The Harvest of RuskinGraham, John W. (John William)
Religion
The Harvest of Ruskin
Graham, John W. (John William)
Ruskin, John, 1819-1900
As an organization this little realm within the realm came to very
little. It needed advertisement, propagandism, somebody to preach it,
and to organize it. The prophet at Brantwood wrote about it to the then
very limited audience of _Fors_, and there propaganda ended. There were
about forty-two Companions of St. George altogether at one time; and the
Master was autocratic and irregular through ill health. Some land at
Abbeydale, Sheffield, was taken, and a settlement of Socialists
attempted without success. George Baker presented a woodland tract of
fifteen acres at Bewdley; Mrs. Talbot some cliff-like land and cottages
at Barmouth; and a small holding on the Yorkshire coast at Claughton,
near Whitby, was acquired. The land cultivation came to very little.
The land at Abbeydale is now a successful market garden with a
residence, let to a tenant in the usual way. A house has been built
within recent years on the land at Bewdley, and part, if not all, of it
is at last in cultivation by a Liverpool couple tired of town life. Mrs.
Talbot’s representative manages the cottages at Barmouth on the lines of
an ordinary good landlord. We have sold the bit of Yorkshire moorland,
long troublesome. After delays and legal difficulties, George Baker, a
Quaker alderman of Birmingham, who had been co-trustee of the
properties, and had borne much of the business burden of it from the
beginning, was made Master, and a few new members were enrolled by
invitation. The Guild has held of late years a number of annual
meetings, at Oxford, Coniston, Sheffield, Bewdley, London, Manchester,
Liverpool and Birmingham, which were delightful social occasions, and
which transacted the business of the properties, and made grants from
the income, which, apart from subscriptions, is between one and two
hundred pounds a year, mostly representing Ruskin’s own gifts. The
grants go as a rule to literary, agricultural or other purposes on the
Master’s lines. On the death of Mr. Baker the Mastership was accepted by
Mr. George Thomson, of Huddersfield, the forerunner, under Ruskin’s
guidance, of the profit-sharing movement in this country. He resigned,
through failing health, in 1920, and Mr. H. E. Luxmoor, of Eton, was
appointed. Mr. William Wardle, of 4 Olive Lane, Wavertree, Liverpool, is
the Hon. Sec. Two members represent the Guild on the Committee of the
Sheffield Corporation which has charge of the Ruskin Museum in
Meersbrook Park. This Museum is the property of the Guild on permanent
loan to the Corporation of Sheffield who maintain it. It is indeed among
the Guild properties the one really valuable concrete survival of the
labour and enthusiasm of the founder. It is one of the very lovely
things of the whole world, with its concentrated charm and delicate
fineness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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