8 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, i 



in walking with John [Wedgwood] over the works, which 

 gratified me very much. I think Etruria [Hall] altogether a 

 very nice place, much too good for its present inhabitants, 

 and I felt interested in everything I saw there. I imagined 

 it occupied by you and all the Wedgwoods, and how com- 

 fortable it must then have been. The green gate leading 

 from one house to the other, which I had heard so much of 

 from those I loved, immediately caught my attention.' 1 



After his father's death in 1795 Jos and Bessy were more 

 or less wanderers for some years. They lived first at Stoke 

 d'Abernon, in Surrey, and from 1800 1805 at Gunville, in 

 Dorsetshire. He appeared to have trusted the management 

 of the potteries almost entirely to his partner and cousin 

 Mr Byerley, only himself paying occasional visits to Etruria. 



There are but few letters to give in these old days none 

 of any interest till 1798. In that year Kitty and Harriet 

 Ah 1 en had both married. Caroline and Jenny Allen had 

 been married for some years, so that there were four sisters 

 now left at Cresselly Jessie, Octavia, Emma, and Fanny. 



The following letter describes a meeting of Bessy and her 

 two sisters, Jessie and Octavia, with the Mackintoshes at 

 Broadstairs. It must have been the first time she had seen 

 Kitty since her marriage to Mackintosh in April of the same 

 year. Bessy was taking care of Octavia, who was threat- 

 ened with consumption. 



Mrs Josiah Wedgwood to her sister Emma Allen. 



BROADSTAIRS, 17M Oct. [1798]. 



. . . We found Kitty very well and in good spirits as 

 usual. She visits hardly anybody here, which is very 

 prudent. Mr M. still continues the fondest and the best- 

 humoured husband I ever saw. The children 1 are very 

 manageable and the least troublesome of any I ever saw, 

 and what will give you pleasure, I think she makes a very 

 kind and attentive stepmother. Jessie and I have a snug 

 little lodging twenty yards from theirs ; we board with Kitty, 

 and Ocky sleeps in the house with her to avoid the incon- 

 venience of going out of nights. This is our present estab- 



1 His three daughters, Maitland, Mary, and Catherine, by his first 

 Catherine Stuart. 



