PARK AND CEMETERY 
THE RUSKIN CROSS, CONISTON CHURCH. YARD, ENGLAND. X 
W. G. COLLINGWOOD, Designer, 
The monument in memory (jf John Ruskin has jus; 
been completed and placed in the church-yard at Con- 
iston, England. It is a slender cross, nine feet high, 
of the type lately re- 
vived from models of 
the age before the 
Norman Conquest. 
The general idea of 
the designer was to 
present a sculptural 
story of Ruskin’s life, 
works and religious 
beliefs in a manner 
that would have been 
pleasing to the poet 
himself. To this end 
he selected a style of 
art which Ruskin ad- 
mired. On the east 
side of the cross, fac- 
ing the grave, just 
above the base, which 
consists of the three 
Calvary steps, is 
carved a figure with 
a lyre to represent his 
earlier works, poems 
and the poetry of 
architecture. Above 
this, in a panel of in- 
terlaced work, is his 
name and the dates 
1819-1900, the only 
inscription on the 
monument. Next 
aobve is the figure of 
an artist sketching, 
with a back-ground 
showing pine trees 
about which Mr. 
Ruskin wrote so en- 
thusiastically, a slight 
indication of the range of Mount Blanc, and the 
slight indication of the range of Mount Blanc, and the 
rising sun, the device on the cover of his first great 
work, “Modem Painters.” At the top, just below the 
cross, is the lion of St. Mark, for his “Stones of Ven- 
ice,” and the candle-stick of the tabernacle represent- 
ing “Seven Lamps.” 
On the south face is a scroll of his favorite wild 
rose in bud, blossom, and fruit, on the boughs of 
which are sitting three of the creatures of which Rus- 
kin wrote, the squirrel, the robin, and the king-fisher, 
symbolizing his inter- 
est in natural history. 
The west side repre- 
sents his ethical and 
social teachings, be- 
ginning at the base 
with the parable of 
the workmen in the 
vineyard, receiving 
each his penny from 
the Master. The oth- 
er designs on this 
side “Sesame and Lil- 
ies,” “Fors Clavi- 
gera,” the angel of 
Fate, “The Crown of 
the Wild Olive,” and 
“St. George and the 
Dragon.” The north 
side is a simple inter- 
laced pattern. The 
cross-head bears a 
globe, symbolizing in 
those old sculptures, 
“The Sun of Right- 
eousness” on the one 
side, and on the oth- 
er, a disc with the 
Filiot, or revolving 
cross, the emblem of 
eternal life. 
The designer of 
the monument is Mr. 
W. G. Collingwood, 
M. A. A month be- 
fore Mr. Ruskin died, 
M r . Collingwood 
gave him a detailed 
study from the Bew- 
castle cross, with which he was much pleased, 
and as the great writer had before shown much inter- 
est in the sculptures of the seventh and eighth cen- 
turies, this determined the style of the monument. The 
cross is of the hard green stone, from the qaurries of 
Tilberthwaite, near Coniston, in whose churchyard 
Ruskin had on several occasions expressed a desire 
to be buried. 
THE MEMORIAL TO JOHN RUSKIN, CONISTON, ENGLAND. 
