the beads of cap, and spiral of chair, in the Lippi,1 rather than the Madonna, so here it will be well to be sure we can draw the throne, before we try the Leucothea. Outline it first by the eye, then trace the original, to correct your drawing; and by the time next Fors comes out, I hope your power of drawing a fine curve, fine curve, like that of the back of this throne, will be materially increased; by that time also I shall have got spirals to compare with these Etruscan ones, drawn from shells only an hour or two old, sent me by my good friend Mr. Sillar (who taught me the wrongness of the infinite spiral of money interest), by which I am at present utterly puzzled, finding our conclusions in last Fors on this point of zoology quite wrong; and that the little snails have no less twisted houses than the large. But neither for drawing nor architecture 2 Fig. 11 is there to-day more time, but only to correct and clarify my accounts, which I have counted a little too far on my 1 [See Letter 59, § 8 (p. 447).] 2 [See Letter 65, § 16 (p. 601).] [See above, pp. 554-555; and below, p. 601.] power of keeping perspicuous without trouble; and have thereby caused my subscribers and myself a good deal more than was needful. 19. Henceforward I must ask their permission, unless I receive definite instruction to the contrary, to give names in full, as the subscriptions come in, and give up our occult notation.1 20. I have to acknowledge a quite magnificent gift of modern Japanese inlaid work to our Sheffield Museum, from my kind friend Mr. Henry Willett, of Arnold House, Brighton. A series of some fifty pieces was offered by him for our selection: but I have only accepted a tithe of them, thinking that the fewer examples of each school we possess, the better we shall learn from them. Three out of the five pieces I have accepted are of quite unsurpassable beauty, and the two others of extreme interest. They are sent to the Curator at Sheffield.3 1 1 [The first edition contained here the following additional passage: "I am not quite so well pleased with my good friend Mr. Girdlestone's pamphlet on luxury as I was with that on classification of society, though am heartily glad to be enabled by him to distribute it to my readers, for its gentle statements may be more convincing than my impatient ones. But I must protest somewhat against their mildness. It is not now merely dangerous, but criminal, to teach the lie that the poor live by the luxury of the rich. Able men-even Pope himself-have been betrayed into thinking so in old times (blaming the luxury, however, no less), but the assertion is now made by no intelligent person, unless with the deliberate purpose of disguising abuses on which all the selfish interests of society depend." The pamphlet is entitled Thoughts on Luxury and Poverty, by E. D. Girdlestone, B.A., Weston-super-Mare, 1876. The author (p. 4) characterises as false and dangerous "the statement that the poor live by the luxury of the rich." For Ruskin's reference to Pope, see in the Essay on Man such lines as "The rich is happy in the plenty giv'n" (Epistle II., 264), and the whole argument of Epistle III.] 2 [For notices of Mr. Willett, see Letter 85, § 5 (Vol. XXIX. p. 323); Vol. XVI. p. 255 n.; Vol. XVIII. p. 203 n. ; and Deucalion, i. ch. ix. § 3 (Vol. XXVI. p. 206).] 3 [In writing to Mr. Willett in acknowledgment of this gift, Ruskin said (Oxford, March 13, 1876): "Well, this would be indeed a magnificent gift of yours, but I cannot accept more than the twentieth part of it. I have no room, for one thing ; but chiefly, I think this Japanese art, however interesting in itself, not good to be long looked at, or in many examples. I have kept the exquisite inlaid flock black-what should I call them? (there now, I've mislaid the catalogue, and must finish this note without finding it)—the three coloured pictures in pearl, I mean, and three of the bird trays." For the examples accepted for the Museum, see Vol. XXX.] NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE 21. (I.) AFFAIRS of the Company. I give on the next page our banker's account to 14th March of this year. Calling this "Account B," and that given to the end of last year, in last Fors, "Account A," the following abstract of both is, I hope, accurate. By Account A: 1 Of the cheques for £800 I will give account presently; but first, we must compare the cash paid in with the subscription list. THE UNION BANK OF LONDON (CHANCERY LANE BRANCH) IN ACCOUNT Now continuing the list. No. 55. J. W.. 56. The mother of the first donor of land to St. George 2 £ s. d. 741 14 10 40 0 0 1 5 0 2 2 0 £785 1 10 Cash paid in . Balance in my hands 977 12 1 £45 19 9 1 [Letter 62, § 19 (p. 530), where the amount given is £742, 16s. 10d., amended 557, by the correction of a subscription, to £741, 14s. 10d.] on P. Mrs. Talbot see above, p. 395.] The sum in my hands, thus amounting to £845, 19s 9d., has been distributed as follows:: Purchase of land and house at Sheffield. Henry Swan-Two quarters' salary to 31st March, 1876 Prints (Colnaghi). See November Forsi Messrs. Tarrant and Mackrell, 29th December, 1875 Balance in my hands £20 17 52 47 13 4 107 16 5 26 15 11 £845 19 9 I had an offer from 22. Messrs. Tarrant and Mackrell's accounts follow. Sheffield to do this legal work for nothing; but I wanted to be sure that everything was in due form, and I can trust this London firm. My very good friend Mr. Tarrant must, however, pardon my pointing out to him how much more pleasantly, for all parties, he might be employed, as suggested in Fors, Letter 16, § 6, 7,4 than in taxing this transfer of property to the amount of nearly fifty pounds-(seven pounds odd worth of letters merely).5 For, were the members of the legal profession employed generally in illuminating initials, and so got out of our way, and the lands of the country properly surveyed and fenced, all that would be really needful for the sale of any portion of them by anybody to anybody else, would be the entry in a roll recording the tenure of so many square miles round each principal town. "The piece of land hitherto belonging to A B, is this day sold to and henceforward belongs to C D, whereof, we (city magistrate and a head of any county family) are witnesses." THE ST. GEORGE'S COMPANY, To TARRANT & MACKRELL, Costs of Purchase of Freehold Land and Messuage in Bell Haig Road, Sheffield 1875. Sept. 20. On receipt of letters from Messrs. Webster, and from Mr. Ruskin, as to purchase of land and a house at Sheffield, writing Messrs. Webster, the vendor's solicitors, to send us contract Writing Mr. Ruskin as to amount of purchase money, he having stated it to be £600, and Messrs. Webster £630 Oct. 4. On receipt of draft contract for approval from Messrs. Webster, with abstract of title for inspection, looking through abstract, when we found it would be £ s. d. 050 036 1 [Letter 59, § 16 (p. 457).] 2 [The amount as given in the detailed account is, however, £22, Os. 8d.: see p. 582. Yet on p. 628 Mr. Tarrant seems to accept the total £47, 13s. 4d. as correct; presumably a small amount was waived.] 3 [The amount was originally misprinted £106, 16s. 5d.: see Letter 65, § 27 (p. 611).] 4 [Vol. XXVII. pp. 282-284.] 5 For Mr. Tarrant's reply, see below, p. 628.] [For a later reference to this subject, see Letter 77, § 11 (Vol. XXIX. p. 118).] |