Page:The Life of William Morris.djvu/754

ÆT. 63] to get hold of the Hucks-Gibbs 'fragment'? Perhaps you can suggest some course of procedure. Come up and talk about it."

Finally, after much debate, Morris wrote to Lord Aldenham explaining the case, and offering him ₤1,000 for the Psalter. He was out of town; and the three days that passed before his answer came were spent by Morris in much agitation. At last the answer came.

"Letter in morning," Morris notes in his diary, "from Lord A., kind and friendly, will let me have the book. Sent Cockerell after it with cheque in afternoon, and it came back at 4: a great wonder."

There were two other books in the exhibition at Burlington House which he coveted as much or even more. One was the famous Apocalypse from the Archbishop's Library at Lambeth, "a book with the most amazing design and beauty in it." This was, of course, unattainable. But the other was in private ownership; it was a Psalter, even finer than Lord Aldenham's, belonging to the Duke of Rutland: "such a book! my eyes! and I am beating my brains to see if I can find any thread of an intrigue to begin upon, so as to creep and crawl toward the possession of it." He entered on negotiations, and offered a much higher sum than he had paid for the Windmill Psalter, but in vain; and this last pleasure was denied him.

For the greater part of June he had been, by medical advice, staying at Folkestone to try the effects of change of air, but without any beneficial result. His nervous prostration had by this time become very great. The news which he learned on the way down to Folkestone of the death of his old friend, John Henry Middleton, completely broke him down. "I did like him very much," he wrote mournfully to Lady Burne-Jones a few days afterwards: "we had a deal to talk about,