PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:--Mr. Wilkinson's Mode of levelling Cameras--Collodion Negative-- Developing Collodion Process--An iodizing Difficulty 604 REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:--Bishop Frampton--Parochial Libraries--Pierrepont--Passage in Orosius --Pugna Porcorum--Oaken Tombs and Effigies-- Bowyer Bible--Longevity--Lady Anne Gray--Sir John Fleming--Life--Family of Kelway--Sir G. Browne, Bart.--Americanisms, so called--Sir Gilbert Gerard, &c. 605 MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, &c. 610 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 610 Notices to Correspondents 610 Advertisements 611 * * * * * Notes. ON THE USE OF THE HOUR-GLASS IN PULPITS. 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: