![hickory dickory dock clock hickory dickory dock clock](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/37/01/31/370131f33fd3180cde93a3c20fdaa431--paper-plate-crafts-paper-plates.jpg)
The earth is in the centre, represented by the fixed golden ball. The main (lower) dial of the clock is a working model of the solar system as understood in the 14th/15th centuries. Beneath the main dial are inscribed the words PEREUNT ET IMPUTANTUR which can be translated as ‘The hours pass and are reckoned to our account.’ Above the main dial is a smaller one with a single hand which indicates the minutes. It was thought that the main dial of the astronomical clock dates from 1484. The form of this clock is not known but was probably some type of water clock.
![hickory dickory dock clock hickory dickory dock clock](https://i.etsystatic.com/5398518/r/il/b7082d/77749649/il_794xN.77749649.jpg)
There is no clue to the location, though Exeter Cathedral certainly does have a clock.Įxeter possessed some form of clock in 1284 when a record relating to Roger de Ropford and his family included a reference to them repairing the cathedral clock. No mention of a cat and the antics of the mouse are unremarkable. Hickory, dickory, dock." On first inspection it's difficult to see how the rhyme caught on at all. The clock struck one, the mouse ran down. The rhyme itself doesn't give much away: "Hickory, dickory, dock, the mouse ran up the clock. The timeless battle betwixt cat and mouse is said to have given rise to nursery rhyme. The tale goes that mice would climb the mechanism of a clock hanging on the wall only to meet their doom at the claws of the bishop's cat who would settle at the bottom waiting for them to come down. One theory is that the rodent-themed ode began life here in Devon beneath the cathedral's sacred vaulting and towers. By then the cathedral was already some 300 years old. Hickory, Dickory, Dock can trace its origins back to Tudor times. The magnificent Exeter Cathedral holds many treasures and its walls many mysteries - but could it also be the inspiration by one of our most cherished and famous nursery rhymes.