xxviii INTRODUCTION

Yorkshire moors we used to play games of chess. We started on one fine morning from London, and, I must say, without a postilion; but when we arrived at the next town, about twenty miles off, having telegraphed beforehand that we were coming, there was a gorgeous postilion ready with a fresh horse, and we started off in the right style.”

And so they rode to Sheffield. His plans for a “St. George’s Museum” at Sheffield were now beginning to take shape,¹ and he spent some days there in meeting many local people and discussing the matter with them. When this business was finished, the journey was resumed:-

“Then the Professor gave orders that the carriage should be got ready to take us on our journey. We were to start after luncheon, and sure enough there was the carriage at the door, and a still more gorgeous postilion than any we had had so far on our journey. His riding breeches were of the whitest and tightest I ever saw. His horses were an admirable pair and looked like going. A very large crowd had assembled outside the inn to see what extraordinary kind of mortals could be going to travel in such a way. ‘Well, Professor,’ I said, ‘I really don’t know what the people expect-whether it’s a bride and bridegroom, or what.’ He said, ‘Well, Arthur, you and Joan shall play at being bride and bridegroom inside the carriage, and I will get out on the box.’ He got hold of Mrs. Severn by the arm and put her into the carriage; I was put in after, and he jumped upon the box. The crowd closed in around us and looked at us as if we were a sort of menagerie.”

Sometimes there were delays and hitches on the road, but the Professor “treated that sort of thing with the utmost coolness, and seemed very glad because it enabled him to look at the view and point it out to us.”² Sometimes information picked up on the road was disillusioning. They had made a deviation to see Hardraw Fall, one of Turner’s subjects in the “Richmondshire” Series, and Mr. Severn, who had gone on in front, fell into conversation with a countryman.

“Mr. Severn expressed his surprise that so large and powerful a body of water did not wear away the edge of the cliff much more. The man, with an amused smile, said, ‘To tell you the truth, sir, it does wear it away, only you see we work at it.’ ‘Work at it?’ ‘Yes, build it up again. You will see mason’s work, sir, if you go to the top of the cliff and look close.’ ‘You will meet a gentleman and a lady a little farther on,’ said Mr. Severn; ‘I wish you would tell this to the gentleman, he would be so interested!’ ‘Arthur! Arthur!’ exclaimed Ruskin when he

¹ See Fors Clavigera, Letter 59, § 10.

² Report of a speech, at the opening of the Ruskin Museum, in the Sheffield Independent, April 16, 1890.

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