RUSKIN, John (1819-1900). Author, artist & social reformer.
Early Autograph Letter Signed to Lady (Jane) Davy, widow of Sir Humphry Davy, 2 pages 8vo (on thin paper, one slight flaw in first page), Verona, 6 November 1849. Asking for help in obtaining introductions to English people in Venice, which the Ruskins were soon to visit, in order to keep Effie amused.

Jane Davy (née Kerr, 1780-1855) was a near neighbour of the Ruskins in Park Street, Mayfair, the house found for them by John Ruskin's father, John James, and rarely used by either. She was a fashionable and enthusiastic hostess, continuing so after Humphry Davy's death in 1855. She travelled widely on the continent, spoke Italian a little eccentrically, and was a willing guide to the sights of Venice. The present letter appears to have been written to her when in England, however.

At this time Venice was recovering from the Austrian siege and bombardment the previous year and had suffered damage which, at least in anticipation, alarmed Ruskin. There were few of the Italian nobility and gentry still resident, and very few English.

Ruskin and Effie (Euphemia Gray, later the wife of John Everett Millais) had started their relatively short-lived and rather unconventional married life in April 1847. Ruskin had soon suggested that the newly-weds travel on the continent with his parents in tow, but that particular excursion had not taken place. In 1849 they set off in two coaches (minus the parents) with a companion, Charlotte Ker, for Effie, and with Ruskin's servant John Hobbs ('George'). The stay in Verona was prolonged by Ruskin's need to study, sketch and draw the architectural antiquities of the city, and in Venice he made it a habit to leave immediately after breakfast and not return until dinner time, leaving Effie to find her own amusement.

It is a little unfair of him to suggest, as he does in this letter, that Effie had no Italian. She was artistic and musical, an accomplished pianist and singer, and already spoke German (Ruskin did not) and French. Her progress in Italian seems to have been rapid. The suggestion, no doubt light-heartedly thrown out, that only those with 'time to waste' would wish to keep her company also strikes an uncomfortable note.

'... You see we have not reached your favourite city yet. I have been stayed by the Scaligeri. I cannot resist the attraction as once, who could the force - of their tall lances - and I have been all day long - and all yesterday and all Saturday - sitting by their tombs and under the shade of their canine Crests - this is all very well for me - but not quite so amusing for my wife - and I do not know what will become of her at Venice unless I can get her one or two letters of introduction. We left England so hastily that I had no time to provide myself with any; it may not be easy, for I suppose there are no English in Venice. Effie cannot speak Italian - but if you happen to know any English friend who would take pity upon her, or to hear of any passing within the next three months through Venice or Florence, who have time to waste - we should be grateful if you would tell them of us. Only on no account take any trouble about the matter, as Effie ought, at least until she is able to speak the language of the country, to find amusement enough in its scenes. I should have been glad if either of us had been able to hold some intercourse with the Italians: English society is generally an interruption abroad - still I must not let her throw herself into the Grand canal in weariness of its silence. I write in haste - if I did not I could tell you nothing of Verona but what is distressing.'

This letter is alluded to by Mary Lutyens (Effie in Venice, 1965, page 59), quoting a long letter from Effie to her mother, and it is mentioned also by Tim Hilton (The Early Years, 1985), but it does not appear in The Letters of John Ruskin, 1827-1869, Library Edition, ed. E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, 1909, vol. xxxvi. (available online), and is apparently unpublished. Letters from the period of Ruskin's marriage to Effie very rarely appear on the market.
[No: 25825]