20 THE WEDGWOODS. 



had their own tile-works and kilns within their precincts. 

 The manufacture, however, became gradually lost, and has 

 been entirely discontinued until of late years, when it has, 

 with considerable success, been re-introduced. The principal 

 makers at the present day of these encaustic tiles are, of 

 course, Messrs. Minton, of Stoke-upon-Trent, and Messrs. 

 Maw, of Broseley. The mode in which the old and remark- 

 ably interesting tiles which are still to be seen in the pave- 

 ments of many of our old churches were made was this : the 

 quarry of soft clay was made to its proper size in a wooden 

 frame, and then, the pattern (being first carved on a flat 

 square of wood in relief) was pressed into the red clay to a 

 sufficient depth, and the indented pattern then filled in with 

 a slip of yellow clay. The usual processes of baking and 

 glazing were next, of course, gone through, and the effect 

 produced, of a yellow pattern on a red ground, or vice versa, 

 was very pleasing. The devices impressed on tiles were 

 extremely various, and among others consisted of armorial 

 bearings, foliage, grotesque figures, inscriptions, &c., and 

 the patterns not unfrequently extended over four, nine, 

 twelve, or more, tiles. 



The MEDIAEVAL vessels made in Staffordshire, like those of 

 other districts, were chiefly confined to pitchers and jugs, of 

 much the same form as the Norman ones just given, and to 

 costrels and other similar productions. Dr. Shaw, in his 

 history of the potteries, says, " there exist documents which 

 imply that during many centuries considerable quantities of 

 common culinary articles were made from a mixture of 

 different clays found in most parts of the district." It is 

 certain that throughout the whole of the middle ages, as in 

 the earlier and later times, the potter's art was practised in 

 this district ; and examples of different periods are in exist- 

 ence, showing the progress of that art from one time to 

 another. 



In the account of expenses of Sir John Howard, in 1466, 

 is the following entry, which shows somewhat curiously the 

 cost of " potes " in those days : " Watekin, bocher of Stoke, 



