INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME

Summary

This volume collects various Studies of Peasant Life which Ruskin edited and published. It comprises (I.) The Story of Ida, by Miss Francesca Alexander, edited, with a Preface, by Ruskin (1883). (II.) Roadside Songs of Tuscany, written and illustrated by Miss Alexander, and edited, with various notes, essays, and a Preface, by Ruskin (1885). To this are added, in accordance with his intention, several additional songs, and examples of the music to which the peasants sing them. (III.) Christ's Folk in the Apennine, again by Miss Alexander, and edited in the same way by Ruskin (1887, 1889). (IV.) Ulric the Farm Servant, translated by Mrs. Julia Firth, and edited, again with notes and a Preface, by Ruskin (1886–1888). In an Appendix is a report of a Lecture given by Ruskin in 1883 on Miss Alexander's work.

Though these studies belong in chronological order to the latest years of Ruskin's literary activity, the volume is connected in subject and scope with Fors Clavigera and Bibliotheca Pastorum; for the latter series, one of the books here included was, indeed, originally intended. “Farm after farm I can show you,” said Ruskin in Fors Clavigera, “in Bavaria, Switzerland, the Tyrol, and such other places, where men and women are perfectly happy and good without any iron servants.” In the studies collected in this volume, describing peasant life in the hill country of Italy and in the Swiss lowlands, the examples, thus promised, are given.