‘But the first thing I want to know is what kind of library or schoolroom you have, for quiet separate reading, and what standard books the College possesses in Lexicons, works on natural history, and classic literature, and what place Latin and Italian have in your code of studies.—Ever faithfully yours, J. RUSKIN.’ * * * * * ‘BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, _February 18, 1887_. ‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—I can only thank you to-day for the most interesting parcel, which gives me an idea of the College and its branches, admitting every degree of enthusiasm in its Principal. ‘ ... but for the moment, entirely puzzling to me, as I neither want to confuse the strict College work with that of Ruskin societies, nor the elementary and general teaching with that of artists’ studios, or of general papers in your Magazine. ‘And when I give you books I should like them to be accessible to the classes in general. I can’t scatter them among the boarding-houses or give them only to the senior students at St. Hilda’s. You can surely put up some shelves for me in a corner of some generally inhabited room, and put them under the care of an official librarian. It seems to me the office might be given for a term at a time to any girl who cared to take it, involving also the curatorship of any drawings, casts of coins, or the like, which I could at times lend or present to you. ‘In the meantime, will you let me have a list of the classes, with the books used in them, and times of required attendance. ‘Dr. Watson has trusted me for the present to arrange the work for his daughter, without reference to any competitive honours or testing examinations. I wish to keep her well at her music, French, and if she cares for it, elementary drawing, with beginning of Latin and the first making out of classic history. What I chiefly need to know is the method of instruction in the music and drawing classes. (Do your seniors touch Greek at all?) ‘I have just been reading an excellent paper by Miss _Sophia_ Beale on Art instruction, in which, however, the general sense and truth of the author’s views are prevented from taking a practical form by her falling into the scarcely in our time avoidable error of supposing that accuracy of drawing can only be taught by the figure. ‘The figure can never be drawn accurately unless life is given to the task. But a triangle, an arch, a cinquefoil, and a wild rose are within the reach of ordinary girlhood’s observation and delineation, to ordinary girlhood’s extreme profit.—Believe me, dear Madam, your faithful servant, JOHN RUSKIN.’ * * * * *