The front free end-paper includes the note "This book was painted by Sir Edward Burne Jones, Bt. + given to his friend HM Gaskell". Helen Mary (“May”) Gaskell (1859-1940), daughter of Canon Melville of Worcester Cathedral and wife of Captain Gaskell of the Ninth Lancers, infatuated Burne-Jones from 1892. They were introduced by Frances Horner, hostess and patron of the arts, and between 1892 and 1895 Burne-Jones wrote to her as frequently as five or six times a day. According to Penelope Fitzgerald in her biography of Burne-Jones, “when Morris read aloud his seemingly endless translation of Beowulf, Burne-Jones shut his eyes and thought of Mrs Gaskell” (Penelope Fitzgerald, Edward Burne-Jones, 1975, p.240). May Gaskell would later inaugurate the War Library in September 1914 and became a trustee of the British Red Cross and Order of St John Hospital Library. The printed text has evidently been extracted from another volume. Sotheby's 2006