Wirksworth is much more intimately mixed up with the history of the Ceramic Art than is usually imagined, and yet but little is known of the works which were there carried on, or of their productions. Dugdale, in 1799, says, “About forty years ago, a manufacture of porcelain was attempted, but it proved unsuccessful.... It was in the Holland Manor House that the unsuccessful manufacture of porcelain was attempted;” and Davis, in 1811, repeats the same thing: “In the Holland Manor House the manufacture of porcelain was attempted, about forty years ago, but proving unsuccessful, it was relinquished.” Holland House, where this manufacture was carried on, was the Manor House of the manor of Holland, otherwise Richmonds, which was given by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, to Sir Robert Holland, in which family it remained until the attainder of Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, in 1461; it afterwards belonged to Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, and was subsequently granted by the Crown to Ralph Gell. In 1745, Philip Gell leased the manor to “Robert Atkinson and Francis Parry, of Lincoln’s Inn, gentlemen,” and to “Andrew Wilkinson, of Boroughbridge, com. York, Esq., and Thomas Wilkinson, Esq., brother of the said Andrew Wilkinson.” In 1777 it was “leased by Philip Gell, Esq., of Hopton, to Richard Arkwright, of Cromford, cotton merchant.” In this latter lease (dated 6th November, 1777), the china works are thus named: “All those several messuages, tenements, or dwelling-houses, and all other buildings, warehouses, workshops, and appurtenances, situate, standing, and being in Wirksworth, in the said county of Derby, heretofore used for the making and manufacturing of China Ware, and now in the tenure or occupation of the said Philip Gell, his assignee or assigns, tenant or under-tenants.” So that at that time the first china works had probably ceased to be in operation. In 1793, by deed dated 1st November, Richard Arkwright, Esq., assigned the remainder of the lease to Charles Hurt, Esq., of Wirksworth, in the following words: “All those several messuages, tenements, or dwelling-houses, and all other the buildings, warehouses, workshops, and appurtenances, situate, standing, and being in Wirksworth, heretofore used for y^e making and manufacturing of china, but now for picking cotton.”