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_Cotton
2
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, Ithaca
3
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 reference
5
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 to
8
Refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_disorder
9
“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,
 10
which sold 24,000 copies. A second Letter followed three years later” 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_Cotton
11
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