lection, among other examples, a fine "tortoiseshell plate" and a small "cauliflower jug," which have passed into my hands from the present aged descendant of Uriah Sutton, who is named in more than one place in the document just referred to as being "hired" by Whieldon. The tortoiseshell ware is beautifully mottled, sometimes by the rich, reddish brown colour, which belongs to the original, and at other times by a fine green, or deep purplish tinge. The glaze is invariably good, and the potting itself of thoroughly good quality. In my own collection is a jardiniere of this kind of ware, of large size, and of excellent design. In the accompanying engraving are shown two of these remarkably

fine plates-the centre octagonal one measuring in its largest diameter fifteen and a half inches-a small green flower jug," and an imitation agate knife-haft, from my own collection. These are all highly characteristic examples of the manufacture of this period.

I have it from excellent authority that as early as 1745when only in his fifteenth year-Josiah Wedgwood had begun to make a few trial articles of that improved kind of ware which afterwards obtained for him the distinction of "Queen's Potter," and for the ware itself that of "Queen's Ware;" and these trials and improvements he continued to

make and to carry on during the remaining years of his servitude, and afterwards until he brought it to perfection. Whieldon, however, it seems, doing a large business in his own peculiar wares, did not care to embark much on the "new-fangled ways" of his young partner, although he evidently fell into some of those ways in a very profitable

manner.

In 1754-the year in which he became the partner of Whieldon-Josiah Wedgwood, after many patient trials, succeeded in producing his admirable green glaze, and this invention did more, it is believed, to augment the already rising fortune of Whieldon than any other ware did. Whieldon in the end acquired a large fortune by his trade, and in 1786 was High Sheriff of the county of Stafford.

In 1759, the term of five years, for which he had by agreement become the partner of Thomas Whieldon, expired, and Josiah Wedgwood immediately returned to his native place, Burslem, with the full determination of prosecuting his own favourite pursuits, and of bringing the schemes and the experiments he had so long tried to a successful issue. Here, at twenty-nine years of age, he commenced business entirely on his own account, and soon showed to the world, not only the extraordinary capacity of his ever active mind, but the extreme skill, intelligence, and taste which he brought to bear on every branch of his native and chosen art.

On his first returning to Burslem, Wedgwood, for a time, I believe, occupied the old pot-work at the Churchyard, where he had been born and apprenticed, and here, untrammelled by partners with views adverse to his own, and by the surroundings of jealous and watchful eyes, he set himself earnestly to the work of improvement his whole heart had longed for, and took leisure to carry on his grand design of raising the potter's art above its then standard of excellence, and of successfully rivalling in earthenware not only the more costly productions of foreign countries of his day, but those of long past ages. Here he was so eminently

successful that he soon found himself obliged to extend his operations, and he entered on a pot-work nearer to the centre of the town, and within a stone's throw of the works of his cousins, Thomas and John Wedgwood, to whom the premises belonged.

This, the second pot-work occupied by him, with the house belonging to it, and which was called the "Ivy House,' from the fact of its being covered with ivy, was situated where the butchers' shambles now stand, the old buildings having been purchased by the market commissioners, and taken down for the erection of the present market in 1835. The "Ivy House," with the pot-works belonging to it; are shown in the engraving on the next page, from a sketch kindly furnished to me by the oldest member of the Wedgwood family.* These premises belonged to Thomas and John Wedgwood, of the "Big House," to whom Josiah became tenant, covenanting by written agreement to pay for the house and the pot-work attached to it the yearly rent of ten pounds-a rent which, in those days, when Burslem was but a village, and when its pot-works were scattered about the almost waste lands, might be deemed good, but which, at the present day, for similar premises, would have to be multiplied by at least ten, before a tenant could have possession.

The "IVY HOUSE "and works were situated nearly in the centre of the town, or rather village, of Burslem. The premises stood at the corner of what was then, as long afterwards, known as Shoe Lane, or Shore Lane, now called Wedgwood Street, which at that time was a narrow way, only wide enough for a single cart to pass along, and as rough and uneven as well could be. The visitor to Burslem who desires to know exactly the site of this historically interesting house should stroll up to the fine modern-built shambles, or

Mr. Aaron Wedgwood, of Bur-lem, an artist of very considerable talent, and a most worthy man, who is lineally descended from Aaron Wedgwood, who, with William Littler, was the first maker of china in the district. Mr. Wedgwood's father, too, was a clever modeller and painter.

"butchery," as it is sometimes called, and while he stands at the corner facing down Swan Square, he may rest assured that he is standing on what was the little enclosed garden in front of Wedgwood's house; that the outer wall of the building at his back goes diagonally across the house from corner to corner, one half being under the shambles and the other where the street now is; that the site of one of the kilns is just beneath the centre of the shambles, and that another kiln was about the middle of the present street at his back; the surrounding workshops being partly where the street now is, and partly where the building at present stands.

The "Ivy House," so called, as I have said, because it was covered with a profusion of ivy, might originally have been roofed with thatch or mud, like the other buildings of the district, but it was afterwards tiled, as shown in the engraving. In front was a small garden enclosed with a low wall, and a brick pathway led from the gate to the doorway. The front faced the open space called the "Green Bank," where the village children played to their heart's content among the clay and shards which, even in those days, had no doubt usurped the place of the "green" grass from which it took its name. Adjoining the house was a low, half-timbered, thicklythatched building, afterwards known as the "Turk's Head,” and beyond this again was the maypole, on "Maypole Bank," of which I have before spoken, and which stood on the site now occupied by the Town Hall. At the opposite side of the house from the "Turk's Head" was a gateway leading into the yard of the works, which made up one side of Shoe Lane, the pot-works of John and Thomas Wedgwood, with which these were connected, being on the opposite side of the lane, where some of the buildings are now occupied by Messrs. Harley and Dean. These works and house have the reputation of being the first roofed with tiles in the district-the usual roofing being thatch, or, oftener still, mud.

The Ivy House and Works Josiah Wedgwood rented, as I ve stated, from his relatives, John and Thomas Wedg