1849-1851] The Stones of Venice 131 



he has been placing Annie. He is looking uncommonly 

 well and stout, and certainly the water cure seems to have 

 been effectual in his case. There is something uncom- 

 monly fresh and pleasant in him, I do not know which of 

 the two brothers is the most agreeable. Yesterday was a 

 public day here an impromptu one. John [Allen] dropped 

 in first, then the two Darwins, and Mr Carlyle, who was 

 very pleasant. . . . Ruskin's Stones of Venice is praised 

 in a degree. Carlyle amused me yesterday by his summing 

 up the moral of the book that you must be a " good and 

 true man " to build a common dwelling-house. 



