Putting the Pieces Together: St. Dunstan's in the East

As I realize that I am probably the only person who cares about this, there is perhaps no point in posting it. However, in the spirit of fun, I share it. What we are looking at is the clock face projecting off the north side of the church of St. Dunstan's in the East on London's Fleet Street, just to the east of the Royal Courts of Justice. As you can see at upper right, two bells hang in this little proscenium where, apparently, they would be struck by twin mechanized figures of Hercules who can be seen here bearing clubs.



Now, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the area around St. Dunstan's in the East was inhabited by clockmakers and other skilled craftsman. Although I am not sure of the date of this clock and display, it certainly pre-dates 1700. And we can know this thanks to a reference to the clock and its figures that appears in Ned Ward's picaresque travelogue, The London-Spy (ca. 1698-1700).

In Ward's delightful wicked tale, the Spy and his guide are traipsing around London when they come upon a pack of musicians performing. There, our two protagonists “stood a little, making our Ears do Pennance to please our Eyes, with the Conceited Motions of their Heads and Hands, which mov’d too and fro with as much deliberate Stiffness, as the two wooden Horologists at St. Dunstan’s, when they strike the Quarters.” Now, surely much of what Ward reports needs to be taken with a large grain of salt. That said, his reference to the clock as a way to characterize the motions of musical performers suggests that the Herculean figures were operational and sufficiently well know to serve in such a simile. I've just recently been re-reading Ward and was delighted to find this tid-bit!