Description:

Creamware mug made by Ralph Wedgwood, probably at the Hill Pottery, Burslem, marked 'WEDGWOOD & CO' and printed with The Vicar and Moses. The joke for the user, as he sat drinking the two pints of beer which the mug holds, is about a drunken priest and his clerk going to bury a dead baby. This 18th century sense of humor seems worlds away from us.

"At the sign of the horse old spintext of course/ Each night took his pipe and his pot/ O'er a jorum of nappy quite pleasant and happy/ Was plac'd this canonical sot.

The evening was dark when in came the clerk/ With reverence due and submission/ First strok'd his cravat then twirld round his hat/ And bowing prefer'd his petition.

I'm come sir says he, to beg look d'ye see/ Of your reverend worship and glory/ To inter a poor baby with as much speed as may be/ And I'll walk with my lantern before ye.

The body we'll bury but pray where's the hurry,/ I hate to be called from my liquor,/ Bring Moses some beer and bring me some d'ye hear/ Lets drink ere we go says the Vicar

His hat and his cloak, old orthodox took,/ But first cramm'd his jaw with a quid,/ Each tip't off a gill, for fear they should chill,/ And then stagger'd away side by side.

When come to the grave, the clerk humm'd a stave,/ While the surplice was wrapped round the priest,/ Where so droll was the figure of Moses & Vicar,/ That the Parish still talk of the jest."