George Herbert says:
"The parson exceeds not an hour in preaching, because _all ages_ have
thought that a competency."--_A Priest to the Temple_, p. 28.
Ferrarius, _De Ritu Concion._, lib. i. c. 34., makes the following
statement:
"Huic igitur certo ac communi malo (the evil 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
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.