an artist--cared more for places and things
than for people; and his interest was in the work of art itself, not in
the personality of the artist.

Quite unlike as was Morris to Scott in temper and mental endowment, his
position in the romantic literature of the second half-century answers
very closely to Scott's in the first. His work resembled Scott's in
volume, and in its easiness for the general reader. For the second time
he made the Middle Ages _popular_. There was nothing esoteric in his
art, as in Rossetti's. It was English and came home to Englishmen. His
poetry, like his decorative work, was meant for the people, and
"understanded of the people." Moreover, like Scott, he was an
accomplished _raconteur_, and a story well told is always sure of an
audience. His first volume, "The Defence of Guenevere" (1858), dedicated
to Rossetti and inspired by him, had little popular success. But when,
like Millais, he abandoned the narrowly Pre-Raphaelite manner and
broadened out, in "The Life and Death of Jason" (1867) and "The Earthly
Paradise" (1868-70), into a fashion of narrative less caviare to the
general, the public response was such as met Millais.

Morris' share in the Pre-Raphaelite movement was in the special field of
decorative art. His enthusiasm for Gothic architecture had been aroused
at Oxford by a reading of Ruskin's chapter on "The Nature of Gothic" in
"The Stones of Venice." In 1856, acting upon this impulse, he articled
himself to the Oxford architect G. E. Street, and began work in his
office. He did not persevere in the practice of the profession, and
never built a house. But he became and remained a _connoisseur_ of
Gothic architecture and an active member of the Society for the
Protection of Ancient Buildings. His numerous visits to Amiens,
Chartres, Reims, Soissons, and Rouen were so many pilgrimages to the
shrines of mediaeval art. Indeed, he always regarded the various
branches of house decoration as contributory to the master art,
architecture.

A little later, under the dominating and somewhat overbearing persuasions
of Rossetti, he tried his hand at painting, but never succeeded well in
drawing the human face and figure. The figure designs for his stained
glass, tapestries, etc., were usually made by Burne-Jones, Morris
furnishing floriated patterns and the like. In 1861 was formed the firm
of Morris & Company, which revolutionised English household decoration.
Rossetti and B