of too long sermons) ut
medicinam facerent, Ecclesiae patres in concionando determinatum dicendi
tempus fereque unius horae spatio conclusum aut ipsi sibi praescribant,
aut ab aliis praefinitum religiose observabant."

Bingham, commenting on this passage, observes:

"Ferrarius and some others are very positive that they (their sermons)
were generally an hour long; but Ferrarius is at a loss to tell by what
instrument they measured their hour, for he will not venture to affirm
that they preached, as the old Greek and Roman orators declaimed, by an
hour-glass."--See _Bingham_, vol. iv. p. 582.

This remark of Bingham's brings me at once to the subject of my present
communication. What evidence exists of the practice of preaching by the
hour-glass, thus treated as improbable, if not ridiculous, by the learned
writer just quoted? If the early Fathers of the church _timed_ their
sermons by any instrument of the kind, we should expect their writings to
contain _internal_ evidence of the fact, just as frequent allusion is made
by Demosthenes and other ancient orators to the klepshydra or water-clock,
by which the time allotted to each speaker was measured. Besides, the close
proximity of such an instrument would be a constant source of metaphorical
allusion on the subject of _time and eternity_. Perhaps those of your
readers who are familiar with the extant sermons of the Greek and Latin
fathers, may be able to supply some illustration on this subject. At all
events there appears to be indisputable evidence of the use of the
hour-glass in the pulpit formerly in this country. {590}

In an extract from the churchwardens' accounts of the parish of St. Helen,
in Abingdon, Berks, we find the following entry:

"Anno MDXCI. 34 Eliz. 'Payde for an houre-glasse for the pulpit,'
4d."--See Hone's _Table-Book_, vol. i. p. 482.

Among the accounts of Christ Church, St. Catherine's, Aldgate, under the
year 1564, this entry occurs:

"Paid for an hour-glass that hangeth by the pulpitt when the preacher
doth make a sermon that he may know how the hour passeth
away."--Malcolm's _Londinium_, vol. iii. p. 309., cited Southey's
_Common-Place Book_, 4th Series, p. 471.

In Fosbrooke (_Br. Mon._, p. 286.) I find the following passage:

"A stand for an hour-glass still remains in many pulpits. A rector of
Bibury (in Gloucestershire) used to preach two hours, regularly turning