stubborn, in their assertion that they “couldn’t spare them.” We sat down in the dust of the floor and begged; we raised our offer to city prices; we offered to send another dinner set of French china to replace the Staffordshire one, but all in vain; we drove away and returned again to use fresh entreaties; the owner did not care for the “old crockery;” scorned the assertion that the tankards were silver, and threw them carelessly back into the chest; had no association with the pieces, no sentiment against selling them; but he “couldn’t spare them.” It is difficult to find a full dinner set of the old Staffordshire dark blue ware. The scattering of families and consequent division of property, the destruction through every-day careless use, have seldom left so full a set as the one just described. The Ridgways issued another set of views of the various colleges and buildings of English universities. The stamp on the back was in blue, a pointed oval, about three inches long, with words, “Opaque China, J. & W. Ridgway;” in the centre of the mark was the individual name of the building in the design. A great number of these pieces appeared in the antique shops in the winter of 1890, through the sale of the dining-room furnishings of an old hotel in Baltimore, which must have consisted largely of this set of college views. The owners sold all the old blue and white table crockery, the old substantial and beautiful Sheffield plated trays and tea-sets, and bought nice new American “hotel ware” and shining electro-plated silver. The name Cambridge on many of these University plates enabled some unscrupulous or ignorant dealers to palm off the college views of that University to a few thoughtless buyers, at high prices, as views of Harvard College, in Cambridge, Mass. Views of private residences in London are frequently found in America with the same border as the University pieces, a wreath of convolvulus broken by pretty cameo-like medallions of boys playing with goats. All these English views are exceedingly useful for wall decorations, especially for high shelves, or as a background for lighter-colored bits of china, where it is not necessary that the design of the decoration should be carefully distinguished; and their vast variety makes them a constantly interesting subject for investigation and purchase. I have seen one collection of over two hundred Staffordshire plates bearing each a different English view, and I have seen many scores—perhaps hundreds—still different.