VII 



Wedgwood's Marriage 69 



Meanwhile the duties of his own business were in- 

 creasing, and he was very much occupied with the engine 

 lathe, so as to adapt it to the improvement of the 

 pottery manufacture. He had, as we have said, ob- 

 tained a copy of Plumier's work entitled E Art de 

 Tourner. He could understand the diagrams, but it 

 was also necessary to understand the words which 

 described them. He accordingly wrote to his friend 

 Bentley, 28th May 1764, as follows : 



" I have sent you a sample of our hobby-horse 

 (engine-turning), which, if Miss Gates ( Bentley 's sister) 

 will make use of, she will do me honour. This branch 

 hath cost me a great deal of time and thought, and will 

 cost me more. I am afraid some of my best friends 

 will hardly escape. I have got an excellent book on 

 the subject in French and Latin. I have enclosed one 

 chapter which, if you can get translated for me, it will 

 oblige me much, and I will pay any expense attending it." 



On another occasion, when Wedgwood was engaged 

 in superintending the construction of his new works on 

 the property he had purchased, he wrote to Bentley : 

 " I scarcely know, without a good deal of recollection, 

 whether I am a landed gentleman, an engineer, or a 

 potter ; for indeed, I am all three, and many other 

 characters by turns. Pray heaven I may settle to some- 

 thing in earnest at last." 



His principal business, of course, was a potter. He 

 was constantly engaged in making experiments on clay 

 and the materials of glaze, for the purpose of holding 



