WORCESTERSHIRE. 



From the glazing-room the articles are carried to the fecond 

 kiln, and here they undergo another fevere fire, which fluxes 

 ■.he glaze, and gives to the porcelain a beautiful glofly fur- 

 ace. In this kiln the lofles are great, as the porcelain can 

 lave no fupport. It is again warehoufed, examined, and 

 lehvered to the painters, who decorate it with gold, reduced 

 jy a chemical procefs, fo that it may be worked in a hquid 

 "orm. In paintings of various defigns, the outline is made 

 ,vith a black-lead pencil, on the glazed furface, corrected 

 srith Indian ink ; and the colours, all of which are prepared 

 Tom mineral fubftances, worked in oil and fpirits of turpen- 

 ine, are laid on with fine camel's-hair pencils. The colours 

 n this ilate are difficult for ftrangers to underftand, as their 

 :ints are fo furprifingly changed by the aftion of the fire ; 

 »^hile their opaque and obfcure appearance is increafed at 

 ;very ftage of drying at a common fire, previous to their 

 jeing burnt in the kiln. The finer kinds of paintings in 

 igures, landfcapes, flowers, &c. require repeated burnings, 

 n order to give them fufficient depth and richnefs by work- 

 ng one tint over another. The enameUing kiln, in which 

 they are fired, is rendered fufficiently hot to fufe the glaze, 

 without occafioning it to run ; while the colours, by the 

 jid of their fluxes, are melted into the glaze, fo as to render 

 :heir union perfeft, and give them their rich tranfparent 

 ?ffed. 



The durability of thefe colours, which cannot be afted on 

 jy any atmofphere, renders good painting in this ftyle very 

 lefirable. It has long been a defideratum with the greateit 

 Tiafters to procure colours for painting on canvas, on which 

 ime can have no injurious effeft ; but in this they have hitherto 

 infortunately not fucceeded, and it was the regret of an 

 eminent artift, that his paintings had ngt the permanency of 

 torcelain colours. A method of printing, entirely different 

 rom the original mode invented by the founders of the works, 

 s now carried on here. (For a defcription, fee Printing 

 m Porcelain, m the Addenda. ) The laft operation is the bur- 

 lilhing of the gold, which is executed with a ftone, black in 

 Sts external appearance, and remarkable for its hardnefs and 

 ':hehigh polifli it takes. This work is performed by women, 

 i.vho render the gold extremely brilliant by rubbing its fur- 

 ace with great care and flcill. The embofled gold, for 

 which this manufaftory is celebrated, is burniflied with a fine 

 igate, which is alfo ufed in chafing and in finifhing the 

 jjandles of vafes, &c. We have now iketched the procefs, 

 ijut we fhould not omit to mention that in every Jlage the 

 oorcelaiu is very liable to accident and imperfeftions ; and if 

 lot totally fpoiled, it may require a repetition of firings, which 

 iTiuch increafes the rifk and expence. The molt coflly arti- 

 :les are expofed in the fire from 150 to 200 hours, in their 

 Iliiferent itages colleftively. An important colour ufed in 

 jorcelain nianufaftories is the rich dark blue, generally called 

 ■ royal.' It is prepared from cobalt, and the oxyd of 

 :his ore is fo powerful as to require the heat of the glaze- 

 jtiln to bring out its beautiful tint. It is not, like other 

 polours, worked on a glazed furface, but laid on the porce- 

 i^ain after the firll burning, when in the rough or ' bifcuit' 

 iltate, then fired, and afterwards dipped in the glaze, and 

 jpaffed through the glaze-kiln, frequently requiring two or 

 !;hree fuch ordeals of heat to perfeft its colour. We were 

 formerly fupplied with this mineral from the mines of 

 iSaxony, but have now the pleafure to learn that the proprie- 

 Itors of thefe works made fome fuccefsful experiments for a 

 ;:ompany of gentlemen, who difcovered cobalt -ore in Corn- 

 jwall ; which by a particular preoaration produces as Jine a 

 blue as the Saxon cobalt, and it is now ufed in preference to the 

 loreign, which can only be imported in the adulterated 

 ;:"orm of a zaffer. The refle(5Uon, that by fcience and labour 



the rude materials of the earth are raifcd and converted 

 into elegant and ufeful forms, and embellifhed with claffi- 

 cal and tafteful defigns, is highly pleafing ; while it affords 

 the means of maintenance to fo many induftrious work- 

 men and ingenious artifts. All the psrfons employed in 

 thefe interefting works are Britifh, and this manufafture 

 ftands as one proof of the increafed civilization of England. 

