Bible Encyclopedias
Hour-Glass Stand

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

A frame of iron for the hourglass, often placed near the pulpit after the Reformation in England. They were almost: universally introduced in churches during the 16th century and continued in use until about fifty years ago, to regulate the length of sermons. Some of them are yet to be seen, as at Wolvercot and Beckley, in Oxfordshire, and Leigh Church, in Kent. One was recently set up in the Savoy Chapel. — Parker, Glossary of Architecture, p. 127; Walcott, Sac. Archaeol. D. 317.