=Grandfather Clocks.=--A volume on cottage and farmhouse furniture would be incomplete without some reference to grandfather clocks. At the beginning of the eighteenth century this type of clock had become popular. The early brass-bracket clock known as "Cromwellian," varying from six to ten inches in height, had a spring. With the use of the long pendulum and revolving drums, around which catgut is wound to support the heavy weights, these unprotected parts required a wooden case. The "lantern" or "bird-cage" clocks (wallclocks from which the pendulum and weights hung unprotected) lasted till about 1680, when the first grandfather type with wood case came into use. The early examples with cases exhibiting fine marquetry are outside the scope of the class of furniture now under consideration. In such specimens there is frequently a round or oval opening covered with glass in the centre of the panel. In earlier types the metal dial is square, and later it became lunetted at top, and the wood case had a corresponding curve. In clocks made for great houses there were chimes, and their works were by well-known town makers. But in cottage examples, instead of the eight-day movement, more often than not the clock only ran for twenty-four hours. There is little attempt at ornament in these plain oak varieties. The case is soundly constructed, and sometimes, in exceptional examples, the head is surmounted by brass ball finials, as in the finer examples. As a rule the country cabinet-maker confined himself to an ornamental scrolled head. In later examples the metal dial--and these come at the beginning of the nineteenth century--is painted with some rustic scene with figures, and frequently there is a revolving dial showing the days of the month. [Illustration: WARMING-PANS. Finely decorated with incised work. One with inscription, "The Lord only is my portion." (_By the courtesy of Mr. S. G. Fenton._)] [Illustration: GRANDFATHER CLOCK. With Oak Case. Made by J. Paxton, St. Neots. Height, 6 ft. 10 ins.] [Illustration: BRASS DIAL OF THIRTY-HOUR CLOCK. Single Hand and Alarum. Late Seventeenth Century. Ornamented with designs showing various phases of the iron industry, as carried on at Ashburnham, Sussex. (_In the collection of Charles Dawson, Esq., F.S.A., Lewes._)] The entire head covering the dial is often removable in old clocks to which there is no hinged door, as in later made examples.