The following is the transcript of a letter written by The Rev. F A Malleson, vicar of Broughton-in-Furness, to his wife. 
Sept. 23. Sund. Night 1877 -

My dearest Lucy I shall have no time tomorrow to write to you comfortably - so I shall depart from my rule and do it tonight. Tomorrow you know I go to Kendal - I should like this letter which is nearly all about Ruskin, to be preserved - so either keep it yourself or post it to Rhoda - 

I think in all my life I never spent six hours (intellectually) so happily as yesterday - It was perfect - For once I enjoyed with a great man a true communion of hearts & had the pleasure of his own assurance that he had enjoyed my conversation just as much as I enjoyed his - I reached the landing on the lake at 12 & found his gardener there with the boat - & soon got across. 
First Mrs Severn who was alone in the drawing room copying out the lecture he is going to deliver at Kendal tomorrow week - Then in rushed the Professor all over flour & a preparation in a plate resembling the beautiful veins & curves in agate or in the stratified rocks wh. Have been disturbed. He had made it of alternate layers of white & pink paste - & produced by pressure a marvellous resemblance to certain geological phenomena. After some very pleasant talk I produced Rhoda's sketches but really with some misgivings - But the dear fellow sat himself comfortable in his armchair with the book on his knee & called Joan to come & see them with him - & really & unaffectedly spoke most approvingly of them - really praised them - I was for checking all this - & said I wanted strictness (?) rather than showing true feeling & love of nature - she only wanted a little more mastery of her brush - her flowers he was delighted with - especially the honeysuckle & the hemp agrimony - more of this by & bye - Then to lunch - only us three. 
Mrs Severn is most anxious for Rhoda to join the club - She will be among the best she said. Both spoke most kindly & sympathizingly of her weakness. But dear Rhoda will now paint with redoubled spirit - Soon after lunch we started across the lake again - & landed at the Old Hall. The man (Baxter) following us to carry coats, hammer, glass - specimens, etc. We went ascending almost all the way - But now I am growing weary - 
Before we got into the boat I brought Ruskin at once to the point I wanted - his religious views - by remarking to him that he had said he judged from my sermon that I agreed closely with Mr Chapman - & them he added - that Mr C. Was good enough to call now and then & try & convert him!
I plainly assured him that there was but little sympathy between me and Mr C. & that my belief was that he - Ruskin - was a sincere Christian - This led us to speak of Evangelical views on wh. He sees the most unfavourable specimens possible, I suppose - & have wrongly concluded that all Evangelicals are alike in their indifference to good words & Works while they exalt faith as the one thing needful - I went clearly & plainly into the doctrine of the atonement with him - in wh. He is as sound and believing as you or I - but he is simply out of patience with the bad specimens he has known & with what narrow minded tracts he has read - We returned again & again to this & similar subjects, in this most interesting walk - & he more than once thanked me solemnly. 
Well, to leave this - every mow & then we stopped & admired sometimes the scenery - sometimes bits of loveliness just at our feet - mosses on stones - illustrations of **** facts from the little streams - & the rocks - often he returned to Rhoda - & showed me some bits as she ought to copy minutely from nature, little picturesque groups of moss, fern, grass, flowers, stones, etc. - At last we reached(?) the object of our walk - Goat's water, gloomiest of tarns - with its huge vertical crags - & the wonderfully marked rocks of who. I am rather proud to be the discoverer - Ruskin was in a perfect frenzy of enthusiasm as he went up & down amongst them. It is a vast mass of volcanic rock - move, split & tumbled down in a hundred strange ways with wonderful beauty & picturesqueness - but what is so singular is that a large portion of these rocks are eaten away by time & weather into ridges & furrows - & in other places pitted & honeycombed - at a little distance one might think them inscribed by mysterious characters. Ruskin extraordinary - & that he must go again & again to study the subject. 
The truth seems that this volcanic ash is of unequal hardness at regular show intervals & the weather wears away the soft before the hard - Baxter was set to work hammering & collecting specimens & I think he went home a great deal heavier than he came - I am very much delighted of course, that my discovery is so highly appreciated not only by Ruskin but by the geologists of the Ordnance survey. I expect Ruskin will immortalize my name in connection with this walk.
We returned by the station - wh. Was out of his way, but he seemed not time be tired yet of his new friend - for it really was only yesterday that we began what I hope will be a true & lasting friendship - He said at the end - that he was sincerely glad we had had this walk - for now we understood each other & he was rejoiced that I was not a stiff evangelical. 
"I love Mr Chapman said he - as much as .... I love St Francis of Xavier - but there is no sympathy between us!" We passed most affectionately - he politely lifting his hat - and now I have forgotten to say that we left Rhoda's work at a cottage to pick up on my return - but he requested to be allowed to keep it a little longer - & at my request promised he would write to Rhoda - Won't she be delighted? 
Moreover he really wants to see & know more of us - & as we cannot go this year - we will DV. Keep this as a treat for the girls & Herbert - & you of course their sweet mother - next year. But you and I will see him at Oxford. He clapped me heartily on the shoulder when I said we would go to see him in Nov. But wanted to know if we wd. Not bring out "pretty daughters" with us? I have not told you nearly all - but this must do for dear old Ruskin - whom I now love & value - Six hours alone with Ruskin! 
What would not some people have bought this for? But it is not purchasable - & how thankful I am I had not three ladies with me! Company wd have spoilt it all. I have besides the pleasure of thinking that out conversations was a source of pleasure & gratification to him - I shd tell you he says he is is really thankful though as if for the first time, when a child - 
 

Yours very truly 

(The signature looks like Ruskinian. The handwriting is very clearly that if Rev. F A Malleson). 

The transcription is photo-copied and distributed for the use of 'Friends of Ruskin's Brantwood' by kind permission of the Rev. Michael Malleson who is the owner of the manuscript letter. MJS