cold4 ,i've no cough to speak of1 nor anything worse than usual in the way of sneezing1 but my hands are cold1 my pulse nowhere1 my nose tickles and wrings me1 my ears sing--like kettles1 my mouth has no taste1 my heart no hope of ever being good for anything1 any more4 ,i never passed such a wretched morning by my own fireside in all my days1 and ,i've quite a fiendish pleasure in telling you all this1 and thinking how miserable you'll be too4 ,oh me1 if ,i ever get to feel like myself again1 won't ,i take care of myself4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the feathers nearly made me fly away from all my ,psalters and ,exoduses1 to you1 and my dear ,peacocks4 ,i wonder when ,solomon got his ivory and apes and peacocks1 whether he ever had time to look at them4 ,he couldn't always be ordering children to be chopped in two4 ,alas1 ,i suppose his wisdom1 in ,england of to-day1 would have been taxed to find out which mother lied in saying which child wasn't hers6 ,i've been writing to ,miss ,r4 again1 and ,miss ,l4's quite right to stay at home4 ,she thinks ,i have an eagle's eye4 ,well1 what else should ,i have1 in day time8 together with my cat's eye in the dark8 ,but you may tell her ,i should be very sorry if my eyes were no better than eagles'6 ,doth the eagle know what is in the pit8#df ,i do4 ,footnote #df3 ,blake4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i hope you will be comforted in any feeling of languor or depression in yourself by hearing that ,i also am wholly lack lustrous1 depressed1 oppressed1 compressed1 and downpressed by a quite countless pressgang of despondencies1 humilities1 remorses1 shamefacednesses1 all overnesses1 all undernesses1 sicknesses1 dullnesses1 darknesses1 sulkinesses1 and everything that rhymes to lessness and distress1 and that ,i'm sure you and ,i are at present the mere targets of the darts of the ----1 etc41 etc41 and ,mattie's waiting and mustn't be loaded with more sorrow2 but ,i can't tell you how sorry ,i am to break my promise to-day1 but it would not be safe for me to come4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i'm a little better1 but can't laugh much yet1 and won't cry if ,i can help it4 ,yet it always makes me nearly cry1 to hear of those poor working men trying to express themselves and nobody ever teaching them1 nor anybody in all ,england1 knowing that painting is an art1 and sculpture also1 and that an untaught man can no more carve or paint1 than play the fiddle4 ,all efforts of the kind1 mean simply that we have neither master nor scholars in any rank or any place4 ,and ,i1 also1 what have ,i done for ,coniston schools yet6 ,i don't deserve an oyster shell1 far less an oyster4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,kirby ,,lonsdale1 ,thursday evening4 ,you won't get this note to-morrow1 ,i'm afraid1 but after that ,i think they will be regular till ,i reach ,oxford4 ,it is very nice to know that there is some one who does care for a letter1 as if she were one's sister4 ,you would be glad to see the clouds break for me2 and ,i had indeed a very lovely morning drive and still lovelier evening1 and full moonrise here over the ,lune4 ,i suppose it is ,kirk-by-,lune's ,dale8 for the church1 ,i find1 is a very important ,norman relic4 ,by the way1 ,i should tell you1 that the colored plates in the ,stones of ,venice do great injustice to my drawings2 the patches are worn on the stones4 ,my drawings were not good1 but the plates are total failures4 ,the only one even of the engravings1 which is rightly done is the 7last1 ,i think1 in ,appendix7 inlaid dove and raven4 ,i'll show you the drawing for that when ,i come back1 and perhaps for the ,san ,michele1 if ,i recollect to fetch it from ,oxford1 and ,i'll fetch you the second volume1 which has really good plates4 ,that blue beginning1 ,i forgot to say1 is of the ,straits of ,messina1 and it is really very like the color of the sea4 ,that is intensely curious about the parasitical plant of ,borneo4 ,but--very dreadful6 99 99 99 99 99 ,you are like ,timon of ,athens1 and ,i'm like one of his parasites4 ,the oranges are delicious1 the brown bread dainty2 what the melon is going to be ,i have no imagination to tell4 ,but1 oh me1 ,i had such a lovely letter from ,dr4 ,john1 sent me from ,joan this morning1 and ,i've lost it4 ,it said1 ,is ,susie as good as her letters8 ,if so1 she must be better4 ,what freshness of enjoyment in everything she says6 ,alas6 not in everything she feels in this weather1 ,i fear4 ,was ever anything so awful8 99 99 99 99 99 ,do you know1 ,susie1 everything that has happened to me 7and the leaf ,i sent you this morning