I hate to learn the ebb of time From yon dull steeple’s drowsy chime, Or mark it as the sunbeams crawl Inch after inch along the wall. Richard II., in the dungeon of Pomfret Castle, soliloquises more solemnly: Now hath Time made me his numb’ring clock: My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jade Their watches on to mine eyes, the outward watch Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point, Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears. Now, sir, the sound that tells what hour it is, Are clamorous groans, that strike upon my heart, Which is the bell: so sighs, and tears, and groans Show minutes, times, and hours. Lucian, who died A.D. 180, refers to an instrument, mechanically constructed with water, which reported the hours by a bell. “Before the time of Jerome” (born A.D. 332), says Browne, “there were horologies that measured the hours, not only by drops of water in glasses, called _clepsydra_, but also by sand in glasses, called _clepsummia_.” It was the clepsydra to which Lucian alludes. When the water, which was constantly dripping out of the vessel, reached a certain level, it drew away, by means of a rope connected with the piston in the water-vessel, the ledge on which a weight rested; and the falling of this weight, which was attached to a bell, caused it to strike. This, perhaps, was the earliest kind of striking clock. A public striking clock may well be termed the regulator of society: it reminds us of our engagements, and announces the hours for exertion or repose; and in the silence of night it tells us of the hours that are past, and how many remain before day. The earliest public clock set up in England was that with three bells, which was placed in the clochard or bell-tower of the Palace at Westminster, built by Edward III. in 1365-6: the palace was then the most frequent residence of the king and his family; and the three bells were “usually rung at Coronations, Triumphs, Funeralls of Princes, and their Obits.”[13] This bell-tower stood very near to the site of the great clock-tower of the new palace; the gilding of the exterior of which cost no less than 1500_l._ A public clock is a public monitor; and the dimensions of its dial, and works, and striking-bell add much to the solemnity of its proclaiming the march of time. The great clocks in the International Exhibition of 1862 were among its colossal marvels.