Kelmscott Manor

 From Victoria:

Surrounded by a higgledy-piggledy fence and all manner of cottage-garden flora, the gray limestone farmhouse known as Kelmscott Manor was once the home of British textile designer William Morris and his family. Though Morris received much acclaim for his work throughout his life, his exceptionally talented daughter May more often than not lived in her father’s shadow. She eventually took over his business, Morris & Co., but it is only in recent years that her design genius and needlework expertise have received the recognition they deserve.

 While growing up at Kelmscott Manor, May was surrounded by ample artistic and advocative inspiration. Not only was William a designer and a leader in the British Arts and Crafts movement, he was a poet, writer, and social activist. His wife, Jane, was an accomplished seamstress, and renowned artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti shared the family’s home. A portrait of May and her older sister, Jenny, painted by Rossetti, hangs to the right of the fireplace in the Panelled Room, where the Morris girls were schooled by their mother. (Read more.)