MS University of Delaware

My dear Mrs Johns,
Thank you so much for letting me [see] Mr Ruskin’s very characteristic opinion of the beautiful Griselda work.¹ I have thought and talked it over with my mother, and certainly it is a complication, but would not the most satisfactory course be to ask some opinion of a person such as Richmond a thorough artist, and also a religious man, a gentleman, and father of daughters whether it would be his judgment that a girl could really study without the loss of what would be far more important. Grant – or perhaps Lady Eastlake- might give the same judgement, but if possible I would prefer a gentleman’s judgement to a lady’s – and try to get one in the abstract rather than on one individual. Then I think it would be to be considered whether the talent would be trainable to a very valuable amount by anything short of the really severe study that Ruskin holds out. I fancy that mere dabblers without real power or correct taste, who only pretend to draw because it is out of woman’s routine are those that bring discredit on the habit of really studying art. But I believe only real experience could judge in such questions

Thank you for the droll French letter which has produced much amusement, and for the account of the moon’s radiance. I am keeping the Lady Tulips to plant till the frost is a little gone off. I am afraid your cold has not much chance of getting well.

With love to Kittiwake
Yours sincerely

C M Yonge