further. Four or five years
later there was a plan for an illustrated edition of Love is Enough, for
which two initial L's and seven side ornaments were drawn and engraved
by William Morris. Another marginal ornament was engraved by him from a
design by Sir E. Burne-Jones, who also drew a picture for the
frontispiece, which has now been engraved by W. H. Hooper for the final
page of the Kelmscott Press edition of the work. These side ornaments,
three of which appear on the opposite page, are more delicate than any
that were designed for the Kelmscott Press, but they show that when the
Press was started the idea of reviving some of the decorative features
of the earliest printed books had been long in its founder's mind. At
this same period, in the early seventies, he was much absorbed in the
study of ancient manuscripts, and in writing out and illuminating
various books, including a Horace and an Omar Khayyam, which may have
led his thoughts away from printing. In any case, the plan of an
illustrated Love is Enough, like that of the folio Earthly Paradise, was
abandoned.

Although the books written by William Morris continued to be reasonably
printed, it was not until about 1888 that he again paid much attention
to typography. He was then, and for the rest of his life, when not away
from Hammersmith, in daily communication with his friend and neighbour
Emery Walker, whose views on the subject coincided with his own, and who
had besides a practical knowledge of the technique of printing. These
views were first expressed in an article by Mr. Walker in the catalogue
of the exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, held at the
New Gallery in the autumn of 1888. As a result of many conversations,
The House of the Wolfings was printed at the Chiswick Press at this
time, with a special type modelled on an old Basel fount, unleaded, and
with due regard to proportion in the margins. The title-page was also
carefully arranged. In the following year The Roots of the Mountains was
printed with the same type (except the lower case e), but with a
differently proportioned page, and with shoulder-notes instead of
head-lines. This book was published in November, 1889, and its author
declared it to be the best-looking book issued since the seventeenth
century. Instead of large paper copies, which had been found
unsatisfactory in the case of The House of the Wolfings, two hundred and
fifty copies were printed on Whatman paper