MS XI Yale (cataloged as Ruskin MS., Early Poems and Letters to His Father, 1827-44, 1847-51, 1859 ). Dates of composition of contents vary from 1827 through 1859. Provenance Sotheby’s 1930. According to notations on the endpapers, Ruskin himself had a hand in the arrangement of at least one of the volumes of letters bound in 1889, although not definitely the volume containing juvenilia. Again, according to notations in the volumes, they appear to have been in the keeping, first, of Alexander Wedderburn and, after Ruskin’s death, of the Severns at Brantwood. See below, Description. Description Blue morrocco, gilt, decorated volume 22 × 28.5 cm; on spine, RUSKIN. / MS. POEMS AND LETTERS. J.R. / ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, FRANCE, SWITZERLAND. / 1827-44 1847-51 1859 / BOUND. 1924. Originally, according to Collingwood, MS XI was an envelope containing collected loose papers, including poems; fair-copied by the author as presents, chiefly to his father; or copied by others (Works 2:534). By the time the second volume of the Library Edition was published (1903), the loose papers, together with some others, had been bound up in a volume of letters and poems, 1827-44 (Works 2:534). This binding, according to the date stamped on the spine of five other blue morrocco volumes, was done in 1889. Since Collingwood’s Poems was published in 1891, the letters cannot have lain loose in an envelope for very long after he described MS XI. Why, then, is the volume of the early letters stamped on the spine as bound in 1924? According to the bibliography volume (1912) of the Library Edition, when the Works were completed, there were at Brantwood some seven bound quarto volumes of letters from Ruskin to his parents, of which the first was the 1827-44 volume described in the second volume. When the volumes of letters were sold at Sotheby’s on 24 July 1930, however, Lot 110 consisted of only six volumes. The discrepancy is explained, if rather obscurely, by a NOTE on a front endpaper of the present first volume. In the Library Edition of Ruskin (Vol. 38. p. 205) the contents of this volume are catalogued as two volumes, viz. (i) 1827-1844 and (iii) 1847- 1851. This is because at the time of the catalogue the volumes were separately bound together in one volume. The lettes of 1859 at the end of this volume should have been placed in the volume more appropriate to their date, but were overlooked when that volume was bound. December, 1924. In 1924 it was decided to disassemble the bindings of the original first and third volumes and rebind them together. This is apparently all that is meant by the awkward phrase separately bound together in one volume. The redisposition of the volumes’ contents is clarified by comparing the bibliography list of 1912 with what is stamped on the spines of the volumes currently at Yale (the bindings were never stamped with volume numbers but only with the dates of their contents): 1912 (Works, 38:205) 1924 and afterward vol. 1: 1827-44 vol. 1: 1827-44, 1847-51, 1859 (bd. 1924) vol. 2: 1845 vol. 2: 1845-50 (bd. 1889) vol. 3: 1847-48-49-50-51 vol. 4: 1851-52 vol. 3: 1851-52 (bd. 1889) vol. 5: 1853 vol. 4: 1853 (bd. 1889) vol. 6: 1857-58-59-61 vol. 5: 1858-61, 1867 (bd. 1889) vol. 7: 1862-63 vol. 6: 1862-63 (bd. 1889) First, it is clear that the present first volume holds the original volumes 1 and 3, as well as 1859 letters that apparently had never been bound prior to 1924. This disposition is confirmed by the volume still containing a typescript table of contents for the 1827-44 letters and poems, a typescript that differs markedly from a handwritten table of contents for the 1847-51 letters and from a page divider (no table of contents) for 1859. Presumably, the typescript and holograph tables of contents date from their original respective volumes. As for the other slight discrepancies between the two lists, they seem unlikely to have arisen from any actual redisposition of the contents of the original volumes 2 and 4-7 after 1889. Regarding volume 2, the Library Edition list fails to mention letters after 1845 though 1850, because, I imagine, those letters are from John James to Ruskin and not from Ruskin to his parents (Works, 38:205)--Ruskin’s authorship apparently being the editors’ primary concern at that point. The same explanation may be given for the failure of the