WEDGWOOD PURCHASES RIDGE HOUSE ESTATE. 191 



for this purpose. This estate, called the " Kidge House 

 Estate," lay most advantageously for his projected works, 

 being intersected by the proposed canal, and offering many 

 facilities for his manufacture which others did not possess ; 

 and with that quickness of decision which always marked his 

 character, he determined to possess it at any risk. It was at 

 this time in possession of a life tenant, with reversion to a 

 gentleman then in Ireland. To Ireland Mr. Wedgwood at 

 once despatched a trusty and professional friend, who com- 

 pleted the purchase to his entire satisfaction, and, changing 

 the rent into an annuity for the life of the then proprietor, 

 he came into immediate possession. " This land," says the 

 contemporary manuscript from which I have before quoted, 

 " had little to recommend it but conveniency of situation. 

 It was naturally an indifferent soil, and had been neglected 

 for many years. Mr. Wedgwood, now in the new situation 

 of a cultivator of the earth, did not live long in the desert 

 without converting it into a garden ; and the taste which he 

 displayed in moulding anew the exterior surface, while he 

 removed its sterility in the disposition of extensive planta- 

 tions, and laying out the ground for varying the prospects, 

 has a just correspondence with the simplicity and true 

 elegance of his other works. This tract of country, of a 

 cold, clayey nature, seemed before to be despaired of by its 

 inhabitants, who thought it little worth but for the materials 

 it furnished for the manufactories ; but since this example, 

 and the making of good roads, it has gradually assumed 

 that smiling aspect which usually accompanies prosperous 

 industry." 



Having secured this desirable estate, Wedgwood in the 

 succeeding year, 1767, commenced building the "Black 

 Works," near the canal side. By the " Black Works," I 

 mean, of course, the works intended for the production of 

 the black " basal tes " and ornamental wares. Like Brindley, 

 who cut an underground canal tunnel from his coal pits to 

 the main canal at Harecastle, Wedgwood cut branches into 

 his own pot-works for conveniency of landing the raw 



