That "something" may best be told, I believe, by excerpts from letters written to a Company executive, in April and May 1931, by B.R., who then was in London:
"... In an odd hour I got to playing about with some of the Cleland ornaments, cutting them out of a specimen and pasting them into a design which finally evolved itself into several amusing compositions. Later on it occurred to me that you might be able to use them in some piece....
"Having only a limited number of proofs, and no slugs whatever, I was able to work out the idea in only the roughest fashion—not fit to show anyone—but the principal one of the designs is for a page heading ... or the elements composing it could be used singly—as tail pieces, initial letters, etc.
"This probably is an impractical idea Additional proofs of the Cleland ornaments were sent immediately to Mr. Rogers in London. With them he made eight designs, cutting the proofs and pasting the ornaments to show the desired effect. This tree, for instance, was used on the title page of the Barnacles insert:
