"A curious appendage to the pulpit sometimes found is the horologium, or
hour-glass. Whether this was placed there for the information of the
congregation as to the progress of the hour, or to teach them its own
solemn moral, or as a guide to the preacher respecting the length of his
discourse[92], I cannot say. Another adjunct to the pulpit is the
sounding-board, or, as it should rather be called, the _lid_ or _cover_
of the pulpit; and a thing more useless, and usually more ugly, one
cannot conceive[93]. It certainly always seems to me rather to impede
the sound of my voice than to assist it; and then it has, to say the
least, a most uncomfortable appearance; and though I never heard of the
accident really happening, yet it always appears to me to be on the
point of falling and crushing the poor preacher below it. It is not,
however, difficult to trace the origin of these covers to the pulpit;
they were really necessary where the pulpits were _separate
buildings_--as at St. Paul's Cross--in order to protect the preacher
when the weather was inclement. At St. Paul's Cross, and at the Cross
Pulpit at Norwich, and probably elsewhere, not only the preacher, but
also the audience, were provided with such a shelter[94]."