 — The Hiftory and Antiquities of Worceiler, by Valentine 

 Green, 2 vols. 410. 1796. Beauties of England and Wales, 

 Worceilerftiire -, by F. C. Laird, 8vo. 1813. Graphic and 

 Hifl:orical Defcription of the Cathedrals of Great Britain, 

 Worceft;er, 8vo. 1 8 15. Hiftory, &c. of Worceiler, by 

 J.Chambers, 8vo. 18 18. 



Worcester, the fouth-eafterly county of the ftate of 

 Maryland, with 16,971 inhabitants, including 4427 flaves. 



Snowhill is the chief town Alfo, a county of Maffa- 



chufetts, large and populous, with 50 townfhips, 53 cgn- 

 gregational churches, and 64,910 inhabitants ; 50 miles 

 long from N. to S. and 40 broad. — Alfo, a town of the 

 ftate of MalTachufetts, containing 2577 inhabitants. This 

 is the chief town of a county of the fame name, and one of 

 the largeft inland towns in the ftate. It contains tvro 

 churches, a town-houfe, and a gaol ; 34 miles W. of Boilon. 

 N. lat. 42° 10'. W. long. 71° 46' — Alfo, a townfhip of 

 Vermont, in the county of Chittenden, with 41 inhabitants ; 

 30 miles N, of New Haven. — Alfo, a townfhip of Pennfyl- 

 vania, in the county of Montgomery, with 868 inhabitants ; 



18 miles N.W. of Philadelphia Alfo, a town of Ohio, in 



the county of Waftiington, with 385 inhabitants. 



WORCESTERSHIRE, an inland county in the weft- 

 em part of England, bounded by Herefordfhire, which 

 feparates it from Wales, on the S.W.,by Shropfhire on the 

 N.W., by Staffordfhire on the N., by Warwickfliire on 

 the E., and by Gloucefterlhire on the S. The form of the 

 county is very irregular, having on every fide detached 

 parts furrounded by other counties, and comprehending 

 within its bounds parts belonging to the neighbouring 

 fhires. The mean length may be eftimated at about 30 

 miles, and the mean breadth at 25 miles, giving a furface of 

 750 fquare miles, or 480,000 acres ; but according to the 

 official report laid before parliament, the contents are re- 

 duced to 431,360 acres: about two-thirds of the county 

 lie on the E. and one-third on the W. fide of the river 

 Severn. Worcefterfhire comprehends one city, eleven 

 market-towns, three of them parliamentary boroughs, and 

 in all 152 parifhes ; the whole is diftributed into five hun- 

 dreds. The inhabitants amounted, in 18 11, to 160,546, of 

 whom 78,033 were males, and 82,513 females, and the in- 

 habited houfes were 30,206. 



Hijlorical Events. — Worcefterfhire is fuppofed to have 

 formed a part of the territory of the Cornavii, who alfo 

 inhabited the contiguous diftrifts of Warwickfliire, Stafford- 

 fhire, Shropfhire, and Chefliire. That numerous tribe ap- 

 pear from the Notitia Imperii to have furniflied bodies of 

 troops to the Roman armies ; but no trace of their name is 

 now to be difcovered in the trafts they are believed to have 

 occupied. The county was called by the Saxons Wire- 

 ceajler-fcire, and in Domefday-book Wirecejlre-fcire, and the 

 inhabitants in Bede's time were named IVicci ; a term 

 which, in the opinion of Camden, m-ay have been derived 

 from Wich, fignifying, in the old Englifli language, a fait- 

 pit, in allufion to the mines of that fubftance found in the 

 county. Of the Roman hiftory of Worcefterfliire but 

 little is known. Ptolemy feems to take no notice of it ; 

 nor does it appear to be traverfed by any of the roads traced 

 out in the Itineraries of Antoninus. It is highly probable, 

 however, that Worcefterfhire muft have been the theatre of 



parts 



