CLOSE OF WHIELDON AND WEDGWOOD'S PARTNERSHIP. 119 



make and to carry on during the remaining years of his ser- 

 vitude, and afterwards until he brought it to perfection. 

 Whieldon, however, it seems, doing a large business in his 

 own peculiar wares, did not care to embark much on the 

 " new-fangled ways " of his young partner, although he 

 evidently fell into some of those ways in a very profitable 

 manner. 



In 1754 the year in which he became the partner of 

 Whieldon Josiah Wedgwood, after many patient trials, 

 succeeded in producing his admirable green glaze, and this 

 invention did more, it is believed, to augment the already 

 rising fortune of Whieldon than any other ware did. Whiel- 

 don in the end acquired a large fortune by his trade, and in 

 1786 was High Sheriff of the county of Stafford. 



In 1759, the term of five years, for which he had by 

 agreement become the partner of Thomas Whieldon, expired, 

 and Josiah Wedgwood immediately returned to his native 

 place, Burslem, with the full determination of prosecuting 

 his own favourite pursuits, and of bringing the schemes and 

 the experiments he had so long tried to a successful issue. 

 Here, at twenty-nine years of age, he commenced business 

 entirely on his own account, and soon showed to the world, 

 not only the extraordinary capacity of his ever active mind, 

 but the extreme skill, intelligence, and taste which he 

 brought to bear on every branch of his native and chosen 

 art. 



On his first returning to Burslem, Wedgwood, for a time, 

 I believe, occupied the old pot-work at the Churchyard, 

 where he had been born and apprenticed, and here, un- 

 trammelled by partners with views adverse to his own, 

 and by the surroundings of jealous and watchful eyes, he 

 set himself earnestly to the work of improvement his whole 

 heart had longed for, and took leisure to carry on his grand 

 design of raising the potter's art above its then standard of 

 excellence, and of successfully rivalling in earthenware not 

 only the more costly productions of foreign countries of his 

 day, but those of long past ages. Here he was so eminently 



