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iind then to wish hini a good night.” Mabillon, who like-wise made a literary tour into Germany , describes the call-ing out of the hours as a practice altogether peculiar to thatcountry.
In that country, also, watchmen were stationed on steeplesby day and night, and who, every time the clock struck,were obliged to give proof of their vigilance by blowing ahorn. This practice is said to have been established on apermanent footing first in Germany ; a custom very rarebeyond the boundaries of that empire, and even at this daywe do not know if it is entirely abolished. In feudal times,it might have been much more necessary than it is at present,for those tyrants of the day were generally quarrelling witheach other, and then each petty chief could raise a consi-derable force to distress a neighbour or annoy a town, and, even to plunder a single traveller. The steeple watchmenupon such occasions must have been very serviceable.
The proprietors of castles kept them for the same pur-pose. The person generally appointed to such stations incities, was an officer called the city-piper, now known asthe town musician in Germany , who at first had a roomassigned him in the steeple, where he occasionally hadhis wife, until it was thought a profanation of the sacredplace; afterwards he had a small house near the church:in either case his residence was called the hausmannsthurm. This is the case now, it is said, at Gottingen ,as well as at Hurtz, and Halle. He was not permittedto come down from his station on any pretence. Intima-tion of the approach of enemies was given by firing amusquet, and hoisting a red flag to the way of the enemyor stranger’s approach. In case of fire, they blew a horn,and gave an intimation of the hour by striking on a board,the usual practice, we are informed, in Russia and inChina . It should have been mentioned, that from oldrecords, it appears, the proprietors of castles in Wales ,Ireland , and Burgundy, constantly kept watchmen stationedon some conspicuous part of the edifice. Illustrations ofthis practice will be discovered in the Macbeth of Shaks-peare.
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These establishments are most assuredly amongthose whichoffer the highest eulogiums to human nature. Institutions,which derive their original from principles that must be