STONE WARE. 
Queen. Inigo Jones is of opinion that it 
was a Roman temp’.e, from a stone 16 feet 
long, and 4 broad, placed in an exact posi- 
tion to the eastward altar-fashion. Mr. 
Charlton attributed it to the Danes, who 
were two years masters of Wiltshire ; a tin 
tablet, on which were some unknown cha- 
racters, supposed to be Punic, was dug 
■up near it in the reign of Henry VIII. but 
is lost: probably that might have given 
some information respecting its founders. 
Its common name, Stonehenge, is Saxon, 
and signifies a “ stone gallows,” to whicii 
those stones having transverse imposts bear 
some resemblance. It is also called in 
Welsh choir gour, or “ the giant’s dance.” 
Mr. Grose thinks that Dr. Stukely has com- 
pletely proved this structure to have been 
a British temple in which the Druids offici- 
ated. He supposes it to have been the me- 
tropolitan temple of Great Britain, and 
translates the words c/u>ir gour, “ the great 
choir, or temple.” 
Stone wai-e, a species of pottery, so call- 
ed from its hardness. See Delft umre, 
Porcelain, and Pottery. Clay is a 
principal ingredient in pottery of all kinds, 
which has the property of hardening in the 
fire, and of receiving and preserving any 
form into which it is moulded. One kind 
of clay resists the most violent action of the 
fire, after being hardened to a certain de- 
gree ; but is incapable of receiving a suffi- 
cient degree of hardness and solidity. A se- 
cond kind assumes a hardness resembling 
that of flint, and such a compactness, that 
vessels made of it have a glossy^ appearance 
in their fracture, resembling porcelain. 
These two species owe their peculiar pro- 
perties, of resisting heat without melting, 
to sand, chalk, gypsum, or ferruginous 
earth, which they contain. A third species 
of clay begins to harden with a moderate 
fire, and melts entirely with a strong fire. 
It is of the second species that stone ware 
is made. The most famous manufactory of 
stone ware, as well as of other kinds of pot- 
tery, is at Burslem in Staffordshire. This 
can be traced, with certainty, at least two 
centuries back ; but of its first introduction 
no tradition remains. In 1686, as we learn 
from Dr. Plot’s “ Natural History of Staf- 
fordshire,” published in that year, only the 
coarse yellow, red, black, and mottled 
wares were made in this country ; and the 
only materials employed for them appear 
to have been the different coloured clays 
which are found in the neighbourhood, and 
which form some of the measures or strata 
oBthe coal mines. These coarse plays mad* 
the body of the ware, and the glaze was 
produced liy powdered lead ore, sprinkled 
on the pieces before firing, with the addi- 
tion of a little manganese for some particu- 
lar colours. The quantity of goods manu- 
factured was at that time so inconsiderable, 
that the chief sale of them, the Doctor 
says, was “ to poor crate-meii, who carried 
them on their backs all over the country.” 
About the year 1690, two ingenious artisans 
from Germany, of the name of Eller, set- 
tled near Burslem, and carried on a small 
work for a little time. They brought into 
this country the method of glazing stone 
ware, by casting salt into the kiln while it 
is hot, and some other improvements of 
less importance ; but, finding they could 
not keep their secrets to themselves, they 
left the place rather in disgust. From this 
time, various kinds of stone ware, glazed by 
the fumes of salt, in the manner above-men- 
tioned, were added to the wares before 
made. The white kind, which afterwards 
became, and for many succeeding years 
continued, tiie staple branch of pottery, is 
said to have owed its origin to the following 
accident. A potter, Mr. Astbury, travel- 
ling to London, perceived something amiss 
with one of his horses’ eyes, an liostler at 
Dunstable s’aid he could soon cure him, and 
for that purpose put a common black flint 
stone into the fire. The potter observing 
it when taken ou t, to be of a fine white, im- 
mediately conceived the idea of improving 
his ware by the addition of this material to 
the whitest clay, he could procure : accord- 
ingly he sent home a quantity of the flint 
stones of that country, where they are plen- 
tiful among the chalk, and by mixing them 
with tobacco-pipe clay, produced a white 
stone ware, much superior to any that had 
been seen before. Some of the other pot- 
ters soon discovered the source of this su- 
periority, and did not fail to follow his ex- 
ample. For a. long tinie they pounded the 
flint stones ,in private rooms, by manual la- 
bour in mortars ; but many of the poor 
workmen suffered severely from the dust of 
the flint getting into their lungs, and pro- 
ducing dreadful coughs, consumptions, and 
other pulmonaiy disorders. These disas- 
ters, and the increased demand for the flint 
powder, induced them to try to grind it by 
mills of various constructions ; and this me- 
thod being found both effectual and safe, 
lias continued in practice ever since. With 
these improvements, in the beginning of the 
present century, various articles were pro- 
