Up to this time iron muffles were used, but from their arrangement requiring a preparatory kiln or muffle, after the same manner as the annealing oven of a glass-house, they were most objectionable, the ware having to be removed from one to the other whilst very hot. Previous to this iron muffle, a more original muffle still was used. The description given to us quite accords with the engraving in Biancourt, with the exception of the arrangement of the fire. In the old Worcester kilns the space between the bricks and the iron case was filled with small pieces of charcoal, and when the iron cover was finally placed, it was also covered with charcoal; the fire was then applied to the centre of the cover, and gradually extended all over and down the sides until it got to the bottom; the object of this arrangement was to get an equal heat all over, which would not have been the case had the bottom been heated first. The method of building these new enamel kilns was kept as a great secret, Walker always working by night. He built them both for Messrs. Flight and Barr and Messrs. Chamberlain.” After remaining two years only at Worcester, in 1813 Billingsley and Walker (the former under a name he had for cogent reasons assumed--that of _Beeley_, this name being a contraction of his own B[illings]ley, or B’ley, otherwise _Beeley_) left that place and went to NANTGARW, a small, out-of-the-way village in Glamorganshire, near Pontypridd, where they established themselves and commenced making china. From here they sent up a specimen of their ware to Government,[29] to show their special body, and to seek Government aid; and the Board of Trade, through Sir Joseph Banks, requested Mr. Dillwyn, of the Swansea pot-works, to visit Nantgarw and report on the quality of the ware. This visit of Mr. Dillwyn’s resulted in his entering into an arrangement with Billingsley and Walker to transfer themselves and their works to SWANSEA, where he built a small manufactory for them, closely adjoining his other works. Not long after this Mr. Dillwyn received a notice from Messrs. Flight and Barr, of Worcester, informing him that Billingsley and Walker “had clandestinely left their service,” and warning him not to employ them. This occurred, I believe, in about two years from the time of founding the Swansea China Works, and on Mr. Dillwyn being assured by Messrs. Flight and Barr that china with the granulated body could not be made to be commercially successful, he gave up the manufacture, and dismissed Billingsley and Walker, who then at once returned to Nantgarw, where they resumed their manufacture of china, and produced many beautiful services and pieces, which now fetch remarkably high prices. The productions of this small manufactory having found their way into some of the best London dealers’ hands, Mr. Rose,