may show you it has had some hurting in it7 is little in comparison to the crushing and depressing effect on me1 of what ,i learn day by day as ,i work on1 of the cruelty and ghastliness of the nature ,i used to think so ,divine8 ,but1 ,i get out of it by remembering1 ,this is but a crumb of dust we call the world1 and a moment of eternity which we call time4 ,can't answer the great question to-night4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i can only thank you for telling me2 and say1 ,praised be ,god for giving him back to us4 ,worldly people say ,thank ,god when they get what they want2 as if it amused ,god to plague them1 and was a vast piece of self-denial on ,his part to give them what they liked4 ,but ,i1 who am a simple person1 thank ,god when ,he hurts me1 because ,i don't think he likes it any more than ,i do2 but ,i can't praise ,him1 because--,i don't understand why--,i can only praise what's pretty and pleasant1 like getting back our doctor4 99 99 99 99 99 #bfth ,november4 ,and to-morrow ,i'm not to be there2 and ,i've no present for you1 and ,i am so sorry for both of us2 but oh1 my dear little ,susie1 the good people all say this wretched makeshift of a world is coming to an end next year1 and you and ,i and everybody who likes birds and roses are to have new birthdays and presents of such sugar plums4 ,crystals of candied cloud and manna in sticks with no ends1 all the way to the sun1 and white stones2 and new names in them1 and heaven knows what besides4 ,it sounds all too good to be true2 but the good people are positive of it1 and so's the great ,pyramid1 and the ,book of ,daniel1 and the ,bible of ,amiens4 ,you can't possibly believe in any more promises of mine1 ,i know1 but if ,i do come to see you this day week1 don't think it's a ghost2 and believe at least that we all love you and rejoice in your birthday wherever we are4 ,i'm so thankful you're better4 ,reading my old diary1 ,i came on a sentence of yours last year about the clouds being all trimmed with swansdown1 so pretty4 7,i copied it out of a letter47 ,the thoughts of you always trim me with swansdown4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i never got your note written yesterday2 meant at least to do it even after post time1 but was too stupid1 and am infinitely so to-day also4 ,only ,i must pray you to tell ,sarah we all had elder wine to finish our evening with1 and ,i mulled it myself1 and poured it out in the saucepan into the expectants' glasses1 and everybody asked for more2 and ,i slept like a dormouse4 ,but1 as ,i said1 ,i am so stupid this morning that----4 ,well1 there's no that able to say how stupid ,i am1 unless the fly that wouldn't keep out of the candle last night2 and he had some notion of bliss to be found in candles1 and ,i've no notion of anything4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the blue sky is so wonderful to-day and the woods after the rain so delicious for walking in that ,i must still delay any school talk one day more4 ,meantime ,i've sent you a book which is in a nice large print and may in some parts interest you4 ,i got it that ,i might be able to see ,scott's material for ,peveril2 and it seems to me that he might have made more of the real attack on ,latham ,house1 than of the fictitious one on ,front de ,boeuf's castle1 had he been so minded1 but perhaps he felt himself hampered by too much known fact4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but you gave my present before#dg a month ago1 and ,i've been presenting myself with all sorts of things ever since2 and now it's not half gone4 ,i'm very thankful for this1 however1 just now1 for ,st4 ,george1 who is cramped in his career1 and ,i'll accept it if you like for him4 ,meantime ,i've sent it to the bank1 and hold him your debtor4 ,i've had the most delicious gift besides1 ,i ever had in my life1--the ,patriarch of ,venice's blessing written with his own hand1 with his portrait4 ,i'll bring you this to see to-morrow and a fresh ,turner4 ,footnote #dg3 ,frondes money4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the weather has grievously depressed me this last week1 and ,i have not been fit to speak to anybody4 ,i had much interruption in the early part of it though1 from a pleasant visitor2 and ,i have not been able to look rightly at your pretty little book4 ,nevertheless1 ,i'm quite sure your strength is in private letter writing1 and that a curious kind of shyness prevents your doing yourself justice in print4 ,you might also surely have found a more pregnant motto about bird's nests6 ,am not ,i cross8 ,but these gray skies are mere poison to my thoughts1 and ,i