The record of St. George's Guild has had to tell, if of some suggestive experiments on a small scale, yet in the practical sphere of a generous failure. That of St. George's Museum is the story of a considerable success; and, after all, it was to the work of the Museum that Ruskin personally devoted himself. “ There are thousands of men in England,” he says, “able to conduct our business affairs better than I, when once they see it their duty to do so,” but “ I do not believe there is another man in England able to organise our elementary lessons in Natural History and Art.”. The St. George's Museum at Sheffield, though falling far short of what he hoped to make of it, is certainly one of the most interesting and characteristic of Ruskin's Works.

The establishment of the Museum at Sheffield was largely due to an old pupil of Ruskin's at the Working Men's College, Mr. Henry Swan. He had settled at Walkley, and at his invitation Ruskin went down to Sheffield to meet a small representative body of working men. He was so charmed with them, and they with him, that he determined to make Sheffield the site of the first Museum of the St. George's Guild.