LETTER XXX 



"The Storm-cloud of the Nineteenth Century" John Ruskin Cold 

 Winds The Plague or Devil Wind Drought Persistency 

 of North Wind Dictamnus fraxinella^ the "Burning Bush" 

 Snails. 



^th May 1892. 



DEAR MARCO No doubt you have read 

 the two lectures by Professor Ruskin, which 

 he entitles "The Storm-cloud of the Nine- 

 teenth Century." In them is described, in the 

 most wonderfully accurate manner, that sort of 

 blight of bad weather which seems to have 

 fallen upon us in these latter days. His de- 

 scription of what he calls the plague or devil 

 wind is singularly correct ; its character, 

 persistence, and effects being dwelt on with 

 that marvellous power of language for which 

 he is so famous. One thing which he points 

 out as characteristic of this wind is that its 



