e
second wheel had sixty teeth; the remainder of the works were all
disjointed and bent, and remained unheeded." The whole is now fitted
together, and in a going condition, in the mechanical museum at South
Kensington.

The _Antiquary_ for August 1897 ("Some Mediaeval Mechanicians")
reminds us that, as the clock was in constant use at Glastonbury for
about 250 years, and then at Wells for another 250 years, and as the
old movement is now still working at the South Kensington, "as though
its life were interminable"--it is probably the oldest piece of
working mechanism extant.

The same article says of these old works: "It will give an idea of the
labour involved, when it is stated the mechanism of the clock occupies
a space of about 5 feet cube (125 cubic feet), that the structure is
wholly of forged iron; that the numerous wrought-iron wheels, some of
which are nearly 2 feet in diameter and about 1/2 inch thick, besides
having to be made truly circular and concentric, had all their teeth
cut out and trimmed to workable shape by hand; and that the heavy
wrought-iron frames, etc., are fastened entirely by means of mortise,
tenon, and colter, no screws being used in the whole structure. The
pinions are of the lantern form, with octagonal cheek-plates on square
spindles, and the pendulum of modern form beats seconds."

THE INVERTED ARCHES.--Undoubtedly the first thing that the stranger
notices in Wells Cathedral, and the last that he is likely to forget,
is the curious contrivance by which the central tower is supported. Of
the three pairs of arches (the upper arch resting inverted upon the
lower) which stretch across the nave and each of the transepts, that
in the nave is seen at once, and lends a unique character to the whole
church. At first these arches give one something of a shock, so
unnecessarily frank are they, so excessively sturdy, so very English,
we may think. They carry their burden as a great-limbed labourer will
carry a child in a crowd, to the great advantage of the burden, and
the natural dissatisfaction of the crowd. In fact, they seem to block
up the view, and to deform what they do not hide.

That is the first impression, but it does not last for long.
Familiarity breeds respect for this simple, strong device, which
arrested the fall of the tower in the fourteenth century, and has kept
its walls ever since in perfect security, so that the great structure
has stood like a rock upon the watery soil o