XII. ROSLYN CHAPEL 215

However, I think God that this book, which made me tremble at its coming before the world, is received with unexpected favour on to my part, and the approbation of a mind like yours give (sic-short for “cannot but give”) me the greatest consolation I can receive, and sets my mind more at ease.

“Please to present my respectful compliments to Mrs. Ruskin, who I hope is well, and kind remembrances to your son.-I remain always, dear Sir, your most obliged friend* and very humble servant,

“JAMES NORTHCOTE.

“ARGYLL HOUSE, October 13th, 1830.

“To JOHN J. RUSKIN, Esq.”

241. And thus the proposed six lessons in Newman Street ran on into perhaps eight or nine, during which Copley Fielding taught me to wash colour smoothly in successive tints, to shade cobalt through pink madder into yellow ochre for skies, to use a broken scraggy touch for the tops of mountains, to represent calm lakes by broad strips of shade with lines of light between them (usually at about the distance of the lines of this print¹), to produce dark clouds and rain with twelve or twenty successive washes, and to crumble burnt umber with a dry brush for foliage and foreground. With these instructions, I succeeded in copying a drawing which Fielding made before me, some twelve inches by nine, of Ben Venue and the

* In memory of the quiet old man who thus honoured us with his friendship, and in most true sense of their value, I hope to reprint the parts of the Conversations which I think he would have wished to be preserved.²

¹ [Somewhat wider in ed. 1 of Præterita.]

² [This intention of reprinting W. Hazlitt’s Conversations of James Northcote, R A. (1830), was not carried out. In the Cottonian Library at Plymouth, there is a copy of the book which has inserted a letter from Ruskin’s father asking Northcote to oblige him with an early copy. Mr. Ernest Radford, on communicating this fact to Ruskin, received the following reply:-

“84 WOODSTOCK ROAD, OXFORD, 29 Oct. ’84.-MY DEAR SIR,-You could not possibly have done me a greater kindness than in sending me that copy of my father’s letter. I would respectfully pray the Librarian that the original may not be lost. The letter comes, singularly, just when I am about to set down some notes of my own early acquaintance with Northcote, and debt to my father.-Ever faithfully and gratefully yours,

“J. RUSKIN.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]