The usual treatment of clay for glass-house purposes is as follows. After having been carefully selected, it is broken into small pieces by women accustomed to its appearance, who throw on one side all pieces of discoloured and irregular clay; it is finely ground by heavy edge-runners, and mixed with a certain proportion of ground potsherds (old broken burnt pots); the proportion of burnt clay varies according to the purpose for which the clay is to be used; it is then mixed with water, and tempered with the foot, and allowed to lie a considerable time--which should not be less than six or seven weeks--when it should acquire great tenacity before being made into pots. These pots are built up by hand gradually, great care being taken that the last layer of clay is not allowed to become hard or dry, or it will not unite properly; neglect in this respect causing the pot to give way in the furnace. The pots are dried very gradually, and are seldom fit for use under six to eight months. The clay, after the selection of the best pot-clay, is allowed to lie in large heaps, subjected to the action of the atmosphere, and is then used in the manufacture of gas-retorts, fire-bricks, &c. The quantity of bricks made annually in the Stourbridge district is about fifty millions. CHAPTER IX. Salopian Wares--Uriconium--Caughley Works--Thomas Turner--Introduction of “Willow Pattern”--Worcester Works--Close of Caughley Works--Marks--Transfer Printing--Hancock and Holdship--Coalport Works--Jackfield--John Rose--Swansea and Nantgarw--Productions of the Coalport Works--Marks--“Willow Pattern” and “Broseley Blue Dragon,” &c.--Broseley Pipes--Coalbrookdale Iron Works--Terra Cotta--Madeley--Martin Randall’s China--Jackfield Pottery--Maurice Thursfield--“Black Decanters”--China--Craven Dunnill & Co.’s Tile Works--Broseley--Benthall--Maw’s Tile Works--Broseley Tileries--Benthall Potteries--Coalmoor. In the midst of one of the most historically interesting districts of the kingdom--a district abounding in spots rendered famous in various ages by the events which have occurred within its boundaries, and full of associations as varied as they are interesting--within a few miles of Boscobel, and Tong, and numberless other places possessing a sad interest as connected with the wanderings and the painful vicissitudes of King Charles II.,--within a short distance of those two glorious monastic ruins, Buildwas Abbey and Wenlock Priory--not far from the “English Nineveh,” Uriconium, and within easy distance of Shrewsbury and Ludlow,--is a group of manufactories whose simple history is as interesting as that of many of these places.