Description

John Ruskin (1819-1900), the influential Victorian art critic and social theorist, lived in the Lake District for nearly 30 years. This biographical study, first published in 1901, focuses on the significance of the region in Ruskin's life and art. It begins with his first visit as a five-year-old, when he became ''a dedicated spirit' to the beauty and the wonders of Nature', and ends with accounts of his funeral and memorial at Coniston. It describes his commitment to the local people and their traditional crafts, and his relationship with the poet Wordsworth. The author, H. D. Rawnsley (1851-1920), was a clergyman, conservationist and keen art lover based in the Lake District who had been personally tutored by Ruskin and who was one of the founders, in 1884, of the heritage organisation that became the National Trust.