RUSKIN, John (1819-1900). Author, artist & social reformer.
Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs Liddell, wife of Henry Liddell and mother of Alice, 1 page 8vo, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, no date (after 1871). Reluctantly declining an invitation on account of a prior engagement, and expressing particular regret that he would miss Professor (Joseph) Prestwich (1812-1896, from 1874 professor of geology at Oxford.
Ruskin was made an honorary fellow of Corpus Christi College in 1871 and continued to spend some of his time there when not abroad or at his homes in Brantwood or Herne Hill.
 Alice Liddell, the subject of C.L. Dodgson's eponymous Adventures would by this time have been in her twenties, although the author was very much ensconced at Christ Church. The, admitedly rather vague, association of Ruskin's name with that of Alice, given his own predilection for young women, is at least a little intriguing.
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