{"id":1035,"date":"2019-10-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelovers.cottage-search.com\/blog\/coniston-ruskinland\/"},"modified":"2020-11-25T15:08:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T15:08:47","slug":"coniston-ruskinland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/coniston-ruskinland\/","title":{"rendered":"Coniston, Ruskinland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ruskinland can seem a strange place, populated by academics and the occasional oddball. Yet it exists \u2013 and it flourishes. In areas as diverse as furniture design, mental health therapy, conservation and ecology, many people, some unknowingly, are energetically taking forward ideas that owe a lot to what Ruskin thought, wrote and did.<\/em><\/p>\n

So says Andrew Hill of Coniston\u2019s most famous resident in his book Ruskinland How Ruskin Shapes Our World, published this year (the 200th anniversary of Ruskin\u2019s birth). John Ruskin lived on the eastern side of Coniston in the mighty Brantwood \u2013 which now houses a museum and art gallery, and has lovely gardens and a caf\u00e9 in the stables \u2013 with a terrace allowing everyone to enjoy its epic view<\/p>\n

Along with Beatrix Potter and Wordsworth, Ruskin was one of the three cultural pillars central to the Lake District\u2019s successful application to be a World Heritage Site. The submission described Ruskin \u2013 best known as an artist and critic, but born in a time when a man could have \u2018many parts\u2019.<\/p>\n

In his deliberately unconventional biography, Andrew Hill demonstrates the reach of Ruskin\u2019s thinking and its relevance to our world today. His thoughts on art, craft, nature, conservation and much else besides, all have resonance. Above all, Ruskin is a wonderful, readable writer \u2013 and Hill\u2019s writing does him justice.<\/p>\n

There are aspects of Ruskin that seem anachronistic \u2013 his dislike of railways, the extent of his religion \u2013 but there are more we would do well to remember at the earliest opportunity. \u2018There is no wealth but life,\u2019 wrote John Ruskin in his book Unto this Last. \u2018Life,\u2019 he continued, \u2018including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest numbers of noble and happy human beings.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Left: Coniston Water | Middle: View from the summit of The Old Man of Coniston | Right: Coniston Jetty<\/p>\n

From Ruskinland:<\/h3>\n

On Seeing<\/h4>\n

\u2018The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion, all in one.\u2019 Ruskin had some advice for the frazzled, time-poor 21st-century sightseer. It was the quality of what he saw, not the quantity that mattered. \u2018We did not travel for adventures, nor for company, but to see with our eyes, and to measure with our hearts.\u2019<\/p>\n

On Drawing, Painting and Craft<\/h4>\n

A child with a talent for drawing \u2018should be allowed to scrawl at its own free will, due praise being given for every appearance of care, or truth, in its efforts\u2019.<\/p>\n

From the busy hub at Brantwood, a whole network of local craft started to expand, with Ruskin\u2019s endorsement and help: Laxey cloth, Langdale Linen, Ruskin Lace \u2013 explicitly built on the writer\u2019s idea of individual creativity. No two pieces of lacework were the same.<\/p>\n

On Landscape and Nature<\/h4>\n

\u2018He understood the physical structure of rocks,\u2019 Howard Hull, the amiable and encyclopaedically well-informed director of Brantwood told me, as we looked out across the lake below Ruskin\u2019s house to the crags of Coniston Old Man that Ruskin loved.<\/p>\n

\u2018The beginning of all my own right artwork in life depended not on my love of art, but of mountains and seas.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ruskinland: How Ruskin Shapes Our World by Andrew Hill is published by Pallas Athene<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coniston, Ruskinland in the Lake District. Visit with Lakelovers and learn more about General in the Lakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":1036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1784,"href":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions\/1784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lakelovers.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}