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348 guishable laughter, you very nearly dropped me in. What pleasant old times those were.

"With all good wishes and renewed thanks, "I am yours very truly, "."

On the 8th of September, with some difficulty, he dictated the last dozen lines of "The Sundering Flood" to Mr. Cockerell, and seemed to find relief in having been able to bring it to a conclusion. The last letter he had been able to write himself was one of a few lines to Lady Burne-Jones, who was at Rottingdean, on the 1st of September. "Come soon," it ends, "I want a sight of your dear face."

During his absence two more books had been issued from the Kelmscott Press. One of them, "Laudes Beatæ Mariæ Virginis," consisted of a series of Latin poems to the Virgin, from an English Psalter of the early thirteenth century which was one of the manuscripts in his own possession, and one of extreme beauty as regards both writing and ornament. For the first time he had, in this beautiful little volume, tried the experiment of printing in three colours. The result was entirely successful, and the effect of the red was much enhanced by the fine blue which he used as the third colour. The other book was the first volume of a sumptuous eight-volume edition of "The Earthly Paradise." A second volume was issued in September. The remaining six, all of which include borders and half borders specially designed by him and not used in any other book, were completed and issued after his death. In these posthumous volumes, however, there are three borders which had been designed in Morris's manner by Mr. Catterson-Smith; these being the only instances of any letter, border,