Reference
X955/1/116
Title
To Mrs Sarah Colenutt
Date free text
28 January 1900
Production date
From: 1900 To: 1900
Scope and Content
5 High Wickham, Hastings
My dear friend
The news of Ruskin’s (1) death came to me late at night by telegram and was a great shock. He was the last of the men who made this century glorious, the last of those lights which in letters and art illuminated and directed us in youth and middle age. I had for a long time expected his death, but you know that, although a candle may give but the feeblest glimmer when it is expiring, we do not say ‘It is dark till it has gone out. The notices of Ruskin which I have seen are all poor and miss the mark. They admit his excellence in style, and that he did service as an art-critic in his day, but we are told that even in art he exaggerated and is not trustworthy, and as for his ethics and political economy they were folly. The real truth is that his ethics and political economy are the real substance and are eternal.
Jack, his wife and child are now settled at Burgos in Spain. He has a most responsible post and I tremble rather lest he should not be equal to it. He is manager both of the mines and the railway and has to make
the whole undertaking a success.
Willie is at Jersey and is certainly better. He will go back to work in about three weeks.(2)
I have settled not to take the doctor.s advice about Whitby. I am so afraid of the cold. Molly and I spent three weeks at Lyme Regis just before Christmas, the most lovely, unspoiled, seaside little town I have ever
beheld. When we were there we saw a house at Charmouth which took our fancy, and we are now waiting a report on the drains before we decide. In its favour are the beauty of its surroundings, and its quietude: its drawbacks are the big, walled-in, old garden which I shall not know how to manage, and the distance from London. But as to the latter point, I must make the best of it. I am compelled to leave Hastings; I want to be
near the sea and it is impossible to find a house within my compass in any seaside town easily accessible from London. Besides, the trippers make life unbearable in places like Hastings and Eastbourne. Oh! If I could but have your husband near me to instruct me what to do with that garden and conservatory with its grape-vines!
I never hear from Exeter now and do not know if William is still preaching.
Best love to your dear Richard. I must come for e few hours when the weather is a little warmer. Influenza has been bad all round us but we have escaped.
Love to Charlie
Ever affectionately
W. Hale White.
(1) Ruskin, John (1819–1900), art critic and social critic – died 20th January 1900.
(2) In 1896 Willie was found to have tuberculosis of the lungs. He spent the winter in Switzerland but did not become much better; he was advised to give up work completely, but family responsibilities made this
impossible and he worked for most of each year, taking two months' holiday in the winter in the Channel Islands or Cornwall. Throughout this difficult time he continued his hospital work and practice and
gradually, as his health recovered, resumed his full activity. He developed a large consulting practice, was fond of speaking at medical societies and in later years often found himself their president, and held many examinerships in materia medica and in medicine.
Level of description
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