A highly interesting object in this court is the astronomical clock in the tower and gateway giving access to the third court. The original clock was, according to a notice engraved on the wrought-iron framework, put up in 1540 by N.O. Who is meant by these initials is quite unknown. It was, till its removal, the oldest clock in England that kept pretty correct time. From an entry mentioned in Wood’s ’Curiosities of Clocks and Watches,’ we learn that a payment was made in 1575 to one George Gaver, ’serjeant painter,’ ’for painting the great dial at Hampton Court Palace, containing hours of the day and night, the course of the sun and moon.’ No doubt since Gaver decorated the dial-plate many clockmakers must have repaired and altered the works. In 1649 a striking part had been added to the works. In 1711 it was found that in consequence of the removal of certain wheels and pinions, probably by ignorant or careless workmen, the clock could not for a long time past have performed its functions correctly. It seems indeed to have been left neglected for many years. Somewhere in the thirties of this century G. P. R. James, the novelist, addressed a poem of eleven stanzas to the ’Old Clock without Hands at Hampton Court.’ The first and last stanzas we reproduce, not for their merit, but because apposite to our subject: ’Memento of the bygone hours, Dost thou recall alone the past? Why stand’st thou silent midst these towers, Where time still flies so fast? * * * * * ’The future? Yes! at least to me Thus plainly thus thy moral stands! Good deeds mark hours! Let not life be A dial without hands!’