Ruskin is referring to an acquaintance, Mrs. Jameson, whom he met in Venice in 1845 and in Edinburgh in 1853, a prolific and popular Victorian 'woman of letters' whose works include a Handbook to Public Galleries of Art in and near London (1842), a Companion to the most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London (1844), and The Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art (1848).