Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/61

 a wooden mallet, and trodden by a man with his bare feet. The material is now fit for the thrower, who throws a mass of it upon his lathe, an horizontal wheel, set in motion by a boy, (turning a vertical one) and whirled round with a degree of swiftness, either greater or less, as the thrower sees occasion. To this a guage is attached, to ascertain exactly the dimensions of the article. The hands of the 'thrower being kept steady, the rotatory motion of the wheel being quick, and the clay soft but tenacious, the eye is agreeably surprized with the instantaneous creation of beautiful forms out of a shapeless mass of clay, which every moment change their appearance according to the motion of the finger and thumbs of the workman; now rising into a long cylinder, again sinking immediately, and approaching the rotundity of a sphere, and at length settling into the elegant shape of an ancient vase, a modern mug, or a fashionable tea-pot. The articles thus prepared are then dried upon flues to consolidate their texture, and render them fit for the vertical lathe of the turner. Placed upon this machine, they are reduced to their proper thickness and exact, form; and if their pattern require handles or spouts, they are here fitted with them by a work-man called the handler. From this workshop they are carried into the kiln-house to be burned, and