 At the college , Morris met fellow first @-@ year undergraduate Edward Burne @-@ Jones , who became his lifelong friend and collaborator . Although from very different backgrounds , they found that they had a shared attitude to life , both being keenly interested in Anglo @-@ Catholicism and Arthurianism . Through Burne @-@ Jones , Morris joined a group of undergraduates from Birmingham who were studying at Pembroke College : William Fulford , Richard Watson Dixon , Charles Faulkner , and Cormell Price . They were known among themselves as the " Brotherhood " and to historians as the Birmingham Set . Morris was the most affluent member of the Set , and was generous with his wealth toward the others . Like Morris , the Set were fans of the poet Alfred , Lord Tennyson , and would meet together to recite the plays of William Shakespeare . 
