My Vault

Shelves
Ruskin

"I give these Books
for the founding of a College in this Colony"

• YALE • UNIVERSITY •
• LIBRARY •

LIFE IS SO FAIRLY BIG

This is the volume described in W. S. Coleer-purvis's
edition of Ruskin's Poems (1891) by I. L. B. 266-67
as follows:-

No. IX. (in the possession of Mrs. Arthur Severn).
Thick, ruled note-book; brown marbled boards, half-bound
in bluish-green leather; 8 by 6½ inches. Pp. 1-21 are prepared
for alphabetical index: pp. 22-23 contain quotations in Mrs.
J. J. Ruskin's handwriting, —"Advice of his mother to the
Chevalier Bayard," and I. Chronicles xxviii. 9. Pp. 25-111,
about a third of the book, were filled with prose and verse in
a good "copperplate" hand, and with inserted drawings
illustrating his tour of the year before. It is about this book
that he says (Præt. I. iv. p. 130),—"The winter of '33, and
what time I could steal to amuse myself in, out of '34, were
spent in composing, writing fair, and drawing vignettes for
the decoration of the aforesaid poetical account of our tour,
in imitation of Rogers' Italy. The drawings were made on
separate pieces of paper and pasted into the books [book];
many have since been taken out, others are there for which
the verses were never written, for I had spent my fervour
before I got up the Rhine. I leave the unfinished folly in
Joanie's care, that none but friends may see it." The "folly"
I understand to refer, not to the literary quality of the verse,
but to the miscalculation and miscarriage of an ambitious
project; for, as I find from a list at the end of No. VIII., he
had intended this volume to contain about 150 pieces of
prose and poetry, and at least as many drawings! And in
saying he did not follow his tour beyond the Rhine, Mr.
Ruskin refers only to this volume, No. IX. I am pretty
certain that he was not aware of the amount of material
existing in rough copies at the back of his book-shelves.

* Most glue mark papers have since been removed
the book placed in its old cover.