This volume contains (I.) various Memoranda, Reports, Accounts, and other Papers relating to St. George's Guild; (II.) Catalogues of the Museum at Sheffield, formed in connexion with the Guild; and, in an Appendix, various Letters, Reports, Speeches, and other matter relating to one or other of the foregoing subjects. Ruskin's writings in connexion with the Guild have never before been brought together; whilst the principal contents of the Museum are now for the first time catalogued in a complete form, and a large number of the works of art are reproduced. The catalogue includes notes by Ruskin hitherto unpublished.

The story of St. George's Guild is, in part, a study in Utopia, and, in part, a record of things actually done. This double aspect of the Guild has already been noted in the Introduction to Fors Clavigera, and it should be borne in mind by readers of the present volume. Ruskin, as we have seen, disclaimed any idea of founding a model community under his personal direction. He threw out suggestions which he hoped to see taken up by others, and he amused himself by elaborating details for such an ideal community as he had conceived in his mind.