St. Neots, Huntingdonshire.
In many of our old pulpits built during the seventeenth century, when hour
sermons were the rule, and thirty minutes the exception, the shelf on which
the glass used to stand may still be seen. If I recollect rightly, that of
Miles Coverdale was thus furnished, as stated in the newspapers, at the
time the church of Bartholomew was removed. Perhaps this emblem was adopted
on gravestones as significant of the character of Death as a minister or
preacher.
The late Basil Montague, when delivering a course of lectures on "Laughter"
at the Islington Institution some few years since, kept time by the aid of
this antique instrument. If I remember aright, he turned the glass and
said, "_Another glass and then_," or some equivalent expression.