The letters were written by Burne-Jones between 11 April and 16 May 1863 about the south transept window at Lyndhurst (see [Burne-Jones 1975-1976 catalogue] no. 79 to the incumbent, the Rev. J. Compton. It seems that the original 'prayer' subjects, which Compton chose, were to share the lights with figures of the Evangelists and large areas of decorative work. The effect would have been similar to that of the recently installed east window, with bands of figure compositions imposing a strong overall design. On 11 April Burne-Jones writes to Compton to say that he finds this solution 'admirable'. However, from his next letter (20 April) it appears that Compton has asked for the Evangelists to be scrapped and wants the prayer subjects re-arranged to take up more of the vertical space. This plan was adopted,but not tro the advantage of the window which is fine in detail but lacks the coherence of the east window. The correspondence, which ends with Burne-Jones asking Compton for advice on the iconography of The Martyrdom of St Stephen , one of four 'prayer' themes, is interesting evidence of how a scheme such as Lyndhurst was evolved. It may not, however, be a typical example. Most clients probably allow Morris and his designers to have a freer hand.