BIB_ID
188259
Accession number
MA 14311
Creator
Ruskin, John, 1819-1900, sender.
Display Date
Ashbourne, England, 1875 January 27.
Credit line
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Description
1 items (3 pages) ; 17.9 x 11.3 cm
Notes
Addressed to "the Rev the Vicar, / Ashbourne."
Ruskin's appalled visit to the church at Ashbourne, culminating in his writing of this letter Moore, was recounted in a tribute to Ruskin published in the St. James Gazette on January 23, 1900 and reprinted in volume 38 of Ruskin's works.
Ruskin's appalled visit to the church at Ashbourne, culminating in his writing of this letter Moore, was recounted in a tribute to Ruskin published in the St. James Gazette on January 23, 1900 and reprinted in volume 38 of Ruskin's works.
Provenance
Gordon N. Ray.
Summary
Ruskin feels it his duty to express "extreme regret and indignation" at having seen that day the lancet windows of Ashbourne's church, filled by "the worst piece of base Birmingham manufacture which during a somewhat long experience, I have ever seen put up in mockery of religious art." And he has heard further report that the few fragments of old buildings which have still some decent human interest will be substituted with "these Birmingham shams." How little the congregation cares for color is proved by the black path, as if meant to lead down to hell, with which they have flanked the lovely rope of sand on the other side of the valley. If the Vicar has friends at his disposal, he should give them honest laborious work in keeping that path in pure golden gravel and breaking up for road-metal the skull obelisks of the churchyard gate.
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