spared," said the younger Ruskin to Miss
Mitford.]

Another portrait was painted--in words--by one of his audience at
Edinburgh on November 1, when he gave the opening lecture of his course,
his first appearance on the platform. The account is extracted from the
_Edinburgh Guardian_ of November 19, 1853:

"Before you can see the lecturer, however, you must get into the
hall, and that is not an easy matter, for, long before the doors
are opened, the fortunate holders of season tickets begin to
assemble, so that the crowd not only fills the passage, but
occupies the pavement in front of the entrance and overflows into
the road. At length the doors open, and you are carried through the
passage into the hall, where you take up, of course, the best
available position for seeing and hearing.... After waiting a weary
time ... the door by the side of the platform opens, and a thin
gentleman with light hair, a stiff white cravat, dark overcoat with
velvet collar, walking, too with a slight stoop, goes up to the
desk, and looking round with a self-possessed and somewhat formal
air, proceeds to take off his great-coat, revealing thereby, in
addition to the orthodox white cravat, the most orthodox of white
waistcoats.... 'Dark hair, pale face, and massive marble brow--that
is my ideal of Mr. Ruskin,' said a young lady near us. This proved
to be quite a fancy portrait, as unlike the reality as could well
be imagined, Mr. Ruskin has light sand-coloured hair; his face is
more red than pale; the mouth well-cut, with a good deal of
decision in its curve, though somewhat wanting in sustained dignity
and strength; an aquiline nose; his forehead by no means broad or
massive, but the brows full and well bound together; the eye we
could not see, in consequence of the shadows that fell upon his
countenance from the lights overhead, but we are sure it must be
soft and luminous, and that the poetry and passion we looked for
almost in vain in other features must be concentrated there.[5]
After sitting for a moment or two, and glancing round at the sheets
on the wall as he takes off his gloves, he rises, and leaning
slightly over the desk, with his hands folded across, begins at
once,--'You are proud of your good city of Edinburgh,' etc.

[Footnote 5: "Mary Russell Mitford found him as a yo