Library Edition list to mention letters of 1867 in volume 6 (now volume 5): the 1867 letters are to Ruskin from his mother, not the reverse. Finally, the mismatch regarding that same volume’s 1857 correspondence can be explained by the Library Edition’s providing the greater accuracy, for once: that volume contains only a few 1857 letters, as compared to the much more substantial collection of 1858-61, as identified on the spine. Only the first of the blue morrocco volumes, of course, should be identified as MS XI--and, strictly, only the 1827-44 section of that volume, as presently bound. Although we can never know precisely what was contained in Collingwood’s envelope, nothing appears to have been lost since Cook and Wedderburn described the first binding of these letters (see Works 2:534, although this list omits prose letters). Moreover, assuming the typescript table of contents for the 1827-44 section to be the original, one finds it to correspond to all manuscripts presently extant in that section. The 1827-44 letters and poems form a core source for RFL, where the present blue morrocco volume 1 is called RMS I. It may be mentioned here that the 1924 rebinding of the original volumes 1 and 3 matches the 1889 bindings. The five 1889 bindings are all the same blue morrocco, gilt, and decorated (only more worn than the 1924 rebinding), and 22 × 28.5 cm. All have written in pencil on their front endpapers, To be given to Mrs Arthur Severn in event of my death / AW., so they must have been for some time in the possession of Alexander Wedderburn. Brief descriptions of volumes 2-6 follow. (I have not compared the volumes’ contents, letter by letter, against editions of the letters in question, and I have not attempted to be thorough regarding publication history. Many of the letters in these volumes, of course, were first published in Works; Collingwood, Life; and Cook, Life): Vol. 2: on spine, RUSKIN. / MS LETTERS. J.R. J.J.R. (M.R.) / N. ITALY. PISA, FLORENCE, VENICE, &C. / 1845.-50. / BOUND. 1889. This volume is important to this bibliography as forming a source of one letter for RFL, where the volume is called RMS II. Namely, the volume holds John James’s letter to Margaret, 9 March 1831, a letter that includes John James’s own verse (RFL 238-41); however, most of John James’s letters in this volume are beyond the scope of RFL. Most of the contents of this volume are published as Ruskin in Italy: Letters To His Parents, 1845, ed. Harold I. Shapiro (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972). Vol. 3: on spine, RUSKIN. / MS LETTERS. J.R. / VENICE, ETC. / 1851.-1852. / BOUND. 1889. The contents of this volume are published as Ruskin’s Letters from Venice, 1851-1852, ed. John Lewis Bradley (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955). Vol. 4: on spine, RUSKIN. / MS LETTERS. J.R. / SCOTLAND. / 1853. / BOUND. 1889. This contains, in addition to letters to his parents, three of Ruskin’s letters to Miss Mitford (1854?). Vol. 5: on spine, RUSKIN. / MS LETTERS. J.R. (M.R.) / SWITZERLAND, N. ITALY. BOULOGNE, IRELAND, BONNEVILLE, LUCERNE. / 1858.-1861. (1867.) / BOUND. 1889. This volume is the main source for John Ruskin, Letters from the Continent, 1858, ed. John Hayman (Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto Press, 1982), and an important source for The Winnington Letters: John Ruskin’s Correspondence with Margaret Alexis Bell and the Children of Winnington Hall, ed. Van Akin Burd (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969). As mentioned earlier, this volume also holds letters to Ruskin from his mother of 1867, and there is one of 1864. Vol. 6: on spine, RUSKIN. / MS LETTERS. J.R. / LUCERNE, MILAN, MORNEX, GENEVA, ANNECY. WINNINGTON. CHAMOUNI, GENEVA. WINNINGTON. / 1862.-1863. / BOUND. 