Brantwood and Mr Ruskin

On Friday Stephen and I are taking the Communist and my mother to the Lake District for a week. We'll be staying in a cottage near Broughton in Furness and I note to my horror that 3G coverage is negligible so I doubt if I'll be able to post on this blog while I'm away - if not, I'll be back on Friday 30th June.

Last time I was there, a few weeks ago, we visited Brantwood, which is the house next to Coniston Water where John Ruskin lived. It's a fascinating place and John Ruskin was involved in most of the interesting developments in the arts during the nineteenth century.

I didn't know much about him before, except the story that when he saw his wife Effie on their wedding night, he was so horrified by the sight of her pubic hair that he never consummated the marriage. The poor dear was apparently so innocent that she didn't know what she was missing, but fell for, and went on to marry the artist John Millais, who was a friend of Ruskin's. Once she found out what it was that she didn't know she rather took to it and produced eight children.

John Ruskin bought Brantwood without ever seeing it, and it's a remarkably ugly house, particularly when considering all the lovely stone Lake District houses:

When you look at it from the lake it looks, frankly, a bit of a mess:

But I think he knew a thing or two, Mr Ruskin. Where's the one place around Coniston where you can't see that remarkably ugly house? Inside it, of course. The view from that top window is just glorious, even taken through glass and even in the mist:

There are lots of Victorian photographs and documents from the times inside the house, and next week I plan to go back for another look. John Ruskin was definitely a Good Thing and should not be forgotten.