have been writing such letters1 that ,i don't think many of my friends are likely to speak to me again4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,susie',s ,,letters4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the following ,letters and the little ,notes on ,birds are inserted here by the express wish of ,mr4 ,ruskin4 ,i had it in my mind to pay ,susie some extremely fine compliments about these ,letters and ,notes1 and to compare her method of observation with ,thoreau's1 and above all1 to tell some very pretty stories showing her ,st4 ,francis-like sympathy with1 and gentle power over1 all living creatures2 but ,susie says that she is already far too prominent1 and we hope that the readers of ,hortus will see for themselves how she reverences and cherishes all noble life1 with a special tenderness1 ,i think1 for furred and feathered creatures4 ,to all outcast and hungry things the ,thwaite is a veritable ,bethlehem1 or ,house of ,bread1 and to her1 their sweet ,madonna ,nourrice1 no less than to her ,teacher1 the sparrows and linnets that crowd its thresholds are in a very particular sense ,sons of ,god4 ,a4 ,f4 99 99 99 99 99 ,april #adth1 #ahgd4 ,i sent off such a long letter to you yesterday1 my dear friend4 ,did you think of your own quotation from ,homer1 when you told me that field of yours was full of violets8 ,but where are the four fountains of white water8--through a meadow full of violets and parsley8 ,how delicious ,calypso's fire of finely chopped cedar6 ,how shall ,i thank you for allowing me1 ,susie the little1 to distill your writings8 ,such a joy and comfort to me--for ,i shall need much very soon now4 ,i do so thank and love you for it2 ,i am sure ,i may say so to you4 ,i rejoice again and again that ,i have such a friend4 ,may ,i never love him less1 never prove unworthy of his friendship6 ,how ,i wanted my letter1 and now it has come1 and ,i have told our ,dr4 ,john of your safe progress so far4 ,i trust you will be kept safe from everything that might injure you in any way4 ,the snow has melted away1 and this is a really sweet ,april day and ought to be enjoyed--if only ,susie could4 ,but both she and her dear friend must strive with their grief4 ,when ,i was a girl--7,i was once7--,i used to delight in ,pope's ,homer4 ,i do believe ,i rather enjoyed the killing and slaying1 specially the splitting down the chine6 ,but when ,i tried to read it again not very long ago1 ,i got tired of this kind of thing4 ,if you had only translated ,homer6 then ,i should have had a feast4 ,when a school-girl1 going each day with my bag of books into ,manchester1 ,i used to like ,don ,quixote and ,sir ,charles ,grandison with my milk porridge4 ,i must send you only this short letter to-day4 ,i can see your violet field from this window4 ,how sweetly the little limpid stream would tinkle to-day2 and how the primroses are sitting listening to it and the little birds sipping it6 ,i have come to the conclusion that bees go more by sight than by scent4 ,as ,i stand by my peacock with his gloriously gorgeous tail all spread out1 a bee comes right at it 7very vulgar1 but expressive72 and ,i have an ,alpine ,primula on this window stone brightly in flower1 and a bee came and alighted1 but went away again at once1 not finding the expected honey4 ,i wonder what you do the livelong day1 for ,i know you and idleness are not acquaintances4 ,i am so sorry your favorite places are spoiled4 ,but dear ,brantwood will grow prettier and prettier under your care4 99 99 99 99 99 ,april #ith4 ,i have just been pleased by seeing a blackbird enjoying with school-boy appetite1 portions of a moistened crust of bread which ,i threw out for him and his fellow-creatures4 ,how he dug with his orange bill6--even more orange than usual perhaps at this season of the year4 ,at length the robins have built a nest in the ivy in our yard--a very secure and sheltered place1 and a very convenient distance from the crumb market4 ,like the old woman he sings with a merry devotion1 and she thinks there never was such music1 as she sits upon her eggs2 he comes again and again1 with every little dainty that his limited income allows1 and she thinks it all the sweeter because he brings it to her4 ,now and then she leaves her nest to stretch her wings1 and to shake off the dust of care1 and to prevent her pretty ankles being cramped4 ,but she knows her duty too well to remain absent long from her precious eggs4 ,now another little note from ,dr4 ,john1 and he actually begins1 ,my dear ',susie1'--and ends1 ,let me hear from you soon4 ,ever yours affectionately4 ,also he says1 ,it is very kind in you to let me get