PREFACE. 
Strictly speaking, under the above heading, one ought to 
include the vast amount of pottery which was made in the broad- 
acred county during the ancient British, the Roman, the Saxon, 
and the Mediaeval periods. But to do this properly would, un¬ 
fortunately, more than double or treble the space at my command. 
Indeed, as it is, the difficulty has been to compress what I had to 
say within the limits of this paper, which only deals with Yorkshire 
Pottery as it is known to Collectors. For a good many years I 
have been much interested in the subject, and I think what first 
started me was being the possessor of a small collection, which 
came to me from my forbears. 
I have taken infinite pains in getting together my informa¬ 
tion. I have hunted up old men who have worked at the various 
potteries, have visited the sites of most of the potteries dealt with, 
and have taken photographs of some of them, and have been in 
communication with many collectors and others who were inter¬ 
ested in the subject ; but, even so, I am only too conscious of 
many sins of omission and commission, but I have done my best, 
and I trust that my critics will let me down lightly. This I will 
say, that it is no easy matter to hunt up the particular information 
one wants about long forgotten people and places, and it has 
taken me a very considerable time to do so, yet I have enjoyed 
the work, and have obtained much instruction and amusement in 
the process. 
Thanks to the initiative many years ago, of Mr. Thomas 
Boynton, of Bridlington, and the late Canon Raine, of York, the 
