RUSKIN, John (1819-1900). Author, artist & social reformer.
Three Autograph Letters Signed (one incomplete) to his mother Margaret, 8 pages 8vo, two on black-edged paper, 1864 and 1868. The first two letters written from Winnington Hall, the last from Dublin.

Autograph Letter Signed, 4 pages 8vo on black-edged paper (Ruskin's father had died this year), Winn[ingto]n, 12 October [1864]. Thanking his mother for a package containing a note from Rosie (Rose La Touche) and a purse or money-bag that she had made and embroidered for him. He continues with a eulogy of another girl friend, Lily Armstrong:

'... Lily is a very lovely sight just now - she is so exactly what a girl ought to be - not a bit of showiness or display in her dress or ways - nor ever any of the unavoidable and perpetual conspicuousness which there is in the faces of some pretty girls, ... Lily ... has a curious little careful look and way, with all her fun, which reminds one of what one usually sees in poor children. She has been growing fast taller, but her face remains small - so that the proportion is far more beautiful than it was, - and she has a little quiet dainty frock, striped dark blue and white, with a little bossy dark blue knot ...'

Autograph Letter Signed, 2 pages 8vo on black-edged paper, [Winnington], Sunday [16 October 1864]. Thanking her for a note, and wishing that he were back in his study, but for the attractions of Lily [Armstrong].

'... who is a great joy to me. I was not wrong about the little blue striped frock - it had been made in Paris for her, & sent over: but it is'nt [sic] showy in the least; only just right. It has five blue stripes down the body, just like the Venetian ladies gowns the two outmost going over the shoulders. ...'

Autograph Letter Signed (concluding two pages), [Dublin, ?Monday, 18 May 1868]. A letter written whilst staying with the family of Lily Armstrong, whose father was absent in London, reiterating his admiration for his now mature child friend, and contrasting her to Rose La Touche:

'... Lily, my Lily of the Ethics of the dust, is therefore lady of the house, for her mother leaves nearly everything to her. She is not quite eighteen - perfectly simple, gentle, and resolute - the nurse and firm governess of the younger children - and the most beautiful creature in face and form I ever saw anywhere - but she has none of Rosie's genius, or wild spiritual nature. For a perfect woman, I never saw Lily's like: with her dark-eyed delicate head and white shoulders and long white satin dress, at a full dress party on Saturday she was like a princess of the Arabian nights. ...'

See The Winnington Letters, ed Van Akin Burd, London 1969, numbers 324, 326 and 464 (also incomplete in the published text), where the speculative dates are justified.
[No: 26549]