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Fors Clavigera (Volume 6 of 8) / cover

Fors Clavigera (Volume 6 of 8) /

Chapter 7: NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE.
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About This Book

A sequence of letters addressed to workmen and labourers that blends moral argument, social criticism, and cultural commentary. The author critiques superficial charitable relief and commercialized values, links spiritual and civic decline to material and artistic neglect, and argues for reforms grounded in Christian ethics, education, and aesthetic cultivation. Personal reflections on setbacks and responsibilities recur alongside observations about public tastes, industrial injustice, and the dangers of celebrity and spectacle, culminating in appeals for practical change, moral vigilance, and communal self-improvement.

NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE.

I. Affairs of the Company.

I give below our banker’s account to the end of last year, drawn up by my friend Mr. W. Walker, whom I asked to take salary as the Company’s accountant, but who, as will be seen by the part of his letter I take leave here to print, gives us his work in true sympathy.

Dear Sir,—I am of the same opinion as your printseller, and agree with him that “it is delightful to do business with you,”—so you must please let me volunteer to be of any practical service so far as keeping accounts, etc., can be useful to you or the St. George’s Company.

I readily accept the duties as honorary but not titled accountant, and as the labour is light, entailing very little trouble, my reward shall be the self-satisfaction in thinking I have done very little in the cause wherein you have done and are doing so very much.

Nevertheless, your kindly worded offer was gratefully received, and I was really pleased.

The enclosed accounts are a mere copy of the ledger items. I would have put all the names of the donors, (I found a few,) but you have a record, if I may judge from the notices in the December number of ‘Fors.’

With sincere respect, yours faithfully,

John Ruskin, Esq., LL.D. Wm. Walker.

[104]

THE UNION BANK OF LONDON (Chancery Lane Branch) IN ACCOUNT WITH ST. GEORGE’S FUND.

Dr. Cr.
1872. £ s. d. 1872. £ s. d.
Nov. 27. To Cash 100 0 0 Dec. 4. By Cheque Book 0 4 2
Dec. 11. To,, Draft at Peckham 25 0 0 Dec. 27. Power of Attorney to receive Dividend on Consols 0 5 0
Dec. 31. By Balance 124 10 10
£125 0 0 £125 0 0
1873. £ s. d. 1873. £ s. d.
Jan. 1. To Balance 124 10 10 March 13. By Postage 0 0 3
Jan. 2. To,, John Ruskin, Esq. 30 0 0
Feb. 10. To,, Ditto 20 0 0
To,, Dividend on Consols, Jan., 1872 29 5 0
To,, Ditto July, 1872 103 5 0
To,, Ditto Jan., 1873 103 5 0
April 15. To,, Draft at Blackheath 7 0 0
June 10. To,, Draft at Bury St. Edmund’s 13 10 0
July 8. To,, R. J. Tyrwhitt 20 0 0
July 9. To,, Dividend on £7000 Consols 103 13 9
July 29. To,, John Ruskin, Esq. 20 0 0
July 30. To,, No. 18 5 0 0 By Balance 579 9 4
£579 9 7 £579 9 7
[105]
1874. £ s. d. 1874. £ s. d.
Jan. 1. To Balance 579 9 4 Dec. 10. By Postage 0 0 3
To,, Interest on Current Account Balance 2 13 4 By,, Purchase of £1000 Consols 918 15 0
To,, Draft at Durham by A. Hunt 25 0 0
Jan. 7. To,, Dividend on £7000 Consols 103 13 9
Jan. 17. To,, John Ruskin, Esq. 31 10 0
Feb. 13. To,, Cash 10 0 0
July 1. To,, Interest on Current Account Balance 7 4 8
July 8. To,, Dividend on £7000 Consols 104 2 6
Dec. 3. To,, John Ruskin, Esq. 20 0 0
Dec. 6. To,, Ditto *40 0 0
Dec. 9. To,, Draft at Bilston (Wilkins) 5 0 0
Dec. 11. To,, H. F. Smith 9 0 0
To,, E. R. Gill 5 0 0
To,, Mrs. Barnard 1 13 4
To,, J. Temple 5 0 0
Dec. 28. To,, Draft at Sheffield (Fowler) 20 0 0 By Balance 50 11 8
£969 6 11 £969 6 11
[106]
1875. £ s. d. 1875. £ s. d.
Jan. 1. To Balance 50 11 8 Nov. 13. By Cheque to John Ruskin, Esq. 500 0 0
Jan. 7. To,, Dividend on £7000 Consols 104 2 6
Feb. 4. To,, John Ruskin, Esq. 105 10 0
Feb. 8. To,, Draft at Manchester (Walker) 1 1 0
March 1. To,, John Ruskin, Esq. 17 2 0
March 5. To,, Ditto 8 17 0
To,, Draft at Bilston (Wilkins) 8 3 4
April 23. To,, Irvine 1 0 0
May 1. To,, John Ruskin, Esq. 20 0 0
July 7. To,, Dividend on £8000 Consols 119 0 0
July 15. To,, John Ruskin, Esq. 50 0 0
Sept. 11. To,, G. Gilbert 5 0 0
Sept. 28. To,, Draft at Bridgwater (Talbot) 11 0 4
Nov. 23. To,, By G. Allen 12 14 0 Dec. 31. By Balance 14 1 10
£514 1 10 £514 1 10
1876. £ s. d.
Jan. 1. To Balance 14 1 10

