CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT OF A VISIT TO BRANTWOOD SOON AFTER RUSKIN'S ARRIVAL [RUSKIN (John, 1819-1900, Writer and Critic)]

Manuscript Account of a visit to Ruskin's lakeside home, saying "I went over this morning to take a look at Brantwood, Ruskin's lake home. I heard that he had got it finished this summer and had been settled in it about a fortnight. My walk over was pleasant enough the weather an interchange of sunshine and showers. Brantwood is about 3 miles down the left hand side of the Lake from Coniston. A good mile beyond Tent Lodge once the residence of Tennyson. It stands close beside and a little above the road. The road is a fields length from the lake and runs between it and the house. I am told Ruskin got the place cheap and has laid out a good deal of money upon it. It certainly has a nice appearance now. A moderate sized unpretentious house with plenty of outbuildings apparently round behind it ... on a level with the bedrooms he has had a small pulpit-looking affair put up ..." here there is a small sketch illustrating it, "glazed all round with diamond panes about a foot square and neatly roofed, evidently intended as a place of outlook to watch the mists on the mountains at the head of the lake. I should have preferred larger panes of platE glass instead of diamond shaped small ones and then one could have sketched without obstruction in all weathers. The grass is close shaven and all about the garden and indeed all about the place there is an air of neatness, cleanliness and comfort that is quite delightful. Rather too neat for my fancy, for there is a good deal too much of muslin about the bed room windows, the tassels of the blind cords being carried in little muslin bags with edges with lace ... the place loos more like the residence of a fastidious old maid that a grave Oxford Professor. The entrance gates of which there are two, one about a hundred yards before you come to the house and the other about thirty yards beyond the house, as well as stable doors and other outside wood work are all painted of a lovely imitation oak colour, which rather surprised me remembering the scorn with which, in the Stones of Venice and Seven Lamps, he spoke of all imitation of knots and the grain of wood, contemptible attempts at deception he called them, unworthy of men. But these of his, I noticed, though pleasant to the eye, were so badly grained they would not deceive nobody. There doesn't appear to be anything interesting in the scenery about Brantwood, but the views up to the head of Coniston water and away up Zeedale towards Tilberthwaite with Coniston old Man and Witherham ... is very fine and I rather fancy on a clear day the Langdale Pikes will be visible in the extreme distance ...", 1 side folio, Hawkshead, 29th September

In August 1871, Ruskin purchased, from W. J. Linton, the then somewhat dilapidated Brantwood house, on the shores of Coniston Water, in the Lake District, paying £1500 for it. Brantwood was Ruskin's main home from 1872 until his death. His estate provided a site for more of his practical schemes and experiments: he had an ice house built, and the gardens comprehensively rearranged. He oversaw the construction of a larger harbour (from where he rowed his boat, the Jumping Jenny), and he altered the house adding a dining room and a turret to his bedroom to give him a panoramic view of the lake. He built a reservoir, and redirected the waterfall down the hills, adding a slate seat that faced the tumbling stream and craggy rocks rather than the lake, so that he could closely observe the fauna and flora of the hillside.

Item Date:  1872

Stock No:  41604