twenty minutes past four
The first of these arches , bearing the inscription _ God Save King William , Defender of our Faith and Liberty _ , was erected on the London road , a dozen paces beyond the Fish and Anchor Inn , Captain Barker having refused the landlord -- who desired to build the arch right in front of his inn-door -- permission to set up any pole or support against the privet hedge . In fact , he and Captain Runacles had sworn very heartily to sit indoors , pull down their blinds and withhold their countenances from the usurper . Nature , however , which regards neither the majesty of kings nor the indignation of their subjects , made frustrate this unamiable design . At twenty minutes past four that afternoon a hiveful of Captain Barker 's bees took it into their heads to swarm . It was a warm afternoon , and the little man sat in his library composing a letter to Mr. John Ray , of Cambridge University , whose forthcoming _ Historia Plantarum _ he believed himself to be enriching with one or two suggestions on hibernation . Narcissus Swiggs was down at the Fish and Anchor drinking King William 's health . Tristram , who was supposed to be at work clipping the privet hedge around the apiarium , was engaged in the summer-house , at the far end of it , upon business of his own .