ng some two
years, he worked as a clerk in the house of Sir William Gordon, Murphy
and Co., where he made friends, and laid the foundation of his
prosperity; for along with him at the office there was a Mr. Peter
Domecq, owner of the Spanish vineyards of Macharnudo, learning the
commercial part of his business in London, the headquarters of the
sherry trade. He admired his fellow-clerk's capacity so much as to offer
him the London agency of his family business. Mr. MacTaggart found the
capital in consideration of their taking his relative, Mr. Telford, into
the concern. And so they entered into partnership, about 1809, as
Ruskin, Telford and Domecq: Domecq contributing the sherry, Mr. Henry
Telford the capital, and Ruskin the brains.

How he came by his business capacity may be understood--and in some
measure, perhaps, how his son came by his flexible and forcible
style--from a letter of Mrs. Catherine Ruskin, written about this time;
in which, moreover, there are a few details of family circumstances and
character, not without interest. John James Ruskin had been protesting
that he was never going to marry, but meant to devote himself to his
mother; she replied:

"... But my son an old Batchelor--believe me my beloved Child I
feel the full force and value of that affection that could prompt
to such a plan--dear as your society is to me it would then become
the misery of my existence--could I see my Child so formed for
domestick happiness deprived of every blessing on my account. No my
Dr John I do not know a more unhappy being than an old Batchelor
... may God preserve my Child from realizing the dreary picture--as
soon as you can keep a Wife you must Marry with all possible
speed--that is as soon as you find a very Amiable woman. She must
be a good daughter and fond of Domestick life--and pious, without
ostentation, for remember no Woman without the fear of God, can
either make a good Wife or a good Mother--freethinking Men are
shocking to nature, but from an Infidel Woman Good Lord deliver us.
I have thought more of it than you have done--for I have two or
three presents carefully [laid] by for her, and I have also been so
foresightly as to purchase two Dutch toys for your Children in case
you might marry before we had free intercourse with that
country.... Who can say what I can say 'here is my Son--a hansome
accomplis