lar to those
of Richard Parsons'; long-case, or what we call grandfather, clocks;
even brass clocks with projecting dials; and in addition, the greater
part of the finest watches turned out at this time were of his making.
There were few who could equal him. Possibly Daniel Quare and Joseph
Knibb made clocks as good, but they certainly made no better. Were you
to visit Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle, you would find there
wonderful chiming grandfather clocks made by this same Thomas Tompion.
They are genuine treasures and would bring almost any price. So
remember, in journeying through the world, if you ever run across a
clock or a watch made by Thomas Tompion, you are looking at a very fine
bit of handicraft."

"I'm afraid I never shall," Christopher shook his head.

"One never can tell where his path through life will take him,"
McPhearson said. "For example, I never expected my wanderings would lead
me from Glasgow to America. Nor, probably, did Stuart dream when he woke
up to-day that his morning ride in a Fifth Avenue bus would land him in
jail. So you must not despair of seeing London and some of Thomas
Tompion's clocks. Moreover, should you go there, I hope you will hunt up
in Westminster Abbey the grave of this famous man."

"Was he buried at Westminster? Why, I thought only kings, queens, poets,
and great people had places there," Christopher ventured, a trifle
incredulous.

"Usually they do, but Thomas Tompion well merited the honor due him, I
assure you. To begin with, he was no ordinary tradesman. He was a person
of culture who all his life associated with the foremost philosophers
and mathematicians of his day. So widely was his ability recognized that
he was made leading watchmaker to the court of Charles II. Now, although
timekeepers had vastly improved, they were still pretty faulty,
experimental contrivances, whose outside trappings counted with the
public far more than did their interior mechanism. Tompion changed all
this. Seizing upon all that was good offered by the inventors preceding
him, he carefully re-proportioned the various parts and produced English
clocks and watches that were at once the pride and despair of his
brother craftsmen. Watches were something of an avocation with him, for
his primary trade was in clocks, to which for many years he devoted his
entire labor. Probably, however, the problems a watch presented won his
interest and led him to try his skill in this new field, w