xxxiv INTRODUCTION

still than thousands, or than I ever hoped to have, lately.”¹ Such is the law of compensation; the acutest sensibility means capacity, alike for pain and for pleasure, which is not shared by minds cast in a commoner mould.

1876-1877 (VENICE)

Ruskin’s depression at this time was very great, and it was deepening. His diaries become increasingly full of hypochondriacal entries, and he notes, as symptoms new to him, both nervous irritability and mental languor. His medical attendant, Dr. Parsons of Hawkshead, to whose skill and sympathy Ruskin owed much, told him that he needed nothing but rest. “I never yet have been in so great discouragement,” he wrote in his diary (April 4, 1875), “and disgust with all my work, or so sad feeling that I should not do much more”; and, again, a year later (May 10, 1876), “quite terrible languor.” In the spring of 1876 he had been re-elected Professor at Oxford, but he felt unable to lecture, and, obtaining leave of absence for a year, determined to seek a stimulus in complete change of scene. His mind was half set on revisiting Venice, when he received counsel which decided him in that direction. Prince Leopold, early in 1876, had been in Venice, where he saw much of Ruskin’s friend, Rawdon Brown. The Prince told Brown to persuade Ruskin to come and prepare a new edition of The Stones of Venice. Ruskin accepted the counsel as a command, and set out in August for a long sojourn in Venice, during which he wrote, or collected material, for the later books collected in the present volume. Before setting out for Italy he went for a few days to Wales, in order to see the tenants on the first bit of ground possessed by the St. George’s Guild (see Fors Clavigera, Letter 69). He then went abroad, landing at Boulogne on August 24, and did not return to England till the middle of June.² He journeyed on this occasion without friends, and wrote and worked as he went. Thus at the Simplon, on the way out, he wrote the chapter of Deucalion

¹ Entry at Venice, May 3, 1877.

² His itinerary was as follows: Boulogne (August 24), Paris (August 26), Geneva (August 27), Brieg (August 30), Simplon (August 31), Domo d’Ossola (September 2), Orta (September 3), Arona (September 7), Milan (September 6), Venice (September 8 to October 26), Verona (October 26-31), Venice (November 1 to May 23, 1877), Milan (May 23), Stresa (May 24), Domo d’Ossola (May 28), Isella (June 4), Simplon (June 7), Brieg (June 10), Martigny (June 11), Nyon (June 12), Paris (June 14), Boulogne (June 15), Herne Hill (June 16). On this occasion he was accompanied by his servant, Baxter, who had now taken the place vacated by Crawley, his former valet of twenty years’ service. Baxter was familiar to attendants at Ruskin’s later lectures, as Crawley before. Baxter remained in Ruskin’s service to the end, and, though his master made special provision for him in his will, is still a trusted member of the Brantwood household.

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