RUSKIN, John (1819-1900). Author, artist & social reformer.
Charming series of 15 Autograph Letters Signed, eleven of them unpublished, to Lily Armstrong, one of his Winnington child-friends, ca 30 pages, 1864 to 1877 where dated. Together with an Autograph Letter Signed to Lily's father, Sergeant Armstrong, 1 page 8vo, 17 September 1870.

Ruskin first met Lily Armstrong when she was a 12-year-old schoolgirl at Winnington, the girls' boarding-school in Cheshire run by the financially inept Margaret Alexis Bell with considerable interest and assistance from Ruskin himself. He was a regular visitor to the school, where he not only proceeded with his own writing but joined in games and dancing with the girls. His friendship with Lily lasted long beyond her schooldays and after her marriage, and was evidently deeply affectionate on both sides, despite occasional moments when Ruskin felt himself neglected. He confessed himself not a little in love with Lily, and she confiding to him as late as 1887 that she not only kept all his letters but regularly read them through at night before going to bed and that 'I often put them back in their bag with red eyes, having had a good cry over them, but I love them with all my heart' (Lily to JR in the John Rylands Library).
 The fact that eleven of these letters are not published with thirty-nine or so other letters from Ruskin to Lily in The Winnington Letters, ed Van Akin Burd, is largely explained by their later date, outside the Winnington period, but they are a very important addition to the known calendar of his letters and help to complete the picture of a friendship of the first importance in his life.

Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pages 8vo with blank leaf, ca September 1864 [published from Cook and Wedderburn transcripts in the Bodleian Library CW/Bod), Winnington Letters (WL) page 514].

'It happens so nicely, I am going up to the Crystal palace to-day to draw the Egyptian Lily properly - it is the loveliest flower I have ever seen - on earth - in water or in air. I can't possibly come to Winnington until I know all about it - and some other charming Egyptian things - so you & Egypt will have it all to yourselves this next time - (and won't we lock the others up) (that's written in a whisper, you know)...'
Ruskin had been about to write to Greenfield Sutton (a family home either near Dublin or in West Sussex) to ask when she was returning; Miss Bell says she has grown tall; 'please don't spell Lilly with two Ls'.

Autograph Letter Signed, 3 pages 8vo (signature cut out), Denmark Hill, 22 August 1868 [unpublished].

'Joanna is in Scotland [footnote I send your letter instantly to her], and I am on the point of leaving town for the Continent. I thought you would ' give me - under these conditions - so much disloyalty as was involved in looking if there was any pretty little word for me, when your letter arrived last night. ...'
Ruskin enquires anxiously about her father's health and asks her to write to him:
'... and tell me too - the little bit of news - which you were going to tell the "dear old thing" - and yet did not? - and impose whatever penance you will for my faultful peep at this letter ...'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Ever your affectionate Birdie'), 1 page 8vo (trimmed at top and bottom), no place, no date (presumably 1869 - Lily was born in 1852) [unpublished].

'I .. am mightily afflicted at your being 17. I wish you could always stay my little school-Lily - I shall never find such another - now.
 God keep you happy and childlike, (in His meaning of "child") always. ...'
He also sends an autograph ('a noble name'), no longer included.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Birdie'), 4 pages 8vo with envelope, Denmark Hill, 25 February 1869 [CW/Bod, WL pages 652-653].

A letter of sympathy on the death of her father (mistakenly, he did not die until 26 August 1880 [WL]), inviting her to Denmark Hill where 'the garden ... is just going to be very beautiful' and expressing the hope that his mother would take to her.

Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pages 8vo with blank leaf, Verona, 'Thursday', 15 July 1869 [unpublished].

He is hoping for another letter from her, but about to leave for Venice.
'... It makes me glad though that you turn to me in this trusting way when you are ill or suffering. I like you to feel that I would always do all I could to save you from pain - or give you relief in sorrow ... it will make me cheerful if you tell me that the illness is of no consequence - but if otherwise - and you are obliged to live for some time an almost sedentary life - as is possible - I will try to interest you and form some plans for you on the sofa ... .'
Mrs Norton's letter is 'lovely' also, but how is it that Lily can write such pretty letters herself when she left the impression [at Denmark Hill] that she did not care for himself or Joanna.

Autograph Letter Signed ('your loving old Birdie J Ruskin'), 2 pages 8vo, Venice, 7 August 1869 [unpublished].

He reiterates his thanks for her lovely letter and assures her of his wish to help her in her pain:
'... and many other things I would have you made sure of; - as sure, as you are already -(though you are so naughty as to pretend you are not-) that I like 18s and 19s as well as 12s and 13s - and all kinds of Lilys whatsoever - red or white - I am well punished for not being content with the one I had, by its getting pale and thin. I must have it again at Denmark Hill. ...'

