John James Ruskin on William Charles Cotton in 1838: “I wish a Hive of Bees were about him”

Mysteries and William Charles Cotton have, at times, kept close company, as in the case of the uncertain fate of a hive or hives of bees he attempted to ship to New Zealand in December 1841. Cotton was “an Anglican priest, missionary and an apiarist. After education at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford, he was ordained and travelled to New Zealand as chaplain to George Augustus Selwyn, its first bishop. He introduced the skills of beekeeping to North Island and wrote books on the subject. Later as vicar of Frodsham, Cheshire, England, he restored its church and vicarage but was limited in his activities by mental illness.” 1

John James Ruskin (1785-1864), c1802

On 23rd June 1838, Ruskin, a successful wine merchant then in London, wrote a cryptic letter 2 to his wife Margaret, apparently resident in Oxford. She must have understood its import then but 170 years later a few inferences are necessary to reveal its intent. John James began by giving a list of accounts due and paid. He then wrote “Mr [Robert] Cockburn has broken his bee Thermometer. Be sure to bring one with you as he pd [paid] me.” The bees theme continued. “John 3 must tell Cotton that I am displeased. These people 4 make so much of 8d [8 pence] postage or 6d expense that there is no chance of our getting Drawings unless by asking where they 5 are & Sending for them. It is scandalous behaviour. I wish a Hive of Bees were about him. I am excessively annoyed at this & unless to be returned on a

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Charles_Cotton2 Van Akin Burd (Ed.) (1973)The Ruskin Family Letters: the correspondence of John James Ruskin, his wife, and their son, John, 1801-1843, Vol. II, 1837-1843. Cornell University Press, Ithaca3 John (1819-1900) was the only son to John James Ruskin. The former studied at King’s College London and Christ Church, Oxford, the same College where Cotton gained his BA.4 It’s unclear to whom he is making reference5 He is likely referring to expense receipts

fixed day I beg they may not go away. 6 They may be rubbed to pieces or thumbed by Miss Sketchers or torn by puppy dogs. 7 That Cotton is only fit for having possession of Bumbees. …”

At best Ruskin appears to have viewed Cotton as absent minded, at worst, as a confounding nuisance to both himself and his son. Despite being a lifelong sufferer of manic depression, now known as bipolar disorder, 8 Cotton managed to gain first class honours in Classics and second class honours in Mathematics at Oxford University in 1836. Why would Ruskin have wished a punitive swarm of bees about his person?

William Charles Cotton (1813-1879) at age 19

In December 1838 Cotton was mentioned in one of Margaret Ruskin’s letters to her husband. “John [her son] called on Mr. Cotton and found he had left college ill – one cannot get at any account of him to be depended on but report says that he has overworked both mind and body and his friends are going with him to the Continent, Perhaps I have told you this before.” She had, for in an earlier letter on 24 th May she wrote “Mr. Hill was engaged and after two or three times calling and finding Mr. Cotton he found him at home last night only to be told he was to day to set off for a fortnights absence.”

Three days previous to Ruskin’s curse upon Cotton he wrote on 20th June to “My dearest Margt. … I want to know if Johns poem was ever in or if Ridley 9 blundered as Cotton seems to do. …” the substance of Cotton’s failing was clarified by Margaret’s letter of 15th March: “Mr. Cotton sent yesterday to him [John] for a duplicate of the note he had sent to Mr. Cotton in answer to his request that John should become a subscriber to Bee Society, he, Mr C, being about to publish something concerning bee history in which he wished it to appear, fortunately and

6 He appears to be referring to a multitude of un-claimable expenses rather than the hoped for persistence of a hoard of bees about Cotton’s head.7 It’s unclear what “they” refers to8 Refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_disorder9 “William Henry Ridley (1816-1882) of Christ Church … author of numerous works on religion” from Van Akin Burd, p.439

unfortunately John had no copy, fortunately because it will give Mr C a higher opinion of Johns capabilities when he knows it was written without premeditation and unfortunately because it was a droll composition and would have looked very well in print. I did not see it, John only told me what, as far as he could recollect, he had said the day he sent it. He remembers little of the subject now.”

A view of Christ Church College, Oxford

The entry in Wikipedia on John Ruskin describes him as “an English art critic and social thinker, also remembered as a poet and artist. …At Oxford, he enrolled as a ‘gentleman-commoner’, a class of students who were not expected to pursue a full course of study. His own studies were erratic, and he was often absent. However, he impressed the scholars of Christ Church after he won the Newdigate prize for poetry, his earliest interest.” John’s note may have been something to do with activities at the bee garden set up by the members of the recently formed Oxford Apiarian Society. Alternatively, and more likely, John’s missing contribution to Cotton’s publication may have been a poem about bees, but we’ll never know as Cotton had unfortunately misplaced it.

