Morning journal and courier., 1891-02-28


harmonious adaptation to the event. 1t
remains to be proved by trial whether it
has any other merit. HILARY.
MIR. wAKEMAN's JOURNEYINGS.
At Henley, England-The Pottery
Industry - Traced TO Burslem -
For-When Table EarthenWare was
Perfected - Origin OF the Word
ssQueensware.''
HENLEY, England, Feb. 12.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
Statfordshire, the principal seat of the
English potteries, is an inland county, ly-
ing near the center of England. Long
and narrow, something like rhombus in
form, it separates the four midland coun-
ties of Derby, Leicester, Warwick and
Worcestershire, on the east, from the two
important western shires of Cheshire and
Shropshire, and extends north and south,
one-fifth the length of the kingdom.
1t has no great place in history. The
old monks were not attracted to it as a
region in which to build splendid abbeys.
Antiquarians have not found much in it
to wrangle over. 1t has inspired little in
romance and song. No one ever came to
it second time for its beauty. Forbid
ding and unfertile hills merge into fiat
and monotonous meadows in the south
Along its middle reaches are the coal
pits, and the near forges with the dismal
thunderings. In the north, even less
al {han ha harin fha h1aaG
bare elevations of Bunster and Viewer,
the true English moorlands which stretch,
with varying height and dreariness, north
through the entire kingdom, spreading
into the wild and desolate mountain-moors
of Yorkshire, Durham and Northumber-
land, until lost among the mists of Scot
land which sway and sweep above the
mournful Yarrow and murmurous Tweed.
1t has few commonplace streams; one
little lake, measured by yards; and one
river, the Trent, the third in size and e1-
tent in England, though unnavigable,
which springs from little Newpool, near
Biddulph at the edge of Cheshire, flows
southeasterly through the entire shire; but
with never glen to invite legend, nor q
| cascade to make or inspire cong.
Two Roman roads or military ways,
| Waiting street and Icknield street, inter
| secting, cross the shire from east to west.
If you will tramp to the Longwynd hills,
over in Shropshire, you can trace the
trackway worn white and bare to the eter-
nal stone, over which the Romans brought
| supplies of pottery, eighteen hundred
| years ago. from the Severn valley and
Staffordshire to their military stations
south and southwest of ancient Uriconi
um. At least the curious old books will
bravely tell you that is how the huge,
bleached furrow you will see was dug
through the gorse and hare-bells of the
| wild and rlnlovely waste. Better ways
| than these now traverse the shire. Ca
nails gleam along valleys, glisten above via
| ducts and penetrate mountains, making
seaports, of every busy town; and with
the railways they have cut old Stafford
into more curious patterns than a gran
dams "broken- dish" patch quilt.
The shire was once all forest land
That was not long ago. But they asser
in Staffordshire that all these old forests
were felled and the whole shire formerly
made bare, simply to fire the old-fash
ioned ovens. Out of these came the tygs
posset-cups and pots of the Roman time
when huge, strong mugs were good enougl
for drinking purposes, the Delft, pitcher
and porringers of the Norman period
down to even those marvellous achieve
ments of the Wedgwood time, when tn
priceless Barbereni, or Portland, vase wa
not only duplicated but excelled in fift
wondrozs copies. Then came the era o
coal and clay in Staffordshire, or NOR
properly speaking of Wedgwood, clay anC
coal. Somebody has computed that yo
could walk on crockery over all the area o
, Staffordshire, which comprises about sey
, | en- hundred and ninety thousand acres O
, land, if all that ever went out of the shir
could be brought back and set down piec
by piece within it. But without one pr
meval tree, and with room for but fey
others save in parks and demesnes of tn
nobility and potter gentry, Stafordshir
: is still forest; in the south and center
, mighty forest of chimneys where coal an
, iron endlessly burn and fuse and pollut
the land from flaming caverns at the fee
: | of xleviathan tree-trunks of brick, troI
j.. whose tops overspreading arms of smok
3 wheel and turn with the wind, and th
. blessed sunlight rarely filters throug
3 their thick and sulphurous pall-ike fol
age. In the north, still forest of chin
l neys in the pottery district 30 dense, hel
4 with the great ovens at their feet lookin
4 like monstrous ten-pins of giants, tina
! standing in the tower of the old church 1
1 Henley, the metropolis of the potterie
9 through the stacks of Turnstall, Burslen
. Milton, Bucknall, Longton, Stoke-ol
1 Trent, Henford, Lane End, Penkhul
: Newcastle and Etruria, you cannot clear
a define in half dozen tiny spots the DIRE
8 ry horizon-line.
: This hideous transformation, out
= which such vast utilitarian stores ar
9 countless articles of beauty have com
s has been the work of little more than
y century. Pottery work of three hundre
g years ago can be definitely traced to Bur
= lem. The town was then known as a bu
ter pottery, that is, a pottery where po
9 for keeping butter were made. Then
1920 along came two ingenious Hollande
II named Eler. They introduced a new for
d of glaze secured by superficial vitrifcatit
g of the clay through the superheated fun
IS of common salt. The Elers also broug
Ie to Stafford the unglazed red China meth
r from the east. This was all very wonds
le full for that time, but by and by viii
g ware made its appearance through an ac
ID dental discovery. On a journey to Lo
y don one of the Burslem potters had po
ID dered flint recommended by an inn-ht
|
to more easily pulverize it flint stone W
e. thrown into the fire. The potter saw tt
I'd the fame changed it to pure whi
1T Flint stones were gathered in the south
is England, sent to Staffordshire in lar
quantities, mixed with tobacco pipe els
and pure white stoneware was produce
n The crushing and grinding mills for p
- verizing flint, mixing it like -four WI
C. water, and serving it in paste Of any
as sired consistency, were only matter
ut time. Then, in 1853, Josiah Wedgwo
n. perfected earthenware for the table
z whose first delicate cream color is SO
q, tractive to collectors-which so pleas
r. the queen that she gave to it her name a
,e- parsonage. The word Queen was stamp
he in all these dishes. Hence "Queenswal
of that and the present time. Followi
in this came the most brilliant career ever I
fit loved by manufacturer. The story res
1T like an Arabian Nights tale. This {
tie man Wedgwood, not a learned man fr
lg- the collegiate standard, a cripple throug
en- malignant disease in youth, and net {
who had inherited prestige or substan
be seemed TO possess the audacious origin