Mar. 18. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



253 



The hour-glass was used equally by the Catho- 

 lics and Protestants. In an account of the fall of 

 the house in Blackfriars, where a party of Ro- 

 manists were assembled to hear one of their 

 preachers, in 1623, the preacher is described as — 



" Having on a surplice, girt about his middle with a 

 linnen girdle, and a tippet of scarlet on both his 

 shoulders. He was attended by a man that brought 

 after him his book and hour- glass." — See The Fatal 

 Vespers, by Samuel Clark, London, 1657. 



In the Preface to the Bishops' Bible, printed by 

 John Day in 1569, Archbishop Parker is repre- 

 sented with an hour-glass at his right hand. And 

 in a work by Franchinus Gaffurius, entitled Ange- 

 licum ac Divinum opus Musice, printed at Milan 

 in 1508, is a curious representation of the author 

 seated in a pulpit, with a book in his hand ; an 

 hour-glass on one side, and a bottle on the other ; 

 lecturing to an audience of twelve persons. This 

 woodcut is engraved in the second volume of 

 Hawkins' History of Music, p. 333. 



Hour-glasses were often very elegantly formed, 

 and of rich materials. Shaw, in his Dresses and 

 Decorations of the Middle Ages, has given an en- 

 graving of one in the cabinet of M. Debruge at 

 Paris. It is richly enamelled, and set with jewels. 

 In the churchwardens' accounts of Lambeth Church 

 are two entries respecting the hour-glass : the 

 first is in 1579, when 1*. 4=d. was " payd to Yorke 

 for the frame in which the hower standeth ; " and 

 the second in 1615, when 6s. 8d. was "payd for 

 an iron for the hour-glasse." In an inventory of 

 the goods and implements belonging to the church 

 of All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, taken about 

 1632, mention is made of " one whole hour-glasse," 

 and of " one halfe hour-glasse." (See Brand's 

 Newcastle, vol. i. p. 370.). 



Fosbroke says, " Preaching by the hour-glass 

 was put an end to by the Puritans" (Ency. of 

 Antiq., vol. i. pp. 273. 307.). But the account 

 given by a correspondent of the Gentleman's Ma- 

 gazine (1804, p. 201.) is probably more correct: 



" Hour-glasses, in the puritanical days of Cromwell, 

 were made use of by the preachers ; who, on first get- 

 ting into the pulpit, and naming the text, turned up 

 the glass ; and if the sermon did not hold till the glass 

 was out, it was said by the congregation that the 

 preacher was lazy : and if he continued to preach much 

 longer, they would yawn and stretch, and by these 

 signs signify to the preacher that they began to be 

 weary of his discourse, and wanted to be dismissed." 



Butler speaks of "gifted brethren preaching by 

 a carnal hour-glass" {Hudibras, Parti., canto m., 

 v. 1061.). And in the frontispiece of Dr. Young's 

 book, entitled England's Shame, or a Relation of 

 the Life and Death of Hugh Peters, London, 1663, 

 Peters is represented preaching, and holding an 

 hour-glass in his left hand, in the act of saying : 

 " I know you are good fellows, so let's have an- 



other glass." The same words, or something very 

 similar, are attributed to the Nonconformist mi- 

 nister, Daniel Burgess. Mr. Maidment, in a note 

 to " The New Litany," printed in his Third Book 

 of Scottish Pasquils (Edin., 1828, p. 49.), also gives 

 the following version of the same : 



" A humorous story has been preserved of one of 

 the Earls of Airly, who entertained at his table a 

 clergyman, who was to preach before the Commis- 

 sioner next day. The glass circulated, perhaps too 

 freely ; and whenever the divine attempted to rise, his 

 Lordship prevented him, saying, ' Another glass, and 

 then.' After 'flooring' (if the expression may be al- 

 lowed) his Lordship, the guest went home. He next 

 day selected a text : ■ The wicked shall be punished, 

 and that right early.' Inspired by the subject, he 

 was by no means sparing of his oratory, and the hour- 

 glass was disregarded, although repeatedly warned by 

 the precentor ; who, in common with .Lord Airly, 

 thought the discourse rather lengthy. The latter soon 

 knew why he was thus punished by the reverend gen- 

 tleman, when reminded, always exclaiming, not sotto 

 voce, ' Another glass, and then.' " 



Hogarth, in his " Sleeping Congregation," has 

 introduced an hour-glass on the left side of the 

 preacher ; and Mr. Ireland observes, in his de- 

 scription of this plate, that they are " still placed 

 on some of the pulpits in the provinces." At 

 Waltham, in Leicestershire, by the side of the 

 pulpit was (or is) an hour-glass in an iron frame, 

 mounted on three high wooden brackets. (See 

 Nichols' Leicestershire, vol. ii. p. 382.) A bracket 

 for the support of an hour-glass is still preserved, 

 affixed to the pulpit of Hurst Church, in Berk- 

 shire : it is of iron, painted and gilt. An inte- 

 resting notice, accompanied by woodcuts, of a 

 number of existing specimens of hour-glass frames, 

 was contributed to the Journal of the British Ar- 

 chceological Association, vol. iii., 1848, by Mr. Fair- 

 holt, to which I refer the reader for farther in- 

 formation. Edward F. Kimbault. 



I remember to have seen it stated in some an- 

 tiquarian journal, that there are only three hour- 

 glass stands in England where any portion of the 

 glass is remaining. In Cowden Church, in Kent, 

 the glass is nearly entire. Perhaps some of your 

 readers will be able to mention the two other 

 places. W. D. H. 



In Salhouse Church, near Norwich, an iron 

 hour-glass stand still remains fixed to the pulpit ; 

 and a bell on the screen, between the nave and 

 the chancel. C— s. T. P. 



At Berne, in the autumn of last year, I saw an 

 hour-glass stand still attached to the pulpit in the 

 minster. W. Sparrow SiMrsoN. 



