Charles II's glass sundial at Whitehall and its destruction by the Earl of Rochester

In a book on Whitehall, one of the loveliest palaces in Europe and, in its day, the largest in the world, I came upon a description of a whimsical toy belonging to the merry King Charles II. In the centre of the Privy Garden at Whitehall stood a unique sundial. A three-tiered structure adorned with portraits of the royal family held glass spheres that told the time in a rather peculiar fashion.

One of the glass globes was filled with water and covered with lines marking the hours. One had only to hold a palm beneath the bowl and watch the sunbeams projected through the glass: when it began to burn, it was one o'clock in the afternoon.

The intricate contraption demanded close attention, such as protection from snow and ice in winter. A watchman was attached to the clock, whose duty it was to report the solar time to the King. Alas, built in 1669, it lasted only until 1675, surviving the blows of the elements but not an encounter with a drunken poet. Presumably the attendant really did only relay the readings and did not guard the thing itself.

The Second Earl of Rochester was a close friend of Charles II and a great lover of jesting. Whenever Wilmot did something vile and unlawful, for which any other man would have been sent to prison or into exile, Charles simply clapped the Earl amiably on the shoulder and said, "What a rogue." John Wilmot beat aristocrats, abducted noble ladies, stripped naked in public and rode his horse into carousals, unfailingly excusing his wild conduct by blaming the wine.

In June 1675, returning from a drinking bout with Lords Shepherd and Sackville, the distinguished drunkard stumbled upon his monarch's beloved clock and promptly destroyed it, literally turning it into a heap of glass and iron. This time the spoilt courtier had to leave Whitehall in haste, before the King learnt of the sad fate of his brainchild.

The clock was never restored; it survives only in drawings and in the recollections of contemporaries. The magnificent palace itself burned down under William III of the House of Orange and was not rebuilt either; today it is recalled by a couple of small outbuildings and the government thoroughfare of Whitehall. As for the clock, one can read about it, for instance, in a book about the exploits of that dissolute courtier, Passion For Living: John Wilmot.