100 CHRONOMETERS. 



door opens, and there appear on the theatre the 

 Virgin, with Jesus Christ in her arms ; the magi, 

 with their retinue, marching in order, and presenting 

 their gifts, two trumpeters sounding all the time, 

 to proclaim the procession. These, however, were 

 excelled by two, which were lately made by Eng- 

 lish artists, and sent as a present from the East 

 India Company to the Emperor of China. These 

 clocks were in the form of chariots, in which 

 were placed, in a fine attitude, a lady leaning her 

 right hand upon a part of the chariot ; under which 

 is a clock of curious workmanship, little larger than 

 a shilling, that strikes, repeats, and goes eight days. 

 Upon her finger sits a bird finely modelled, and 

 set with diamonds and rubies, with its wings ex- 

 panded in a flying posture, and which actually flut- 

 ters for a considerable time, on touching a diamond 

 button below it; the body of the bird (which con- 

 tains part of the wheels, that in a manner give life 

 to it) is not the size of the sixteenth part of an 

 inch. The lady holds in her left hand a gold tube, 

 not much thicker than a large pin, on the top of 

 which is a small round box, to which a circular 

 ornament set with diamonds, not larger than a six- 

 pence, is fixed, which goes round near three hours 

 in a constant regular motion. Over the lady's 

 head, supported by a small fluted pillar, no bigger 

 than a quill, are two umbrellas ; under the largest 

 of which a bell is fixed, at a considerable distance 

 from the clock, and seeming to have no connection 

 with it, but from which a communication is secretly 

 conveyed to a hammer, that regularly strikes the 

 hour, and repeats the same at pleasure, by touch- 

 ing a diamond button fixed to the clock below. 

 At the feet of the lady is a gold dog, before which, 

 from the point of the chariot, are two birds, fixed 



