July 23. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



83 



four o'clock the following morning. A traditional 

 anecdote is current of an old Presbyterian clergy- 

 man, unusually full of matter, who, having preached 

 out his hour-glass, was accustomed to pause, and 

 addressing the precentor, " Another glass and then" 

 recommenced his sermon. 



A pictorial representation of the hour-glass 

 in a country church is to be seen in front of 

 the precentor's des'K, or pulpit, in a very scarce 

 humorsome print, entitled " Presbyterian Pe- 

 nance," by the famous David Allan. It also 

 figures in the engraving of the painting by Wilkie, 

 of John Knox preaching before Mary Queen of 

 Scots. About twenty years ago it was either in 

 the Cathedral of Stirling or the Armory of the 

 Castle (the ancient chapel), that I saw the hour- 

 glass (about twelve inches high) which had been 

 connected with one or other of the pulpits, from 

 both of which John Knox is said to have preached. 

 It is likely the hour-glass is there " even unto 

 this day " (unless abstracted by some relic hunter) ; 

 and if it could be depended on as an original ap- 

 pendage to the pulpits, would prove that its use 

 was coeval with the times of the Scottish Re- 

 formation. I think its high antiquity as certain 

 as the oaken pulpits themselves. 



At an early period the general poverty of the 

 country, and the scarcity of clocks and watches, 

 must have given rise to the adoption of the hour 

 sand-glass, a simple instrument, but yet elegant 

 and impressive, for the measurement of a brief 

 portion of our fleeting span. G. N. 



Glasgow. 



On the 31st May, 1640, the churchwardens of 

 Great Staughton, co. Huntingdonshire, " are, and 

 stand charged with (among other church goods), a 

 pulpit standinge in the church, having a cover 

 over the same, and an houre-glasse adjoininge." 



Copy of a cutting from a magazine, name and 

 date unknown : 



" Among Dr. Rawlinson's manuscripts in the Bod- 

 leian Library, No. 941 contains a collection of Miscel- 

 laneous Discourses, by Mr. Lewis of Margate, in Kent, 

 whence the following extract has been made : 



" ' It appears that these hour-glasses were coeval with 

 our lleformation, la a fine frontispiece, prefixed to 

 the Holy Bible of the bishops' translation, printed in 

 4to. by John Day, 1569, Archbishop Parker is repre- 

 sented in the pulpit with an hour-glass standing on his 

 right hand ; ours, here, stood on the left without any 

 frame. It was proper that some time should be pre- 

 scribed for the length of the sermon, and clocks and 

 watches were not then so common as they are now. 

 This time of an hour continued till the Revolution, as 

 appears by Bishop Sanderson's, Tillotson's, Stilling- 

 fleet's, Dr. Barrow's, and others' sermons, printed dur- 

 ing that lime.' 



"The writer of this article was informed in 1811 

 by the Rev. Mr. Burder, who had the curacy of St, 



Dunstan's, Fleet Street, that the large silver hour-glass 

 formerly used in that church, was melted down into 

 two staff heads for the parish beadles. 



" An hour-glass frame of iron, fixed in the wall by 

 the side of the pulpit, was remaining in 1797 in the 

 church of North Moor, in Oxfordshire." 



Joseph Rix. 



St. Neots, Huntingdonshire. 



In many of our old pulpits built during the 

 seventeenth century, when hour sermons were the 

 rule, and thirty minutes the exception, the shelf 

 on which the glass used to stand may still be seen. 

 If I recollect rightly, that of Miles Coverdale was 

 thus furnished, as stated in the newspapers, at the 

 time the church of Bartholomew was removed. 

 Perhaps tliis emblem was adopted on gravestones 

 as significant of the character of Death as a minister 

 or preacher. 



The late Basil Montague, when delivering a 

 course of lectures on " Laughter " at the Islington 

 Institution some few years since, kept time by the 

 aid of this antique instrument. If I remember 

 aright, he turned the glass and said, '^^ Another glass 

 and then" or some equivalent expression. 



E. G. Ballabd. 



There is an example at the church of St. Alban, 

 Wood Street, Cheapside. This church was rebuilt 

 by Sir C. Wren, and finished 1685 ; showing that 

 the hour-glass was in use subsequent to the times 

 alluded to. J. D. Allcroft. 



I saw, on 13th January last, an iron hour-glass 

 stand affi-Kcd to a pillar in the north aisle of Beltou 

 Church, in the Isle of Axholme. 



Edwahd Peacock. 



Bottesford Moors, Kirton-in-Lindsey. 



liADlES ASMS BOBNE IN A LOZENGE. 



(Vol.vii., p.57l.) 



The subject of the Query put by your corre- 

 spondent is one that has frequently occurred to 

 me, but which is involved in obscurity. Heraldic 

 writers generally have contented themselves with 

 the mere statement of ladies' arms being thus 

 borne; and where we do find an opinion hazarded, 

 it is more in the form of a quotation from a name- 

 less author, or of a timid suggestion, than an at- 

 tempt to elucidate the question by argument or 

 from history. 



By some this form of shield is said to have 

 descended to us from the Amazons, who bore such : 

 others say, from the form of their tombstones! 

 Now we find it to i-epresent the ancient spindle 

 so much used *by ladies ; and again to be a shield 

 found by the Romans unfit for use, and therefore 

 transferred to the weaker sex, who were " allowed 

 to place their ensigns upon it, witli one corner 

 always uppermost." 



