well, though there was one difficulty
that occasioned some trouble in the outset, which, however, was not
much to be regretted after all, since the remedying of it awakened the
royal ingenuity anew, and led, in the end, to adding to Alfred's other
glories the honor of being the inventor of _lanterns_!

The difficulty was, that the wind, which came in very freely in those
days, even in royal residences, through the open windows, blew the
flames of these horological candles about, so as to interfere quite
seriously with the regularity of their burning. There was no glass
for windows in those days, or, at least, very little. It had been
introduced, it is said, in one instance, and that was in a monastery
in the north of England. The abbot, whose name was Benedict, brought
over some workmen from the Continent, where the art of making glass
windows had been invented, and caused them to glaze some windows in
his monastery. It was many years after this before glass came into
general use even in churches, and palaces, and other costly buildings
of that kind. In the mean time, windows were mere openings in stone
walls, which could be closed only by shutters; and inasmuch as
when closed they excluded the light as well as the air, they could
ordinarily be shut only on one side of the apartment at a time--the
side most exposed to the winds and storms.

Alfred accordingly found that the flame of his candles was blown by
the wind, which made the wax burn irregularly; and, to remedy the
evil, he contrived the plan of protecting them by thin plates of horn.
Horn, when softened by hot water, can easily be cut and fashioned into
any shape, and, when very thin, is almost transparent. Alfred had
these thin plates of horn prepared, and set into the sides of a box
made open to receive them, thus forming a rude sort of lantern, within
which the time-keeping candles could burn in peace. Mankind have
consequently given to King Alfred the credit of having invented
lanterns.

Having thus completed his apparatus for the correct measurement
of time, Alfred was enabled to be more and more systematic in the
division and employment of it. One of the historians of the day
relates that his plan was to give one third of the twenty-four hours
to sleep and refreshment, one third to business, and the remaining
third to the duties of religion. Under this last head was probably
included all those duties and pursuits which, by the customs of the
day, were