INTRODUCTION xxix

houses. General laws of construction, with respect to exterior appearance. Roofs. Windows. Doors and Porches. The generosity of external rather than internal decoration.

“2nd Lecture. General Decoration of Domestic Buildings.

“Means of colour at the disposal of the British designer. Methods of employing it. Mosaic and inlaying. Sculpture, as exhibited in Scotland. Ancient domestic architecture of Scotland. Examples of possible decoration of windows and doors, with ornamentation derived from Highland flowers. Future prospects of architecture.

“3rd Lecture. Turner and his Works.

“Progress of landscape art from the 13th to the 19th century. Its peculiar position in the modern mind. Early training of Turner. Disadvantages to which he was exposed. Mistaken ideas respecting his works. Their true character and probable future effect. Character of the painter.

“4th Lecture. Pre-Raphaelitism.

“Meaning of the word Pre-Raphaelitism. Character of art before and after Raphael. Causes of decline after Raphael’s time. State of modern historical painting. Nature of the reaction which is taking place. Merits and faults of the works of Hunt and Millais. Probable effect of the movement. Objects now principally to be kept in view by the modern artist and his patrons.

“I should be grateful to you also to mention to any person who asks any questions about these lectures, that I cannot take much pains in preparing them, as I came down here entirely for rest. I mean to write, but not to read them. I shall write them as fast as I can, and deliver them just as I should speak in private conversation; but as I am both slow and hesitating in talking, I am very sure that I shall not lecture well, and that those who expect fluent lectures will be disappointed; but I believe the substance will be interesting, and I shall prepare the illustrations with care on a large scale. Could you be so good as to tell me the size and shape of the lecture-room, and position of seats in it?

“Yours very truly,

“J. RUSKIN.”¹

“represented angels saluting one another, the light being admitted through ovals, round which the arms of each figure clasped and met.” Ruskin is said (p. 206) to have exhibited this at Edinburgh, but it is not mentioned in the reports.

¹ This letter has been kindly communicated by the present secretary of the Institution, Mr. W. Addis Miller. The synopsis as afterwards printed shows some slight alterations from Ruskin’s first draft of it. The outline of each lecture, as given in the printed synopsis, will be found below, see pp. 13, 53, 102, 134. It was thus headed:-“I. Two Lectures on Architecture, chiefly Domestic (Illustrated by Drawings). By John Ruskin, Esq., Author of ‘Modern Painters,’ ‘The Stones of

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