Ruskin and the English Lakes (Glasgow, 1901)

To say that Hardwicke idolised John Ruskin would be an under-statement.  From the time of their first meeting when Hardwicke was an undergraduate at Balliol College, Oxford, he rarely stopped writing or lecturing about the man.  As late as 1919, and just over a year before his own death, Hardwicke was reminding the nation of the centenary of Ruskin’s birth.  When Hardwicke moved to Wray in 1878 he resided in close proximity to Ruskin who lived only a few miles away at Brantwood by Lake Coniston, and took the opportunity to visit on a regular basis.  The book, Ruskin and the English Lakes, is Hardwicke’s homage to the man he always referred to as ‘The Master’. 

For Hardwicke, Ruskin was the modern-day John the Baptist, heralding a new world.  In an article published shortly after Ruskin’s death he recalls walking to Brantwood to attend the latter’s funeral.  He writes:

There were many beautiful wreaths with tender inscriptions, but my eye fell on one which seemed to have character and originality about it: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.”  It was a gift from the village tailor, and was meant in all deep earnestness to express the thought uppermost in the heart of a true disciple.  It may have seemed at first sight to lack a little of the sense of humor, but, in all seriousness, the tailor was right; if ever man had been a voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” that man had been John Ruskin. (‘John Ruskin’, Outlook, 64 (3 March 1900), 511-17, p. 517)

In one of the ‘Memorial Poems’ written by Hardwicke following Ruskin’s death, he said of the prophet:

He gave us eyes, for we were blind:
He bade us know and hear;
By him the wonder of the mind
Of God on earth was clear.

We knew the travail of his soul,
We thank Thee for his rest:
Lord, lead us upward to his goal—
The pure, the true, the best!

 

Without doubt, Ruskin was the inspiration for Hardwicke and Edith to set up the Keswick School of Industrial Arts, their endeavour to revive rural craft industries.  Ruskin and the English Lakes is dedicated to Marian Twelves, ‘a devoted fried and disciple of John Ruskin, who has earnestly tried to carry into daily practice the spirit and principles of his teaching’.     

A list of some of the publications by Hardwicke on Ruskin is shown below after the listing of the chapters included in the book Ruskin and the English Lakes. 

 

Contents

Ruskin and the English Lakes (pp. 1-26)

Ruskin and the English Lakes (Continued) (pp. 27-59)

Reminiscences of Ruskin Among the Peasantry of Coniston (pp. 60-78)

At the Ruskin Exhibition, Coniston (pp. 79-114)

Ruskin and the Home Art Industries in the Lake District (pp. 115-148)

Ruskin and Wordsworth (pp. 149-162)

Ruskin and Wordsworth (Continued) (pp. 163-188)

*At Ruskin’s Funeral (pp. 189-206)

*The Unveiling of the Ruskin Memorial (pp. 207-218)

The Memorial Cross at Coniston (pp. 219-230)

*Memorial Poems (pp. 231-238)

(* Published previously)

 

Articles and Poems on Ruskin by Rawnsley (excludes the above chapters)

Literary Associations of the English Lakes, Vol. I – Chapter 6.
Literary Associations of the English Lakes, Vol. II – Chapter 6.

‘To John Ruskin on His 79th Birthday’, Nottinghamshire Guardian, 12 February 1898, p. 4. [Poem]
‘Born in Our Monster Babylon’, Dial, 24 (1 March 1898), 156. [Poem] [Same as the above]

‘To John Ruskin: On His 80th Birthday, 8th February, 1899’, Crosthwaite Parish Magazine, (March 1899). [Poem]

Sonnet Dedicatory to John Ruskin (Sonnets in Switzerland and Italy, p. vi)
Sonnet Prefatory to John Ruskin: February 8th, 1899 (Sonnets in Switzerland and Italy, p. x) [Same as the poem published in Crosthwaite Parish Magazine?]

‘Hymn in Loving Memory of John Ruskin. Coniston, January 25th, 1900’, English Lakes Visitor and Keswick Guardian’, 27 January 1900, p. 5. [Hymn]

‘John Ruskin’, Crosthwaite Parish Magazine, (February 1900). [Poem]

‘At Ruskin’s Grave’, Wells Journal, 1 February 1900, p. 2. [Poem]

‘At Ruskin’s Grave: On His Birthday, February 8’, English Lakes Visitor and Keswick Guardian’, 10 February 1900, p. 4. [Poem]

‘John Ruskin’, Outlook, 64 (3 March 1900), 511-17. Also published in Ruskin and the English Lakes (Glasgow, 1901), pp. 189-206)

‘The Master at Rest’, Saint George. The Journal of the Ruskin Society of Birmingham, III (April 1900), 74. [Poem]

*Ruskin at Rest (A Sonnet Chronicle, p. 3)

‘At Ruskin’s Grave. On his birthday, February 8th, 1900’, Saint George. The Journal of the Ruskin Society of Birmingham, III (April 1900), 75. [Poem]

‘At Ruskin’s Funeral’, Saint George. The Journal of the Ruskin Society of Birmingham, III (April 1900), 76-9. [Poem]

‘Proposed Ruskin Memorial at Keswick’, English Lakes Visitor and Keswick Guardian, 14 April 1900, p. 4. [Letter]

‘The Unveiling of the Ruskin Memorial at Friar’s Crag, Keswick, October 6th, 1900’, Northern Counties Magazine, 1 (December 1900), 148-53. [Re-published in Ruskin and the English Lakes (Glasgow, 1901), pp. 207-218.]

John Ruskin’s Message to His Time: Sermon at St. Kentigern’s Church, Crosthwaite, January 18th 1900 (Keswick, 1900).

‘A Memorial Address: Delivered on September 7, 1902, at the Ruskin Monument on Friar’s Crag, to a meeting of the Companions of the Guild of St. George’, Saint George. The Journal of the Ruskin Society of Birmingham, V (October 1902), 247-50.

St. George’s Day, 1904 (A Sonnet Chronicle, p. 54)

John Ruskin: At Rest, Brantwood, Sunday, 21st January, 1900 (Poems at Home and Abroad, p. 81)

At Ruskin’s Grave: On His Birthday, 8th February, 1900 (Poems at Home and Abroad, p. 82)

‘The Ruskin Centenary’, Times, 8 February 1919, p. 3; Literary Digest, 60 (15 March 1919), 38.