INTRODUCTION xxv

was in 1889, and Ruskin’s working days were then almost at an end. The little volume was never to be written, and the personal mention of Carlyle in Præterita is only incidental.¹ Another friend from whom a visit is recorded in Ruskin’s diary is Aubrey de Vere. Of Miss Kate Greenaway’s visits, and her constant correspondence with Ruskin, which was one of the new interests and solaces of his old age, account will be found in the Introduction to the next volume (dealing with Ruskin’s friendships as illustrated by his Letters). Letters from William Gifford Palgrave, then Her Majesty’s Minister in Uruguay, also gave Ruskin much pleasure during these years. Palgrave was very much at one with Ruskin in his outlook upon the world, and from 1884 to his death in 1888 was one of the most regular and affectionate of Ruskin’s correspondents.

But Ruskin’s greatest pleasure, perhaps, was in pleasing young people. Many of the reminiscences of Brantwood which have been published relate to these years, when he liked to have young men and girls around him, and lent himself out to give them instruction and pleasure. One of his girl-friends, married to Mr. Allen Harker, has given a characteristic description of tea-time at Brantwood:-

“He looked an old man even then in 1888, as he stood in his favourite place on the hearth-rug in the Brantwood drawing-room; but his eyes were the youngest I have ever seen in adult face, blue and clear like a child’s, with the child’s large direct gaze. By tea-time, every table, chair, and most of the floor would be littered with a wonderful profusion of sketches, photographs, missals, Greek coins, and uncut gems. ‘Now we begin to look comfortable,’ he would say gleefully when there was nothing left to sit upon, and we had to pick our steps among the treasures scattered at our feet; and we were comfortable. He spared neither himself nor his possessions to give pleasure to his guests. He talked much and brilliantly, laughing heartily an infectious, chuckling laugh when anything amused him.”²

The story is told of the poet-painter, William Blake, that in his old age a child came to see him. He put his hand upon her head and blessed her, saying, “May God make the world as beautiful to you, my child, as it has been to me.” No small part of Ruskin’s life was spent in similar benediction.

Another occupation which gave Ruskin interest and enjoyment during these years was teaching the village children at Coniston. His

¹ See below, pp. 460, 539.

² “John Ruskin in the ‘Eighties,” Outlook, February 11, 1899.

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