[3] Chosen for a theological career by Emily, from 21 September 1880[4] he attended Second's House of Lancing College in West Sussex, notably playing the role of Lady Plato in John Baldwin Blackstone's farce A Rough Diamond, before withdrawing from his studies in April 1882.

[6] The practice specialised in church architecture, and Morris's sketchbooks from this time are full of renderings of Norman doorways, fonts and arches from the surrounding villages of Tidmarsh, Purley on Thames, Swallowfield, Silchester, Cholsey, Finchampstead and White Waltham.

From 1891 he took up post as sub art-editor under M. H. Spielmann for Black and White, a new weekly magazine published by Cassell, designing many of its decorative initials and headpieces.,[8] the first of which appeared on 3 October 1891 to illustrate a review of The American by Henry James.

The advert specified "a competent draughtsman well versed in art matters, of some taste in literature, fitted to take charge of the scheming and production of book illustrations and decoration and able to carry on the correspondence concerned therewith".

Whilst working for Blackie and Son, Morris continued to accept freelance commissions, such as mastheads for the popular Cassell periodical Magazine of Art.

[12] Although he never attended the School, Morris soon became friends with Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his contemporaries, and his own work quickly began to incorporate Glasgow Style motifs.

[20] Morris became hugely influential in Victorian book design by moving away from the popular narrative bindings of the time to a more modern Art Nouveau approach where line, curve and decoration are used to entice the reader.

He also designed books for Morison Brothers of Glasgow, Cassell, J. G. Cotta of Stuttgart, J. C. C. Bruns of Minden, F. Volckmar, Mudie's Select Library, and from 1898 the Blackie subsidiary Gresham.

[23] From 1893 Morris designed brass metalwork and textiles for his home Dunglass Castle, and several pieces now reside in the collection of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery.

[25] At the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901, Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed a pavilion for the department store Pettigrew & Stephens, and Morris provided the accompanying poster.

Here a jewelled shoe buckle in copper, and a cloak clasp and waist band in beaten silver were featured[26] In 1901 Morris produced designs for a dining room for Mrs Bruno Schroeder, now in Glasgow Museums.

Also in 1901 he designed a scheme for a remodelled entrance to the Blackie works (at 17 Stanhope Street in the Townhead area of the city and built by Alexander 'Greek' Thomson), which included a pair of wrought iron grilles, swing doors, a stained glass fanlight, and fingerplates in beaten brass.

In 1902 his work was selected for exhibition alongside those of his contemporaries at the influential Prima Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa Moderna held in Turin, at which he sold a beaten metal mirror and received orders for four more.

Around 1903–1904, Morris designed an ink stand in pewter and blue/green enamel for the Tudric range of Liberty & Co. An example is held in the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery.

Designs for an overmantle, dining table, sideboard and bookcase for William Adlington Barrow Cadbury from this time are held in Glasgow Museums.

[31] The inscription reads "Love is more great than we conceive / and death is the keeper of unknown redemptions", taken from the Dominion of Dreams (1899) by Celtic Revival writer Fiona Macleod, a pseudonym of William Sharp.