T small matters for his brother's benefit, and by anticipating another of those journeys which the restlessness of disease made necessary; for to be still was, as it seemed, impossible. After requesting that his minnow rod be sent, Romford's Essays, and other things, he adds : "I am going to bottle your gooseberries; have you any receipt which practice has proved good? I propose to bottle six dozen quart bottles, and shall get the best sorts. . . . I wish you could get me a gig-new or second-hand, as you find expedient-to have a head, and not (be) a slight carriage. How do you go to Shrewsbury? I should like to ride it. Pray let me know your plans as soon as fixed. What stay at Shrewsbury? Do you go with my mother? . . . T. Poole sets out for London to-morrow. I cannot boast any improvement in health for my journey to Incredible as it may appear to our present generation —which, with all its faults, proves its higher tone of moral and intellectual culture by the reverence which it pays to the memory of its eminent countrymenEtruria Hall, emptied and dismantled, was to be sold! 1 Thos. W. to Jos. W., May 1799. Mayer MSS. SALE OF ETRURIA HALL PROPOSED. 109 Early in April Thomas Wedgwood had written to his brother: 'I wish most sincerely you may sell Etruria.' And so, like some roadside tavern, anyone might buy it who had a sum sufficient! It is astonishing. The garden which the greatest of English potters had created out of the stone-covered, heathery moor; the house which he had made it his unceasing hobby to fill with utilities, comforts, and beauties; this scene of the friendships of his life and of the triumphs of his art-and he not dead a century, but scarcely more than four years! Did the smoke, the air, the scenery offend? What was it? Even now, internally, Etruria Hall is a singularly convenient and cheerful dwelling, though its surroundings are somewhat besmeared and smoke-dried from the constantly encroaching neighbourhood of pits, iron furnaces, and potters' kilns. But in the last year of the last century, little other than Etruria works and the small gathering of workmen's dwellings lay outstretched to view; and even these picturesquely varied by fields, trees, canal, and the green moorland ridge leading to Newcastle. These rural environments have almost all passed away; yet it is still the spot, Artes Etruriæ renascuntur. There was something akin to disloyalty in selling it; and, with full allowance for disease and the weariness of soul which disease begets, one reads this expression of pleasure at the prospect of disposal in juxtaposition with the anticipatory facts of bottling gooseberries, curing hams, making cheese and cider, and setting potatoes, with somewhat the grim wonder that one learns that a man has turned renegade to his faith or his country. Although it was not eventually sold, but let as an ordinary dwelling, the mere suggestion of sale-even of abandonment reads curiously, nay painfully. Need there was none 110 SURREY AND SOMERSETSHIRE. for the sons of Wedgwood were at that day very wealthy men. If to them as a dwelling it had lost its old charms, if to them of the past no poetry remained, it could have been kept as a show-place at little cost; and, with its assemblage of vases, medallions, cabinets of gems, fire-places, friezes, panellings, and countless other ornamental objects, might have handed down to our time a more vivid picture of the man and his works than what we can now gather from biographies or perpetuate by institutes. The elder Mrs. Wedgwood and her two unmarried daughters, having thus left Etruria Hall, were spending their time in London, or between Cobham in Surrey and Cote by Bristol. But now, with a view to residence and companionship, Mrs. Wedgwood and one of her daughters travelled into Somersetshire. My mother and Kitty,' Thomas Wedgwood wrote, 'came to Taunton on Tuesday, where I soon found them-my mother still an invalid, but better for her journey. Her spirits seem to fail her exceedingly on the subject of change of abode. On Wednesday we went to see the house at the 2 mile-stone, Kitty and I. My mother staid in the chaise on the road. There is one very comfortable parlour and bed-room; the rest small, the whole ill-finished. I think, and so does Kitty, that, with the addition of a parlour and two bedrooms, the house may be made to do. I proposed to my mother, in order to remove all anxiety and care from her mind, that you and I should undertake to make the house complete for her, without her giving herself any kind of trouble. The present tenant offers to quit at Christmas, and I am sure, from his manner, that he might be cheaply bribed to quit at a few days' notice. As it is essential that any house they ultimately make STAPLEGROVE BY TAUNTON. 111 their residence should be between Taunton and Castle Fleury, I can't help thinking they had better take this place at once if it can be bought at any moderate price. I hear of nothing else on that road, therefore it seems in vain to advertise. My mother will consult you on this. She seemed well pleased with the country and Castle Fleury; Kitty very much So. We went across the hill to Bridgewater and slept there; I am just returned from them. They went on to Cote, where they will stay 2 or 3 days. I tried to prevail on my mother to stay longer for change of scene, and half prevailed. Kitty backed my solicitation. I do not get into my house for some days.'' 1 What was the result of these visits and negotiations is not exactly clear; but, no great while after, Mrs. Wedgwood and her daughters were temporarily settled at Staplegrove, a country house near Taunton, and where they remained till Thomas Wedgwood returned from the West Indies, and removed to Eastbury by Gunville. 1 Thos. W. to Jos. W., May 1799. Mayer MSS. 14 112 THOMAS WEDGWOOD IN LONDON. CHAPTER IV. Thomas Wedgwood in London-A Benefactor to Godwin-Purchases the Estate of Gunville in Dorsetshire, but transfers it to his Brother Josiah-Voyage to and Return from the West Indies-Still ill; yet consulted occasionally on difficult matters connected with Manufacturing Processes at Etruria - The Scenery and Climate of Bermuda referred to by Basil Montague - Invites Thomas Wedgwood to Cambridge-A Letter from Poole-Sale of Castle Florey in Somersetshire-Basil Montague in respect to Lane, a Barrister The Bounty and Good Nature of the Brothers Wedgwood encroached upon-Montague's literary Projects-Coleridge and Jeremy TaylorLetter from Poole-Somersetshire Cider-A noble Relic worthily enshrined-Young Wedgwood's Hypochondriacism-Consults Drs. Baillie and Cline-Plans a long Continental Tour-Seeks a Companion-Difficulties connected therewith-Poole's Letter-Refers to Thomas Wedgwood's metaphysical Work-Willmott as StewardAn extremely worthy and able Man-Increase of Thomas Wedgwood's Illness-Goes abroad-Calais and Bruges. On his way from Taunton to Shrewsbury, at the end of May or the beginning of June 1799, Thomas Wedgwood passed through London, and for a few days at least was again amongst his literary and scientific friends. He appears, however, from the annexed letter,1 1 Dear Wedgwood, 1 I received a letter from you in June last, which afforded me considerable pleasure, and in some degree satisfied me in the disappointment of not seeing you in Town a short time before. I did not answer it because I did not know exactly where to address you, and because correspondence loses much of its charms when one of the parties to it feels himself restrained from writing, or from writing at large. I now trouble you to request information respecting the promissory Note of Robinson the bookseller for 2571. which I put into your hands, and which became due in the beginning of this month. My Novel,2 |