erred to in another
chapter, were given from sentimental motives as evidenced by their
inscriptions. Covers of pocket books and tobacco pouches were covered
over with similar legends, like a delightful beadwork tobacco pouch in
the Taunton Castle Museum, on which is the motto or sentiment, "LOVE ME
FOR I AM THINE, 1631," wrought by a seventeenth-century needleworker.

Similar mottoes are found on the little pincushions formerly carried in
the capacious pockets of women of olden time, sometimes wrought in
needlework and at others in beads.

XIV

THE MARKING OF TIME

CHAPTER XIV

THE MARKING OF TIME

Clocks--Watches--Watch keys--Watch stands.

The early marking of time was simple enough, for we are told that the
Arabs, by driving a spear or a staff into the sand of the desert, told
the time of day. The shadow of the sun roughly gave those who were
familiar with astronomy the lay of the land and the time, approximately.
When the dial and the gnomon were understood, dialling became a popular
science, and ere long the sundial on the church tower, in a public
place, or in a private garden, told the time. Then came the marking of
time by pocket dials--an advance which foreshadowed the watch which was
to come.

The pocket dial was soon followed by mechanical clocks, the clock watch,
and the more delicate work of the watchmaker. The watch has become more
accurate in its marking of time by the introduction of machinery in its
manufacture; and it is cheapened by competition, so that now every one
for a mere trifle can carry in his pocket a watch by means of which he
can tell accurately the hour of day, as Shakespeare has it in "As You
Like It":--

"And then he drew a dial from his poke;
And looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says, very wisely, 'It is ten o'clock;
Thus we may see,' quoth he, 'how the world wags.'"

Some further references to the sundial will be found in Chapter XVII,
the sundial being one of the accompaniments of the old-world garden.

Clocks.

In "Chats on Old Copper and Brass" some mention is made of old clocks,
and of the watch which grew in beauty and fineness of workmanship as it
evolved from the watch-clock and the still earlier lantern and other old
clocks, which were gradually introduced to supersede or supplement the
earlier sundials. Very remarkable indeed are some of these household
curios. The very movement of the clock, with its pendulum swinging t