antient watches in the different collections of our antiquaries, and that of the late Sir Ashton Lever, were of such figure. In 1500 George Purbach, a mathematician of Vienna, possessed a watch that described seconds, which he applied to the purpose of taking astronomical observations, so that they must then have arrived at great perfection. A watch which was considered to have belonged to ROBERT BRUCE, KING OF SCOTLAND, who reigned from 1305 to 1328, was said to have been dug up at BRUCE CASTLE not many years since; but this story is generally supposed to have no foundation in truth. The emperor CHARLES V. is stated to have had several watches, with which he was accustomed, after his abdication, to amuse himself, by trying to keep them all in an exact agreement of time; but it is asserted by modern authors, that they were only small table clocks. Our HENRY the Eighth, who lived at the same period, is declared by DERHAM, who published his Physico-Theology in 1714, likewise to have had a watch which continued, during Derham's life, to keep time correctly. It is nevertheless now contended, that these machines were invented only so recently as the year 1658, and that they owe their origin either to Dr. HOOKE, our own countryman, or M. HUYGENS; but to which of these two distinguished philosophers the merit of the invention is due, the learned have not yet been able positively to decide. By many it is conjectured that both these great

mechanical geniuses invented a similar machine about the same period; and a watch after the model of those made by HOOKE and HUYGENS, was presented to our CHARLES the Second with this inscription: "ROBERT HOOKE invent. 1658. T. Tompion fecit, 1675."

From that time watches have gradually improved to such a height of perfection as to be regarded by some as having attained their ne plus ultra; and they are now constructed with such extreme accuracy as not to vary many seconds in the course of a year, whence they are emphatically denominated Chronometers, or Time-pieces, to mark that astonishing precision of action. For many years after the invention of watches, what is now a chain, was only a string of cat-gut; which, from the variations of moisture in the atmosphere, was subject to great irregularity of motion. There are yet in existence watches of this construction. But the invention of that exquisite piece of mechanism, the chain, has effectually corrected that great imperfection.

REPEATERS, or such clocks and watches as strike the hour, and the quarters, by the pulling of a string, or pressure of a spring, are universally admitted to have been invented by Mr. BARLOW, who first put the contrivance into practice to clocks in the year 1676, though he did not apply his invention to watches until the reign of JAMES the Second, when he procured a patent; but ABRAHAM QUARE having made and shewn to

the king and council a watch upon the like principle, to which a preference was given, the same was explained in the Gazette, to the injury of BARLOW'S fame and interest.

Kalendar,

or

Calendar.

Having given a general outline of that measure of duration distinguished by the name of TIME, with the various modes which, from one period to another, have been adopted to mark its progress; we are naturally led to a consideration of those registers, or tables, that have been introduced, to note the order of our division of time throughout each year, as well as of various other matters applicable to the ordinary purposes of life.

These registers are principally known by the titles of KALENDARS or CALENDARS, and ALMANACS, but they are sometimes called DIARIES and EPHEMERIDES.

The kalendar of the Romans, or CALENDAR, which latter is the most antient orthography, took its name from the Latin word calendarium, either from the book of accounts kept by them of the money they let out upon interest—which they termed use money, and were in the habit of calling for on the calends, or first of each month,or from the antient custom observed among them

of calling or proclaiming the calends &c. on the appearance of every new moon. This practice of proclaiming continued until the year of Rome 450, when C. FLAVIUS, the curule ædile, ordered the Fastior calends to be affixed upon the public places of resort, that the festivals might the more generally be known. The latter etymology is now admitted, and in all probability correctly so; for, as the first calendars were called fasti calendares, it would seem that the people borrowed the name of their private account books from that epithet given to the public register. The old Latin word calo, I call, or proclaim, is derived from the Greek xaλew, whence some writers spell calendar with a K. The original Alban, or Latin, calendar consisted of ten months of disproportionate duration: namely,

And to these were added two other divisions,

without names, one consisting of 33, the other of

23 days, so as to make the year actually to contain 360 days, or, computing in round numbers, 12 lunations, agreeably to the primitive division of time before the deluge: NOAH, as appears by the sacred writings, reckoned by months of 30 days each and from him that mode of computing the year was adopted by the Chaldeans, Egyptians, &c. The first variation from this equal division by the Greeks, and from them by the Latins, was from a silly desire of making their months respectively conform to the number of degrees contained in their original division of the zodiac.

ROMULUS, the founder and first king of Rome, formed what is deemed the original Roman calendar; and brought it back in point of equality of the months, nearly to the sacred division, viz.

But finding this account still defective, supple

mentary days were continued to be used without