“The Sacristan gives me my coffee for lunch in his own little cell, looking out on the olive woods; then he tells me stories of conversions and miracles, and then perhaps we go into the sacristy and have a reverent little poke-out of relics.  Fancy a great carved cupboard in a vaulted chamber full of most precious things (the box which the Holy Virgin’s veil used to be kept in, to begin with), and leave to rummage in it at will!  Things that are only shown twice in the year or so, with fumigation! all the congregation on their knees—­and the sacristan and I having a great heap of them on the table at once, like a dinner service.  I really looked with great respect on St. Francis’s old camel-hair dress.”

Thence he went to visit Colonel and Mrs. Yule at Palermo, deeply interested in Scylla and Charybdis, Etna and the metopes of Selinus.  His interest in Greek art had been shown, not only in a course of lectures, but in active support to archaeological explorations.  He said once, “I believe heartily in diggings, of all sorts.”  Meeting General L.P. di Cesnola and hearing of the wealth of ancient remains in Cyprus then newly discovered, Mr. Ruskin placed L1,000 at his disposal.  General di Cesnola was able, in April, 1875, to announce that in spite of the confiscation of half the treasure-trove by the local Government, he had shipped a cargo of antiquities, including many vases, terra-cottas, and fragments of sculpture.  Whence, precisely, these relics came is now doubtful.

The landscape of Theocritus and the remains of ancient glories roused him to energetic sketching—­a sign of returning strength, which continued when he reached Rome, and enabled him to make a very fine copy of Botticelli’s Zipporah, and other details of the Sistine frescoes.

Late in October he reached England, just able to give the promised Lectures on Alpine forms,[32]—­I remember his curious attempt to illustrate the neve-masses by pouring flour on a model;—­and a second course on the AEsthetic and Mathematic schools of Florence;[33] and a lecture on Botticelli at Eton, of which the Literary and Scientific Society’s minute-book contains the following report: 

[Footnote 32:  Oct. 27, 30; Nov. 3 and 6, 1874.]

[Footnote 33:  Nov. 10, 13, 17, 20, 24, 27; Dec. 1 and 4, 1874.]

“On Saturday, Dec. 12th (1874), Professor Ruskin lectured before a crowded, influential and excited audience, which comprised our noble Society and a hundred and thirty gentlemen and ladies, who eagerly accepted an invitation to hear Professor Ruskin ‘talk’ to us on Botticelli.  It is utterly impossible for the unfortunate secretary of the Society to transmit to writing even an abstract of this address; and it is some apology for him when beauty of expression, sweetness of voice, and elegance in imagery defy the utmost efforts of the pen.”

Just before leaving for Italy he had been told that the Royal Institute of British Architects intended