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Stourbridge was known for a long time before this as a centre for the mines producing , and eventually this clay was adopted for making glass-house pots; now many other sources are available for these fire-clays. Much of the antiquity of the glassmaking of England is hidden in the neighbourhood of Stourbridge, and the writer has himself found a few antique specimens of old green devitrified window glass embedded in the subsoil of some fields near Oldswinford, probably relics of the Huguenots, who practised and extended the art of glassmaking in that district. Other important centres for glassmaking now are York, London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Birmingham; but, although glassmaking has reached a high degree of excellence in this country, there is nothing yet comparable with the extensive factories which exist abroad. The conservatism of many English manufacturers, and the adverse influence of the Glass Makers’ Society, considerably restrict the progress of this trade compared with the broad and progressive manner in which it is carried on abroad.^[1]