A similar watch is also in the possession of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart., which formerly belonged to the unfortunate queen Mary, and descended to him from the Seton family. It is made of silver in the form of a death’s head, with open work for the escape of sound, the other parts covered with emblematical engraving. It appears originally to have been constructed with catgut, but now has a chain. It goes extremely well, but requires winding-up every twenty-six hours to keep it accurately to time. Queen Mary bequeathed it to Mary Seton, February 7, 1587. An engraving with a very full description of this curious watch, will be found in Smith’s Historical and Literary Curiosities, Lond. 1845, 4to, plate 96.—H. G. B.]
[1113] Barrington says here, in a note, “Pancirollus informs us, that about the end of the fifteenth century watches were made no larger than an almond, by a man whose name was Mermecide.—Encyclop.” The first part of this assertion is to be found, indeed, in Pancirollus, edition of Frankfort, 1646, 4to, ii. p. 168; but Myrmecides was an ancient Greek artist, whose παραναλώματα, or uncommonly small pieces of mechanism, are spoken of by Cicero and Pliny. He is not mentioned by Pancirollus, but by Salmuth, p. 231. It is probable that this error may be in the Encyclopédie; at least Barrington refers to it as his authority.—I. B.
[1114] Somner’s Canterbury, Supplement, No. xiv. p. 36. See also, in an extract from archbishop Parker’s will, made April 5th, 1575: “Do et lego fratri meo Ricardo episcopo Eliensi baculum meum de canna Indica, qui horologium habet in summitate.” As likewise in the brief of his goods, &c., No. xiv. p. 39, a clock valued at 54l. 4s.
[1115] Stow’s Chron. p. 878; and Introduct. to Mr. Reuben Burrow’s Almanac for 1778.
[1116] More particularly Dr. Hook, Tompion, &c.
[1117] The ninth and tenth of William III. ch. 28, s. 2.
[1118] This letter, signed John Jamieson, and dated Forfar, August 20th, 1785, is taken from the Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. ii. p. 688.
One of my literary friends in London, to whom I am indebted for much learned information, says in a letter which I received from him, “I had never believed the story of Robert Bruce’s watch, mentioned in your translation of Barrington’s History of Clocks, the more as Mr. Barrington is famous for being in the wrong; but in the Gentleman’s Magazine there is a full account of the origin of this imposition.” As this error occurs in a paper which I have endeavoured to render more public by a translation, I consider myself bound to give a translation of this letter also.—B.
[1119] The passage may be found, vol. i. p. 95, of the edition in quarto. Edinburgh, 1774: “Pocket-watches were brought there from Germany, an. 1577.” Home, or Lord Kaimes, however, was too celebrated or too artful a writer to produce proofs of his historical assertions.—B.
[1120] This was first used early in the sixteenth century.