John Ruskin, c1843

Cotton had already published a pamphlet on bees. “In 1837 he published his first work about bees, A Short and Simple Letter to Cottagers from a Bee Preserver,

which sold 24,000 copies. A second Letter followed three years later” 10 He may have been contemplating a new edition in March 1838.

The Oxford Apiarian Society, to which John had received an invitation to membership, was formally established at its first General Meeting, held at the Ashmolean Museum, on Tuesday, May 15, 1838. From Cotton’s My Bee Book: “The object of this Society to be twofold. I.—To promote an improved and more extensive system of Bee management among the cottagers, by the diffusion of information on the subject; the loan, not the gift, of Hives, their cost to be repaid from the produce; and the annual distribution of prizes, of which due notice will be given in the Oxford Papers, with conditions to be observed by the competitors. II.—To promote a more extensive and scientific knowledge concerning the natural history and cultivation of Bees among the higher classes.

To further this latter object, a small plot of ground to be rented within a very short walking distance of Oxford, and Hives of all sorts to be established there. The ground to be open to the members of the Society, and visitors admitted by tickets from subscribers, on payment of one shilling. Cottagers to be admitted by tickets, gratis. The subscriptions to be 1l 1s [being 21 shillings = 1 guinea] for the first year; for subsequent years 10s. 6d., to be devoted to lending new Hives, distributing prizes, and establishing an experimental garden or gardens, and other purposes connected with the objects of the Society. Donations thankfully received from casual visitors towards the support of the Bee-garden. …” The Society’s scrap book held at the garden contained entries between the end of May 1838 and at least until 19 June 1839 – these were Some of the Society’s transactions were published in Cotton’s My Bee Book of 1842.

Oxford Apiarian Society’s coat of arms,now the coat of arms of the Oxfordshire Beekeepers’ Association 11

Extracted from the web site of the Oxfordshire Beekeepers’ Association: “The Coat of Arms, with the inscription: NUX EGO JUNCTA, is derived from the original Apiarian Society and is featured on the Chairman's The Coat of Arms … on the left,

10 Refer Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Charles_Cotton11 Refer http://www.oxfordshirebeekeepers.com/

the ox crossing the ford, and on the right the three castes of honey bees. Above the bees is a reference to Thomas Nutt one of the original ‘Apiarian Society’ founders, 12

who promoted the collateral hive. The thermometer and ventilator which he included in his design are shown, top right. At the top is a nut tree twig, and the motto translates as ‘I am The Wayside Nut Tree’ “

Had Ruskin’s curse been fulfilled the severity of its impact would have been doubtful. In James Anthony Froude’s Oceana, or England and her colonies 13 there is what can only be an exagerated remembrance of Cotton. Froude was one of Cotton’s contemporaries at Oxford - the latter was there from 1832 until 1838, Froude attended between 1836 and 1840. The year before the publication of Oceana, Froude was engaged upon a tour of Australia and New Zealand. While at Cambridge, New Zealand: “...We had been directed to the least tumultuous of the Cambridge hotels. We found a table d’hote laid out there for forty people at least, some going up and some returning.

James Anthony Froude

The food was tolerable; we found, for one thing, New Zealand honey especially excellent, taken from the nests of wild bees, which are now in millions all over the colony. They are the offspring of two or three hives, which were once kept, when I was at Oxford, 14 in the rooms of Cotton, of Christ Church, between whom and his bees there was such strong attachment that a bodyguard of them used to attend him to lecture and chapel.” A variation on this appeared in Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts in 1893 “It is told that he was accustomed to keep them in his sitting-room, and they had become so attached and familiar with his person, that a squad of them used to attend him at lectures and chapel. ” (p.262) Where could the zany idea of “a squad” and “a bodyguard” of bees have originated?

12 A Nutt’s hive was displayed at the Society’s bee garden – however there is no evidence Nutt was a member of the society.13 Froude, James Anthony (1886) Oceana, or England and her colonies (pp.262-262). Quotation also found in Coe, Charles Clement (1895) Nature Versus Natural Selection: An Essay on Organic Evolution. Swan Sonnenschein, London. (p.51.); also in Longman’s Magazine, 1886 (p.661)14 Re Froude - from Wikipedia “Beginning in 1836, he was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, then the centre of the ecclesiastical revival now called the Oxford Movement.” Cotton and Froude would have come into contact through their joint interest in the Oxford Movement which sought to demonstrate that the Church of England was a direct descendant of the Church established by the Apostles.

Its fiction is obvious to any skilled beekeeper. Even so, I doubt Cotton would have been panicked even if a swarm had settled upon his head.

Peter Barrett

Caloundra, Queensland

January 2010