IV - RUSKIN'S MAY QUEENS

Summary

Much of Mr. Ruskin's work, it is said, is only in the air; but the scheme which we have now to describe is on the solid earth, sweetening with its presence the hard realities of a college in connection with the State. Some ten years ago, the Rev. J. P. Faunthorpe, the Principal of the Whitelands Training College in Chelsea, chanced to fall into correspondence with Mr. Ruskin. He had noted some passage in Fors Clavigera, betokening, he thought, undue despondency at the existing machinery of National Education. Mr. Ruskin was keenly interested in what Mr. Faunthorpe had to tell him, and was constant in counsel and encouragement. Would Mr. Ruskin present the College, Mr. Faunthorpe asked, with a prize? No; Mr. Ruskin did not approve of prizes, at least not if there were any taint of competition about them; but he would be proud to present the College with a complete set of his works. The offer was warmly accepted; and Mr. Ruskin, ever avaricious of giving, asked to be allowed to present the College with the means for organizing a “May Queen” Festival. In each year he would present the queen with a gold cross for herself, and with some forty bound volumes, more or less, of his books for her to award to her fellows at her will and pleasure. Mr. Faunthorpe cheerfully undertook the organization of the scheme, which was first carried out in 1881, and has since been continued year by year. From time to time there have been some slight modifications in the ceremonial. The queen's gown, for one thing, has been altered two or three times.