These designs illustrate two of the six narrative panels in The Quest for the Holy Grail tapestries produced in 1890 by Morris & Co. The subject is taken from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, the fifteenth century book about the legend of King Arthur. Along with the writings of Chaucer, this had been one of Morris's favorite medieval works. They were commissioned for the dining room of Stanmore Hall, the home of Australian mining engineer William Knox D'Arcy. To accompany Burne-Jones's six figure panels, Dearle designed an additional set of lower panels of greenery, containing narrative texts for the panels above. The upper panels were intended to hang just under the ceiling molding, so the figures were deliberately elongated to adjust to the viewing perspective. The completed tapestries were about fourteen feet high. The entire set took five years to weave, and additional sets were woven in 1895 and 1898. Together they [Burne-Jones and William Morris] returned to those books about which they were enthusiastic as young men - Malory's Morte d'Arthur and Chaucer ''' one result was ... The Quest for the Holy Grail tapestries. Morris and Company had received a commission from the Australian mining millionaire, W. K. D'Arcy, to furnish his house, Stanmore Hall, near Uxbridge. It had a large dining room and Morris persuaded him to make use of a tapestry to cover the walls. On undertaking to decorate the walls in this way, Morris asked Burne-Jones to draw cartoons for a series based on the Holy Grail legend. The set consisted of five large panels, a smaller one of a ship, and a dado of verdure with knights' shields hanging from the trees. The five scenes were as follows: The Knights of the Round Table summoned to the quest by a strange damsel, The Arming and Departure of the Knights, The Failure of Sir Lancelot, The Failure of Sir Gawaine, The Achievement of Sir Galahad Accompanied by Sir Bors and Sir Percival. The tapestries took a number of years to execute; the first was completed in 1894. Trees once again are used as a means of conveying the peculiarly intense atmosphere, especially in the Failure of Sir Lancelot, where they create a sense of magic unreality. The design of this scene, it is interesting to note, is very similar to Rossetti's version in th Oxford series murals of 1857, although in reverse, and Burne-Jones must have found it more interesting than the others, as he converted this design into a painting of 1896. The finished painting can be seen in Southampton Art Gallery. In Malory's version of the Arthurian Romances, Sit Lancelot is the first of the knights of the Round Table, and in the quest he has glimpses of the Holy grail, but no more, being hindered by his sins.