lxiv INTRODUCTION

whether his essay cost 2s. 6d. or 5s.,”¹ and proceeded to light a bonfire in Peckwater; presumably to make short work of Ruskin’s long-winded and offending production. But he judiciously escaped to bed, and on this occasion, it seems, was not molested. That he was capable of holding his own and making his way is clear from the fact of his election in his second term to the exclusive Christ Church Club (pp. 210-1). “Simeon, Acland, and Mr. Denison proposed him,” his mother reports; “Lord Carew and Broadhurst supported.”² A few letters from Ruskin himself, describing undergraduate experiences, will be found in Vol. XXXVI. Dean Kitchin, in a passage quoted above, speaks of him being recognised as a man who “knew his subject.” His subject at this time was drawing. His mother sends word to his father of the way in which their son’s fame in this sort became noised abroad:-

“Mr. Liddell and Mr. Gaisford” (junior) turned up. “John was glad he had wine to offer, but they would not take any; they had come to see sketches. John says Mr. Liddell looked at them with the eye of a judge and the delight of an artist, and swore they were the best sketches he had ever seen. John accused him of quizzing, but he answered that he really thought them excellent.” John said that it was the scenes which made the pictures; Mr. Liddell knew better, and spread the fame of them over the college. Next morning “Lord Emlyn and Lord Ward called to look at the sketches,” and when the undergraduates had dropped in one after another, the Dean himself, even the terrible Gaisford, sent for the portfolio, and returned it with august approval.³

In this way Ruskin became, it seems, one of the “show” young men at Christ Church. Thomas Sopwith, a distinguished mining engineer and geologist, and an amateur draughtsman, has left record of a visit paid to Dr. Buckland at Oxford. Ruskin was invited to dinner to meet him as “an admirable artist.” Sopwith describes a long conversation

¹ See the note quoted from Dean Kitchin, below, p. 196 n.

² Sir John Simeon, Bart. (1815-1870), afterwards M. P. for the Isle of Wight. For Acland, see below, p. 197. Alfred Robert Denison, b. 1817; afterwards settled in New South Wales. Robert Shepland Carew (1819-1881) was the second Baron Carew. John Broadhurst, of Foston Hall, Derbyshire.

³ W. G. Collingwood, Life and Work of John Ruskin, p. 58. To like effect Dean Kitchin gives a letter from one of Ruskin’s contemporaries at Christ Church, Mr. W. Hughes Hughes: “I myself, on June 2, 1838, coming home from a late (or early) party, found Ruskin sitting near the central basin in Tom Quad; and looking over his shoulder, was charmed at the sight of his beautiful water-colour sketch, in what was then called Prout’s style, of the Tower. From that time I always felt great respect for Ruskin, having found that he had some talent” (Ruskin in Oxford, and other Papers, p. 28).

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