Now o’clock

The [Bishop Hugh Oldham] was very temperat yn all his doings and for his dyet it was accordingue to his estate so was he therein verie precyse to kepe his prefixed and accustomed houres namely at XI of the clocke for his dinner and at V of the clocke for his supper and for this purpose he kept a clocke in his howse and appoynted one specyal man to kepe the same: but many tymes by reason of his business he would breake his houre and then must clocke keper frame his clocke accordingly for how so ever the days went the clocke must stryke XI or five accordinge as my lorde was to dyne or supp: whereupon many times some of the household would ask the clocke keper what tyme of the daye it was he would answear as it pleaseth my lord and when he was ready to go to dinner or supper: The bishop understanding hereof would of many of purpose aske his saide man what was the clock and he would answer him as pleaseth your lord for if you be redy to go to dinner the clocke will be XI whereat the bishop would smyle and go his waye.

From the unpublished Commonplace Book of John Vowell, 1504–1519. Quoted in Nigel Thrift, “Owners’ Time and Own Time: The Making of a Capitalist Time Consciousness, 1300–1880,” in Space and Time in Geography: Essays Dedicated to Torsten Hägerstrand (Lund Studies in Geography Ser. B. No. 48) (Lund: Royal University of Lund, 1981): pp. 56–84.