Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/130

102 many. I do not pretend to be a competent judge of the merits of the prints which have been exhibited, but they appear to me to be most beautiful. But I am compelled to nonsuit the plaintiff upon the plea of the statute of Limitations.” Plaintiff nonsuited. N. B. We understand that the cause is to be tried again next term, with additional evidence. To this we shall particularly attend.

subject of this plate is a representation of the principal room of a suite forming the magazine which belonged to the late Mr. Josiah Wedgwood, and is now the property of his successor in the manufactory. This establishment has existed nearly 50 years; and, during that long period, the public attention has been kept alive by the extraordinary discoveries and improvements, both in art and taste, which the fertile genius of its proprietor was constantly introducing.

The potteries are so truly British manufactures, are of so much importance to commerce, and add a lustre even to the arts of the country, that we feel inclined to give a brief sketch of their history from the earliest time to which they can he traced, down to the period when they began to assume a respectable rank among the manufactures, and to excite the attention of commercial and scientific men. If, in the progress of our publication, we shall be able in a similar manner to shew the origin and gradual progress of other manufactures to perfection, we conceive that our labours will contribute to the amusement, as well as the instruction of our readers, and do an acceptable service to the community at large, by stimulating the exertions of ingenuity, and adding the wreath of fame to the other rewards of industry. The most striking as well as general features of such histories, will be the important effects which have resulted from very inconsiderable beginnings, and the gradual developement [sic] of human talent, proceeding from the attainment of one object, to another still higher and more extensively useful.

We have no knowledge of the existence of potteries in England before the time of the Romans. In many parts of the kingdom, fragments and vessels of Romanpottery have been found, but most of these have been the utensils of their armies, and were not made upon the spot. However, at some of their stations they certainly had potteries, and the appropriate curiosity of the late Mr. Wedgwood on this subject, led him to the discovery of one at Chesterton, near Newcastle-under-Line, and in the neighbourhood likewise of the present potteries. It was formerly a Roman station, and the site of the old castle. About thirty years ago, he caused a spot in this village to be opened to a considerable depth, and there found the same appearances as will be exhibited in our present potteries a thousand years hence, if they should be uncovered; the foundations and other remains of ovens and workshops, and large masses of pitchers accumulated by