Clocks.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 August 1910, Page 2

Clocks.

KING HOWARD'S HOBBY

!(■ is probable that .among on\eniis whiiili Qnoon Alexandra mrl George \ r . will distribute inioiig llic members of the entourage. the friends mid attend,mis of t lie laic Kin»;. clocks will figure largely. If Kin >4 ICdwiird VII. had lie hobby more than any other, i( ■vas (hat' of collecting clocks, and ■it Ihe lime of his deatili he inu.st. have had several thousand. .in liis possession. lie had inherited a large number of tliein from his iiioliher. Queen \*ict-ni ia, and these, idded to his own largo collection, :o which lie continued to add ironi the film' of his accession until hi<". demise, must have rendered linn rhe. largest, individual owner of ■locks in (lie I'nited Kingdom. At Windsor Castle alone (hero are between lo()() and 2000, w.hile Buckingham I'alnce, St. James' Fiilace, SainlrinLchain, and Balmoral were imply full of them.

Some of them are of groat historical value, such as. for instance, one !■!" Windsor, given as a present hy I fen iv VIII. io Queen Anne Boleyn >t her wedding day <iml ton inches four inches deeps' and ten inehe 'igli, formerly belonged to Horace Walpole. and was purchased by '>he late Queen Victoria when his ■ ffeefs were sold .at Strawberry Hill for about L'l2o. This love token I Knjjlai-d's Bluebeard monarch remains the same after nearly four .eiiluries. The (dock still goes. Strictly speaking, it should have topped for ever when Queen Anno >va ."sent to the scaffold after four years of marriage. The weights ire bnaut.ifnlly engraved, "11.A." and a true lover's knot on the :;m>, and "11.A." tilono on the ;.'t,lier.

'Hit; chief curiosity in the \v;iy of -locks !ii Huckiugham Palace is tlm negress's lic.'itl clock, made by Le|)ine. wliom Vol 1,-tiro befriended and '»gaged to establish a watch manufactory ik\w Geneva. In this clock tlit! hour numerals are shown in one of the negress's twinkling eves, and those of the minutes in the other. It stands two feet five and- a Half inches high. the head and bust, being in ormolu, with magnificent decorative, featimvj.