Autograph Letter Signed (to 'my darling little Bear ... ever your loving Birdie J Ruskin'), 2 pages 8vo with envelope, Denmark Hill, 14 December 1869 [unpublished].

'I am so very glad of your letter, for I am to you - just what you think I am - and it is so delightful to be thus trusted. ... You know - little Bear, - that I thought I had never seen anything in it way - quite so pretty as a little Bear I once saw dressed in satin. But I think that - at Drawingrooms - Bears ought not to try to be as pretty as they possibly can; because it looks as if Bears wanted very much to be looked at, which - you know - they ought'nt to. So I say - the more quiet the dress, the more they will be admired by the wisest and nicest people. Therefore - I say - Silk. ...'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Ever your loving Birdie J Ruskin'), 2 pages 8vo, Venice, 9 July 1872 [CW/Bod, WW pages 674-675].

Thanking Lily for the photograph of a bust of herself, criticising it severely, expressing the hope of further letters from her and his desire to come home from 'this weary Italy' to be 'nearer my Irish friends'.
'... You are much more beautiful than any marble can represent, and I do not like the dress. It ought to have been up to the throat - or treated frankly as in Greek work - the compromise is entirely wrong in sculpture. If the sculptor had been able either to show your full form, or to inlay the dark eyes, as an ancient master would - he might have given some idea of you. But no pretty Irish girl could ever be represented but by painting - and not by that - unless Reynolds were the painter. ...'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Every your poor Birdie'), 1 page 8vo, Brantwood, no date (ca April 1873) [unpublished].

'I was stupid enough to take the beading of the bracelet for a part of the design - I won't let you have an injured thing - I'll find you a better - give that to Joannie ...'A letter from JR to Lily dated 2 April 1873 [WL pages 675-676] makes mention of the gift of a bracelet ('I hope you will like your bracelet a little').

Autograph Letter Signed ('still your loving - but mute - birdie J Ruskin'), 3 pages 8vo Brantwood, 2 October 1877 [CW/Bod, WL pages 693-694].

Writing now to Mrs Kevill-Davies [Lily having married Lt. William Trevelyan Kevill-Davies on 27 April 1875] congratulating her on the birth of her son (William, who was to be killed in action in 1915) and expressing his own world-weariness and dislike of the military profession.
'... I am getting old, & past play - and still more, past pleasure, the things that are happening in the world about me seeming to me more and more dreadful every day. - and how can I write - for instance to a soldier's wife, when I think a soldier's profession is entirely mischievous - much so when he is idle - and more so when he is busy! ...'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Darlingest Lily ... Every your loving Birdie but 10 toed'), 1 page 8vo, Brantwood, no date [unpublished].

Extravagantly thanking her for a letter and discussing her illness.
'Such a sweet letter! Please don't write such nice ones. I shall be falling in love with you "quite entirely" - and what would Willy say!
 My poor dear. When do you think the pain will bring the thing forward so as to end. ...'

Autograph Letter Signed ('ever your loving Birdie J Ruskin'), 4 pages 12mo, Herne Hill, 15 December no year [unpublished].

'... you have been evidently suffering much more than in the first illness - and all the while have been doing such lovely things for all of us. I was only allowed a little peep at Joans, but it seems to me the most beautiful work I ever saw - and the way the lace part is all your work - is it really? ... You are yourself very pretty Lily, and if you come and see me and pet me, and are not a bear, I don't want anything to remember you by - & am more grateful for a pretty look than for much work ...'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Every your affectionate J Ruskin'), 1½ pages 8vo, Denmark Hill, no date (ca 1870?) [unpublished].

'I send you two birdies for Lanty [Lily's sister] to have her choice of - I'm afraid she won't understand that the little one is flying but I fancy at any rate she'll like the other "fluffy" best, and I'll put in a sky behind the other if you bring it to Winnington ...'

Autograph Letter Signed ('Ever your loving Birdie J Ruskin'), 2 pages 8vo, Denmark Hill, no date [unpublished].

Thanking her for a letter and asking for the answer to a question he had posed, asking her to write to Connie ('after all the play you used to have together - she really ought to have a word sometimes') and complaining of his own ill health ('sad - beyond all singing - even if I were a Birdie with a voice').

Autograph Letter Signed to Serjeant [sic] Armstrong [Richard Armstrong (1815-1880), Sergeant-in-Law at Dublin, Lily's father], 1 page 8vo with envelope, Denmark Hill, 17 September 1870.

Assuaging his anxiety about Lily's absence, asking whether a week's visit would be possible ('it would hardly be worth her while to make the journey to give me less') and adding that he had written to his cousin to say that Armstrong will allow Lily to come.

[No: 23883]