The river is navigable only as far as Burton, for above that town it is interrupted by weirs and by shallows; but canals follow the valley, and in the year 1849 the railroad uniting Rugby with Stafford passed along it for a few miles, and directed through a district, hitherto secluded, the traffic between London and Holyhead or the great towns of western Lancashire. This railway quitted the Trent near its junction with the Sow, but a few years later the towns higher up the river, forming the important district of the Staffordshire Potteries, were reached by a line which branches off from the main system of the London and North-Western Company at Colwich. [Illustration: _Walker & Boutall sc._ THE TRENT, FROM THE SOURCE TO NEWTON SOLNEY.] The birthplace of Trent, like that of many persons afterwards famous, is inconspicuous. The river, according to Erdeswick, "hath its first spring in the moorlands between Bidulph and Norton, and divideth the shire almost into two equal parts, north and south." There is little to note in its earlier course. One or two of the adjacent villages possess some link with our older history, notably "Stanleghe," of which the author just quoted says, "of this small village do all the great houses of Stanley take their name." But before long a district is entered, unpleasing indeed to the artist, but welcome to the man of commerce--a land of chimneys and smoke, of kilns and furnaces, not only for earth but also for metal. This is the district popularly called the Potteries, a group of towns often so nearly confluent as to defy distinction by all but residents. Tunstall and Burslem, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Hanley and Stoke-upon-Trent: these, with such suburbs as Etruria, occupy a strip of country some ten miles long, drained by the youthful Trent and its tributaries, a composite or confluent hive of human bees. We will venture but on one positive statement, that Stoke-upon-Trent is the last of these towns, and below it the river emerges into more attractive scenery. In this district the smelting furnaces and ironworks are industries comparatively modern, but for centuries it has been noted for its earthenware. Burslem, one of the towns more distant from the Trent, appears to be the oldest, for under the name of Bulwardsleme it is mentioned in Domesday Book, and its "butter-pots" were noted in the days of the Stuarts. When Dr. Plot wrote his History of Staffordshire--that is, during the short reign of James II.--it was the chief place for the potter's industry, and he tells us that "for making several sorts of pots they have as many different sorts of clay, which they dig round about the town, all within half a mile's distance, the best being found near the coal." This earthenware was all coloured, for the white clay from Cornwall had not yet been imported into the district. The most marked advance was due to one man--Josiah Wedgwood, who was born to the trade in 1730.