The art of moulding a plastic substance like clay is, of course, as old as the world, and on the banks of the Severn, as shewn by specimens ascribed to early British and Roman periods, it must not only have existed but been carried to some perfection there. These clays are said to have been used by the Romans, as evinced by the red and grey pottery and tiles discovered at Uriconinum. Jacquemart, in his “History of Ceramic Art,” says that Jackfield is the most ancient site of pottery in Shropshire. And it is added that from a period so early as 1453, the valley of the Severn was famous for ornamental tiles, many specimens bearing that date having been found in Cathedrals and Churches. We have no reliable authority however for fixing the date at which the art was first practised in Shropshire, but it appears tolerably clear that the articles made were of the simplest kind, being almost uniformly domestic: those in daily use, such as milk-pans, dishes, tea-pots, jugs, and mugs. The latter were substitutes for the drinking horns, which later improvements in the plastic and ceramic arts have driven out of use. We have an ancient specimen of one made at the Pitchyard, and a drawing of another made at Haybrook, well _potted_, and elegant in shape. The latter is the best manipulated, and probably it was from this circumstance that the latter work was called “The Mug-House.” In evidence adduced sometime since in an Election Scrutiny at Bewdley, a public-house referred to was called the “Mughouse,” which house is situated on the Severn, at a point where the bargemen, who formerly drew the vessels up the river instead of horses, were in the habit of stopping to get mugs of ale. “Tots” were made out of the same kind of clay, but smaller, and were used when the men drank in company; hence a person who had drank too much was supposed to have been with a convivial party, and was said to have been “totty,” a word often found in old works. Tots had no handles, and some of the old drinking cups, more particularly those of glass of Anglo Saxon make, were rounded at the bottom that they should not stand upright, and that a man may empty them at a draught,—the custom continuing till later times gave rise to our modern name of tumbler. The small tots had no handles; the mug had a “stouk,” as it is called, consisting of a single piece of clay, flattened and bent over into a loop. The ware was similar to the famous “Rockingham ware” made on the estate of Earl Fitzwilliam, near Wentworth.