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and the beautiful polished appearance of the glaze that the products of Thomas Whieldon can be identified, and this applies equally to his cream, tortoiseshell, agate, and other wares. When a piece is found badly glazed, drawn out of shape, clumsily modelled, or heavy in weight, it must not be attributed to Whieldon.

A Pathetic Relic

Some of the finest pieces are decorated with raised foliage in relief. Such pieces are the covered tureen in the Schrieber collection at

South Kensington, and a teapot in the Holburne Museum at Bath. The first of these is entirely covered with a trellis of vine leaves, and has twisted rustic handles; the second is ornamented with raised vine leaves and shells, and has a crabstock handle and spout.

A pathetic little "human document " may be seen amongst the many interesting exhibits in the ceramic section at the Concord Museum of Antiques in the United States of America. This is a delicate tortoiseshell mug, light in weight, with fine lead glaze and rich colouring, attached to which is a label bearing the legend in ink, faded by the sun of many summers, Jonas Potter, born Feb. 6, 1740; married Dec. 30, 1766; died March 7, 1821." A life's record; or, one might almost say, a monument to an unknown man. This little mug was made in Staffordshire, at Fenton Low, by Thomas Whieldon.

In addition to other wares mentioned, Whieldon was an extensive manufacturer of salt glaze ware; but as he used no distinguishing mark, it is not possible to identify his productions.

Amongst other makers of agate ware may be mentioned the firm of Neale and Co., of Hanley, who were also well known as imitators of Wedgwood's basaltes and jasper ware. This firm were at work in 1775, and their goods were of a high standard of excellence. Their fine green glazed ware, slightly gilt and well modelled agate ware, became very popular.

In one of the illustrations may be seen a very perfect specimen of agate ware made

by Neale and Co. This is a vase and cover of elegant shape, with ground of blue marbling, adorned with a wide moulded border round the shoulders in cream ware, from which depends an oval plaque with finely modelled figures in relief. The body is wreathed with festoons of raised cream ware leaves, slightly gilt, hanging from handles shaped as eagles' heads. The cream-coloured moulding is again introduced on the neck and base of the vase, which is surmounted by a dome-shaped cover with acorn knob. This, and other specimens of a similar kind, may be seen in the South Kensington Museum.

The illustration "The Vicar and Moses shows one of the most interesting Staffordshire groups modelled by Ralph Wood. This man was the brother of Aaron Wood, at one time associated with Whieldon. He was born in 1716, and died in 1772, and was the son of a miller of that name.

Ralph Wood's figures are well modelled, and are remarkable for their quaint humour. The earliest versions of the "Vicar and Moses" were made of a fine white ware, and were decorated with broad washes in characteristic Whieldon colours-yellow, green and brown-purple, covered with a fine bluish glaze, small details being touched in in black. Such pieces are frequently marked : "R. A. Wood, Burslem."

An Individual Touch

The faces of all Ralph Wood's statuettes have a peculiar cast characteristic of this modeller. Later on the group illustrated was copied by other potters, but these products were more brilliantly coloured, were rather clumsily modelled, and lack the Wood expression of countenance. Another version of the Vicar and Moses returning from a drunken bout may be seen in another illustration. This particular group is of later date, being made at the end of the eighteenth or early in the nineteenth century.

Tortoiseshell ware was rather extensively manufactured at Liverpool. It is altogether heavier than that of Whieldon, lacks the fine glaze characteristic of his wares, and has a dull, uninteresting appearance.

SWEET-PEAS AND HOW TO

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The Popularity of the Sweet-pea-Some Designs for Table Decorations in Sweet-peas-Varieties that Will be Found Useful

SWEET-PEAS are some of the most useful

and beautiful blossoms for home decoration, and, since they can be obtained in many lovely shades, any colour scheme can be arranged with them.

