Evening star., 1914-08-09
HOME OF RUSKIN
BEING TORN DOWN
Razing of Herne Hill House.
Garden Closely Associated
With Authors Life.
From the Manchester Guardian.


No. % Herne Hill. the house where
Ruskin spent his childhood and youth,
and where he stayed at times until with
in few years of his death. is being
destroyed. Apparently no one has thought
1t worth while to raise a voice to save It,
Yet few of London's literary houses are
better known that this stout, semi-detach-
ed house which Ruskin's father. the puri-
tanic old wine merchant. bought in ISIS.
when his son John was four years old.
There are many references to it in Rus
kin's autobiographical books. notably a
charming chapter in ''Praeterita." called
"Herne Hill-Almond Blossoms" There
is also a famous passage In 'Fors.' Let
ter Xiv, and again in Fiction Fair and
Four he describes savagely the vulgar
ization of his beloved Herne Hill that had
taken place within his ow nlifetime. The
two houses are now almost the only sur,
vivors of the many fine old merchants
residences with long gardens that once
covered Herne Hill when this district was
a secluded country suburb. II Ruskln
visited the place today he could not wrlee; rue;
between the Fox Tavern and Herne Hill
station remains in all essential points OF
character unchanged to this day. -,
and l can still walk up and down the
piece of road aforesaid imagining myself
seven years old Crude red villas sur
round the spacious three-storied house.
and the London county council plaque
on the wall is the only thing reminding
You of the childhood of the great man
This afternoon (writes a London rep
resentative of the Manchester Guardlah
l found the wreckers busy unroonns
Ruskin's little nursery garret with tne
big dormer window. From this window
The house." he writes. commanded IN
those comparatively smokeless days
very notable view from its upper win
dows of the Norwood hills on one side
and the winter sunrise over them. ana
of the valley of the Thames. with Wind
sor in the distance, on the other. and the
summer sunset over these. | clambered
over the housebreakers rubblsh INTO the
room below the nursery, which was Rus-
kin's first study. Here he wrote the first
volume of Modern Painters. In 1913
the Ruskins moved to a larger house on
Denmark Hill. but % Herne Hill remain
kin handed it over to his adopted daush-
ter Mrs. Arthur Severn. 1t was vacated
by Mr.. and Mrs. Arthur Severn in 1907.
When he visited London in old age Rus
he had known all his life, and some OF
his "Fors" letters were written In the
same room in which he had written his
first book. about forty years earlier.
The garden at the back, so often and
so lovingly described, is little altered,
except that it is wild and neglected 1t
was, he says, renowned over all the hill
for it's pears and apples and pos
sessing also a strong old mulberry tree,
tall white-heart cherry tree. black
Kentish one and an almost unbrohen
hedge. all round of alternate gooseberry
and currant bush; decked, in due season
tfor the. ground was wholly benef1cenD,
with magical splendor of abundant fruit;
fresh green. soft amber, and rough
bristled crimson bending the spinous
branches: clustered pearl and pendant
ruby joyfully discoverable under the
large leaves that looked like vine" THE
little domain answered every purpose OF
Paradise to me-" A road will soon be
driven across the site of Ruskins Para
disal garden The we'll known lilacs and
laburnums in front of the house are still
there for the moment, and half the side
of the yellow front of the house with its
elegant classic doorway. The view is
singularly little altered, although the
smoke of South London is now too thick
for you to see, as Ruskin did from the
garret windows, Windsor telescopically
clear in the distance, and Harrow, con-
spicuous always in fine weather to open
vision against the summer sunset" The
"twerty square miles of politely inhabit-
ed groves" have given place to legion
of fuming little streets. The moderniza-
ton of his childhood's haunts was the
text Of many an outburst in his later
books. He was especially angry with
the Crystal Palace and tine trippers it
brought into the rustic eminence' of
Herne Hill. stealing blossoms out of the
stately gardens and roaring at the
cows"