as common plates and dishes, to the compact ware not requiring glazing, of which he made mortars and other similar articles.  The almost infusible nature of the body allowed him also to employ a thinner and less fusible glaze, that is, one in which no more lead entered than in common flint glass, and therefore incapable of being affected by any articles of food contained or prepared in such vessels.  With these materials, either in their natural white or variously coloured—­black by manganese, blue by cobalt, brown and buff by iron—­he produced imitations of the Etruscan vases, and of various other works of ancient art, such as the world had never before seen—­such as no subsequent artist has ever attempted to rival.  His copies of the Portland vase are miracles of skill; and the other specimens of similar works may give some idea of the many beautiful works that were produced in his manufactory.  In table ware, for many years he led the way almost without a rival; but the immense demand occasioned by the successive improvements of this article, which first put down the use of delft, and then of pewter, gave ample room and encouragement to men of capital and skill to enter the field of profit and competition.  Much good has hence resulted; many subordinate improvements have been effected and are almost daily making; and a new variety of ware, called ironstone, has been invented, and so rapidly and judiciously improved, that, in appearance and in many of its intrinsic properties, it bears a close resemblance to the older and coarser porcelains of China itself.

I shall conclude by a summary account of the manufacture of the best table ware; for a considerable part of which I am indebted to notes taken by Captain Bagnold, when visiting a pottery, inferior, perhaps, to none in the country.

The materials of the Staffordshire ware are calcined flints and clay.  The flints are burnt in kilns, and then, while hot, quenched in water, by which they are cracked through their whole substance.  After being quenched they are ground in mills with water.  The mill is a hollow cylinder of wood bound with hoops, and having a bottom of blocks of chert, a hard, tough, siliceous stone:  the mill-shaft is perpendicular, and has two horizontal arms passing through it cross-wise.  Between these arms are laid loose blocks of chert, which are moved round on the bed-stone as the arms revolve, and thus grind the flint with water to the consistence of cream.

The clay, from Dorsetshire and Devonshire, is mixed with water, and in this state is passed through fine sieves to separate the grosser particles.  The flint and clay are now mixed by measure, and the mud or cream is passed through a sieve in order to render the mixture more complete.