1889. In addition to the pencil note by Wedderburn directing what should be done with the volume in the event of his death, vol. 6 has a note in ink on a front endpaper: The letters in this volume were given by Mr Ruskin to A. Wedderburn, & arranged by him in this book, which was deposited at Brantwood, after Mr Ruskin’s death, by arrangement with Mrs Severn. / A. Wedderburn / Oct. 1900. If him refers to Ruskin, only this volume testifies to the author’s own hand in its arrangement. The contents of this volume are an important source for The Winnington Letters: John Ruskin’s Correspondence with Margaret Alexis Bell and the Children of Winnington Hall, ed. Van Akin Burd (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969). Contents This bibliography omits description of the early letters in MS XI that contain no poetry, letters that will be found adequately described in RFL. Here, rather, are described only the items in MS XI that are listed chronologically in part 2. The items that were not originally letters are described for the first time; poetry contained in letters will be found described in RFL but are also listed here for the sake of consistency (and portions of text of those letters containing poetry, portions that were omitted in RFL, are provided). Only physical description is given here, whereas inscriptions regarding dating are relegated to the individual entries in part 2. a) No. 11: 20 × 13-cm single sheet, pencil. b) Nos. 22-23: 20.5 × 12.2-cm folded sheet, written in pencil on three sides, with To my Papa on address side. c) No. 33: 20 × 12.5-cm folded sheet, written in ink on three sides, with address side blank. d) Nos. 38 (2 stanzas) and 39 (3 stanzas) in 21 February 1829 letter (described RFL 177). No. 38 and no. 39 (RFL 179-80) are arranged side by side, with a verticle bar between them. e) No. 39 (4 stanzas) in 10 March 1829 letter (described RFL 191). As Burd remarks (RFL 194 n. 1), Margaret’s penciled note on this letter was erased; however, one part remains barely legible, written below the stanzas of no. 39. Apparently, she is responding to Ruskin’s remark that the psalm (no. 39) is the same as I wrote it at first I tried to alter it but I found I could make nothing better of it (RFL 194). The omissions are owing to the writing having been too thoroughly erased for a secure reading: The cause of Johns [ . . . (?)] is that in copying from his slate he leaves out the [ . . . (?)] to write on his slate as fast as his hand can go he does not seem to hesitate a minute when it is full put it on paper without alteration [ . . . (?), remainder obscured by binding of letter] This letter is followed by the 10 May 1829 letter (no poetry). f) No. 108 in March 6th 1830 letter (described RFL 233, and date corrected to 1831, although Burd does not make clear that the 1830 error was originally Ruskin’s on the letter itself). Burd provides part of Margaret’s postscript, noting that a preceding eleven lines have been erased (RFL 235). The erased lines are visible enough for the following conjectural reading: The house you wrote me to look at is the very house on the left hand side of the ... ... to Norwood which you have always so much admired it belongs to M[ . . . Bramah(?)] they will not let it for less than [8(?)] weeks [terms(?)] with 3 cows & garden 12 guineas a week without use of vegetables & cows I left our address and time we wanted it for and Mrs [Bramah(?)] has just called I think the [ . . . (?)] more than we need [ . . . (?)] but I shall be glad to do what you wish of course the milk & vegetables are worth a good deal For further discussion about renting this house, see RFL 246, 247 n. 3, 249. This letter is followed by letters of 21 February (one by John and one by Margaret), 28 February, 14 March, 21 March 1831 (no poetry). g) No. 118a: 20 × 12.5-cm folded sheet, written in ink on two sides, with recto of address leaf blank, and verso of address leaf inscribed To my Papa / from J. R. / aged 12¼. See MS IA, Content, i, for a probable missing companion folded sheet for this manuscript. Followed by letters of 14 January, 20 February, 27 February, 4 March 1832; 15 January 1833 (no poetry). h) No. 180, prose section on Chamouni, as printed in Works, 2:380-82. This is written in Margaret Ruskin’s hand in ink on the 20 × 25.5-cm, blue paper that Ruskin used for letters after 1832. The editors of the Library Edition are correct that the signature J. R. / fragment from a Journal / 1833 is in John James’s hand. The date may apply either to the Continental journey or to the manuscript itself. Followed by letter of 22 February 1834 (no poetry). i) No. 189 in 10 March 1834 letter (described RFL 282; Burd does not mention a penciled postscript by Margaret, but it has in any case been erased beyond legibility). j) No. 194: 17.5 × 22-cm booklet, six leaves, in ink. Its binding into MS XI makes it impossible to determine whether the booklet is sewn but presumably so; otherwise, the middle signatures would have slipped out. On 1r, To My Father / Jan.y 1.st. / 1835. 