Letter from John Ruskin, Avranches, to Charles Somers Cocks, 1848 September 5 : autograph manuscript signed.

The pleasure that Ruskin had in receiving his letter was deferred by its wandering through Normandy in search of him. Ruskin expresses his personal regrets for the loss of Cocks' drawings and books at sea. He knows how much such a loss would have grieved him, but Cocks is not so fond of his doings as he is. Ruskin never moves his journals and books after he gets them home. He rejoices that Cocks has shaken off his illness. Compares these strange nervous afflictions with a German story about a frog in a marketplace fountain; the frog hops away one day of its own accord. Which does not mean that Ruskin thinks Cocks' suffering a fancy--he never saw someone in as much visible suffering as when he last saw him. Was much vexed at not being able to get abroad this spring. He felt that he had done something wrong in not meeting Cocks at Como. Ruskin was drawn to Scotland instead "by the first and last of man's temptations" and now as a result has a pleasant companion beside him in a dull and dirty inn in barbarous and beautiful Normandy. [Ruskin marred Effie Gray in April 1848.] Cocks, who has made his way across all the desert between this and the Indus should not smile at "barbarous," as he has not seen the literal barbarism that may be found with 40 minutes of Havre. Ruskin can gladly say that he is doing something again, studying flamboyant architecture and drawing it more carefully than it has yet been drawn. He is finding out, every day, something that he wants to know. He makes progress towards a useful end over the superficial crust his exceeding ignorance like a bad skater over rotten ice on the Serpentine. If the French keep quiet [referring to the 1848 revolution], he will spend four or five weeks about Bayeux and Caen, returning home about the 5th or 10th of October. Asks Cocks to send a line to Denmark Hill, London, so that Ruskin will known where to find him. Was sorry to read his account of Lord James [Cocks' father]. Ruskin says that his father always gets better when he does, and hopes that Cocks' will too. As a postscript, adds that he plans to be in town in the winter and hopes to see more of Cocks than he has of late.