LOWESTOFT. According to Gillingham's _History of Lowestoft_, written in 1790, an attempt was made to manufacture porcelain there in 1756 by Mr. Hewlin Luson of Gunton Hall, he having found some fine clay on his estate suitable for the purpose, and in the following year Messrs. Gillingwater, Walker, Browne, Aldred, and Richman, established the Lowestoft porcelain works, which existed until 1802. The porcelain was of soft paste, and in 1902 fragments of it and moulds were found on the site of the factory. The theory that hard paste was made at Lowestoft or that Chinese porcelain was painted there has now been abandoned. PLYMOUTH. About the year 1755 William Cookworthy commenced his experiments to ascertain the nature of true porcelain of hard paste, and searched with great perseverance throughout England for the materials which were the constituent parts of Chinese porcelain. At length a friend of his discovered on the estate of Lord Camelford, in the parish of St. Stephen's, Cornwall, "a certain white saponaceous clay, and close by it a species of granite or moorstone, white with greenish spots, which he immediately perceived to be the two long sought-for ingredients, the one giving whiteness and body to the paste, the other vitrification and transparency." [Illustration: FIG. 298.--COFFEE-POT.] [Illustration: FIG. 299.--BEAKER AND COVER.] [Illustration: FIG. 300.--CENTREPIECE.] The patent was obtained in 1768, and the materials were described as growan stone and growan clay. The works were carried on for nearly six years, and consequently a considerable quantity of ware was made. Cookworthy engaged the services of a French artist, M. Soqui, whose ornamental delineations on the articles produced here were very beautiful. Some elegant salt-cellars and table ornaments in the form of open conch shells resting on a bed of coral, &c., all well modelled in hard paste, were favourites for the table. [Illustration: FIG. 301.--A SHEPHERDESS.] [Illustration: FIG. 302.--A SHEPHERD.] Cookworthy and Lord Camelford continued to work this manufactory until 1774, when the patent right was sold and transferred to Richard Champion. BRISTOL. A manufactory of _soft paste_ porcelain was founded at Bristol about 1750. Later Richard Champion, having in 1774 purchased Cookworthy's patent, opened a manufactory for _hard paste_. The ware was brought to great perfection, but the large outlay prevented its being remunerative, and in three or four years he sold his interest in the patent to a company of Staffordshire potters. [Illustration: FIG. 303.--BOWL AND COVER.] [Illustration: FIG. 304.--DISH.] CAUGHLEY, near Broseley, Salop. Established in 1751 by a Mr. Brown, and afterwards carried on by a Mr. Gallimore. It was not until 1772 that it rose to any importance, when Thomas Turner commenced operations. He came from the Worcester porcelain manufactory; he was an engraver, and probably learnt his art from Robert Hancock.