ne years of age, was struck with his last illness; and died on
March 3rd. He was buried at Shirley Church, near Addington, in Surrey,
not far from Croydon; and the legend on his tomb records: "He was an
entirely honest merchant, and his memory is, to all who keep it, dear
and helpful. His son, whom he loved to the uttermost, and taught to
speak truth, says this of him."

Mr. John James Ruskin, like many other of our successful merchants, had
been an open-handed patron of art, and a cheerful giver, not only to
needy friends and relatives, but also to various charities. For example,
as a kind of personal tribute to Osborne Gordon, his son's tutor, he
gave L5,000 toward the augmentation of poor Christ-Church livings. His
son's open-handed way with dependants and servants was learned from the
old merchant, who, unlike many hard-working money-makers, was always
ready to give, though he could not bear to lose. In spite of which he
left a considerable fortune behind him,--considerable when it is
understood to be the earnings of his single-handed industry and steady
sagacity in legitimate business, without indulgence in speculation. He
left L120,000 with various other property, to his son. To his wife he
left his house and L37,000, and a void which it seemed at first nothing
could fill. For of late years the son had drifted out of their horizon,
with ideas on religion and the ordering of life so very different from
theirs; and had been much away from home--he sometimes said, selfishly,
but not without the greatest of all excuses, necessity. And so the two
old people had been brought closer than ever together; and she had lived
entirely for her husband. But, as Browning said,--"Put a stick in
anywhere, and she will run up it"--so the brave old lady did not faint
under the blow, and fade away, but transferred her affections and
interests to her son. Before his father's death the difference of
feeling between them, arising out of the heretical economy, had been
healed. Old Mr. Ruskin's will treated his son with all confidence in
spite of his unorthodox views and unbusiness-like ways. And for nearly
eight years longer his mother lived on, to see him pass through his
probation-period into such recognition as an Oxford Professorship
implied, and to find in her last years his later books "becoming more
and more what they always ought to have been" to her.

At the same time, her failing sight and strength needed a constant
household c