Rapid strides have been made recently in the art of growing them, and it is easy to obtain large blooms, long, firm stalks, and almost every colour desired. Some complain that they lack beautiful foliage, but

surely the quaint tendrils and grey-green leaves are just what is needed to show their beauty to perfection. Nature invariably knows how to dress her children suitably, and the decorator who smothers her sweetpea blossoms with sprays of fern makes a fatal mistake. What could be prettier or more artistic than a vase in which much sweet-pea foliage has been used and only a few blossoms ?

Sweet-peas look very well arranged in cut glass finger-bowls. The flowers, of course, must be arranged erect. This is easily done by the aid of a round glass support perforated with holes, which, being transparent, is invisible when in the bowl.

Place the sprays of blossoms in the bowl one by one, using short ones for the edges of the bowl and tall sprays in the centre. A pretty idea is to place a bowl in front of each guest, and then form lines of sweetpea blossoms on the cloth from the base of each bowl to the candelabrum in the centre of the table. Any colour scheme preferred that harmonises with the room itself may be chosen. A very effective design can be arranged as follows. At each corner of the table put a bowl filled with blosThe flowers should be cut of soms of a very pale shade, follow it by one with flowers of a deeper shade of the same colour, and continue, each bowl of flowers being a deeper shade than the last, those in the centre of the table being deepest of all. This idea can be carried out in pinks, mauves, blues, or reds.

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A cut glass finger-bowl looks charming filled with sweet-peas.
varying lengths and a glass support should be used

The vase should be a dull shade of green, with a design of pale pink. It should be filled with sweet-peas of two shades, a pale pink known as Apple Blossom and a pale blue mauve Lady Grisel Hamilton - a delightful combination.

A vase filled in this way forms a charming room decoration or centre for the dinnertable. If intended for the latter purpose, fill four smaller vases also in the same way, and connect them with the centre one by tying double bows of ribbon of the shade of the flowers, and draping it from vase to

vase.

For instance, for a scheme in red, place at each corner of the table a bowl of pale pink Gladys Unwin, next a bowl of a slightly deeper shade, as Countess Spencer, then a medium shade, as Duke of York, using for a yet deeper tone, John Ingman, and finally, for the centre bowls, the brilliant King Edward.

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Mixed sweet-peas in low white china vases form a beautiful table decoration. The flowers can be embedded in silver sand or pur in

lead supports

See that this shaded colour sequence is carried out in all the little details of the table service. Tie the menus and guestcards with ribbon that shades from pale to deep tones.

Make the candle-shades of crinkled paper or chiffon on asbestos frames, starting at the base with a narrow ruche of pale colour, and graduating the colours to the top, finishing with a deep full shade.

For the sweetmeats, cover soufflé-cases in the same way, make handles for them of ribbon wire, twine the handles with shaded

Bend the strips into small flutings, making them as nearly as possible the shape of the

vases.

Having placed them in the vases, hide them with a little moss, add sufficient water, and arrange the flowers lightly in them with some sprays of their own foliage.

Arrange them on the table, and put a tall candelabrum in the centre if there is not a light above the table.

A charming table decoration is also portrayed that can be carried out in the bright rose sweet-pea, Marjorie Willis.

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A pretty scheme for a sweet-pea table decoration. The ribbons attached to the vase should be of the same colour as the blossoms, clusters of which should be placed by each guest. Each table lamp should be surrounded by a ring of flower heads

ribbon, and trim with a cluster of real sweetpeas.

Mixed sweet-peas look very effective in white china vases; and in a set of low tablevases, as shown in one of the illustrations, form an ideal table decoration.

The vases consist of two crescent and two oblong pieces. Low vases are being largely used for table decoration, and are deservedly popular, as when they are used it is easy to converse across the table. The flowers need support, otherwise it is not easy to arrange them with good effect.

For low-growing flowers moss is sufficient, but sweet-peas require something more than this silver sand is successful, but many prefer lead supports, the use of which entails less work. For these low vases long strips of lead of a narrow width will be required.

