198 THE WEDGWOODS. 



surprising. He lost no opportunity of making himself 

 acquainted with specimens of ancient art Grecian, Roman, 

 or Etruscan and of studying, not only their forms and 

 decoration, but the compositipn of their bodies ; and col- 

 lectors and connoisseurs were only too glad to lend him their 

 aid, by entrusting their treasures to his hands. With his 

 great chemical skill, his practical and systematic searchings 

 into the properties of different clays and other materials, 

 his perfect knowledge of the effect of heat in its various 

 degrees, and his almost boundless knowledge of everything 

 relating to his art, and to science generally, he was soon 

 enabled to produce vases comparable with the best period of 

 ancient Etruscan Art. 



Of the manner in which he was indebted to Sir William 

 Hamilton's great work, and Sir William to him, the interest- 

 ing manuscript to which I have more than once alluded in 

 my memoir, says " We believe that Mr. Wedgwood was 

 the first artist in this country who conceived the design of 

 thus making general the works of long past ages, and he 

 was enabled to carry it into effect by the liberal disposition 

 of the nobility, who opened their cabinets to his use, and 

 permitted him to copy the first specimens of art they had 

 purchased in their travels, with patriotic views. Mr. Bentley, 

 too, situated in London, the great emporium of arts, as of 

 commerce, was very successful in forming other collections, 

 and assisted him in classing them. It will be remembered 

 by many of our contemporaries, that almost all our ideas 

 of taste were borrowed from our neighbours, the French, 

 who, disdaining the study of antiquity, had established a 

 peculiar style, and aspired to the distinctive character of 

 a school of art ; till at length, by the unwearied researches 

 and nice discernment of Sir William Hamilton, we were 

 enabled to avail ourselves of a direct application to the fine 

 works of an age when the arts were in so high a state of 

 cultivation, that we must yet despair of excelling, and can 

 but rarely succeed in copying them. Sir William's justly 

 celebrated publication will remain for ever a monument of 



