American Toby Jug Museum 

Thomas Moore character jug produced at Watcombe Pottery of Devon, England, circa 1910. Thomas Moore (1779-1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his "Irish Melodies". His setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish to English. Today Moore is remembered either for his "Irish Melodies", typically "The Minstrel Boy" and "The Last Rose of Summer", or, less generously, for the role he is thought to have played in the loss of the memoirs of his friend Lord Byron. The verse around the base of the jug, "Many Have Told of The Monks of Old, What a Saintly Race They Were", are the opening lines of the poem "The Monks of Old".