These

The centre piece is a tall, slender vase, filled with blossoms, from which droop six strands of ribbon of the same colour. are tied with pretty bows to tiny pink-andgold baskets filled with fondants. Between each guest place, and at the corners of the table, clusters of sweet-peas are laid on the cloth.

The table is lighted by glass fairy lights, with shades of fluted pink silk. Each fairy light is placed in a circle of sweet-pea blossoms, stripped from their stalks. This design would look brilliant carried out in the scarlet sweet-pea, Queen Alexandra, mixed with Etta Dyke, a beautiful waved white. Or an artistic combination of colour could be obtained by using yellow with pale pink, in such varieties as the Hon. Mrs. Kenyon and Gladys Unwin.

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Lady Churston, who, under her professional name of Miss Denise Orme, was so well known to the theatre-loving public

Photo, Bassano

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This section of EVERY WOMAN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA deals with all phases and aspects of Court and social life. It contains authoritative articles upon :

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Romances of Famous Families-Gay "Polly Peachum," a Coffee-house Keeper's Daughter, who married a Duke-A Secret Marriage and its Sequel-An Actress who Married Two PeersLatter-day Romances of Stage and Peerage

THERE are not a few people who are under

the impression that it is only of late years, since the great vogue of musical comedy, that scions of our noble families have discovered matrimonial happiness across the footlights.

The story of the romances of stage and peerage, however, go back nearly 200 yearsto the beginning of the eighteenth century, when blue-blooded aristocrats like the third Earl of Peterborough led the beautiful Miss Anastasia Robinson to the altar, a marriage which was followed in due course by that of the twelfth Earl of Derby to Miss Eliza Farren, and the third Duke of Bolton to Miss Lavinia Fenton.

And then there was Louisa Brunton, popular in her day as a singer and dancer, who was chosen in 1807 as his bride by the first Earl of Craven; while in 1813 Mary Bolton married Baron Thurlow. Again, in 1831, the Earl of Harrington married Maria Foote, and seven years later the Earl of Essex did similar honour to Kitty Stevens ; while just over sixty years ago Lord Gardner led Miss Julia Fortescue, the manageress of the Lyceum, to the altar.

An Eighteenth Century Romance

And it is doubtful, even in the annals of fiction, if one can find more fascinating stories of love and romance than those connected with some of these early matrimonial alliances between stage and peerage. Take, for instance, the marriage of the Duke of Bolton, in 1751, to Miss Lavinia Fenton, whose portrait by Hogarth can be seen in the National Gallery. Miss Fenton was the original "Polly Peachum " in Gay's Beggar's Opera," a work which it is said made Gay rich and Rich gay." Although

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she was the daughter of a coffee-house keeper in the Old Bailey, Miss Fenton was a born actress, and when she was at the height of her popularity the Duke of Bolton went to hear her, fell in love with her, proposed, was accepted, and married all in the course of a few days.

The Baroness Burdett-Coutts

Again, so deeply in love did the Earl of Derby fall with the lovely and accomplished Miss Farren," that he made her his wife, in 1797, a little more than six weeks after his first wife died; while the story goes that Mary Bolton first attracted the attention of Lord Thurlow when she was playing the part of a chambermaid with a blackened face-proof at once of her fascination and skill.

The Earl of Peterborough secretly wedded Miss Robinson in 1724, the result of the secrecy being that many unwelcome attentions were paid to the beautiful countess. One of her admirers was a tenor whom the earl caned, and then compelled to beg her pardon on his knees. This act caused the Earl of Chesterfield to call his cousin of Peterborough an "old Don Quixote." Naturally, the words led to a challenge, but happily a duel was prevented by the civil authorities.

All these marriages proved exceedingly happy, a remark which also applies to that of Miss Harriet Mellon, who first married Thomas Coutts, the famous banker, and upon his death, in 1815, wedded the Duke of St. Albans. Coutts, who was then the richest commoner in England, left his enormous fortune to his wife unconditionally, and she in her turn left it to Coutts's granddaughter, who was created Baroness Burdett-Coutts by Queen Victoria.

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