of Roman influence. Red Roman ware has been found in every part of Gaul, and a furnace was discovered in Auvergne. At Bordeaux red, black, white, and yellow Roman pottery has been exhumed, and several localities are indicated at which potteries existed. As we approach the Middle Ages, and begin to detect evidences in France of a knowledge of processes with which we are already familiar, and to question ourselves as to their special origin, it may be well to keep the following facts in view: firstly, that Marseilles was founded by a Phœnician colony; secondly, that pottery of the South of France, after the Arabs had spread over the States of Barbary, so closely resembled the Arabian as to suggest at once communication with the North of Africa; thirdly, that France was open to the same influences of trade, intercourse, and immigration which had so powerful an effect upon Italy. Let us allude to one point, the probable transmission of lead-glaze from Greece to Rome, and thus to the Gauls, for an illustration of the untraceable route by which knowledge was spread, and for an explanation of the phenomenon so often witnessed of a certain product revealing itself in the most incomprehensible manner at a point far removed from the accepted centre of works of its class. In the twelfth century Oriental ideas in France begin to supersede those of Gothic inspiration, and Christianity and chivalry together operate a decided change in ceramic ornamentation. Processes gradually improved. At Poitou, in the thirteenth century, green-glazed conical urns were made, and Beauvais had already reached celebrity. More interesting is the fact that, at Hesdin, Jehan de Voleur was, toward the close of the fourteenth century, acquainted with stanniferous enamel. In France, therefore, as in Italy, this secret was known long prior to the supposed discovery by Luca della Robbia. It is, however, to Italy that France is indebted for the access of spirit infused into its ceramic art in the sixteenth century. Italy supplied models to the French potters, who had been busying themselves with ornamentation of Gothic origin and Christian devices and legends. And, further, Italian artists flocked to France between the close of the fifteenth and the latter part of the sixteenth century, and settled at Lyons, Amboise, Nantes, and elsewhere. After a time the Italian taste they represented and their technical skill were turned into a channel more thoroughly French, and to the building up of an art purely national.