23 



inventory of the items in All Saints' Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1632, 

 mentions "one old houre-glasse," and "one halfe-hour glasse," showing that the 

 two periods of time were equally considered. In some of the few instances where 

 the frames are still preserved, the glasses that held the sand, or powdered egg- 

 shell, have been broken and not replaced. These frames are generally made of 

 iron, but in St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet-street, there was a silver frame, which 

 was melted down not so very long ago and made into two staff-heads for the 

 parish beadles. In St. Albans, Wood-street, there is an example often mentioned, 

 so placed that the preacher can reach it and turn it. But the examples in London 

 are extremely rare. The county of Norfolk is somewhat richer in specimens of 

 these " spies of time," as Longfellow calls them, being able to count up some half- 

 dozen frames. Suffolk, too, had an example at Flixton, in the first half of this 

 century, but when the church was restored it was removed. At Wolvercot, and 

 at Northmoor, Oxon, there are frames. Berkshire has a fine example in Hurst 

 Church. Wiltshire has preserved another in Compton Basset Church. This sacred 

 edifice is much admired by antiquaries for its fine old rood-screen, which is in good 

 preservation. There is a staircase to the rood-loft, and there are twelve niches in 

 the piers of the screen where it is supposed there were once figures of the twelve 

 Apostles. Adjoining the south side of the screen, in front of the masonry containing 

 the winding stairs to its summit, is the pulpit, which is modern, and projecting from 

 the wall close by is an iron bracket upholding the hour-glass placed there some time 

 in the seventeenth century. Kent, too, has an interesting specimen. This is at Cliffe 

 Church. A second Kentish example was removed a few years ago from the pulpit 

 in Oxford Church. And the frame of a third may still be seen at Leigh. Near 

 Hull, in the church at Keyingham, there is another frame. Puxton Church, 

 Somerset ; Odell Church, Bedfordshire ; and the Church at Hammoon, Dorset, 

 had examples quite recently, and may still have them. In all the length and 

 breadth of our pleasant land, however, it would be difficult to ix)int to many more 

 than a score of examples out of the hundreds and hundreds that once formed 

 faniUiar features in it to the church frequenters of the last two centuries. 



Returning now to the proceedings of the day, the next object of interest 

 passed en route vf^s the battle field at Barber's Bridge, in commemoration of which 

 a stone monument was erected by Mr. Price, of Tibberton Court, a few years ago. 

 Near this sjwt during the excavation of the Hereford and Gloucester canal 

 several skeletons were found buried, and many others were discovered in 1868, 

 which were undoubtedly those of the Welshmen under Lord Herbert, here severely 

 defeated by Waller and Massey on the 24th of March, 1643. The President stated 

 that, by the kindness of Mr. Price, he should be enabled to read a paper very 

 carefully written by the late Major Price, which contains the fullest information 

 to be gained on the subject. 



Proceeding homewards, the parish church of Newent was examined, and a 

 paper read upon it by the President. 



After an excellent dinner at the George Hotel, the President gave us his 

 promised paper on "Crockett's Hole," and his reading of another paper on the 

 subject of the Battle of Barber's Bridge, was interrupted by the announcement of 



