Proceedixgs of the Polytechnic Association. 1047 



author of London scenes says " tlie giants stood in front of tlie 

 building on a covered platform each wielding a club, the bell being 

 hung between them, which at the quarter and hour they struck, but 

 so indolently that the spectators complained that they were notiwell 

 up to their work. They were the pets of cockneys and countrymen. 



" Many a stranger, as he passed that way, 

 Made it once a design there to stay 

 And see those two hammer the hours away 

 In Fleet street." 



One historian says, " they were more admired by the populace than 

 the most popular preacher within." The old church of St. Dunstan's 

 was pulled down and the clock and figures were sold to the Marquis 

 of Hertford, October 22, 1830, for £210, and were removed to his 

 villa in Regent's Park where the clubbers still do duty. Another 

 digression. 



'' In the reign of Edward III a new dial was made for St. Paul's, 

 with all splendor iinaginable, having an angel pointing to the hour 

 both of day and night." 



The next clock we read of being put up in England was at West- 

 minster, in 1288 or 1289, and the tradition is that Edward I prose- 

 cuted Sir Ealph De Ilingham, chief justice of the King's Bench, for 

 corruption, and fined him 8,000 marks (another tradition says 800), 

 and with this sum built a clock-house. The offense was that of alter- 

 ing a fine set upon a very poor man, from thirteen shillings four 

 pence, to six shillings eight pence. A clock-house was a separate 

 building from the church, often several rods distant from it. It is 

 not an uncommon thing to see a bell tower built in the same way in 

 some parts of Europe. 



A new, large clock was put up in Canterbury cathedral, in the 

 3'ear 1292, at a cost of thirty pounds, and Wm. Benet, who was 

 mayor in lioO, gave by his will four shillings four pence per annum 

 to keep and maintain this clock forever. 



At the commencement of the fourteenth century clocks began to 

 multiply, and became quite common in England. ISTot only large, 

 or tower, but house clocks are mentioned in such a way as to show 

 that they were not considered as great curiosities. Romaunt de la 

 Rose, written in 1305, contains a mention of a clock as a piece of 

 household furniture : 



" And tlien he made his clocks to strike, 

 In his halls and in his chambers, 

 With wheels very subtly contrived, 

 * With a coutinuiug movement." 



