Westminster Quarters

The prayer inscribed on a plaque in the Big Ben clock room reads:[5][6] All through this hour Lord be my guide That by Thy power No foot shall slide.

An alternative prayer changes the third line: O Lord our God Be Thou our guide So by Thy power No foot shall slide.

The Westminster Quarters were originally written in 1793 for a new clock in Great St Mary's, the University Church in Cambridge.

This chime is traditionally, though without substantiation,[7] believed to be a set of variations on the four notes that make up the fifth and sixth bars of "I know that my Redeemer liveth" from Handel's Messiah.

[8][1]: 8–9  This is why the chime is also played by the bells of the so-called Red Tower in Halle, the native town of Handel.

The quarter bells shown hung around Big Ben, December 1858
The Elizabeth Tower at the Palace of Westminster , the namesake of the chime
The Church of St Mary the Great, Cambridge for which the chime was written