SELBORXK SOCIETY XOTICES 
219 
and the heather also made a brave show. A sharp shower drove the party 
to tea, after which a further ramble was made into the Forest proper. 
Saturday, September 19. — Thirty-five Selbornians and friends, disciples of 
Ruskin, favoured by fine weather, passed a very enjoyable and interesting 
afternoon visiting his two former homes, and other places at Herne Hill “ Where 
Ruskin loved to dwell.” The starting point was Ruskin bark, opened to the 
public February 2, 1907, which contains the house and grounds occupied by 
Capt. James Wilson from 1799 till his death in 1814. 
Few biographies are so interesting as that of Capt. Wilson. He was born 
in 1760 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, the nineteenth child of a ship captain of that 
town. When only 15, he served in the British ranks at Bunker’s Hill and 
Lexington {1775). He afterwards sailed as mate on an East-Indiaman to 
Calcutta, and went through a series of perilous adventures, including the running 
of the blockade of the French fleet and conveying food and paddy to the 
starving British troops only just in time. In 1782, when carrying military stores 
for .Sir Edward Hughes, he was captured and taken prisoner to Cuddalore. 
The facts of his imprisonment far outdo the fiction of Dumas. By a gross 
breach of military honour, the French Admiral sold him and other British 
prisoners to the pitiless Hyder Ali for 300,000 rupees. He escaped, overcoming 
almost insuperable obstacles, and swimming the three branches of the Coleroon 
River, only to be recaptured and cast, after a weary march of 500 miles, into the 
Black Hole of Seringapatam, with 153 others. Here, starved and manacled, he 
stayed no less than twenty-two months, when, British victories forcing Hyder 
Ali to release his captives, he regained his freedom. Of the 153 who went in. 
only 32 came out alive. He resumed service, and having amassed sufficient 
wealth to enable him to retire, he took passage for England in 1793 settled 
at Horndean, near I’ortsea. After a few years, he offered his services to the 
London Missionary Society', and was given charge of their expeditions. He 
purchased a vessel, the “ Duff,” — “ a floating church ” — and in September, 
1796, sailed on a cruise of 50,000 miles to New Zealand and back, arriving home 
again in July, 1798. For the freight of the cargo of tea from China the East 
India Company paid the London Missionary Society 4,000, and for the copy- 
right of the record of the voyage Mr. Chapman, of B'leet Street, gave £2,000. 
Thenceforward, he took up his abode in Denmark Hill until his death. The 
shelter in Ruskin Bark is now the only remaining portion of the house in which 
he lived. 
The patty next visited Ruskin Manor, where Ruskin lived from 1843 
1871, with its beautiful grounds, the lovely Ruskin walk, <|uite covered in by 
trees, and the little garden-house where so olten the great master used to sit. 
Then were pointed out the bedroom and the room on the first floor where he 
wrote many of his great works. It was noticed that there are three windows 
now, whereas the middle one w'as a blind window in Ruskin’s time. 
From the grounds the party saw into those of the adjoining Bessemer House. 
Here, presumably. Sir Henry Bessemer had his remarkable experimental fur- 
naces for converting steel, his condensed solar heat furnace, and the model of 
his steamship which was to relieve mankind of the terrors of sea-sickness by 
having its saloon and interior so balanced as to be unaffected by wave-motion, 
but which unfortunately failed. Sir Henry writes that when the boat built 
to his designs did not answer her helm on entering Calais Harbour, and ran into 
the pier with disastrous results, in five minutes he lost ;^34,ooo. 
Next was visited No. 28, Herne Hill, perhaps still more cherished by admirers 
of Ruskin on account of its having been the house where Ruskin spent his youth 
from his 4th year to the age of 24. After inspecting the historic garden, which 
was for Ruskin almost his only recreation when he was young, the house was 
entered. On the first floor were specially pointed out two corners in the front 
room, in one of which used to sit Carlyle and in the other Ruskin, the former an 
inveterate smoker and the latter most averse to tobacco, though permitting his 
great friend to indulge without protest. The nursery and other rooms of interest 
on the second floor were also visited. 
The party then made their way to St. Paul’s Church, Herne Hill, to see the 
beautiful marble tablet to the memory of Ruskin unveiled some years ago by 
Holman Hunt. 
