Will try the utmost of your skill.”
By courtesy of Mr. S. G. Fenton,
Cranbourne Street.
GROUP OF OLD ENGLISH DATED WARE.
There is a very quaint inscription on a four-handled goblet, possibly a christening cup. It is dated 1692, and has the sides decorated with rough devices. Attached to one of the sides is a whistle; the mug has written upon it in atrocious spelling—
“Here is the geste of the barley corne;
Glad ham I the child is born.”
The orthography of potters in the age before School Boards is something to marvel at. Apparently the following is the gift of an amorous potter to his lady-love. I. W. has gone the way of all lovers, but the little mug he made for his sweetheart lies on the museum shelf, an object-lesson to all “golden lads and lasses” who, as Herrick’s fair daffodils, “haste away so soon.”
“Ann Draper, this cup I made for you, and so no more.—I. W.”