BIB_ID
188251
Accession number
MA 14333
Creator
Ruskin, John, 1819-1900, sender.
Display Date
London, England, between 1859 and 1869
Credit line
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 17.8 x 11.3 cm
Notes
Ann Scott of Manchester was the mother of Susan Scott, one of the students at the Winnington Hall girls' school in Cheshire with whom Ruskin became close. Her husband Alexander John Scott was the principal of Owens College, Manchester.
Place and possible years of writing inferred from content. Ruskin knew Ann Scott through his association with her daughter's school, Winnington Hall, which he began visiting in 1859. The letter was written before Alexander John Scott's death in 1866.
Place and possible years of writing inferred from content. Ruskin knew Ann Scott through his association with her daughter's school, Winnington Hall, which he began visiting in 1859. The letter was written before Alexander John Scott's death in 1866.
Provenance
Gordon N. Ray.
Summary
Ruskin had often been going to reply to Mrs. Scott's letter but shrank from pen and paper in "perfectly ungovernable papyro-phobia," but was heartily glad to hear that Mr. Scott [Alexander John Scott] wished Susan to go on with her drawing. Susan need not fear Ruskin misinterpreting her silence. He well knows how good and modest and timid she is (when timidity is not weak), and can quite understand her dislike of troubling him. He doesn't care to scold her the least bit. He hopes that if there's any fear of her giving up drawing altogether that they make her write to him for copies or other means of reawakening her interest in it. Ruskin thanks Mrs. Scott for her invitation to Manchester but can't face the terrible place, even to see Mr. Scott. It makes him miserable to see it from ten miles off.
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