THOMAS TOMPION, wrote Sacheverell Sitwell, seemed ‘to be marked as head of his profession in the mere music of his name, as its syllables chime slowly and solemnly upon the ear’. I hope that readers with longish memories will forgive me: I see that I’ve used this quotation several times before, once in my very first COUNTRY LIFE saleroom column. Unfortunately, Sitwell added, not all his wonderfully composed clocks chimed with his music. One of a number made for William III had to be removed from the King’s bedroom at Hampton Court, as its ‘involved ticking disturbed the repose of the monarch’.
