I asked. 'I'm ashamed to say I have,' he said. I did not quite understand him. Well,' he explained, 'you and I oughtn't to need Cruden!'" Ruskin, it is safe to say, seldom found the need. He habitually quoted from memory; and it is very rarely that, in editing these volumes, we have found his memory even at trivial fault. Together with the Bible, Ruskin made constant, and generally a daily, study of some Greek or Latin author, or of Dante; and here, again, he annotated as he read.1 The Notes on the Plutus of Aristophanes (pp. 688-690), which he read in 1858 (as he tells us in Præterita 2), show the manner in which he read. His selection of English titles for the Odes of Horace is added (pp. 690–694), together with a few notes for his intended commentary, already mentioned.3 An account of Ruskin's Library follows (pp. 697-702), and this is supplemented by such of his Marginalia (pp. 703-709) as have found their way into print, together with a few additions. Next comes a section of Ruskiniana devoted to a collection of personal Anecdotes (pp. 713–722), Obiter Dicta (pp. 723-727), and Miscellanea (pp. 728, 729). Once when his talk was rather confidential, Mr. Collingwood said, "Never mind, I'm not Boswell taking notes." "I think," he replied, "you might do worse!" Ruskin had many note-takers among his friends, disciples, and casual acquaintances. For many years Ruskiniana, of any sort, were accounted "good copy" by the newspapers; and few authors have had their sayings and doings so minutely chronicled. This section of our volume does not pretend to be exhaustive. Many additional pages would have been required for the inclusion of every story, reminiscence, and casual remark which has appeared in print in connexion with Ruskin. But it is believed that this edition includes, either in the present collection or in other volumes, all the Ruskiniana that are of any interest or throw any light on the author's character. Finally, the text of various addresses presented to Ruskin is added (pp. 733-735). The illustrations in the volume remain to be noticed. The frontispiece is a photograph, by H. R. Barraud, of Ruskin. It is one of the 1 He made similar entries in his note-books on Homer, Pindar, Plato, Xenophon, Pausanias, Livy, Pliny. Analyses of Dante and indices of topics are frequent in them. He kept also a series of note-books in which he noted passages in the classics or other authors under different headings. There is thus a "Topics" book, a "Myth" book, a "Places" book, and a "Grammar" book. 2 Vol. iii. § 22 (Vol. XXXV.). 3 Vol. XXXIII. p. xxiii. 4 Ruskin Relics, p. 11. photographs to which Ruskin refers below (p. 562) as "the first that expressed what good or character there is in me for my own work." The illustrations to The Storm-Cloud (Plates I. and II.) have been mentioned already (p. xxvii.). The others are introduced to illustrate various passages in the Letters or Conversations. Ruskin's drawing of Warwick Castle (Plate III.) was made in 1847; it is in sepia (18 × 221). The Plate (IV.) of Studies in the Grotesque was etched for him by George Cruikshank, and was perhaps intended for use in Stones of Venice, where two of the figures were separately used; for further particulars, see p. 566. In connexion with Ruskin's defence of the Lake Country, an early drawing (1838) of a well-known spot, Watendlath Tarn, is introduced (Plate V.); it is in pencil (83×103). The drawing of Folkestone done in 1849 in pen and sepia (11 x 18)— Plate VI.-shows the place in the old days which Ruskin remembered and regretted (pp. 610, 673). These two drawings, and that of Warwick Castle, are in the collection of Mr. B. B. Macgeorge, of Glasgow, by whose kindness they are here reproduced. The last Plate (VII.) shows the piece of faience which in Ruskin's later years occupied the central position over the mantelpiece in his study; he attributed it to Luca della Robbia, but Mr. Fairfax Murray, who obtained the piece for him, assigned it to Andrea (p. 666). E. T. C. |