I had never heard of John Ruskin until today, and I’m convinced that was a huge oversight in my literary education. I loved what we read of his writing, and his life was equally amazing. We took a coach from Grasmere over to Conniston, where Ruskin spent the last 30 years or so of his life. We met with Mike Humphries, the curator of the Ruskin Museum and coincidentally also the president of the branch where we’ll be going to church on Sunday. He gave us an interesting lecture on Ruskin’s life—Ruskin started out as an artist and an art critic, with a firm dedication to social welfare and religion. After gaining fame for his philosophy, Ruskin became a great advocate of socialism, imagining most of the systems that are in place today in Britain,
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