Letter from John Ruskin, London, to Charles Somers Cocks, 1842 December 23 : autograph manuscript signed.

Cocks' letter gave so much pleasure, to be remembered after two years of Cocks' restless and occupied life. Ruskin, in his quiet and idle life, has many moments to think over their college walks, one of the few pleasant reminisces connected with Oxford, and has longed for more definite knowledge of him than what he has gleaned from newspapers. Gives a playful series of parodies of the newspaper accounts of Cocks' adventures in Asia. It is a great comfort to hear that Cocks is at rest under his own Malvern hills [at Eastnor Castle]. Ruskin hopes that he will let Jerusalem alone; everyone has been to Jerusalem. It has been very thoroughly done by [David] Roberts. Ruskin thinks that Cocks should take better care of himself; he has faculties capable of everything, which should not be risked for nothing. He knows of noone whose sketches of an unknown country he would rather have than Cocks'. Ruskin has not yet been able to examine them but must the next time that he is in town. Ruskin has not the remotest idea of the scenery of Asia Minor and is all curiosity. It is easy to get artists' sketches but not the artistlike renderings of truth and character with which Cocks' sketches were always marked. Why has he not sent any details of his nomad life? Ruskin asks him to send some details of his travels--who cooked dinner and how it was done, or whether he ever forgot to wind his watch, and what he said to his Arab guide when he was in a hurry. Ruskin has been ill and is well, has been at Rome and at home, and that's his two years' journal. Was very uncomfortable in Italy, with blood coming from his chest, but now he is perfectly well again and last summer in Chamonix climbed 5,000 ft per day. He spent a month in Chamonix but could have spent six without exhausting it. Got little by going to Rome but his knowledge of Michelangelo, which was an entrance into another universe. Raphael he cannot understand except in the Madonna di San Sisto and a few separate figures, but Michelangelo he can feel, though the labor of a life would scarcely be enough to appreciate him. Was disgusted with Florence and Naples. Two of the most bitter disappointments he ever encountered. All that he has seen has increased his devotion to Turner. He examined the landscape schools of the old masters and is quite certain that they are all infants to him. The landscape of the old masters of any school--Claude, Salvator, Poussin--is demonstrably false. They must go to Turner's gallery together sometime before the Academy opens, and after, he might come see two drawings that Turner made for him the spring of that year. Asks after Cocks' health, and for him to send a closer account of himself.