‘I will send you some prettier ones for framing. I am very glad the books have come safe. The grace and dignity of the engravings in Heyne are of great educational value, and the two MSS. are extremely good of the kind. They cost, curiously, the same price each, £100 or £105,—I forget which.
‘The wild librarian sends me an extremely bad account of herself to-day. I have sent her a beautifully impressive and didactic answer, which she ought to show you.—Ever faithfully yours,
J. Ruskin.
‘I have sent your organist a Magister for himself. I am so glad he likes it. I couldn’t make out his initials, or would have put his name in it; people ought always to sign in print.
A.B.C. So and So.’
‘Brantwood, Coniston, Lancashire, March 12, 1887.
‘Dear Miss Beale,—I send you two books to-day with real pleasure. The old book of towns containing images of the things that once were, in spite of their stiffness, liker the realities now lost than any wooden efforts at restoration, while the Arabian book is a type of all the subtle and faithful skill of France can do at its present best.
‘I call it the faithful skill of France. There is no nation has ever produced such honest work in love of its subjects, not in vanity, as the Desc. de l’Egypte and the illustrated beautiful books of modern times. The great Cuvier series is degraded by its filthy anatomies, but in mere engraving and colours stands alone. But I am going to send you some birds, also matchless, as I can’t send you the Cuvier for its horror.
‘The English book on the Dee, with its rotten paper and vulgar woodcuts, illustrates our English meanness in comparison, but has its poor use too....’
‘Brantwood, Coniston, Lancashire, March 14, 1887.