e late and
loaded with flowers and letters, and all day long telegrams arrived from
all parts of the world, until they lay in heaps, unopened for the time
being. A great address had been prepared, with costly illumination on
vellum, and binding by Mr. Cobden Sanderson.

"Year by year," it said, "in ever widening extent, there is an
increasing trust in your teaching, an increasing desire to realize the
noble ideals you have set before mankind in words which we feel have
brought nearer to our hearts the kingdom of God upon earth. It is our
hope and prayer that the joy and peace you have brought to others may
return in full measure to your own heart filling it with the peace which
comes from the love of God and the knowledge of the love of your
fellow-men."

Among those who subscribed to these sentiments were various people of
importance, such as Royal Academicians, the Royal Society of Painters in
Watercolours, the Trustees of the British Museum and of the National
Gallery, the St. George's Guild and Ruskin Societies, with many others;
and the address was presented by a deputation who reported that they had
found him looking well "and extremely happy."

A similar illuminated address from the University of Oxford ran thus:

"We venture to send you, as you begin your eighty-first year, these
few words of greeting and good-will, to make you sure that in
Oxford the gratitude and reverence with which men think of you is
ever fresh. You have helped many to find in life more happiness
than they thought it held; and we trust there is happiness in the
latter years of your long life. You have taught many to see the
wealth of beauty in nature and in art, prizing the remembrance of
it; and we trust that the sights you have best loved come back to
your memory with unfading beauty. You have encouraged many to keep
a good heart through dark days, and we trust that the courage of a
constant hope is yours."

The London Ruskin Society sent a separate address; and to show that if
not a prophet in his own country he was at any rate a valued friend, the
Coniston Parish Council resolved "and carried unanimously," says the
local journal, "with applause,"

"That the congratulations of this council be offered to Mr. John
Ruskin, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, together with
the warm thanks which they and all their neighbours feel for the
kindness he h