John Ruskin held a special place among the friends and mentors of the young Burne-Jones. In 1863 he was thinking of moving abroad, but Burne-Jones urged him to find a house in England instead and, as an inducement, designed a set of embroidered hangings for it. The set was based on Chaucer's stories of faithful and self-sacrificing wives and lovers, "The Legend of Goode Wimmen," with Dido, Cleopatra, Ariadne, and the others embroidered among daisies and roses round the room (fig. 8). It would be, he told Ruskin, "the sweetest and costliest room in all the world." 12 About i860 William Morris had designed similar embroidered hangings for the walls of his drawing room at Red House, with heroines from history and legend; Jane Morris, Georgiana Burne-Jones, and others embroidered some of the figures, but the scheme was never completed.
A preliminary sketch for the embroidered wall hangings designed for John Ruskin in the autumn of 1863. Burne-Jones described the design to Ruskin: 'The ground therof will be green cloth or serge, and a fence of roses will run all along behind the figures, about half-way up them, these roses to be cabbage and dog, red and white. All the ground will be powdered with daisies- only where Dido, Hypsipile, and Medea and Ariadne come there will be sea instead of grass, and shells instead of daisies. First will come Chaucer, looking very frightened according to the poem, and inditing the poem with a thrush ypon his shoulder-then comes Love, a little angry, bringing Alcestis; Chaucer in black, Love in red and white, and Alcestis in green.Then a tree and a vision of ladies begins, all to have scrolls with their name...'Various names on the drawing may refer to women involved in the embroidery process, including Lucy Faulkner. The sketch on the front is incomplete and is continued on the verso. Handwritten inscription in pencil. Instructions written in the hand of the artist; '[Chaucer]: Annie/ Imago Poete/ brown/ all roses red; [Amor]: white/Imago Amoris/ George/ yellow crown & white headdress; [Alcestis]: green/Imago Alcestis; [Cleopatra]: looms to be aligned/Freddy/a crown on her head [crossed out]/ a crown in her hand & ground full of asps at her feet - feet blue/ Imago Cleopatras AE MA/ white & gold; [Thisbe]: Imago Tisbe [sic] Babylonis Martyris/ Evelyn/ lining to Cleopatra/ this star is silver/ silver thread/ red & white [crossed out]/ blue/ Pyramus/ mulberry; [Dido]: these sparks to be in gold thread/ olive & [crossed out]/ white & gold; [Hypsiphile]: Ariadne left blue/ Hypsiphiles/ have at this Jason/ Lucy/ white; [Medea]: blue/ shawl round her head/ have at this Jason; [Ariadne]: Theseus/ red & white/ Amy/ a row of stars & vine leaves/ crown of gold at her feet/ Ariadne; [Lucretia]: for L's hood there is a good design in note Book A/ Lucrece/ with a white headdress & short sleeves/ Emma/ white/ holding dress; [Philomela]: Philomene/ lining to Lucrece/ Dora/ blue VERSO (sketch continued): almond tree/ a leaf with a bloom on it/ Marie/ these to change places [crossed out]/ Hypermnestra/ white/ Mrs Henniker [crossed out]/ Phyllis/ blue/ Mary/ black & gold/ queen white// Merciful Knight// the figures to be white Chaucer and King & Queen [illegible]' Purchased and presented by subscribers, 1903.