e favourably of his picture, but he
hoped it would make no difference in their friendship. The artist
replied (so they say) in these terms: "Dear Ruskin,--Next time I meet
you, I shall knock you down; but I hope it will make no difference in
our friendship." "Damn the fellow! why doesn't he stand up for his
friends?" said another disappointed acquaintance. Perhaps Ruskin, secure
in his "house with a lodge, and a valet and footman and coachman,"
hardly realized that a cold word from his pen sometimes meant the
failure of an important Academy picture, and serious loss of
income--that there was bitter truth underlying _Punch's_ complaint of
the Academician:

"I paints and paints.
Hears no complaints,
And sells before I'm dry;
Till savage Ruskin
Sticks his tusk in,
And nobody will buy."

Against these incidents should be set such an anecdote as the following,
told by Mr. J.J. Ruskin in a letter of June 3, 1858:

"Vokins wished me to name to you that Carrick, when he read your
criticism on 'Weary Life,' came to him with the cheque Vokins had
given, and said your remarks were all right, and that he could not
take the price paid by Vokins the buyer; he would alter the
picture. Vokins took back the money, only agreeing to see the
picture when it was done."

John Ruskin in reply said he did not see why Carrick should have
returned the cheque.

A letter from Mrs. Browning describes a visit to Denmark Hill, and
ends,--"I like Mr. Ruskin very much, and so does Robert; very gentle,
yet earnest--refined and truthful. I like him very much. We count him
one among the valuable acquaintances made this year in England." This
has been dated 1855; but Ruskin, writing to Miss Mitford from
Glenfinlas, 17th August, 1853, says, "I had the pleasure this spring, of
being made acquainted with your dear Elizabeth Browning, as well as with
her husband. I was of course prepared to like _her_, but I did not
expect to like _him_ as much as I did. I think he is really a very fine
fellow, and _she_ is the only sensible woman I have yet met with on the
subject of Italian politics. Evidently a noble creature in all things."
In June, 1850, he had met Robert Browning, on the invitation of Coventry
Patmore, and said: "He is the only person whom I have ever heard talk
ration-ally about the Italians, though on the Liberal side."

In these volumes of "Modern Painters" he had to discuss the Media