the glass. After the text the esquire of the parish withdrew, smoaked
his pipe, and returned to the blessing."

The authority for this, which Fosbrooke cites, is Rudder's
_Gloucestershire_, in "Bibury." It is added that lecturers' pulpits have
also hour-glasses The woodcuts in Hawkins's _Music_, ii. 332., are referred
to in support of this statement. I regret that I have no means of
consulting the two last-mentioned authorities.

In 1681 some poor crazy people at Edinburgh called themselves the Sweet
Singers of Israel. Among other things, they renounced the limiting the
Lord's mind by _glasses_. This is no doubt in allusion to the hour-glass,
which Mr. Water, the editor of the fourth series of Southey's _Common-Place
Book_, informs us is still to be found, or at least its iron frame, in many
churches, adding that the custom of preaching by the hour-glass commenced
about the end of the sixteenth century. I cannot help thinking that an
earlier date must be assigned to this singular practice. (See Southey's
_Common-Place Book_, 4th series, p. 379.) Mr. Water states that one of
these iron frames still exists at Ferring in Sussex. The iron extinguishers
still to be found on the railing opposite large houses in London, are a
similar memorial of an obsolete custom.

I trust some contributor to the "N. & Q." will be able to supply farther
illustrations of this custom. Should it be revived in our own times, I fear
most parishes would supply only a _half_-hour glass for the pulpit of their
church, however unanimous antiquity may be in favour of sermons of an
hour's duration. One advantage presented by this ancient and precise
practice was, that the squire of the parish knew exactly when it was time
to put out his pipe and return for the blessing, which he cannot ascertain
under the present uncertain and indefinite mode of preaching. Fosbrooke
(_Br. Mon._, p. 286.) states that the priest had sometimes a watch found
for him by the parish. The authority cited for this is the following entry
in the accounts of the Chantrey Wardens of the parish of Shire in Surrey:

"Received for the priest's watch after he was dead, 13s.
4d."--Manning's _Surrey_, vol. i. p. 531.

This entry seems to be rather too vague and obscure to warrant the
inference drawn from it. This also may be susceptible of farther
illustration.

A. W. S.

Temple.

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