Time and the hour

"Come what come may
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day."

                                                                 Macbeth, I, iii

In his awakening ambition of a kingly crown, Macbeth makes the observation that regardless of what transpires, time will march on. In his medieval world, "the hour" must have seemed a sufficiently minuscule segment of time; there was no one anxious to make the 5:25 to Hoboken.

In Agecroft Hall's collection is the earliest known English lantern clock, dating to Shakespeare's own lifetime. It was made c.1610 by the clockmaker Robert Harvie, who worked in Oxford from 1580-1600 before moving to London. The clock is one of the first shown in George White's masterful work, English Lantern Clocks, widely regarded as the most authoritative volume on the subject.

Made of solid brass, iron, and steel, the clock face has Roman numerals, etched arcade decoration, and but one hand,  to indicate the hour. Engraved on the back is the maker's inscription, "Robertus Harue Littell Brittain London feecit (Littell Brittain refers to a neighborhood of London).

The clock has Doric columns at its corners and is surmounted by a steel bell dome. There are two large and two small lead weights on flax cords, and its pendulum has a brass plate on the end of its steel shaft.  In the 18th century, the clock was converted from balance wheel escapement works to the more accurate pendulum system, and at that time the clock's alarm was discarded.