lxii INTRODUCTION

Coniston; the former signed by his parents, and witnessed by his nurse Ann; the latter written by the Rev. James Boyd, in 1819, minister of the Caledonian Church, Cross Street, Hatton Garden.

His Oxford life (1836-1841) is told in ch. xi. of Præterita. Some further particulars-as, for instance, of his speeches at the Union Debating Society-are given in Vol. I. pp. xxxiv., xxxv.; whilst the story of his poems for the Newdigate Prize, only mentioned incidentally in Præterita,¹ will be found in Vol. II. pp. xxiii.-xxvi. His Letters to a College Friend (Vol. I.) also largely belong to his Oxford period. A few further notes may be added here.

The date of his matriculation is October 20, 1836. His reception by the undergraduates, when he went into residence in the following term, was-as Dean Kitchin notes, to the credit of the House-not unkindly. His position-as a “home boy,” as “a tradesman’s son,” and as utterly ignorant of athletics-was “all but hopeless. Still, somehow, he did make his way. The truth is that Christ Church is very like the House of Commons in temper; a man, however plain of origin, however humble in position, is tolerated and listened to with respect, if he is sincere, honest, and ‘knows his subject.’ This is why the Christ Church gentleman-commoners accepted Ruskin readily enough; they found that the boy was full of ingenious and really genuine thought, and that he had travelled widely, and had profited by his travels; they saw that he was in essentials a true gentleman.” He was tolerated, however, rather than popular. Dean Kitchin quotes a letter in which a contemporary of Ruskin at Christ Church briefly says of him that “at this time Ruskin was only famous as a sort of butt, and not a genius.” And Mr. Aubrey de Vere says of him, on the publication of the first volume of Modern Painters: “I am told that the author’s name is Ruskin, and that he was considered at College as an odd sort of man who would never do anything.” Dean Liddell’s description of Ruskin (in a letter written in 1837) is somewhat different: “I am going to drink tea with Adolphus Liddell tonight, and see the drawings of a very wonderful gentleman-commoner here who draws wonderfully. He is a very strange fellow, always dressing in a greatcoat with a brown velvet collar, and a large neck-cloth tied over his mouth,² and living quite in his own way among

¹ At p. 422: see, however, the additional passages now added from the MS., pp. 613, 614.

² These were fashions to which Ruskin remained constant. On state occasions, however, he indulged, as a young man, in “a white satin waistcoat with gold sprigs, and a high dress-coat with bright buttons. Picture, then,” says Mr. Collingwood, “the young Ruskin in those dressy days. A portrait was once sent to Brantwood

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