:30              WILLIAM    MORRIS
fortunes of the Firm improved with the spread of
Ritualism; owing to which movement commissions for
church decoration were received in great number; Burne-
Jones, Madox Brown and Morris furnishing cartoons for
stained glass, and Morris alone the designs for hangings,
altar-cloths and floor-tiles.
                         The work of the Firm thus
rapidly increasing, and the original workshops in Red
Lion Square, W. C. proving insufficient, the question of
removal became imperative. It was first proposed to make
additions to the Red House at Upton,-so that Burne-
Jones as well as Morris might live there,--and to locate
the new workshops in the vicinity of the beautiful resi-
dence. But this plan was rejected because of the distance
of the place from London, and the difficulty of country
travel in stormy and wintry weather. Then Morris
found himsell forced to choose between giving up the
home, which he had hoped to make the most artistic
house in England, and the alternative of retiring from the
Company into which he had put so much of his best
thought and work. He chose the latter course, and did
further violence to his feelings*by"rentin a house in
Queen Square, Bboomsbury, large enough to serve as
both living place and workshops. From the Red House
he retires in the autumn of 1865; leaving behind him
splendid art-treasures which were too cumbrous for
displacement, or else by their very nature unremovable.
Such were the mural paintings in tempera executed by
Burne-Jones; the sideboard designed by Philip Webb;
and the two great cupboards, the one painted with "The
Marriage of King Rene;" the other with the story of the
Niebefungenlied. The Red House Morris never saw
again, since, as he acknowledged, the experience would
have been too painful for him. The new home in Queen
Square was not altogether without dignity, as it was
situated in the fashionable suburb of the London of Queen
Anne and bore distinct marks of its old-time splendor.