The forty-second block in the series (numbers corresponding to a list copied from one written by William Morris). Printed with the thirty-seventh block on a single sheet: P.12178-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.
"Then, pale and full of trouble, Psyche went Bearing the casket, and her footsteps bent To Lacedaemon, and then found her way To Taenarus, and there the golden day." William Morris - The Earthly Paradise Quoted by G Uerscheln & M Kalusok p 230 She drew her sandals off, and to the knee Girt up her gown, and by a willow tree Went down into the water, and but sank Up to the mid-leg therein; but from the ban She scare had gone three steps, before a voice Called out to her, "Stay, Psyche, and rejoice." William Morris - The Earthly Paradise Quoted by G Uerscheln & M Kalusok p 223