_The West Kent Potteries_ were opened in 1820, before which time other works were in operation and carried on by the steward of Lord Sydney, the owner of the estate, for the manufacture of wares for the use of the estate. At Christmas, 1822, the works were taken by Mr. Pascall, who continued to carry them on until January, 1869, when he died in the ninety-second year of his age. Since then it has been carried on by his sons, Messrs. Pascall Brothers, the present owners. The productions of the works are the ordinary red-ware flower and root pots, sea-kale pots, and other horticultural ware: building and paving bricks and tiles; roofing and ridge tiles; drain, socket, and other pipes; chimney-tops, &c. Messrs. Pascall are patentees of the famous West Kent flower-pots with loose bottoms, celebrated for their convenience for changing and examining the roots; and of the patent sea-kale pots for growing sea-kale in hothouses. The works are extensive, and the production of horticultural-ware is large. CHAPTER VII. Chelsea--M. Spremont--Sale of the Works to Duesbury--Removal to Derby--Wages Bills--Simpson’s Works--Wedgwood’s Works--Ruhl’s Works--Bow--Heylin and Frye--Weatherby and Crowther--Craft--Sale of Works to Duesbury--Kentish Town--Giles and Duesbury--Euston Road--Mortlocks and others--Hoxton--Hammersmith. “Chelsea buns,” “Chelsea pensioners,” and “Chelsea china” are surely three things, each one in itself sufficient to make a place famous, but when brought together, a three-fold fame must certainly attach to the locality which has given them a name. With the buns and the pensioners, however, I disclaim all connection in my present work. The former are not sufficiently works of Art-manufacture to entitle them to a place in our columns, and the latter are certainly not articles of _virtù_ which can be collected together and stowed away under glass shades by the connoisseur. And yet the “Chelsea Bun-house” has its story--full of interest and of incident--and the “Hospital” has a history and a host of associations connected with it, which render these two places memorable, and give them an imperishable interest. It is with the “China”--the third of the matters I have named, and of whose story the least is known--that I have now to do. The establishment of the Bun-house, and its history to the latest time, is easily traced out and written; the foundation of the Hospital, and the events which have from time to time filled it with pensioners, are matters of record which are easily gathered together; but the formation of the china works, and many of the changes the establishment has undergone, are lost to us, and will be difficult to recover. It is my object here to attempt to get back so much as may be of the early history of the works, and to throw together the scraps I have collected, into the form of a narrative, which may become the nucleus of a larger and more extended