xxxiv INTRODUCTION

to interfere for long or seriously with the steady prosecution of his work. He did not, however, work quite so hard as during his former winter in Venice. Then he was collecting materials, which he hoped would have sufficed for the whole book; now he was writing-supplementing his former materials and correcting and revising, but in the main writing, and the writing, he found, could not be hurried or done with a wearied pen. He gives his father an account of a normal day:-

“VENICE, September 26.-I rise at half-past six: am dressed by seven-take a little bit of bread and read till nine. Then we have breakfast punctually: very orderly served-a little marmalade with a silver leafage spoon on a coloured tile at one corner of the table; butter very fresh, in ice; fresh grapes and figs, which I never touch, on one side; peaches on the other, also for ornament chiefly-I never take them; a little hot dish which the cook is bound to furnish every morning, a roast beccafico or other little tiny kickshaw; before Effie, white bread and coffee. Then I read Pope or play myself till ten, when we have prayers; and Effie reads to me and I draw till eleven. Then I write till one, when we have lunch; then I go out and sketch or take notes till three, then row for an hour and a half; come in and dress for dinner at five, play myself till seven; sometimes out on the water again in an idle way; tea at seven, write or draw till nine, and get ready for bed.”

In the days thus spent from September 1851 to June 1852 Ruskin wrote the greater part of the second and third volumes of The Stones of Venice. He wrote in full zest and enthusiasm. “My head and heart,” he says (Feb. 4), “are altogether in my book.” This, however, was but a first draft, and often contained only the descriptive passages for which study on the spot was essential;¹ general reflections, as well as the pruning and polishing of the whole were left over for revision and further work at home. Extracts from letters to his father will best explain his method; they will show, too, how the work gradually took form:-

“September 9.-I am going on writing the text with the things before me, and as soon as the chapters are severally done I shall make George copy them and send his copy to be printed as accurately as possible under Mr. Harrison’s care.²

“November 2.-I am getting on very nicely with my work, but find myself continually forced to abridge and simplify my designs. Life is not long enough. I shall soon send you a chapter or two to read.

¹ See, for instance, ch. iii. §§ 35, 36.

² W. H. Harrison; see Vol. II. p. xix., Vol. III. p. lii.

[Version 0.04: March 2008]