CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
XVIIITH CENTURY.
| Anne (1702–1714) | 1704 | Gibraltar taken by Sir George Rooke. Marlborough gained victory of Blenheim. |
| 1711–1714 | Addison published the Spectator. | |
| George I. (1714–1727) | 1715 | Rebellion in Scotland. The Old Pretender landed at Peterhead. |
| 1715–1719 | Pope translated Homer's Iliad into English verse. | |
| 1719 | Defoe's Robinson Crusoe published. | |
| 1721 | The South Sea Bubble burst; thousands of families ruined. | |
| George II. (1727–1760) | 1742 | Fielding's Joseph Andrews published. |
| 1748 | Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe. | |
| 1749 | Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard. | |
| 1750 | Fielding's Tom Jones published. | |
| 1755 | Dr. Johnson's Dictionary published. | |
| 1757 | Clive laid the foundation of the Indian Empire. | |
| George III. (1760–1820) | 1759–67 | Sterne's Tristram Shandy. |
| 1766 | Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. | |
| 1768 | Sir Joshua Reynolds first president of the Royal Academy. | |
| 1775 | The American War. | |
| 1777 | Sheridan's School for Scandal. | |
| 1779 | Gainsborough at the height of his fame. | |
| 1782 | The Independence of the United States recognised. | |
| 1786 | Gillray's caricatures commenced to appear. | |
| 1790 | Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution. | |
| 1791 | Burns's Tam O' Shanter. | |
| 1792 | Thomas Paine's Age of Reason. | |
| 1795 | War with Holland. Capture of the Cape of Good Hope. | |
| 1801 | Union of Great Britain and Ireland. |
CHAPTER V
EARLY STAFFORDSHIRE WARE
THOMAS WHIELDON:
HIS CONTEMPORARIES AND HIS SUCCESSORS
The forerunners of Whieldon—The position of Staffordshire Ware—Whieldon as a potter—Early Staffordshire Art—The rivalry with salt glaze—Form versus Colour—The last years of the Eighteenth century—The English spirit—Prices.
"Early Staffordshire" is a generic term used to include much of the unknown ware of the early period between about 1720 to 1760. It is not early enough to go back to the butter-pot days of Charles II. nor to include the school of Toft and his contemporaries, with their quaint native humour. But it is an important period when earthenware was in a transitional stage. It is, in fact, the period when Staffordshire may be regarded as the great nursery of potters in swaddling clothes who came into their majority later with full honours.