at once close to you4 ,the rest of his short letter 7like you1 he was busy7 is nearly all about you1 so of course it is interesting to me1 and he hopes you are already getting good from the change1 and ,i indulge the same hope4 99 99 99 99 99 #ajth ,april4 ,brantwood looked so very nice this morning decorated by the coming into leaf of the larches4 ,i wish you could have seen them in the distance as ,i did3 the early sunshine had glanced upon them lighting up one side1 and leaving the other in softest shade1 and the tender green contrasted with the deep browns and grays stood out in a wonderful way1 and the trees looked like spirits of the wood1 which you might think would melt away like the ,white ,lady of ,avenel4 ,dear sweet ,april still looks coldly upon us--the month you love so dearly4 ,little white lambs are in the fields now1 and so much that is sweet is coming2 but there is a shadow over this house now2 and also1 my dear kind friend is far away4 ,the horse-chestnuts have thrown away the winter coverings of their buds1 and given them to that dear economical mother earth1 who makes such good use of everything1 and works up old materials again in a wonderful way1 and is delightfully unlike most economists1--the very soul of generous liberality4 ,now some of your own words1 so powerful as they are1--you are speaking of the ,alp and of the ,great ,builder--of your own transientness1 as of the grass upon its sides2 and in this very sadness1 a sense of strange companionship with past generations1 in seeing what they saw4 ,they have ceased to look upon it1 you will soon cease to look also2 and the granite wall will be for others1 etc41 etc4 ,my dear friend1 was there ever any one so pathetic as you8 ,and you have the power of bringing things before one1 both to the eye and to the mind3 you do indeed paint with your pen4 ,now ,i have a photograph of you--not a very satisfactory one1 but still ,i am glad to have it1 rather than none4 ,it was done at ,newcastle-on-,tyne4 ,were you in search of something of ,bewick's8 ,i have just given the squirrel his little loaf2 7so you see ,i am a lady17#dh he has bounded away with it1 full of joy and gladness4 ,i wish that this were my case and yours1 for whatever we may wish for1 that we have not4 ,we have a variety and abundance of loaves4 ,i have asked ,dr4 ,j4 ,brown whether he would like photographs of your house and the picturesque breakwater4 ,i do so wish that you and he and ,i did not suffer so much1 but could be at least moderately happy4 ,i am sure you would be glad if you knew even in this time of sorrow1 when all seems stale1 flat1 unprofitable1 the pleasure and interest ,i have had in reading your ,vol4 #c ,modern ,painters4 ,i study your character in your writings1 and ,i find so much to elevate1 to love1 to admire--a sort of education for my poor old self--and oh6 such beauty of thought and word4 ,even yet my birds want so much bread2 ,i do believe the worms are sealed up in the dry earth1 and they have many little mouths to fill just now--and there is one old blackbird whose devotion to his wife and children is lovely4 ,i should like him never to die1 he is one of my heroes4 ,and now a dog which calls upon me sometimes at the window1 and ,i point kitchenwards and the creature knows what ,i mean1 and goes and gets a good meal4 ,so if ,i can only make a dog happy 7as you do1 only you take yours to live with you1 and ,i cannot do that7 it is a pleasant thing4 ,i do so like to make things happier1 and ,i should like to put bunches of hay in the fields for the poor horses1 for there is very scant supply of grass1 and too many for the supply4 ,footnote #dh3 ,see ,fors ,clavigera1 ,letter ,,xlv41 and ,sesame and ,lilies4 99 99 99 99 99 #ast ,may4 ,i cannot longer refrain from writing to you1 my dear kind friend1 so often are you in my thoughts4 ,dearest ,joanie has told you1 ,i doubt not1 and ,i know how sorry you are1 and how truly you are feeling for your poor ,susie4 ,so knowing that ,i will say no more about my sorrow4 ,there is no need for words4 ,i am wishing1 oh1 so much1 to know how you are3 quite safe and well1 ,i hope1 and able to have much real enjoyment in the many beautiful things by which you are surrounded4 ,may you lay up a great stock of good health and receive much good in many ways1 and then return to those who so much miss you1 and by whom you are so greatly beloved4 ,coniston would go into your heart if you could see it now--so very lovely1 the oak trees so early1 nearly in leaf already4 ,your beloved blue hyacinths will soon be out1 and the cuckoo has come1 but it is long since ,susie has been out4 ,she only stands at an open