Down with Effie
SIR,—In his article 'Down with Effie' (January 20), Dr Roy Strong says that Ruskin was 'usefully declared impotent' to facilitate the annulment of his marriage, but recent books, published about the marriage, leave no doubt that Ruskin was impotent and his marriage with Effie Gray was never con- summated. The doctor's evidence at the hearing of the case was decisive.
During the honeymoon Effie listened night after night to her husband's eloquent explanations for not consummating the marriage, which ranged from hatred of children to his eagerness to preserve her beauty, seasoned with references to the Scriptures. He allayed her growing perturbation by assuring her that he would consummate the marriage when she was twenty-five. She was then twenty.
But by the time Effie was twenty-five, Ruskin, in his own words, could not endure her and did not mind if she was ill or well.
W. M. JAMES (one of Effie's grandsons) Wynd House, Elie, Fife
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