BRANTWOOD
THE HOME OF JOHN RUSKIN
=How to get there.=—Train from Euston. L. and N.W. Railway.
=Nearest Station.=—Coniston Lake (Brantwood is on the eastern side
of Coniston Lake).
=Distance from London.=—279 miles.
=Average Time.=—Varies between 8-1/4 to 9-1/4 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=—Single 41s. 1d. … 23s. 2-1/2d.
Return 80s. 5d. … 46s. 5d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=—"Waterhead Hotel," etc.
=Alternative Route.=—Train from St. Pancras. Midland Railway.
The road to Brantwood from Coniston runs under the shade of beautiful trees, at the head of Coniston Water. After leaving behind the village and the Thwaite, with its peacocks strutting in its old-world gardens, one skirts the grounds of Monk Coniston. Soon afterwards Tent Lodge, where Tennyson once lived, is passed. Afterwards comes Low Bank Ground, which is only a short distance from Brantwood. The situation, as one may see from the drawing given opposite, is one of great natural advantages, while the house is quite unassuming; its simple white walls, however, give one the sense of a comfortable if unpretending home. The interior has been described as giving an impression "of solid, old-fashioned furniture, of amber-coloured damask curtains and coverings." There were Turner's and other water-colours in curly frames upon the drawing-room walls.
Writing of his earliest recollections of Coniston, in Praeterita, Ruskin says: "The inn at Coniston was then actually at the upper end of the lake, the road from Ambleside to the village passing just between it and the water, and the view of the long reach of lake, with its softly-wooded, lateral hills, had for my father a tender charm, which excited the same feeling as that with which he afterward regarded the lakes of Italy." Ruskin's death in 1900 took place at Brantwood. George Eliot, in speaking of him, said, "I venerate Ruskin as one of the greatest teachers of the age. He teaches with the inspiration of a Hebrew prophet."
Ruskin was the son of a wealthy wine merchant, and was born in London in 1819. He studied at Oxford, where he gained the Newdigate prize for English poetry in 1839. After taking his degree, in the following year appeared his first volume of Modern Painters, the design of which was to prove the great superiority of modern landscape-painters, particularly Turner, over the old masters.
[Illustration: RUSKIN'S HOUSE AT BRANTWOOD.
The room with the turret window was Ruskin's bedroom.]