e and yet in their combination make a
music expressive of their sense.' Beginning with the design of the
rose-trellis in 1862, Morris laid under contribution many of the most
familiar flowers and trees. The daisy, the honeysuckle, the willow
branch, are but a few of the best known: each bears the stamp of his
inventive fancy and his cunning hand: each flower claims recognition for
itself, and reveals new charms in its appointed setting. Of these papers
we hear that Morris himself designed between seventy and eighty, and
when we add chintzes, tapestry, and other articles we may well be
astonished at the fertility of his brain.

[Note 53: _William Morris_, by A. Clutton-Brock (Williams and
Norgate, 1914).]

Even so, much must have depended on his workmen as the firm's operations
extended.

Mr. Mackail tells us of the faith which Morris had in the artistic
powers of the average Englishman, if rightly trained. He was ready to
take and train the boy whom he found nearest to hand, and he often
achieved surprising results. His own belief was that a good tradition
once established in the workshops, by which the workman was allowed to
develop his intelligence, would of itself produce good work: others
believed that the successes would have been impossible without the
unique gifts of the master, one of which was that he could intuitively
select the right man for each job.

The material as well as the workers needed this selective power. The
factories of the day had accustomed the public to second-rate material
and second-rate colour, and Morris was determined to set a higher
standard. In 1875 he was absorbed in the production of vegetable dyes,
which he insisted on having pure and rich in tone. Though madder and
weld might supply the reds and yellows which he needed, blue was more
troublesome. For a time he accepted prussian blue, but he knew that
indigo was the right material, and to indigo he gave days of
concentrated work, preparing and watching the vats, dipping the wool
with his own hands (which often bore the stain of work for longer than
he wished), superintending the minutest detail and refusing to be
content with anything short of the best. But these two qualities of
industry and of aiming at a high standard would not have carried him so
far if he had not added exceptional gifts of nature. With him hand and
eye worked together as in few craftsmen of any age; and thus he could
carry his experiments to a successful en