window1 but she must try next week to go into the garden2 and she is finding a real pleasure in making extracts from your writings1 for you1 often wondering will he let that remain8 and hoping that he will4 ,do you ever send home orders about your ,brantwood8 ,i have been wishing so much that your gardener might be told to mix quantities of old mortar and soil together1 and to fill many crevices in your new walls with it2 then the breezes will bring fern seeds and plant them1 or rather sow them in such fashion as no human being can do4 ,when time and the showers brought by the west wind have mellowed it a little1 the tiny beginnings of mosses will be there4 ,the sooner this can be done the better4 ,do not think ,susie presumptuous4 ,we have hot sun and a very cool air1 which ,i do not at all like4 ,i hope your visit to ,palermo and your lady have been all that you could wish4 ,please do write to me2 it would do me so much good and so greatly refresh me4 ,this poor little letter is scarcely worth sending1 only it says that ,i am your loving ,susie4 99 99 99 99 99 #adth ,may4 ,,my ,,dearest ,,friend1--,your letter yesterday did me so much good1 and though ,i answered it at once1 yet here ,i am again4 ,a kind woman from the other side has sent me the loveliest group of drooping and very tender ferns1 soft as of some velvet belonging to the fairies1 and of the most exquisite green1 and primroses1 and a slender stalked white flower1 and so arranged1 that they continually remind me of that enchanting group of yours in ,vol4 #c1 which you said ,i might cut out4 ,what would you have thought of me if ,i had8 ,oh1 that you would and could sketch this group--or even that your eye could rest upon it6 ,now you will laugh if ,i ask you whether harpies#di ever increase in number8 or whether they are only the old original4 ,they quite torment me when ,i open the window1 and blow chaff at me4 ,i suppose at this moment1 dearest ,joanie is steaming away to ,liverpool2 one always wants to know now whether people accomplish a journey safely4 ,when the blackbirds come for soaked bread1 they generally eat a nice little lot themselves1 before carrying any away from the window for their little ones2 but ,bobbie1 our little ,english ,robin1 has just been twice1 took none for himself1 but carries beak-load after beak-load for his speckled infants4 ,how curious the universal love of bread is2 so many things like and eat it--even flies and snails6 ,you know you inserted a letter from ,jersey about fish4#ej ,a lady there tells me that formerly you might have a bucket of oysters for sixpence and that now you can scarcely get anything but such coarse kinds of fish as are not liked2 and she has a sister1 a sad invalid1 to whom fish would be a very pleasant and wholesome change4 ,this is really a sad state of things1 and here the railways seem very likely to carry away our butter1 and it is now such a price1 quite exhorbitant4 ,why did ,i put an h in8 ,is it to prove the truth of what you say1 that ladies do not spell well8 ,a letter which ,i once wrote when a girl was a wonderful specimen of bad spelling4 ,footnote #di3 ,see ,queen of the ,air1 ,footnote #ej3 ,see ,fors ,clavigera1 ,letter ,,xxx4 99 99 99 99 99 #aeth ,may4 ,i have found such lovely passages in ,vol4 #a this morning that ,i am delighted1 and have begun to copy one of them4 ,you do float in such beautiful things sometimes that you make me feel ,i don't know how6 ,how ,i thank you for ever having written them1 for though late in the day1 they were written for me1 and have at length reached me6 ,you are so candid about your age that ,i shall tell you mine6 ,i am astonished to find myself sixty-eight--very near the ,psalmist's threescore and ten4 ,much illness and much sorrow1 and then ,i woke up to find myself old1 and as if ,i had lost a great part of my life4 ,let us hope it was not all lost4 ,i think you can understand me when ,i say that ,i have a great fund of love1 and no one to spend it upon1 because there are not any to whom ,i could give it fully1 and ,i love my pets so dearly1 but ,i dare not and cannot enjoy it fully because--they die1 or get injured1 and then my misery is intense4 ,i feel as if ,i could tell you much1 because your sympathy is so refined and so tender and true4 ,cannot ,i be a sort of second mother to you8 ,i am sure the first one was often praying for blessings for you1 and in this1 at least1 ,i resemble her4 ,am ,i tiresome writing all this8 ,it just came1 and you said ,i was to write what did4 ,we have had some nice rain1 but followed not by warmth1 but a cruel east wind4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,about ,,wrens4 ,this year ,i have seen wrens' nests in three different kinds of places--one built in the angle of a doorway1 one under a bank1 and a third near the top of a raspberry bush2 this last was so large that when our gardener first saw it1 he thought it was a swarm of bees4 ,it seems a pleasure to this active bird to build2 he will begin to build several nests sometimes before he completes one for ,jenny ,wren to lay her eggs and make her nursery4 ,think how busy both he and ,jenny are when the sixteen young ones come out of their shells--little helpless gaping things wanting feeding in their turns the livelong summer day6 ,what hundreds and thousands of small insects they devour6 they catch flies with good-sized wings4 ,i have seen a parent wren with its beak so full that the wings stood out at each side like the whiskers of a cat4 ,once in ,america in the month of ,june1 a mower hung up his coat under a shed near a barn3 two or three days passed before he had occasion to put it on again4 ,thrusting his arm up the sleeve he found it completely filled with something1 and on pulling out the mass he found it to be the nest of a wren completely finished and lined with feathers4 ,what a pity that all the labor of the little pair had been in vain6 ,great was the distress of the birds1 who vehemently and angrily scolded him for destroying their house2 happily it was an empty one1 without either eggs or young birds4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,history ,,of ,a ,,blackbird4 ,we had had one of those summer storms which so injure the beautiful flowers and the young leaves of the trees4 ,a blackbird's nest with young ones in it was blown out of the ivy on the wall1 and the little ones with the exception of one1 were killed6 ,the poor little bird did not escape without a wound upon his head1 and when he was brought to me it did not seem very likely that ,i should ever be able to rear him2 but ,i could not refuse to take in the little helpless stranger1 so ,i put him into a covered basket for a while4 ,i soon found that ,i had undertaken what was no easy task1 for he required feeding so early in a morning that ,i was obliged to take him and his bread crumbs into my bedroom1 and jump up to feed him as soon as he began to chirp1 which he did in very good time4 ,then in the daytime ,i did not dare to have him in the sitting-room with me1 because my sleek favorites1 the cats1 would soon have devoured him1 so ,i carried him up into an attic1 and as he required feeding very often in the day1 you may imagine that ,i had quite enough of exercise in running up and down stairs4 ,but ,i was not going to neglect the helpless thing after once undertaking to nurse him1 and ,i had the pleasure of seeing him thrive well upon his diet of dry-bread crumbs and a little scrap of raw meat occasionally2 this last delicacy1 you know1 was a sort of imitation of worms6 ,very soon my birdie knew my step1 and though he never exactly said so1 ,i am sure he thought it had musick in't1 for as soon as ,i touched the handle of the door he set up a shriek of joy6 ,the bird that we nurse is the bird that we love1 and ,i soon loved ,dick4 ,and the love was not all on one side1 for my bonnie bird would sit upon my finger uttering complacent little chirps1 and when ,i sang to him in a low voice he would gently peck my hair4 ,as he grew on and wanted to use his limbs1 ,i put him into a large wicker bonnet-basket1 having taken out the lining2 it made him a large cheerful airy cage4 ,of course ,i had a perch put across it1 and he had plenty of white sand and a pan of water2 sometimes ,i set his bath on the floor of the room1 and he delighted in bathing until he looked half-drowned2 then what shaking of his feathers1 what preening and arranging there was6 ,and how happy and clean and comfortable he looked when his toilet was completed6 ,you may be sure that ,i took him some of the first ripe currants and strawberries1 for blackbirds like fruit1 and so do boys6 ,when he was fledged ,i let him out in the room1 and so he could exercise his wings4 ,it is a curious fact that if ,i went up to him with my bonnet on he did not know me at all1 but was in a state of great alarm4 ,blackbirds are wild birds1 and do not bear being kept in a cage1 not even so well as some other birds do2 and as this bird grew up he was not so tame1 and was rather restless4 ,i knew that1 though ,i loved him so much1 ,i ought not to keep him shut up against his will4 ,he was carried down into the garden while the raspberries were ripe1 and allowed to fly away2 and ,i have never seen him since4 ,do you wonder that my eyes filled with tears when he left8