Page 88

                  88
     THE WATCH-MAKER.
  THE most ancient mode of obtaining a
knowledge of time was by means of a sun-
dial. It is not correctly known to whom
we are indebted for the invention of clocks
with wheels: some attribute it to BOETRIUS,
about the year 510: others ascribe the in-
vention to a native of Verona, named PACI-
Ficus, who lived in the ninth century.-
The French annals mentions a water clock
being sent by AARON, King of Persia, to
CHARLEMAGNE, about the year 807, which
seemed to bear some resemblance to the ino-
dern clocks. It is stated, on the authority
of an inscription engraved on a plate in the
vestry of St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden,
that an artist in London, named RICHARD
HARRIS, constructed a pendulum clock as
early as the year 1641. The first repeating
clock was invented by one BARLOW, about
thirty-five years afterwards. A variety of
alterations and many improvements have
since been made. ROBERT BRUCE, King
of Scotland, is the first person we read of
having a watch; which is now in the pos-
session of his Majesty. And one belonging
to OLIVER CROMWELL, is deposited in the
British Museum. When watches were first
made, the whole was performed by one man.