ost
blessing of servants."

His mother was anxious for him to come home, being persuaded that he was
overworking himself in the continued heat which his letters reported.
But he was loath to leave Italy, in which, he said, his work for the
future lay. He made two more visits to Venice, to draw some of the
sculptured details, now quickly perishing, and to make studies of
Tintoret and Carpaccio. Among other friends who met him there was Mr.
Holman Hunt, with whom he went round his favourite Scuola di San Rocco
(1st July). Two days later he wrote:

"You will never believe it; but I have actually been trying to
draw--a baby. _The_ baby which the priest is holding in the little
copy of Tintoret by Edward Jones which my father liked so much,
over the basin stand in his bedroom.[19] All the knowledge I have
gained in these 17 years only makes me more full of awe and wonder
at Tintoret. But it _is_ so sad--so sad;--no one to care for him
but me, and all going so fast to ruin. He has done that infant
Christ in about five minutes--and I worked for two hours in vain,
and could not tell _why_ in vain--the mystery of his touch is so
great."

[Footnote 19: Mr. and Mrs Burne-Jones had been in Venice in June, 1862;
the artist, then young and comparatively unknown, with a commission to
copy for Ruskin.]

Final farewell was said to Verona on the 10th August, for the homeward
journey by the St. Gothard, and Giessbach, where he found the young
friend of 1866 now near her end--and Thun, where he met Professor C.E.
Norton. On the way he wrote:

"Lugano, _Saturday, 14th August_, 1869.

"My Dearest Mother,

"Yesterday--exactly three months from the day on which I entered
Verona to begin work, I made a concluding sketch of the old
Broletto of Como, which I drew first for the 7 lamps[20]--I know
not how many years ago,--and left Italy, for this time--having been
entirely well and strong every day of my quarter of a year's
sojourn there.

[Footnote 20: "Stones of Venice," Vol. I., plate 5.]

"This morning, before breakfast, I was sitting for the first time
before Luini's Crucifixion: for all religious-art qualities the
greatest picture south of the Alps--or rather, in Europe.

"And just after breakfast I got a telegram from my cousin George
announcing that I am Professor of Art--the first--at the University