The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-26
W. ]. LINTON AT BRENTWOOD
STIRRING LIFE or THE FORNER
OWNEB or RUSKIN,S HOME.
His Republican Where
the "English Republic" Was Printed
Some of the Famous Contributors


Some of the Famous Contributors.
Burton j. Hendrick of this city write,
in the New York Evening Post regard
ing the famous Mr.. Linton who resided
during his closing years in New
Haven as follows: A number o.
the recent notices of John Rusk
in have appeared to assume that the
author of Modern Painters was the
original proprietor of Brentwood, the
house In which he spent the last thirty
years of his life and in which he died
3 As a matter Of fact, however, Brant-
wood was name celebrated in the art
istic, literary, and political life in Eng
land long before Ruskin acquired the
property and gave it it's enduring fame
The previous history of this ancient
English estate has particular interest
for Americans and New Workers, for the
man who handed the old manor house,
with all it's traditions, down to Ruskin,
spent the last thirty years of his life
in the United States, and identified his
later career with this city, 1t was only
a couple years ago that William James
Linton, engraver, artist, poet, and poll
tical agitator, died at New Haven,
Conn, in his eighty-fifth year. His
life had been go full of stirring literary
and political adventure, he had figured
so prominently in the several capacities
to which he had dedicated his varied
powers that it is not surprising that the
world has well-night forgotten the
Brentwood episode of his career.
,,,ot tr,,I oe I.o rl,t +in,,
larly to mind by a recent examination
of Mr.. Unions papers among which
are several mementoes of Ruskin. The
collection includes two letters to Lin
ton in Ruekin's delicate and beautiful
handwriting, one of them singularly
characteristic. Tt Is in reference to the
sale of Brentwood, expresses Ruskins
well-known hatred of railroads, and
shows how this constitutional infirmity
nearly prevented him from spending his
old age beside Corniston Lake.
II think there Is scarcely any doubt"
he says, but that 7 shall thankfully ac-
cept your offer-the time was when
there would be no doubt-but the rail-
road station, just under the "Old Man"
has lately so enlarged it's horrors that
it is doubtful to me whether / can bear
the constant sight of it even on the
other side of the lake; but I'll write
again very soon. I have been danger
ously i'll, and though now, humanity
speaking, quite safe, / cannot write
much, but am ever, yours most truly,
John Ruskin."
1t appears, however, that Ruskin
finally conquered his aversion to this
particular railroad station, and that the
bargain was concluded a few months
after the date of this letter, August -,
1871.
1t was not surprising that Mr.. Lin
ton, in the spring of 1852, should turn
from the cares and anxieties of his Lon
don life, to seek the poetic solitudes of
Westmoreland. The few preceding
years had been years of strenuous, I'M
selfish work and bitter disappointment.
He had decade or so before, formed
that close friendship with Mazzini that
remained, up to the day of his death,
the prominent passion of his life; and
he had been teh enthusiastic co-worker
of the great patriot In all his enterpris-
YES for the regeneration of Italy and the
experimentation of Europe. He had
also become the friend of such contin-
entail celebrities as George Sand-who |
authorized him to translate her works
the Abbee Lamenais, Ledru Rolln,
Garibaldi Admiral de Rohan, Koseuth, |
and other patriots and exiles who re-
garded the year 1S4S as the year of |
European hope" Linton had associat-
ed himself with these men in nearly |
all their attempts to make the time full
fl its promise; had even been present |
in Paris during the days of the barri-
cades and had become one of those Sc
cial and political outcasts so heartily
despised by the conservative English
man of that day-a chartist. He had
even associated himself with Sir Charles
Gavan Duffy in the contemporary
for the Mathematical ton of
Ireland, and had contributed vigorously
In prose and verse to its mouthpiece,
the Irish Nation. Finally; all these agi-
tations and outbreaks failing of their
end, he had, in conjunction with
Thornton Hunt-the son of his old
friend Leigh Hunt-and George Henry
Lewes, started republican newspaper
In London, the Leader, which also,
chiefly owing to serious engagements
Linton and his confreres as to
The policy of the journal, proved a dis
astrous failure.
1t was in a somewhat chastened spir-
It, therefore, that Mr.. Linton left his
London associates in 1852 and started
life anew at Brantford. The Brant- ,
ord to which he came, however, was
lot the Brentwood of to-day; for Mr..
7uskln in his thirty years occupancy
made many alterations in the house and I
The shrubs and trees in front
II the house for example, of which the
ormer master was so fond interfered
With Ruskin's view of the lake and the
Mountains beyond, and were copse-
Iuently cut down. Ruskin also added
turret to the room that served as Lin |
on's library and study-which, from
he bow window, where he had his desk, s
BOXED out upon the lake and the Old i
Ian looming up on the other side. The |
ouse itself was a very substantial af- c
air, with walls foot thick, built of l
locks of the slate stone found in the t
eighborhood. In Linton's day a trellis, i
overed with cluster roses, pirus japon- t
"a, elephant creeper and white jessa S
line. stretched along its front, reaching
D the second story. and the sides were
early hidden by tall laurels of various
inds. Above the road was a strip of
arden, which, besides being noted for
sveral rare plants seldom found in o