xxi Wedgwood's Personal History 287 



declined. Professor Cockerell, when examined before 

 a committee of the House of Commons on the establish- 

 ment of schools of art in 1836, thus spoke of Wedg- 

 wood's offer : " I beg leave to mention an anecdote of 

 the late Mr. Wedgwood, related to me by Mr. Cumber- 

 land of Bristol, who wrote a pamphlet in 1*792 recom- 

 mending a National Gallery of Sculpture, Casts from 

 the Antique, etc., viz. that Mr. Wedgwood made a 

 tender of 1000 in aid of such an institution. I beg 

 further to state that I have found Wedgwood's works 

 esteemed in all parts of Europe, and placed in the most 

 precious collections of this description of works." 



Wedgwood was occupied by experiments on a cheaper 

 glaze for ordinary pottery, when he was again prostrated 

 by illness. His health was evidently failing. Asthma 

 returned in an aggravated form. The pain returned 

 in the nerves of the amputated leg. His debility was 

 greater than usual. What was a new thing was a pain 

 in his right jaw. He went to Buxton as usual, and on 

 his return, he felt so much better that his son and him- 

 self wrote cheerfully to Dr. Darwin as to his amend- 

 ment. The doctor replied in a letter dated the 9th 

 December 1794, in which he said 



" Your letter gives me great pleasure in assuring me, 

 what your son Josiah had before mentioned, that you 

 have become free from your complaint ; the ceasing of 

 the palpitation of your heart and of the intermission of 

 your pulse is another proof of your increase of strength. 

 In respect to your breath being less free in walking up 



