232 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP. 



dearly loved. Bentley, in London, had been very un- 

 well, and "Wedgwood advised him to take a ramble. 

 Have you got a horse ? he asked, " for a good horse, with 

 its consequences, are first-rate blessings. . . . Sukey 

 (his eldest daughter) is now very well, and pretty strong, 

 which I attribute very much to her riding on horseback. 

 We sally forth, half a dozen of us, by six or seven in 

 the morning, and return with appetites scarcely to be 

 satisfied. Then we are busy with our hay, and we 

 have just made a new garden. Sometimes we make 

 experiments, then read and draw a little, so that 

 altogether we are very busy folks. . . . Sukey is quite 

 out of patience with her old spinet, until her new one 

 arrives, with its double keys. . . . My girl is quite 

 tired out with her miserable hum-strum ; it takes half 

 her master's time to put it in tune." 



Wedgwood told Bentley that he spent his holidays 

 with his boys at home. It must have been a happy 

 family. He regretted that he could not go to London 

 having a bad cold and could not accept Bentley 's 

 invitation to smoke a pipe with him at Turnham Green. 

 Bentley had removed to that quarter of London, 

 against the advice of Wedgwood, who thought it too 

 low, and too near the river. Wedgwood continued 

 happily engaged with his boys at home. They were 

 very busy with chemistry and chemical combinations. 

 To Bentley he wrote (17th March 1779) : 



" We want nothing just now, my dear friend, but a 

 little more time ; and in that article we find ourselves 



