of about the same size as the
paper of the ordinary copies. A small stock of this paper remained over,
and in order to dispose of it seventy-five copies of the translation of
the Gunnlaug Saga, which first appeared in the Fortnightly Review of
January, 1869, and afterwards in Three Northern Love Stories, were
printed at the Chiswick Press. The type used was a black-letter copied
from one of Caxton's founts, and the initials were left blank to be
rubricated by hand. Three copies were printed on vellum. This little
book was not however finished until November, 1890.

[Illustration: Ornaments designed and engraved for Love is Enough.]

Meanwhile William Morris had resolved to design a type of his own.
Immediately after The Roots of the Mountains appeared, he set to work
upon it, and in December, 1889, he asked Mr. Walker to go into
partnership with him as a printer. This offer was declined by Mr.
Walker; but, though not concerned with the financial side of the
enterprise, he was virtually a partner in the Kelmscott Press from its
first beginnings to its end, and no important step was taken without his
advice and approval. Indeed, the original intention was to have the
books set up in Hammersmith and printed at his office in Clifford's Inn.
It was at this time that William Morris began to collect the mediaeval
books of which he formed so fine a library in the next six years. He had
made a small collection of such books years before, but had parted with
most of them, to his great regret. He now bought with the definite
purpose of studying the type and methods of the early printers. Among
the first books so acquired was a copy of Leonard of Arezzo's History of
Florence, printed at Venice by Jacobus Rubeus in 1476, in a Roman type
very similar to that of Nicholas Jenson. Parts of this book and of
Jenson's Pliny of 1476 were enlarged by photography in order to bring
out more clearly the characteristics of the various letters; and having
mastered both their virtues and defects, William Morris proceeded to
design the fount of type which, in the list of December, 1892, he named
the Golden type, from The Golden Legend, which was to have been the
first book printed with it. This fount consists of eighty-one designs,
including stops, figures, and tied letters. The lower case alphabet was
finished in a few months. The first letter having been cut in Great
Primer size by Mr. Prince, was thought too large, and 'English' was the
size r