Neither of which clays or slips must have any sand or gravel in them. Upon this account, before it be brought to the wheel, they prepare the clay by steeping it in water in a square pit till it be of a due consistence; then they bring it to their beating board, where, with a long _Spatula_, they beat it till it be well mixt; then, being first made into great _squarish_ rolls, it is brought to the _wageing board_, where it is slit into thin flat pieces with a _wire_, and the least stones or gravel pick’t out of it. This being done, they _wage_ it, _i.e._ knead or mould it like _bread_, and make it into round _balls_ proportionable to their work; and then ’tis brought to the wheel, and formed as the workman sees good. “27. When the potter has wrought the clay either into hollow or flat ware, they set it abroad to dry in faire weather, but by the fire in foule; turning them as they see occasion, which they call _whaving_. When they are dry they _stouk_ them, _i.e._ put ears and handles to such vessels as require them. These also being dry, they _slip_ or _paint_ them, with their severall sorts of slip, according as they designe their work; when the first slip is dry, laying on the others at their leisure, the _orange slip_ makeing the ground, and the _white_ and _red_ the paint; which two colours they break with a _wire brush_, much after the manner they doe when they _marble_ paper, and then _cloud_ them with a _pencil_ when they are pretty dry. After the vessels are painted they _lead_ them with that sort of _Lead Ore_ they call _Smithum_, which is the smallest _ore_ of all, beaten into dust, finely sifted, and strewed upon them; which gives them the _gloss_, but not the colour; all the colours being chiefly given by the variety of slips, except the _motley colour_, which is procured by blending the _Lead_ with _Manganese_, by the workmen call’d _Magnus_. But when they have a mind to shew the utmost of their skill in giving their wares a fairer gloss than ordinary, they lead them then with lead calcined into powder, which they also sift fine and strew upon them as before, which not only gives them a higher gloss, but goes much further too in their work than the lead ore would have done.