Ruskin’s Home at Mornex. Photograph engraved by Allen & Co. From the Cook and Wedderburn Library Edition, 17.lvi. Click on image to enlarge it. Click on image to enlarge it/
In their introduction to volume 17 of the Library Edition, Ruskin's editors include his letter of 31 August 1862 to his mother, which contains the following description of the house:
I cast, at first, somewhat longing eyes on a true Savoyard chêeau—notable for its lovely garden and orchard—and its unspoiled, unrestored, arched gateway between two round turrets, and Gothic-windowed keep. . . . My Father would be quite wild at the ‘view’ from the garden terrace—but he would be disgusted at the shut-in feeling of the house, which is in fact as much shut in as our old Herne Hill one; only to get the ‘view’ I have but to go as far down the garden as to our old ‘mulberry tree.’ By the way, there’s a magnificent mulberry tree, as big as a common walnut, covered with black and red fruit on the other side of the road.
Last modified 27 March 2019