These are the two things with which, perhaps you are most surprised,--his dress and manner of speaking--both of which (the white waistcoat notwithstanding) are eminently clerical.

You naturally expect, in one so independent, a manner free from conventional restraint, and an utterance, whatever may be the power of voice, at least expressive of a strong individuality; and you find instead a Christ Church man of ten years' standing, who has not yet taken orders; his dress and manner derived from his college tutor, and his elocution from the chapel-reader." The lectures were a summing up, in popular form, of the chief topics of Ruskin's thought during the last two years.

The first (November 1) stated, with more decision and warmth than part of his audience approved, his plea for the Gothic Revival, for the use of Gothic as a domestic style.

The next lecture, given three days later, went on to contrast the wealth of ornament in mediaeval buildings with the poor survivals of conventionalized patterns which did duty for decoration in nineteenth-century "Greek" architecture; and he raised a laugh by comparing a typical stonemason's lion with a real tiger's head, drawn in the Edinburgh zoological gardens by Mr.Millais.
The last two lectures, on November 15 and 18, were on Painting; briefly reviewing the history of landscape and the life and aims of Turner; and finally, Christian art and Sincerity in imagination, which was now put forth as the guiding principle of Pre-Raphaelitism.
Public opinion was violently divided over these lectures; and they were the cause of much trouble at home.

The fact of his lecturing at all aroused strong opposition from his friends and remonstrances from his parents.