Grate was my pane
Weep not for me
Great is my gaine.”
“Here lieth the Body of Esther Vernon aged 51 1745”;
“Here Lyeth the Bodey of Thomas Coleough aged 70 1737”; and so on.
The other engravings are from Burslem churchyard—the same ground in which some of the older of the Wedgwoods are buried, and adjoining which Thomas Wedgwood’s “Churchyard Works” stood when Josiah Wedgwood was an apprentice there, and still exist. They are early (1737) and good specimens of these interesting memorials. Another bears the simple inscription, “Elesbeth Malkin Aged 96: 1745.” Many others of various dates occur.
Toft.—The name of Toft is intimately connected with pottery, both in Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The names of Thomas Toft and Ralph Toft occur on large coarse earthenware dishes of the middle of the seventeenth century (see vol. i. pages [101 to 104]), some of which are dated. The material of the body of Toft’s dishes platters, and other domestic articles, is a coarse, reddish, or buff-coloured clay—a common fire-brick clay—and the patterns are laid on in yellow, white, or other coloured slip, and then thickly glazed over with a lead glaze. I have reason to believe that some of the Tofts were potters at Tickenhall (which see, page 152).
Fig. 348.