Sheffield, however, did not wish to lose the Museum, and offered to house it if the Guild would present it to the town.  That was, of course, out of the question.  But a new offer to take over the collection on loan, the Guild paying a curator, was another matter, and was thankfully accepted.  The Corporation fulfilled their share of the bargain with generosity.  An admirable site was assigned at Meersbrook Park, in a fine old hall surrounded with trees, and overlooking a broad view of the town and country.  On April 15th, 1890, the Museum was opened by the Earl of Carlisle, in presence of the Corporation, the Trustees of the Guild, and a large assembly of friends and Sheffield townspeople.  Since then the attendance of visitors and students shows that the collection is appreciated by the public; and it is to be hoped that though nominally a loan it will remain there in perpetuity, and that it will be maintained and used with due regard to the intentions of the founder.

Many other plans had to be modified, as he found himself less able to work, and was obliged to hand over his business to others.  With his early books he had been dissatisfied, as expressing immature views.  “The Stones of Venice” had been recast into two small volumes, and “St. Mark’s Rest” written in the attempt to supplement and correct it.  But the original book was obviously in demand, and a new edition was brought out in 1886.

“Modern Painters” had been also on the condemned list.  The aggressive Protestantism and the geological theories involved in his description of mountains he condemned as errors; moreover, at the time of the last edition published by Messrs. Smith & Elder (1873), he had been told that the plates, which he considered a very important part of the work, would not stand another impression; and so he destroyed nine of them, in order that no subsequent edition might be brought out in the original form.  He reprinted vol. ii. in a cheap edition, and began to recast the rest, with annotations and additions, as “In Montibus Sanctis,” and “Coeli Enarrant”, while Miss S. Beever’s selections ("Frondes Agrestes”) found a ready sale.  But this did not satisfy the public, and there was a continual cry for a reprint, to which, at last, he yielded.  Early in 1889 the “Complete Edition” appeared; with the cancelled plates reproduced.

He had always felt it a grievance that the enormous popularity of his works in America meant an enormous piracy.  Towards the end of the “Fifties,” Mr. Wiley of New York had begun to print cheap Ruskins; not, indeed, illegally, but without proper acknowledgment to the author, and without any reference to the author’s wishes as to form and style of production.  An artist and writer on art, insisting on delicacy and refinement as the first necessity of draughtsmanship, and himself sparing no trouble or expense in the illustrations of his own works, was naturally dissatisfied with the wretched “Artotypes” with which the