

OBITUARY NOTICE. 361 



Having brought down my narrative to the close of the 

 useful and busy life of the great potter, it is well that I 

 should, at the same time, close this chapter. In doing so, 

 I feel that I cannot do better than quote the words of the 

 obituary notice which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine 

 at the time of his death, and also the words of one well able 

 to judge of his excellencies as a man. The writer of the 

 first says 



" Died, at Etruria, in Staffordshire, aged sixty-four, Josiah 

 Wedgwood, Esq., E.E. and A. SS. ; to whose indefatigable labours 

 is owing the establishment of a manufacture that has opened a new 

 scene of extensive commerce, before unknown to this or any other 

 country. It is unnecessary to say that this alludes to the Pottery 

 of Staffordshire, which, by the united efforts of Mri Wedgwood, 

 and his late partner, Mr. Bentley, has been carried to a degree of 

 perfection, both in the line of utility and ornament, that leaves all 

 works, ancient or modern, far behind. 



"-Mr. Wedgwood was the younger son of a potter, but derived 

 little or no property from his father, whose possessions consisted 

 chiefly of a small entailed estate, which descended to the eldest son. 

 He was the maker of his own fortune, and his country has been 

 benefited in a proportion not to be calculated. His many discoveries 

 of new species of earthen wares and porcelains, his studied forms 

 and chaste style of decoration, and the correctness and judgment 

 with which all his works were executed under his own eye, and by 

 artists, for the most part, of his own forming, have turned the cur- 

 rent in this branch of commerce ; for, before his time, England 

 imported the finer earthen wares : but, for more than twenty years 

 past, she has exported them to a very great annual amount, the 

 whole of which is drawn from the earth, and from the industry of 

 the inhabitants ; while the national taste has been improved, and 

 its reputation raised in foreign countries. His inventions have pro- 

 digiously increased the number of persons employed in the potteries, 

 and in the traffic and transport of their materials from distant 

 parts of the kingdom : and this class of manufacturers is also in- 

 debted to him for much mechanical contrivance and arrangement in 

 their operations ; his private manufactory having had, for thirty 

 years and upwards, all the efficacy of a public work of experiment. 

 Neither was he unknown in the walks of philosophy. His commu- 

 nications to the Royal Society show a mind enlightened by science, 



