xiv Portraits, Medallions, Artistic Work 161 



base and vanquished enemy, and not bestow another 

 serious thought upon it." 



This was really a noble and generous mode of action. 

 It was agreed to by Bentley, as well as by Matthew 

 Boulton of Soho; and it was in this spirit that the 

 manufactures of Etruria and Soho were carried on. 



In 1770, we find Wedgwood bringing out the Infant 

 Hercules and the Somnus or Sleeping Boy, an exquisite 

 subject modelled by Coward from the antique; and the 

 Autumn (a boy) and Neptune, modelled by Hoskins. 

 These were mostly in Black Basalts. Wedgwood was 

 still troubled with his eyesight. He could not write 

 by candle-light, and every moment of the daylight was 

 absorbed in overseeing the Vase-makers, the Statuaries, 

 the Potters, and the other workmen at the manufactory. 

 He was still busy with the Service for his Majesty ; and 

 with the large Eockingham Vases. 



" Do not think," he wrote to Bentley, " by what I 

 have said, that my eyes are worse, but I am sensible of 

 my danger, and the last attack may be sudden and not 

 give me an opportunity of communicating many things 

 which I would not have to die with me. I know how 

 ill you can be spared from the rooms, but I think it 

 will be better to suffer a little inconvenience for the 

 present, than leave you immersed in a business, and 

 not master of the principal part of it." Wedgwood 

 still wished Bentley to be at Etruria, to learn the 

 secrets of the trade. But Wedgwood's gloomy fore- 

 boding remained unfulfilled. His wife returned to 



M 



