eleven in the morning
The summer day in 1874 which closed the annual session of Whitelaw College was marked by a special ceremony , preceding the wonted distribution of academic rewards . At eleven in the morning -LRB- just as a heavy shower fell from the smoke-canopy above the roaring streets -RRB- the municipal authorities , educational dignitaries , and prominent burgesses of Kingsmill assembled on an open space before the College to unveil a statue of Sir Job Whitelaw . The honoured baronet had been six months dead . Living , he opposed the desire of his fellow-citizens to exhibit even on canvas his gnarled features and bald crown ; but when his modesty ceased to have a voice in the matter , no time was lost in raising a memorial of the great manufacturer , the self-made millionaire , the borough member in three Parliaments , the enlightened and benevolent founder of an institute which had conferred humane distinction on the money-making Midland town . Beneath such a sky , orations were necessarily curtailed ; but Sir Job had always been impatient of much talk .