The twenty-third block in the series (numbers corresponding to a list copied from one written by William Morris). Printed with the eigthteenth block on a single sheet: P.12170-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.
"A wise man, dwelling underneath the ground In a dark awful cave: he told us A horrid tale thereof and piteous, That thou wert wedded to an evil thing." William Morris - The Earthly Paradise Quoted by G Uerscheln & M Kalusok p 198