the beginning of the year. The set were for the last time all together; Fulford, who had taken his degree a year before and had for a time been teaching in a school at Wimbledon, having returned to Oxford, and Heeley being also there for a considerable part of the term. During this term, too, Morris found a new occupation for his busy fingers. A volume of poems by William Allingham, entitled "Day and Night Songs," had just appeared, containing a woodcut from a drawing by Rossetti. Writing to his mother in this year Rossetti speaks of "Allingham's new Collection of Poems, where there are some illustrations by Hughes, one by Millais, and one which used to be by me till it became the exclusive work of Dalziel, who cut it. I was resolved to cut it out, but Allingham would not, so I can only wish Dalziel had the credit as well as the authorship." To Allingham himself he wrote of it with equal dismay, speaking of a "stupid preconceived notion about intended 'severity' in the design" on the part of the engraver, "which has resulted in an engraving as hard as a nail, and yet flabby and vapid to the last degree." Severity, in the noblest sense, the design possesses as one element of its beauty. Both Morris and Burne-Jones pored over it continually. The latter wrote of it as "I think the most beautiful drawing for an illustration I have ever seen": and Morris at once set to work at drawing on wood and cutting the designs himself.
Entries in Price's diary show the progress of the magazine meanwhile.
"Nov. 6. After Hall to Faulkner's where I helped Top to concoct a letter to the publishers.
"Nov. 17. Evening to Dixon's: Solemn conclave as to the form title &c. of the coming Mag. Ultimately decided on 72 pages monthly.
