32 THE WEDGWOODS. 



they designe their work ; when the first slip is dry, laying on the 

 others at their leisure, the orange slip makeing the ground, and the 

 white and red the paint ; which two colours they break with a wire 

 brush, much after the manner they doe when they marble paper, and 

 then cloud them with a pencil when they are pretty dry. After the 

 vessels are painted they lead them with that sort of Lead Ore they 

 call Smithum, which is the smallest ore of all, beaten into dust, 

 finely sifted, and strewed upon them ; which gives them the gloss, 

 but not the colour; all the colours being chiefly given by the 

 variety of slips, except the motley colour, which is procured by 

 blending the Lead with Manganese, by the workmen call'd Magnus. 

 But when they have a mind to shew the utmost of their skill in 

 giving their wares a fairer gloss than ordinary, they lead them then 

 with lead calcined into powder, which they also sift fine and strew 

 upon them as before, which not only gives them a higher gloss, but 

 goes much further too in their work than the lead ore would have done. 

 " 28. After this is done they are carried to the oven, which is 

 ordinarily above 8 foot high, and about 6 foot wide, of a round 

 copped forme, where they are placed one upon another from the 

 bottom to the top ; if they be ordinary wares, such as cylindricall 

 butter pots, &c., that are not leaded, they are exposed to the naked 

 fire, and so is all their flat ware, though it be leaded, having only 

 parting shards, i.e. thin bits of old pots, put between them to keep 

 them from sticking together ; but if they be leaded hollow wares, 

 they doe not expose them to the naked fire, but put them in shragers, 

 that is, in coarse metall'd pots made of marie (not clay) of divers 

 formes, according as their wares require, in which they put com- 

 monly three pieces of clay, called JBobbs, for the ware to stand on, 

 to keep it from sticking to the shragers ; as they put them in the 

 shragers, to keep them from sticking to one another (which they 

 would certainly otherwise doe by reason of the leading), and to 

 preserve them from the vehemence of the fire, which else would 

 melt them downe, or at least warp them. In twenty-four hours an 

 oven of pots will be burnt ; then they let the fire goe out by degrees, 

 which in ten hours more will be perfectly done, and then they draw 

 them for sale, which is chiefly to the poor Crate-men, who carry 

 them at their backs all over the countrey, to whome they reckon 

 them by the' piece, i.e. Quart, in hollow ware, so that six pottle, or 

 three gallon bottles, make a dozen, and so more or less to a dozen 

 as they are of greater or lesser content. The flat wares are also 

 reckoned by pieces and dozens, but not (as the hollow) according to 

 their content, but their different brcdths." 



