A HINT OF REMINISCENCE TO THE READER. THE CLOCK OF ST. GEORGE'S. A
WORD IN HONOR OF ARCHDEACON MARKHAM.
There is a ripe season for every thing, and if you slip that or
anticipate it, you dim the grace of the matter be it never so good. As
we say by way of Proverb that an hasty birth brings forth blind
whelps, so a good tale tumbled out before the time is ripe for it, is
ungrateful to the hearer.
BISHOP HACKETT.
The judicious reader will now have perceived that in the progress of
this narrative,—which may be truly said to
——bear
A music in the ordered history
It lays before us,——
we have arrived at that point which determines the scene and acquaints
him with the local habitation of the Doctor. He will perceive also
that in our method of narration nothing has been inartificially
anticipated; that there have been no premature disclosures, no
precipitation, no hurry, or impatience on my part; and that on the
other hand there has been no unnecessary delay, but that we have
regularly and naturally come to this developement. The author who
undertakes a task like mine,
must nombre al the hole cyrcumstaunce
Of hys matter with brevyacion,
as an old Poet says of the professors of the rhyming art, and must
moreover be careful
That he walke not by longe continuance
The perambulate way,
as I have been, O Reader! and as it is my fixed intention still to be.
Thou knowest, gentle Reader, that I have never wearied thee with idle
and worthless words; thou knowest that the old comic writer spake
truly when he said, that the man who speaks little says too much, if
he says what is not to the point; but that he who speaks well and
wisely will never be accused of speaking at too great length,
Τὸν μὴ λέγοντα τῶν δεόντων μηδὲ ἓν
Μακρὸν νόμιζε, κᾂν δύ᾿ εἴπῃ συλλαβάς.
Τὸν δ᾿ εὗ λέγοντα, μὴ νόμιζ᾿ εἶναι μακρὸν,
Μηδ᾿ ἂν σφόδρ᾿ εἴπῃ πολλὰ, και πολὺν χρόνον.[1]
[Footnote 1: PHILEMON.]
My good Readers will remember that, as was duly noticed in our first
chapter P. I. the clock of St. George's had just struck five when Mrs.
Dove was pouring out the seventh cup of tea for her husband, and when
our history opens. I have some observations to make concerning both
the tea and the tea service, which will dear the Doctor from any
imputation of intemperance in his use of that most pleasant,
salutiferous and domesticizing beverage: but it would disturb the
method of my narration were they to be introduced in this place. Here
I have something to relate about the Clock. Some forty or fifty years
ago a Butcher being one of the Churchwardens of the year, and fancying
himself in that capacity invested with full power to alter and improve
any thing in or about the Church, thought proper to change the
position of the clock, and accordingly had it removed to the highest
part of the tower, immediately under the battlements. Much beautiful
Gothic work was cut away to make room for the three dials, which he
placed on three sides of this fine tower; and when he was asked what
had induced him thus doubly to disfigure the edifice, by misplacing
the dials, and destroying so much of the ornamental part, the great
and greasy killcow answered that by fixing the dials so high, he could
now stand at his own shop door and see what it was o'clock! That
convenience this arrant churchwarden had the satisfaction of enjoying
for several years, there being no authority that could call him to
account for the insolent mischief he had done. But Archdeacon Markham
(to his praise be it spoken) at the end of the last century prevailed
on the then churchwardens to remove two of the dials, and restore the
architectural ornaments which had been defaced.
This was the clock which, with few intervals, measured out by hours
the life of Daniel Dove from the seventeenth year of his age, when he
first set up his rest within its sound.
Perhaps of all the works of man sun-dials and church-clocks are those
which have conveyed most feeling to the human heart; the clock more
than the sun-dial because it speaks to the ear as well as to the eye,
and by night as well as by day. Our forefathers understood this, and
therefore they not only gave a Tongue to Time, but provided that he
should speak often to us and remind us that the hours are passing.
Their quarter-boys and their chimes were designed for this moral
purpose as much as the memento which is so commonly seen upon an old
clock-face,—and so seldom upon a new one. I never hear chimes that
they do not remind me of those which were formerly the first sounds I
heard in the morning, which used to quicken my step on my way to
school, and which announced my release from it, when the same tune
methought had always a merrier import. When I remember their tones,
life seems to me like a dream, and a train of recollections arises,
which if it were allowed to have its course would end in tears.