This satchel belonged to William Morris; he used it to carry books or manuscripts he was reading when commuting to his business in central London . His daughter May Morris, later wrote about how she remembered her father carrying this bag, describing how ‘from the worn brown satchel used for parcel-carrying [he would] produce a modest-looking volume, sometimes protected by a velvet-lined case, sometimes bare, but inside! a fairy-story, a picture-gallery in little of mediaeval life.‘