Professor, and then the Dean, taking an unexpected interest, was at
pains to see that his printed copy was flawless, and to coach him for
the recitation of it at the great day in the Sheldonian (June 12, 1839).

And now that friends and strangers, publishers in London and professors
in Oxford, concurred in their applause, it surely seemed that he had
found his vocation, and was well on the high-road to fame as a poet.

CHAPTER IX

THE BROKEN CHAIN (1840-1841)

That 8th of February, 1840, when John Ruskin came of age, it seemed as
though all the gifts of fortune had been poured into his lap. What his
father's wealth and influence could do for him had been supplemented by
a personal charm, which found him friends among the best men of the best
ranks. What his mother's care had done in fortifying his health and
forming his character, native energy had turned to advantage. He had won
a reputation already much wider and more appreciable, as an artist and
student of science, and as a writer of prose and verse, than
undergraduates are entitled to expect; and, for crowning mercy, his head
was not turned. He was reading extremely hard--"in" for his degree
examination next Easter term. His college tutor hoped he would get a
First. From that it was an easy step to Holy Orders, and with his
opportunities preferment was certain.

On his twenty-first birthday, his father, who had sympathized with his
admiration for Turner enough to buy two pictures--the "Richmond Bridge"
and the "Gosport"--for their Herne Hill drawing-room, now gave him a
picture all to himself for his new rooms in St. Aldate's--the
"Winchelsea," and settled on him a handsome allowance of pocket-money.
The first use he made of his wealth was to buy another Turner. In the
Easter vacation he met Mr. Griffith, the dealer, at the private view of
the old Water-colour Society, and hearing that the "Harlech Castle" was
for sale, he bought it there and then, with the characteristic disregard
for money which has always made the vendors of pictures and books and
minerals find him extremely pleasant to deal with. But as his
love-affair had shown his mother how little he had taken to heart her
chiefest care for him, so this first business transaction was a painful
awakening to his father, the canny Scotch merchant, who had heaped up
riches hoping that his son would gather them.

This "Harlech Castle" transaction, however, was not altogether unlucky.
It brought him