perpetrators ridiculous; but publicly practised in the name of the Church, they tend greatly to lessen the dignity of her services, and to bring her doctrines into contempt.

A watch has many advantages over a sand-glass, but it has also its disadvantages. Being now generally worn attached to the person, it is not convenient to draw it out, and lay it at one's side as was formerly done. And to take it from the pocket from time to time, besides being very inconvenient to a man in a surplice, is too visible an operation, and does not really serve the purpose. The preacher does not want to discover suddenly that his time has expired, and that he must conclude, but to know all along how it is going. Nothing will enable him to do this so well as a clock, placed where his eye can rest upon it, whilst he continues to address the people. If it be not too dark, the best position for the clock will generally be against the north or south aisle wall towards its east end; if it be on the opposite side to the pulpit, which, if the distance is not too great, will be most convenient, it should be about in a line with it; if it be on the same side, it ought to be further west, so as not to be behind the preacher. If, as often happens in old churches, there is space over the arch into a western tower, I can see no harm in there being a dial of considerable size there. I have known clocks to be let into the ledge of the pulpit where no one but the preacher can see them. But this seems to lessen their usefulness.

I have alluded to the striking of the clock as useful in marking the exact moment at which the service ought to

begin. For this purpose it ought to sound each quarter of an hour. There is no gain in the hour being struck, indeed, so long as each fifteen minutes is distinctly marked, the less striking there is the better. The only English churches I know, which at the present time contain striking clocks, are Westminster Abbey and St Alban's, Holborn; at the former it is the custom to stop the striking during the time the services are going on. This, however, need not be, if the striking is not too loud. It ought to be just sufficient to be audible all over the church. At St Alban's it does not appear to be any annoyance.

Reasons have already been given for placing a timepiece in the vestry. It is of the greatest importance that this and the clock in the church should be kept well together. If, therefore, by any means one can be made to serve for both, so much the better. It is possible that now and then this may be managed, either by having two dials, one towards the church and one towards the vestry; or by making a "squint" from the vestry, which will command the clock in the church.

If clocks inside churches ever become "correct," we may look to see some good man, with more money than wit, and seeking to be more "correct" than his neighbours, attempting to reproduce one of the mediæval automaton clocks, of which the descriptions, and in some instances the remains, still exist.1 Such a revival is

1,I believe this has already been done in France. I have a recollection of seeing a drawing of a new clock of this sort lately, but cannot now call to mind where.

most strongly to be condemned. In mechanism the wonders of one age are the toys of the next. In the fourteenth century these clocks were the dedication to the service of God of the highest mechanical skill of the time. Now, in the nineteenth, "Chaunteclere" flapping his wings and cock-a-doodle-do-ing the hour, or the twelve apostles nodding their heads in procession, or Balaam's donkey jerking with kneeless legs out at one door and in at another, are inconsistent with the dignity of a church, and fit only to excite the wonderment of children in a travelling peep-show.

This seems to be the proper place to notice the sundial, which deserves not to be passed over in absolute silence. The most ancient objects of church furniture in England are sun-dials; of them alone, I believe, have we instances which undoubtedly date back to Saxon times. In the later Middle Ages they do not seem to have been common in England, but during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they again became usual; so that at the present time they are very frequently to be found on the walls of our old churches. A sun-dial is of no practical use; its indications seldom agree with those of the clock, and the corrections required to make them so are so complicated, that few

I They are all very much alike, being incised semicircles with lines radiating from the centre, in which was inserted the gnomon. Some of the radii are distinguished by cross lines, and these, the Rev. J. T. Fowler tells me, mark the canonical hours. Most of the dials have inscriptions, and one at Kirkdale in Yorkshire is dated. They are so numerous, that considering how few architectural features of so remote a date remain to us, we may fairly infer that a sun-dial was a usual feature in a Saxon church.

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of those who have charge of the clocks, would be able to regulate them by it, as was suggested might be done, by a reviewer of this when it first appeared. Some men, however, attach a value to it as a silent witness of the imperceptible but never halting passage of time; and so long as too much importance is not given to it, no harm can come from its occasional introduction. A good terse motto is a desirable addition to a sun-dial, but that subject is beyond our present limits.

SECTION XXIV.

OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING.

THE proper lighting of a church, especially if it be of any considerable size, is one of the most difficult questions with which an architect has to deal; and it is one which has very rarely received a perfectly satisfactory solution. The problem is to sufficiently light up the interior, without injuring it either actually or aesthetically. Most churches are now either over-lighted or under-lighted, and where gas is used, it is usually so arranged as to cause unsightly smoke stains, even if it do not cause real material injury to the fabric; whilst, with all methods, the lighting apparatus not seldom form ugly excrescences by day, and at night rather damage than improve the appearance of the building.

A church may be lighted by means of either candles, oil-lamps, or gas, the last of which, although open to more objections than either of the other two, has at the same time so many practical advantages, that where it can be obtained, it is pretty certain to be used in preference to them, and may therefore be discussed first; the more ancient methods being looked upon as exceptional.

The disadvantages of gas are, that it vitiates the air rapidly, and gives off products which are in the highest