DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK was born in Staffordshire, England,
in 1826. She won her fame as a writer of novels, of which the best
is "John Halifax, Gentleman." She died in 1887.

WILLIAM MORRIS was born in Walthamstow, March 24, 1834. He
was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. Before he was thirty years
old he founded an establishment for the manufacture of artistic
materials for household decoration. His work in this direction has
improved the beauty of all household fabrics, and has affected the
taste in household art in both England and America. Nevertheless
he is best known as a poet. His finest poems are "The Earthly
Paradise," a series of Norse legends, "Three Northern Stones,"
translated from Icelandic poems, and his translations of "The
Odyssey." He died in 1896.

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE was born in London, April 5, 1837.
He was educated partly in France, at Eton, and at Balliol College,
Oxford. He left the University without a degree to spend several
years in travel. He is a master of English, using a wider vocabulary
than any of his contemporaries, and the musical effects of his many
varied meters have won for him a unique position in poetry. He has
been called "the greatest metrical inventor in English literature."
His works in French and Latin show him to be a poet in three
languages. His best-known works are "Poems and Ballads," "Songs
before Sunrise," and "Mary Stuart." He is the greatest living
English poet.

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI was born in London, May 12, 1828. He
studied art in the antique school of the Royal Academy, and became