144 OLD WEST SURREY 



mottling, but the general aspect of the ornaments, though 

 a little over-flattened, has been well retained ; the farmer 

 with his ale-mug and pipe, and his dog at his feet — in some 

 of the patterns astride of his beer-barrel, in others seated on 

 its head — -the stag-hunt, the windmill and the trees, are all 

 ornaments that could not be bettered for their purpose. 



The picture shows on the left the large dog-handled mug, 

 seven inches high. The pattern is a relic of the time when 

 drinking vessels were scarce, and one mug went round. There 

 are three of the dog-handles, so that, passing it round, three 

 persons would drink at different places on the lip. The 

 next piece is a tobacco-jar. Besides the cover there is a 

 disk inside with a knob-handle, for pressing down the tobacco. 

 Then there are the half-pint and the pint drinking-mugs, 

 both with handles (a quart size is also made), and the beer- 

 jug. The beer-jug is made in several sizes, both plain and 

 ornamented. It is — and may it ever remain — the one best 

 beer-jug of England. There is scarcely a good squire's table 

 in the country where it does not have its place, and it is still 

 used by many of the better class of farmer. But with that 

 strange perversion or lack of taste, that neglect of the good 

 every-day thing and unwholesome hankering after what is 

 gaudy or meretricious or new, it is but rarely used among 

 working people. In earthenware, china, and glass, the lower 

 market is now flooded with cheap foreign things that seem to 

 be put before the working-class public almost to the exclusion 

 of the good simple things of home manufacture. 



Another fine old make of stoneware that was formerly 

 more used than now is that made at Nottingham. The two 

 large stone bottles, seventeen and nineteen inches high re- 

 spectively, are of this make. I believe that the left-hand 

 .shape, with the rounded shoulder, has now gone out of use. 

 The smaller sizes of the right-hand pattern are still used for 



