The forty-third block in the series (numbers corresponding to a list copied from one written by William Morris). Printed with the fifth block on a single sheet: P.12179-R(b). The blocks were cut c.1868-8, but these proofs were probably printed in the 1880s. Sheet has two "Primrose" watermarks. Around fifty of the designs for Morris's poems, "The Earthly Paradise", were cut as woodblocks by William Morris, George Campfield, Elizabeth Burden and George Wardle, though Morris later abandoned the project. According to a list copied from one made by William Morris, which lists the titles and block cutter's names, the set owned by the Fitzwilliam is incomplete. J.R. Holliday also owned a bound volume containing 86 studies for illustrations to 'The Story of Cupid and Psyche' and a collection of tracings of the designs, which he bequeathed to Birmingham Art Gallery.
"She came upon three women in a shed Busily weaving, who cried: "Daughter, leave The beaten road a while, and as we weave Fill thou our shuttles with these endless threads, For here our eyes are sleepy, and our heads."" William Morris - The Earthly Paradise Quoted by G Uerscheln & M Kalusok p 234 "For hear thy doom! a rugged rock there is Set back a league from thine own palace fair, There leave the maid, that she may wait the kiss Of the fell monster that doth harbour there." William Morris - The Earthly Paradise Quoted by G Uerscheln & M Kalusok p 164