1v, blank. 2r-6r, poem (17 stanzas). 6v, in John James’s hand, Johns Poem / 1 Jany 1835. k) No. 198 in 18 February 1835 letter (described RFL 295). Burd omits Margaret’s penciled note at the top of the first page and between columns on other pages: My Dearest John I have your two last letters and thank you My own love for them I do I must think you have no small regard even for me and our boy must be loved I think by all who know any thing of him and how much then by his father thank god he has at present no cough and I might almost say the same of myself-- Mr Hopkenson [sic, spelled Hopkinson elsewhere in RFL] sent out a fly yesterday [see RFL 304] which is pronoun[ced . . . (?), rest of line obscured by binding of letter] Mary too says it looks very respectable you know I am no judge I will write more particularly in my next I do not like to trouble you either to read or rub out pencil I am much gratified by your attention about this same carriage Mr Telford called this morning in his way to town I was not up Mary saw him but could not make him [Hear(?)] this of Johns was written without copy [He cries must send by next afternoons(?)] [ . . . (?)] My Dearest more than Dear[ . . . (?)] yours MR l) No. 199 in 11 March 1835 letter (described RFL 308). m) Nos. 201 and 200 (fair-copied in that order): 19 × 25-cm booklet, four leaves, with pp. 1-7 numbered by Ruskin, written in ink. Its binding into MS XI makes it impossible to determine whether the booklet is sewn. Pp. 1-3, My Dearest Father. (no. 201); pp. 3-7, no. 200. On address leaf (unnumbered p. 8) To my Father / On his Birthday / May 10th. 1835 / [and in John James’s hand,] Domecqs Vineyards. n) No. 224 in 27 February 1836 letter (described RFL 321). Followed by letters of 5 and 10 March, and two other letters of March 1835 (see RFL 335- 45; each of these is numbered at the top [by John James?], i.e., No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 ). Next follow letters of 19, 25, and 29 March, and 20 and 24 December 1836. o) No. 247 in 30 December 1836 letter (described RFL 397). Followed by letters of 10 January, 26 February, and 15 March 1837. p) No. 254: a 20 × 25-cm leaf plus a 20 × 14.5-cm leaf, which together probably form a folded sheet, the second leaf having been cut across the bottom--the binding obscuring whether the leaves are attached. On address side, My Dear Father / May 10.th 1837. Notated by John James on address side, Johns poetical Epistle / on my Birthday / 1837 / from Oxford, and on first page, Birthday. Followed by letter of 19 January 1838. q) No. 205: two 20 × 25-cm leaves, probably forming a folded sheet, but the binding obscures whether the leaves are attached. Obviously a rough draft, the text is closely written in varying tints of ink and with different pens, probably reflecting successive stages of composition between July and October during the 1835 tour of the Continent. The prose letter that Ruskin started to write on 1r is scored through and a verse letter started beneath it. The verse continues, in very densely packed single columns, to the very bottom of 2v. The concluding lines are wrapped around to the top of 1r, where they are inserted between the scored-through lines of the original prose letter. On 4r, Ruskin also scored through lines of Greek (perhaps taken from Thucydides, whom Ruskin mentions studying in the poem). This was probably a prior use of the sheet, since the Greek runs upside down to the poem’s text. No. 205 is followed by Ruskin’s letter to J. C. Loudon of September 1838 (printed Works, 36:15-17); Ruskin’s letters to his father of 21 August 1841 (RFL 678-79), and of 5 December 1839 (RFL 631-32); Margaret’s letter to John James of 5 December 1839 (RFL 632-33); a copy in John James’s hand of Ruskin’s 1 August 1842 letter to W. L. Brown (printed in part, Works, 2:223n.); Ruskin’s letter to his father of 3 August 1841 (RFL 677-78); a copy in Margaret’s hand of two letters (apparently both copied at the same time), one of 20 December 1843 to W. L. Brown (Works, 4:390-93), and the second of 10 March 1844 to Osborne Gordon (Works, 3:665-67). The following sections of this volume, containing letters from 1847 and afterward, are not listed here, as being beyond the scope of this bibliography.