Edward Burne-Jones was born at Birmingham in 1833. Intending to
take orders, a meeting with Rossetti at Oxford changed his
course, as it did William Morriss, who likewise fell under
Rossettis spell. These three were destined to bring a new and
lovely note into English art, the Pre-Raphaelitism. As a
designer he had the copiousness of the great artists of the
past; he was designer of tapestries, stained glass windows,
mosaic and illustrations for books. Burne-Joness world was a
world of fairy, a dim, refuge where maidens of a haunting
loveliness wander by quiet mill-ponds and dark woods, or sleep,
hemmed in by thick briars, with knights slumbering at their
feet.