Hallywell, the author, deserves to be better known. In many passages in his works he gives ample proof that he had fully imbibed the lofty Platonism and true Christian spirit of his great master.
James Crossley.
Touchstone's Dial (Vol. ii., p. 405.; Vol. iii., pp. 52. 107.).—I am gratified to find that my note on "Touchstone's Dial" has prompted Mr. Stephens to send you his valuable communication on these old-fashioned chronometers. The subjoined extract from Travels in America in the Year 1806, by Thomas Ashe, Esq., is interesting, as it shows that "Ring-dials" were used as common articles of barter in America at the commencement of the present century:—
"The storekeepers on the Alleghany River from above Pittsburg to New Orleans are obliged to keep every article which it is possible that the farmer and manufacturer may want. Each of their shops exhibits a complete medley: a magazine, where are to be had both a needle and an anchor, a tin pot and a large copper boiler, a child's whistle and a piano-forte, a ring-dial and a clock," &c.
J. M. B.
Ring Dials.—I was interested with the reference to Pocket Sun-dials in "Notes and Queries," pp. 52. 107. because it re-furnished an opportunity of placing in print a scrap of information on the subject, which I neglected to embrace when I first read Mr. Knight's note on the passage in Shakspeare. About seventy years ago these small, cheap, brass "Ring-dials" for the pocket were manufactured by the gross by a firm in Sheffield (Messrs. Proctor), then in Milk street. I well remember the workman—an old man in my boyhood—who had been employed in making them, as he said, "in basketsful;" and also his description of the modus operandi, which was curious enough. They were of different sizes and prices, and their extreme rarity at present, considering the number formerly in use, is only less surprising than the commonness of pocket-watches which have superseded them. I never saw but one of these cheapest and most nearly forgotten horologia, and which the old brass-turner, as I recollect, boasted of as "telling the time true to a quarter of an hour!"
D.
Sheffield, Jan. 2. 1851.
Cockade (Vol. iii., p. 7.).—The Query of A. E. has not yet been satisfactorily answered; nor can I pretend to satisfy him. But as a small contribution to the history of the decoration in question, I beg to offer him the following definition from the Dictionnaire étymologique of Roquefort, 8vo., Paris, 1829:—
"Cocarde, touffe de rubans que sous Louis XIII. on portoit sur le feutre, et qui imitoit la crête du coq."