Towards the close of the sixteenth century the practice of preaching by an hour-glass, set in an iron frame affixed to the pulpit or projecting from the wall near it, began to prevail; and in the succeeding century this practice became quite common. In the churchwardens’ accounts for St. Mary’s Church, Lambeth, occurs the following: “A. 1579, Payde to Yorke for the frame on which the hower standeth,--..1..4;” and in the churchwardens’ accounts of St. Helen’s Church, Abingdon, is an item, “Anno MDXCI. payde for an houre glass for the pilpit, 4_d._” In the parochial accounts for St. Mary’s, Shrewsbury, A. D. 1597, is a charge “for removing the desk and other necessaries about the pulpit, and for makeinge a thing for the hower glasse, 9_d._” In Shawell Church, Isle of Wight, the old iron stand for the hour-glass still remains affixed to a pier adjoining the pulpit; it is composed of two flat circular hoops or rings, one at some distance above the other, annexed or attached and kept in position by four vertical bars of iron, and the lower ring has cross-bars to sustain the glass. In Cassington Church, Oxfordshire, projecting from the wall by the side of the pulpit, is an iron stand for the hour-glass, consisting of two circular hoops or rings of iron, connected by four wrought iron bars, worked in the middle; and across the lower ring or hoop is an iron bar or stay. In High Laver Church, Essex, the iron stand for the glass still remains, and is in fashion not unlike a cresset, having only one hoop or ring encircling the top, and supported on four iron bars, which cross in curves at the bottom. Many other churches might be enumerated in which the stand for the hour-glass is still preserved; and the hour-glass itself, together with its frame, is said to be retained in South Burlingham Church, Norfolk. An hour-glass within a rich and peculiar frame, supported on a spiral column, and apparently of the latter part of the seventeenth century, is yet preserved in St. Alban’s Church, Wood Street, London. [Illustration: Hour-glass Frame, Shawell Church, Isle of Wight.]