348

ORIENTAL PATTERNS AND COLOURS.

connected with utility must, so far as originating and directing go, be raised into professions before any marked results can come. Were there institutions in the Potteries and in London where young men of good position and education could receive practical instruction in these classes of fine arts, and graduate in them as in other subjects and other Universities, we should hear less of a church overburdened with curates, courts of law with barristers, and cities and towns with physicians and surgeons. By a method of this sort we should turn to account a vast mass of unused talent, and prepare a class of men able, when opportunity and materials occurred, to found and realize these great industries in other and newer lands.

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The resort to oriental sources for colour and decoration led to many new patterns in 1807-1808. Japan patterns, with but little blue, and got up cheap,' found a good sale, as also others in which orange was used instead of gold. From the Chinese was borrowed 'a red ground and white figures of flowers interspersed with landscapes in red imitating engraving.' A pattern of 1808, and called the 'Chrysanthemum,' grew out of Chinese examples. A 'good red under the glaze, like the Chinese,' was a desideratum, and so tried for; and such patterns as 'purple laurel leaf and gold' and 'gold leaf with red lines' were new and in request. Services for Francis Wrangham, Philip Arkwright, and Dawson Turner, of Great Yarmouth, were respectively 'Greek pattern, opal ground,' 'olive edges and crest,' and 'botanical flowers, gold.'

In 1808 Sir Richard Colt Hoare was busy with his excavations in the Wiltshire tumuli. His finds included both red and black Roman ware, and of these he sent examples to Etruria to be copied. The results

ORDERS IN COUNCIL.

1

349

were, he considered, 'admirable.'' In the same year some Orders in Council relative to the general export trade with America shows us that Henry Brougham interested himself in behalf of his old friends the Wedgwoods. Since you wrote things have happened so crossly that no petitions will be received against the Orders in Council. I quite agree with you that ours is not the house to stir in the business. On Wednesday, Mr. Brougham called on me in York Street, and left a note to ask me to meet him at the House of Lords, to have some conversation respecting the effects of the Orders on our trade. This was at five o'clock in the afternoon, when I was quite tired out with waiting all day to see nobody. I declined going down, but wrote a note to him, stating that the only effect the Orders would have on the trade of our country would be by their producing a war with America, which was now the only country to which we could export earthenware, and that I believed between 40,000 and 50,000 crates were annually shipped to America. These numbers I fixed upon because the Canal Company annually carry about 50,000 to Liverpool. The Lords refused to hear counsel, and so I suppose the matter will now drop, unless some member chances to go into the subject, on making a motion respecting the Orders in Council.'2

After his purchase of Gunville and Eastbury, Mr. Farquharson appears to have let the former for a time to one of those young fox-hunting squires with which Dorsetshire then abounded. As a body they had regretted Mr. Wedgwood's departure from the county,

1 Sir R. C. Hoare to Wedgwood and Byerley, February 15 and 29, 1808. Mayer MSS.

2 John Wedgwood to Josiah Wedgwood, March, 1808. Mayer MSS.

350

DORSETSHIRE FOXHUNTERS.

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for one of their elder members had written: We shall lose a pleasant companion and one fond of Foxhunting;'1 and later, a friend and neighbour, Mr. Simpson, who had no taste for their pursuits, thus paints Gunville and Eastbury for Mr. Wedgwood's eye: One can never,' he writes, "estimate justly the value of good neighbours except by experiencing the loss of them. This is an observation which we have daily reason to make. Our neighbours The Groves, as they say in this county, are at length arrived. He appears to be a good-humoured young man, but his whole Life and Soul absorbed by Foxhounds and Setters and Pointers and Horses, and his companions of the same stamp, as far as I have seen. He has now a Mr. Coles, son of Coles, near Taunton, and another Foxhunting youngster staying with him; and as I do not know much of a Horse except a kind of hereditary skill as a Yorkshireman, and could hardly distinguish a Foxhound from a Beagle, I am afraid our society will not accord. But the great comfort to me will be that my wife will, I think, have a good neighbour in Mrs. Grove. Poor Eastbury is tenantless, and, I fear, going rapidly to ruin. The house totally shut up, and never a window even opened. It seems to us to be a pity that so pleasant a spot should be unoccupied. If Mr. Farquharson should marry, it

would be desirable for the Mother to be near her Daughter, and I hope we shall by some means or other get a neighbour. The Dogs are in possession of the out Buildings for a time, and there is a splendid Kennel building towards the lower part of the South Park, not far from the Gate which opens into the Lanes near

1

Stuart, Esq., to Josiah Wedgwood, June 11, 1805. Mayer MSS.

HOUNDS AND KENNELS.

351

Hinton Bye, as it is called. A man of such fortune ought to have a good Kennel, whether he keeps Hounds or not, as he must have a few dogs of some sort or other.' 1

1 F. Simpson, probably Rev., to Josiah Wedgwood, February 26, 1807. Mayer MSS.

Godwin and his Necessities-Opens a shop for the sale of Children's Books-A Subscription raised-Failure of his Scheme-His work on 'Political Justice '-Mrs. Darwin's Letters-Beautiful Pottery from Etruria-Death of Mrs. Darwin-Dr. Darwin and his DaughtersHis Medical Contemporaries-Dr. Beddoes-His Merits as an Experimentalist-Peter Holland-His Son Henry-The Report on the Agriculture of Cheshire-Highly commended-His Medical StudiesCobalt and its Mysteries-Poole's Letters-Spanish Sheep-Government Enquiry as to Wool-Planting Apple Trees-The Malt Tax— Poole's enlightened Views-His Admiration of the Scenery and Soil of Cornwall-Events in Spain-His Labours in relation to a new Poor Law-His Character and Scientific Tastes-Willmott's Return to Etruria-Death of Chisholm-George Coleridge-His difference with his Brother, S. T. Coleridge-Basil Montague-His Friendly Offers Mrs. Drewe-Death of Francis Horner-The Misses Allen of Cresselly -Mr. Byerley-Proposed Removal of his Family to York StreetProbably not carried out-His Anxieties and Death-Hospitality at Maer The Visits of Sydney Smith and others-The last of York Street-Conclusion.

How often Godwin was assisted in a pecuniary sense by the Wedgwoods is unknown; but judging from a note in Crabb Robinson's Diary, we may pretty certainly infer that the aid rendered in 1799, prior to

1 'Godwin and Rough met at a dinner party for the first time. The very next day Godwin called on me to say how much he liked Rough, adding: "By-the-by, do you think he would lend me 507. just now, as I am in want of a little money? He had not left me an hour before Rough came with a like question. He wanted a bill discounted, and asked whether I thought Godwin would do it for him? The habits of both men were so well known, that some persons were afraid to invite them, lest it should lead to an application for a loan from some friend who chanced to be present.'-Note, vol. i. p. 372. Rough was a serjeantat-law, and married to a daughter of John Wilks.