The great alluvial flat, broadening on either hand, with
low wooded heights, "not ill-designed," as Morris said, to the
south. Then came a winding cross-track, and presently I drew near
to a straggling village, every house of which had some charm and
quality of style, with here and there a high gabled dovecot, and
its wooden cupola, standing up among solid barns and stacks. Here
was a tiny and inconspicuous church, with a small stone belfry; and
then the road pushed on, to die away among the fields. But there,
at the very end of the village, stood the house of which we were in
search; and it was with a touch of awe, with a quickening heart,
that I drew near to a place of such sweet and gracious memories, a
place so dear to more than one of the heroes of art.
One comes to the goal of an artistic pilgrimage with a certain
sacred terror; either the place is disappointing, or it is utterly
unlike what one anticipates. I knew Kelmscott so well from
Rossetti's letters, from Morris's own splendid and loving
description, from pictures, from the tales of other pilgrims, that
I felt I could not be disappointed; and I was not.
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