30 Transactions of the 



question is pretty obvious. Tiie abundant and almost inexhaust- 

 ible supply of clay and coal upon the spot, and the inland situa- 

 tion of the district, which contributed to render labour cheap, 

 combined to fix and establish this important branch of commerce 

 where it had been so successfully commenced. The measures or 

 strata by which the beds of coal are divided consist most com- 

 monly of clays of different kinds, some of which make most 

 excellent fire-bricks for building potters' kilns in which the ware 

 is fired. Finer clays of various colours and textures are likewise 

 plentiful in many places, most of them near the surface of the 

 earth ; and of these the bodies of the wares used were formerly 

 to be manufactured. The coals also in those days obtained were 

 plentiful and cheap. 



Dr Plott, in his " History of the Staffordshire Potteries," 

 written 1686, says that coals were sold as low as twopence the 

 horseload, which at eight horseloads a ton (the usual estimation) 

 amounts to only Is. 4d. a ton. In 1795, we find the price of 

 coals in the same neighbourhood to be 4s, or 5s. a ton ; while 

 now, by a gradual rise, a ton of coal cannot be purchased for 

 less than ten shillings. When coal was first obtained, it was 

 only necessary to remove the clay and soil which covered it. 

 The " Potteries" is a name applied to several townships extending 

 in a continual line for some seven miles in length, all in the 

 parish of Stoke-on-Trent, of which Barsland is the ancient seat 

 of the pottery. It is somewhere denominated a hutter pottery, 

 which appellation I will presently explain. 



There are different sorts of clay — 1, Bottle clay, of a bright 

 whitish - streaked yellow colour ; 2, hard fire-clay, of a duller 

 whitish colour, and interspersed with a dark yellow, which they 

 use for the black wares ; 3, being mixed with the red blending 

 clay which covered it ; 4, white clay, so called, it seems, because, 

 though of a bluish colour, it is used for making yellow-coloured 

 ware. Yellow is the lightest colour of whicli they make any 

 ware. * All which they call throwing clays, because they are of a 

 closer texture, and will work on the wheel. None of the other 

 clays, which they call slips, do this, as they are of a looser and 

 more friable nature. These mixed with water they make into a 

 consistence thinner than a syrup, so that, being put into a bucket, 

 it will run out through a quill, and is the substance with which 

 they paint their wares. Of these slips, 1st, is the orange slip, 

 which before it is worked is of a greyish colour mixed with 

 orange balls, and is used to give the ware (when annealed) an 

 orange colour ; 2d, the white slip, which before it is worked, 

 though of a dark bluish colour, makes the ware yellow, and, as 

 being the lightest colour they use in making any ware, they 



