So the family was now complete--papa and mamma, Mary and John and Dash.

One other figure must not be forgotten, Nurse Anne, who had come from the Edinburgh home, and remained always with them, John's nurse and then Mrs.Ruskin's attendant, as devoted and as censorious as any old-style Scotch servant in a story-book.
The year 1829 marked an advance in poetical composition.

For his father's birthday he made a book more elaborate than any, sixteen pages in a red cover, with a title-page quite like print: "Battle of Waterloo | a play | in two acts | with other small | Poems dedicated to his father | by John Ruskin | 1829 Hernhill _( sic)_ Dulwich." To this are appended, among other pieces, fair copies of "Skiddaw," and "Derwentwater." A recast of these, touched up by some older hand, and printed in _The Spiritual Times_ for February, 1830, may be called his first appearance in type.
An illness of his postponed their tour for 1829, until it was too late for more than a little journey in Kent.

He has referred his earliest sketching to this occasion, but it seems likely that the drawings attributed to this year were done in 1831.

He was, however, busy writing poetry.