* The £40 here acknowledged was an additional subscription from No. 8 subscriber, whose total subscription is therefore £60, not £20, as in above subscriber’s account; in which also the initials of No. 38 should be S. G., and the sum £2 2s. These errors will be corrected in next Fors, in which also I will separate the interest from the subscriptions. 

[107]

II. Affairs of the Master.1

£ s. d.
Balance in Bank, 20th Jan., 1876 527 17 9
Received: Mr. Allen, on Publishing Account 50 0 0
Mr. Ellis, on ditto 7 0 0
Lecture, London Institution 10 10 0
595 7 9
Jan. 24. Royal Insurance Company (a) 37 10 0
27. F. Crawley (b) 25 0 0
31. Taxes on Armorial Bearings, etc. 7 19 0
Feb. 4. Warren and Jones—Tea for Shop 36 1 0
6. Buying a lad off who had enlisted and repented 20 0 0
7. Christmas Gifts in Oxford 14 10 0
7. Klein (c) 5 0 0
7. Pocket Money 10 10 0
7. Crawley 5 0 0
8. Miss Rudkin, Clifford Street (d) 14 14 0
11. Dr. Parsons (e) 21 0 0
11. The Bursar of Corpus (f) 27 7 3
13. Professor Westwood (g) 50 0 0
14. Mr. Sly (h), Coniston, Waterhead Inn 33 0 0
19. Downs (i) 25 0 0
20. Subscriptions to Societies, learned and other (k) 37 11 0
——— 360 2 0
Balance Feb. 20 £225 5 9

(a) Insurance on £15,000 worth of drawings and books in my rooms at Oxford. [108]

(b) Particulars of this account to be afterwards given; my Oxford assistant having just lost his wife, and been subjected to unusual expenses.

(c) My present valet, a delightful old German, on temporary service.

(d) Present, on my birthday, of a silk frock to one of my pets. It became her very nicely; but I think there was a little too much silk in the flounces.

(e) My good doctor at Coniston. Had to drive over from Hawkshead every other winter day, because I wouldn’t stop drinking too much tea—also my servants were ill.

(f) About four times this sum will keep me comfortably—all the year round—here among my Oxford friends—when I have reduced myself to the utmost allowable limit of a St. George’s Master’s income—366 pounds a year, (the odd pound for luck).

(g) For copies of the Book of Kells, bought of a poor artist. Very beautiful, and good for gifts to St. George.

(h) My honest host (happily falsifying his name), for friends when I haven’t houseroom, etc. This bill chiefly for hire of carriages.

(i) Downs shall give account of himself in next Fors.

(k)

£ s.
Athenæum 7 7
Alpine Club 1 1
Early English Text Society 10 10
Horticultural 4 4
Geological 2 2
Architectural 1 1
Historical 1 1
Anthropological 2 2
Consumption Hospital 3 3
Lifeboat 5 0
£37 11

[109]


1 My friends (see a really kind article in the Monetary Gazette,) much doubt, and very naturally, the wisdom of this exposition. I indeed expected to appear to some better advantage; but that the confession is not wholly pleasant, and appears imprudent, only makes it the better example. Fors would have it so.