Along the crowded streets to fly
And see the lighted windows flame!"
The shouts of the crowd rejoicing drowned the widow's tears. In simple, but none the less poetical, language the child continues:
"She could not bear to see my joy;
For with my father's life 'twas bought,
And made me her poor orphan boy."
It is undoubtedly such human touches as these on the domestic crude ware which stir the heart's blood quicker than all the gods and goddesses ever turned out in Staffordshire.
The age of steam and steel and its inventions did not come unheralded. We illustrate a plate of one of the earliest steam carriages ([p. 463]). The plate is of Staffordshire origin and evidently was intended to be sold in Germany as a "present from London," as the inscription runs, "Dampf Wagen von London nach Bristol. Ein Geschenk für meinen Lieben Jungen" ("Steam Coach from London to Bristol. A Present for my dear boy"). In date this is about 1827 as the accompanying engraving, entitled the "New Steam Carriage," is from a periodical publication of that date.