in tSjïr plate, at present in the cabinet of M. Hèbruge.at Paris, is richly-
enamelled and set with jewels» We learn from a note in a reprint of the
tract on the fall of the house in Blackfriars, above'mentioned, that the frame-
of one preserved in old St. Dunstan’s church, Pleet Street, was of massive
silver, and that it . was some years ago-melted dowxf and made into two Staff
heads for the parish beadles. Several churches in London are known j to
haye possessed hour-glasses,
‘ The figure at the foot of the preceding- page represents- a bracket for
supporting an hour-glass, still affixed to-the pulpit of the church at Hurst
in Berkshire,' I t is made of iron, painted and gilt. In St. Alban’s church,
Wood Street, London, there-is preserved; a stand and hour-glass, of which an
engraving is given in Allen’s History of Lambeth., The hour-glass is, in this
instance, placed in a square box, supported by a spiral column, all of brass.
The glass itself is fitted in a very elegant square frame, also of brass! At
Waltham in -Leicestershire, there , is, or was, also preserved andiron frame for-
an hour-glass, mounted on three high wooden brackete. There was formerly
one in the church at Lambeth; we learn from the parish accounts there, that
in 1579, one shilling and fourpence was “ payd- for the frame in which the
hower standeth;” and in 1615, six shillings and eigntpence was “ payd for .an
iron hour-glass.”
It would be easy to multiply examples óf the Use of this instrument in
preaching in former-times. The. reader of Hudibras will not fail to ' call
to mind the comparison there made to the
“ gifted brethren,-preaching by
A carnal hour-glass,” —
L’Estrange, in one of his fablesr speaks of a tedious “ holder-forth ” who was
“ three quarters through his'second glass,” and the congregation, as might /fie
imagined; rather fatigued with his discourse. And the satirical Hogarth, in
his picture of the Sleepy Congregation, has introduced an hour-glass at the
left hand side of the preacher. _