shelf on which
the glass used to stand may still be seen. If I recollect rightly, that of
Miles Coverdale was thus furnished, as stated in the newspapers, at the
time the church of Bartholomew was removed. Perhaps this emblem was adopted
on gravestones as significant of the character of Death as a minister or
preacher.

The late Basil Montague, when delivering a course of lectures on "Laughter"
at the Islington Institution some few years since, kept time by the aid of
this antique instrument. If I remember aright, he turned the glass and
said, "_Another glass and then_," or some equivalent expression.

E. G. BALLARD.

There is an example at the church of St. Alban, Wood Street, Cheapside.
This church was rebuilt by Sir C. Wren, and finished 1685; showing that the
hour-glass was in use subsequent to the times alluded to.

J. D. ALLCROFT.

I saw on 13th January last, an iron hour-glass stand affixed to a pillar in
the north aisle of Belton Church, in the Isle of Axholme.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

Bottesford Moors, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

* * * * *

LADIES' ARMS BORNE IN A LOZENGE.

(Vol. vii., p. 571.)

The subject of the Query put by your correspondent is one that has
frequently occurred to me, but which is involved in obscurity. Heraldic
writers generally have contented themselves with the mere statement of
ladies' arms being thus borne; and where we do find an opinion hazarded, it
is more in the form of a quotation from a nameless author, or of a timid
suggestion, than an attempt to elucidate the question by argument or from
history.

By some this form of shield is said to have descended to us from the
Amazons, who bore such: others say, from the form of their tombstones! Now
we find it to represent the ancient spindle so much used by ladies; and
again to be a shield found by the Romans unfit for use, and therefore
transferred to the weaker sex, who were "allowed to place their ensigns
upon it, with one corner always uppermost." {84}

Here are quotations from a few of our writers on the science of Heraldry:--

BURKE, _Encyclop. Herald._ 1844. Queen Victoria bears her arms on a full
and complete shield; "for," says the old rhyme--

"Our sagest men of lore define
The kingly state as masculine,
Paiseant, martial bold and strong,
The stay of right, the scourge of wrong;
Hence those that England's sceptre wield,
Must buckle on broad sword and shield,
And o'er the land, a