May Morris: art and life. New perspectives. Edited by Lynn Hulse. 230mm. Pp 253, 94 ills. Friends of the William Morris Gallery, London, 2017. isbn 9781910885529. £20 (pbk).

Norwood (‘Brown’ – no Capability here –might have been responsible for the fashion for them); an admiration for Scottish traditions, in this case for the dignified monuments in Grey Friars kirkyard in Edinburgh (Jacobean) and at St Michael’s, Dumfries (recent); a fascination with efficient gadgetry, here rotating biers with rollers and a vehicle called Mr Jukes’ Truck-Hearse, which extends to details such as handles and hinges; and detailed lists of appropriate plants and shrubs as a coda. But what marks this publication out is Loudon’s anger at the ‘disgusting’ state of mass burials in a single grave. He refers directly to the revolting practice then commonplace in town churches, of piling corpse upon corpse either outside or within stinking catacombs, to the extent that they sometimes reached a level higher than the floor of the church. On a trip across eastern Europe in the wake of the Napoleonic wars he had seen repellent sights involving desecrated corpses; here he repeats time after time that there must remain ’ of earth between each burial, forever. Of particular interest is his detailed specification for the design of a cemetery in Cambridge, the closest executed to his own design, and still in existence in recognisable form. Loudon states that the cemetery curator ought to be a man of intelligence and cultivated feelings: was he thinking wistfully of himself? Curl’s long essay provides an invaluable, authoritative introduction both to the writer and to this work. It is rather more than a facsimile of Loudon’s final book, because the original edition was printed in tiny letters and on poor quality paper. This, by contrast, is a very finely produced publication, slightly enlarged, clear and sharp, and between cloth covers with gold foil blocking.