The forty-fifth block in the series (numbers corresponding to a list copied from one written by William Morris). Printed with the twenty-fourth block on a single sheet: P.12181-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.
"But midmost of that water did arise A dead man, pale, with ghastly staring eyes That somewhat like her father still did seem, But in such wise as figures in a dream." William Morris - The Earthly Paradise Quoted by G Uerscheln & M Kalusok p 238 "At what she saw; for there before her lay The very Love brighter than the dawn of day; And as he lay there smiling, her own name His gentle lips in sleep began to frame." William Morris - The Earthly Paradise Quoted by G Uerscheln & M Kalusok p 200