The two letters sent from John Ruskin to Charles Lyell bear no year but can be dated to 1847, when John Ruskin spent several weeks at Leamington Spa for medical treatment and visited Scotland in the fall. There is also a newspaper clipping showing a photograph of Brantwood, near Lake Coniston. Brantwood house was Ruskin's home from 1872 until his death in 1900.

The letter dated 21 July is a response to an invitation: "Your kind letter would have been answered before - if I had not been detained here by [Dr Henry] Jephson's authority - and I am now on parole - nor can I tell when I shall regain my liberty. I did not, consequently, receive your letter until this morning - I have no doubts, however, of being able to wait upon you some day before the end of August - if however I do not recover strength fast enough to be able to fix a time so long before as to be quite sure of not inconveniencing your family, I will not come this season - but shall look forward to some opportunity of a hill ramble with you under more fortunate auspices. Pray return my most sincere thanks to Mr. Lyell for his kind aquiescence in your invitation [...]".

On 2 September Ruskin writes with geological observations from Mount Schiehallion, Perthshire: "I only received your kind note the day before yesterday - then being on the point of writing to you to express to you my regret that I had been detained in Leamington beyond the time when I could hope to have the pleasure of waiting on you. Jephson would not let me stir and I have too much respect and feel too much gratitude towards him ever to vex him by disobedience - though I did fancy that I might recover strength quite as fast on the sandstones of Kirriemuir as of Warwickshire. I am here at last but too late for the fine weather - and - as I dreaded - for my much desired expedition to Kirriemuir. - I have been surprised by the look of the rocks under Schehallein [!] here - there is a strip of gneiss about a quarter of a mile wide - I don't know how long - with many ups and downs, weathered as if it had been a torrent bed for a thousand years - while on each side of it the same rock is quite fresh & hard edged - even more so than is usual on exposed surfaces. - I am really disappointed with the things they call hills here - but the crags & heather, and birch woods are very lovely. [...]"

The letter from John Ruskin to Mary Lyell dated 26 October reads: "It would have given me the very greatest pleasure if I could have waited on you on Thursday - but I have been forbidden - on pain of serious illness, to go out in the evening or subject myself to any kind of excitement, for some months to come. I am at present confining myself to the parish of Dulwich - but I shall call in Harley St. the first time I am in town [...]".

John Ruskin had first met Mary Horner Lyell's husband, Charles Lyell, at the Geological Society in 1837. The letter to Mary Homer Lyell can be dated between 1854 and 1872, as the Lyells only moved to Harley Street in 1854 and Ruskin ultimately left Denmark Hill in 1872.