Faugh, wie es stinckt! I can't bring out,
With all, a picture fit to see.
My bladders burst; my oils are out--
And then, what's all the work about?"

After a few lessons he could rival Mary when they went for their summer
excursion. He set to work at once at Sevenoaks to draw cottages; at
Dover and Battle he attempted castles. It may be that these first
sketches are of the pre-Runciman period; but the Ruskins made the round
of Kent in 1831, and though the drawings are by no means in the master's
style, they show some practice in using the pencil.

The journey was extended by the old route, conditioned by business as
before, round the South Coast to the West of England, and then into
Wales. There his powers of drawing failed him; moonlight on Snowdon was
too vague a subject for the blacklead point but a hint of it could be
conveyed in rhyme:

"Folding like an airy vest,
The very clouds had sunk to rest;
Light gilds the rugged mountain's breast,
Calmly as they lay below;
Every hill seemed topped with snow,
As the flowing tide of light
Broke the slumbers of the night."

Harlech Castle was too sublime for a sketch, but it was painted with
the pen:

"So mighty, so majestic, and so lone;