(Vol. viii., pp. 82. 209. 279. 328. 454. 525.)
I should be glad to see some more information in your pages relative to the
_early_ use of the pulpit hour-glass. It is said that the ancient fathers
preached, as the old Greek and Roman orators declaimed, by this instrument;
but were the sermons of the ancient fathers an hour long? Many of those in
St. Augustine's ten volumes might be delivered with distinctness in seven
or eight minutes; and some of those of Latimer and his contemporaries, in
about the same time. But, Query, are not the _printed_ sermons of these
divines merely outlines, to be filled up by the preacher _extempore_? Dyos,
in a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, in 1570, speaking of the walking and
profane talking in the church at sermon time, also laments how they grudged
the preacher his _customary hour_. So that an hour seems to have been the
practice at the Reformation. {253}
The hour-glass was used equally by the Catholics and Protestants. In an
account of the fall of the house in Blackfriars, where a party of Romanists
were assembled to hear one of their preachers, in 1623, the preacher is
described as--
"Having on a surplice, girt about his middle with a linnen girdle, and
a tippet of scarlet on both his shoulders. He was attended by a man
that brought after him his book and _hour-glass_."--See _The Fatal
Vespers_, by Samuel Clark, London, 1657.
In the Preface to the Bishops' _Bible_, printed by John Day in 1569,
Archbishop Parker is represented with an _hour-glass_ at his right hand.
And in a work by Franchinus Gaffurius, entitled _Angelicum ac Divinum opus
Musice_, printed at Milan in 1508, is a curious representation of the
author seated in a pulpit, with a book in his hand; an _hour-glass_ on one
side, and a bottle on the other; lecturing to an audience of twelve
persons. This woodcut is engraved in the second volume of Hawkins' _History
of Music_, p. 333.
Hour-glasses were often very elegantly formed, and of rich materials. Shaw,
in his _Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages_, has given an engraving
of one in the cabinet of M. Debruge at Paris. It is richly enamelled, and
set with jewels. In the churchwardens' accounts of Lambeth Church are two
entries respecting the hour-glass: the first is in 1579, when 1s. 4d. was
"payd to Yorke for the frame in which the _hower_ standeth;" and the second
in 1615, when 6s. 8d. was "payd for an iron for the _hour-glasse_." In an
inventory of the goods and implements belonging to the church of All
Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, taken about 1632, mention is made of "one
_whole_ hour-glasse," and of "one _halfe_ hour-glasse." (See Brand's
_Newcastle_, vol. i. p. 370.).
Fosbroke says, "Preaching by the _hour-glass_ was put an end to by the
Puritans" (_Ency. of Antiq._, vol. i. pp. 273. 307.). But the account given
by a correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (1804, p. 201.) is
probably more correct:
"Hour-glasses, in the puritanical days of Cromwell, were made use of by
the preachers; who, on first getting into the pulpit, and naming the
text, turned up the glass; and if the sermon did not hold till the
glass was out, it was said by the congregation that the preacher was
lazy: and if he continued to preach much longer, they would yawn and
stretch, and by these signs signify to the preacher that they began to
be weary of his discourse, and wanted to be dismissed."
Butler speaks of "gifted brethren preaching by a carnal _hour-glass_"
(_Hudibras_, Part I., canto III., v. 1061.). And in the frontispiece of Dr.
Young's book, entitled _England's Shame, or a Relation of the Life and
Death of Hugh Peters_, London, 1663, Peters is represented preaching, and
holding an _hour-glass_ in his left hand, in the act of saying: "I know you
are good fellows, so let's have another _glass_." The same words, or
something very similar, are attributed to the Nonconformist minister,
Daniel Burgess. Mr. Maidment, in a note to "The New Litany," printed in his
_Third Book of Scottish Pasquils_ (Edin., 1828, p. 49.), also gives the
following version of the same:
"A humorous story has been preserved of one of the Earls of Airly, who
entertained at his table a clergyman, who was to preach before the
Commissioner next day. The glass circulated, perhaps too freely; and
whenever the divine attempted to rise, his Lordship prevented him,
saying, 'Another glass, and then.' After 'flooring' (if the expression
may be allowed) his Lordship, the guest went home. He next day selected
a text: 'The wicked shall be punished, and that RIGHT EARLY.' Inspired
by the subject, he was by no means sparing of his oratory, and the
hour-glass was disregarded, although repeatedly warned by the
precentor; who, in common with Lord Airly, thought the discourse rather
lengthy. The latter soon knew why he was thus punished by the reverend
gentleman, when reminded, always exclaiming, _not_ sotto voce, 'Another
glass, and then.'"
Hogarth, in his "Sleeping Congregation," has introduced an hour-glass on
the left side of the preacher; and Mr. Ireland observes, in his description
of this plate, that they are "still placed on some of the pulpits in the
provinces." At Waltham, in Leicestershire, by the side of the pulpit was
(or is) an hour-glass in an iron frame, mounted on three high wooden
brackets. (See Nichols' _Leicestershire_, vol. ii p. 382.) A bracket for
the support of an hour-glass is still preserved, affixed to the pulpit of
Hurst Church, in Berkshire: it is of iron, painted and gilt. An interesting
notice, accompanied by woodcuts, of a number of existing specimens of
hour-glass frames, was contributed to the _Journal of the British
Archaeological Association_, vol. iii., 1848, by Mr. Fairholt, to which I
refer the reader for farther information.