Though sermons are now generally restricted from three quarters to an hour's delivery, the practice of long preaching in the olden times in the west of Scotland had much prevailed. Within my own recollection I have heard sermons of nearly two hours' duration; and early among a few classes of the first Dissenters, on "Sacramental Occasions" as they are yet called, the services lasted altogether (not unfrequently) continuously from ten o'clock on Sabbath forenoon, to three and {83} four o'clock the following morning. A traditional anecdote is current of an old Presbyterian clergyman, unusually full of matter, who, having preached out his hour-glass, was accustomed to pause, and addressing the precentor, "_Another glass and then_," recommenced his sermon. A pictorial representation of the hour-glass in a country church is to be seen in front of the precentor's desk, or pulpit, in a very scarce humorsome print, entitled "Presbyterian Penance," by the famous David Allan. It also figures in the engraving of the painting by Wilkie, of John Knox preaching before Mary Queen of Scots. About twenty years ago it was either in the Cathedral of Stirling or the Armory of the Castle (the ancient chapel), that I saw the hour-glass (about twelve inches high) which had been connected with one or other of the pulpits, from both of which John Knox is said to have preached. It is likely the hour-glass is there "even unto this day" (unless abstracted by some relic hunter); and if it could be depended on as an original appendage to the pulpits, would prove that its use was coeval with the times of the Scottish Reformation. I think its high antiquity as certain as the oaken pulpits themselves. At an early period the general poverty of the country, and the scarcity of clocks and watches, must have given rise to the adoption of the hour sand-glass, a simple instrument, but yet elegant and impressive, for the measurement of a brief portion of our fleeting span. G. N. Glasgow. On the 31st May, 1640, the churchwardens of great Staughton, co. Huntingdonshire, "are, and stand charged with (among other church goods), a pulpit standinge in the church, having a cover over the same, and an houre-glasse adjoininge." Copy of a cutting from a magazine, name and date unknown: "Among Dr. Rawlinson's manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, No. 941 contains collection of _Miscellaneous Discourses_, by Mr. Lewis of Margate, in Kent, whence the following extract has been made: