C. W. Dixey, London. Frederic Spencer was the

late Earl Spencer, father of the present peer. The pedestal is very simple, but it is a good example of a well-proportioned plain dial-pillar. There are several sun-dials on the grounds at Althorp House, Northampton- shire, the seat of Lord Spencer. One shown on this page has a most elaborately engraved face, telling the time in various parts of the world. Another dial is depicted on page 220. This dial has recently been acquired by Lord Spencer, and placed by him at Althorp House. It formerly stood in the Admiralty House Gardens, Whitehall, London, that memoried spot. When the Admiralty was enlarged last year, the old stone garden house or summer house and this dial had to be removed. Lord Spencer was permitted to purchase both. There was vast appropriateness in their coming into
Sun-dial at Althorp House.
22O Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
his possession, for he has been First Lord of the Admiralty and his grandfather was also First Lord of the Admiralty as a member of Pitt's administra- tion in those great and glorious days when Lord
Nelson ruled the water,
at the time of the battle of the Nile and other great naval victories. It is told that Nelson sat often in this garden house with the sun-dial standing before him, talking over naval pol- icy, in those days when England faced down Bonaparte.
At Lindfield, Sussex, is Old Place, the seat of Charles E. Kempe, Esq. The house was built originally in 1590 and has been added to wholly in the old spirit. The sun-dial is of an unusual form and deco- ration, bearing a general resemblance to the dial at Oxford College. The dial-head has been made and set within a few years by Messrs. F. Barker & Son of London. It is a block with four dial-faces raised on a tall pillar, around which twines in large black and gold letters the motto in a spiral reading. The motto runs : —
Sun-dial from Admiralty Garden.
Pedestals and Gnomons 221
Tempora prater eunt ; nunc sol nunc umbra vicissim Prcetereunt ; super est ecce perennis amor.
TIME FLIES, SUNS RISE AND SHADOWS FALL
LET TIME GO BY. LOVE IS FOREVER OVER ALL.
The words Perennis Amor are illustrated by a brooding pelican in bronze surmounting all. The
Sun-dial at Yaddo, Saratoga, New York ; Country Seat of Spencer Trask, Esq.
222 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
pillar itself is raised on a high block covered with ivy, so the whole dial is a very imposing figure.
An entirely different form of support for a dial- face is given on page 221. This beautiful sun-dial is
Bronze Dial-face at Yaddo, Saratoga, New York ; Country Seat of Spencer Trask, Esq.
in the Rose garden at Yaddo, near Saratoga, New York, at the country seat of Spencer Trask, Esq. The dial is like an antique table, supported by two carved figures. It is an exact copy of a beautiful
Pillar-dial at Old Place, Lindfield, England; Seat of Charles E.
Kempe, Esq.
Pedestals and Gnomons 223
carving excavated at Pompeii, and it was made for Mr. Trask by express permission of the Italian government. The dial-face is very fine (page 222); it was designed and made by Messrs. F. Barker & Son of London, and bears two exquisite verses by Rev. Dr. Henry Van Dyke, written specially for this dial. One reads : -
HOURS FLY FLOWERS DIE NEW DAYS NEW WAYS PASS BY I LOVE STAYS.
The other is at the base of the gnomon : — TIME is
TOO SLOW FOR THOSE WHO WAIT TOO SWIFT FOR THOSE WHO FEAR TOO LONG FOR THOSE WHO GRIEVE TOO SHORT FOR THOSE WHO REJOICE BUT FOR THOSE WHO LOVE
TIME IS
ETERNITY.
The house of Gilbert White at Selborne still stands close to the village highway. Its softly toned bricks and green vineries make it the ideal rural home. The grounds are much the same as during the naturalist's life. In the meadow is his shivering Aspen ; and on the green his Sycamore. The brick wall which he built still bears the tablet and date, G. W., 1761. His favorite walk still stretches its narrow brick pathway over The Hanger. Surely,
224 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
the sun-dial and tortoise must be still here ! The lawn is glittering with sunshine so the aged tortoise cannot be seen, but here is the sun-dial on the verge of the lawn, just as he placed it, and read daily its informing letters. You can see its picture here on this page, and a very good model, too, would it form for those who constantly write to me searching
for simple well- proportioned dial- pillars. The dial pedestals shown svy- in the illustrations
-f 1 ~*\ Jtj^jr" '
•yzW*: throughout this
.'\^i,?j-ogiv- r * ^J
tejsifete: book offer vast variety of design. Many of them have been chosen and presented sim- ply to instruct the * dial seeker.
Opposite this page is shown a very satisfactory dial pedestal at the home of Charles F. Jenkins, Esq., in Germantown, Pennsylvania. This pedestal is new ; it forms a suitable support for the old dial- face, which belonged originally to Nathaniel Spen- ser, who lived in Germantown before and during the War of the Revolution. His daughter Hep- zibah married, and carried the dial-face to Byberry.
Sun-dial of Gilbert White, Selborne.
Pedestals and Gnomons 225
She in turn had a daughter whose married name became Jenkins, and she carried the sun-dial to Gwynedd. Her grandson is the present owner. He rescued the sun-dial of his forebears from a chicken-house with gnomon missing, and after a time that was found. Its inscription, Time waits for No Man, is held to be a punning device on the word gnomon. This dial jest, varied to read, Hours stay for No Man, I wait for No Man, etc., is seen on many English dials.
Two or three years ago a liberal prize was offered in one of our American art associations for the best design for a sun-dial. I know not the specifications in this contest, nor whether there were limitations. I have seen the designs which were deemed the most creditable, and in one case I looked upon the drawing with much curiosity, querying whether the artist had ever seen a sun-dial, or really under- stood either its significance or its working, as he cer- tainly did not its traditions.
The gnomon of the sun-dial is that piece which projects from the face of the dial, the shadow of which tells the time of the day. It is often triangular, but may be of various shapes ; in fact, an obelisk or any index or line which marks a meridian line is also a gnomon. This gnomon is also called a stylus, or style, or stile, or index, or pointer — these all mean precisely the same thing. Florio says, "The gnomon is the gnow-man or know-man of a diall, the shadow whereof pointeth out the howers." From this comes the word gnomonics, or as it once was spelled gnomonicks, the art or science of dialling; and various
Q
226 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
other words, such as gnomonist^ one versed in dialling, and gnomonology ^ a treatise on dialling. The derivative adjective is gnomonic, gnomonical, and gnomic, but as the last-named word has another remote signification, it is not much used. I may say in passing that in the word dialling I have clung to the spelling always found in the old trea- tises and trigonometries ; the spelling given in mod- ern dictionaries is with a single 1 — dialing. On
^j t^i
the exact setting of the gnomon all the worth of the sun-dial depends ; of course all parts should be exact, but the gnomon must be precisely made and set. Therefore it is not well to make the gnomon of wood, because it may warp and twist.
I would suggest to all who are erecting sun-dials, especially horizontal dials in a garden, that more thought and work be spent upon the gnomon than is generally done. Being ordinarily of metal it can be engraved on its flat surface, or, better still, it can be pierced. The use even of a monogram in the design will add to its interest, or a date or crest. I like a large gnomon with as much fine pierced work as can be put upon it. When pierced brass work of such exquisite design was used in old watches, it is strange the brass worker did not turn to the sister timekeeper, the sun-dial, as a field for delicate orna- mentation. I have a collection of two hundred old brass verges or bridges from ancient verge-watches in which the designs show every variety of exquisite tracing and outline. I know no gold wrought work to compare with them in delicate beauty, and were they of precious metal, they would make a superb
Sun-dial at Cranford, Germantown, Pennsylvania ; Residence of Charles F. Jenkins, Esq.
Pedestals and Gnomons 227
necklace. Some such work, though of necessity much heavier and of a deeper cutting, since it is to be exposed to the weather, would I see on the stylus of the sun-dial. It could carry out in finest effect the design of pedestal and face. Or the gnomon might be given a voice and speak both to the dial- face and to that person who is termed in the old dial-mottoes the " Passinger," — that is the passer-by.
In a facet-headed dial where the gno- mons are so prominent, they should hold the chief ornamentation. I can im- agine a beautiful dial — a simple pil- lar supporting a block with twelve faces, each a dial; these faces to have no ornamentation, merely to show the hour lines. The gnomons could be pierced in a
floral design, such as the Tulip. Gnomon of Dial. Lelant T? u r LL 11 Church. Cornwall.
rLach or the smaller gnomons
could be two or three leaves, or a leaf and bud. The four large dials would show the full flower on their gnomons. The pillar should be plain save at the base, where a circular block could show in very low relief a few lines suggestive of Tulip leaves.
Great indifference or lack of taste is often shown in regard to the relation of the ornamentation of the dial-plate to that of the pedestal. The adornment of the plate and sculpture of the pedestal should correspond in design, or, at least, be of a similar school of decoration. You do not wish a Japan- esque engraving of lines with a Grecian pedestal ;
228 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
nor would I wish a floral ornamentation on the dial-plate and the signs of the zodiac on the ped- estal.
Very rarely an old gnomon will show some curi- ous design. On page 227 is pictured the gnomon of a vertical dial at Lelant Church, Cornwall ; it is the
figure of a skeleton standing on a hori- zontal bar. This is pierced in such a way that his ribs, skull, dart, and hour-glass are plainly seen. This emblem of Death, a skeleton, was held to be as suitable to a sun-dial as to a tombstone; and sometimes the dial bore a carving of skull and bones. One is shown on this page, also page 230. I have seen An ele- phant's trunk and the wing of a bird have furnished designs for gnomons. A very fine gnomon, shaped like a dragon, is upon a dial made in London for an American garden. It is shown in this book.
A very curious gnomon and a very curious dial was that of the Church of Brou in the Savoy valley.
JIIIMORSJANVftVITAE
Dial-face, Sheepstor Church, bartmoor.
a mounted globe serving as a gnomon.
Pedestals and Gnomons 229
It is said it was made for the vise of the workmen of many lands who built the church.
" Stones are sawing, hammers ringing,
On the work the bright sun shines, In the Savoy mountain-meadows, By the stream below the pines.
'* On her palfry white the Duchess
Sate, and watched her working train, Flemish carvers, Lombard gilders,
German masons, smiths from Spain,"
thus wrote Matthew Arnold in his poem, The Church of Brou. This sun-dial was a great circle on the pavement, thirty-three feet in diameter; and the hours were marked in bricks. The time-seeker himself, were he Flemish carver or smith from Spain, formed the gnomon. He placed himself on the spot marked with the name of the current month and his shadow fell on the correct hour. A very elaborate and exact dial was made in Dijon about a hundred years ago by one M. Caumont. Four great blocks of stone marked the points of the compass, and were carved with the signs of the zodiac, and other long slabs of stone with the meridian line and east and west line. Outside these was a circle of twenty-four great stone slabs, each marking an hour. The time- observer set an upright stick on the meridian line opposite the initial letter of the month, and its shadow showed the correct time. I was once shown at a seaside resort a row of numbered stones and a socket, and told to thrust a long pole in the socket, when its shadow would fall on the stones and tell
230 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
the hour. This we did, and the result proved the pole and stones a very fair timekeeper.
I have a fancy that a sun-dial should ever have some extrinsic value ; no object yields more readily to the power of association. Let your dial be made from stone taken from some historic or memorable spot. For instance, a pedestal was cut in stone taken from the field of the battle of Bennington. In that battle took a prominent part a "sturdy old farmer from what is now Vermont. His part was prominent — not that he was an officer, but he was a soldier of such exalted enthusiasm and belief in
his cause ; he was so fear- less, so enduring, so bold, though he was seventy years old, that he became a leader in his company through sheer force of his own belief and his expres- sion of it — as many an- other leader has become. His quaint and fearless sayings are told to this day. He was a blacksmith, and of course with his tem- perament he was the best blacksmith in the province; and he was proud of his work, as all first-class workmen are. And, what is far rarer, his grandson is proud of it also ; and on the fine shaft cut in grand simplicity of shape from this Bennington boulder, he has set as a gnomon a
Sun-dial in Wall of Black Friars' Burial-ground, Perth.
Pedestals and Gnomons
231
bronze arm wielding a hammer, a splendid piece of work. It fairly speaks to you of his grandfather, the fighting blacksmith, of the certainty of the blows with which he made his way through life, conquer- ing Time because he fearlessly and cheerfully filled it with honest and dignified work.
Another dial- pillar has a ten- derer message : it islaidincementof sea-worn stones of nearly uniform size and great beauty of tint, which were gath- ered from the beach, and the very corner of the beach made mem- orable to the dial- owners as the place where the twain became be- trothed ; and since the husband is a well-known Shakespearian critic, it is meet that the motto should be a line from Shakespeare's Sonnet cxvi : —
"Love alters not with Time's brief hours and weeks."
A dial-face which I have seen was cast in metal taken from the sheathing of an old battleship, upon which the dial-owner, when a midshipman, had
Pedestals of Dials at Enfield Old House and Chiswick, Middlesex.
Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
served during our Civil War. Value could come to the dial through its model ; it could be shaped like a dial which had been possessed or designed by some one of deserved renown. As an example let me again refer to the sun-dial pictured on page 13, which is a precise reproduction of the sun-dial of Sir Walter Scott. What value this knowledge gives to it ! It is a gate opening to us a world of historical and literary memories. One might reproduce the dial of Gilbert White, shown on page 224. It is a bit more ornate than would seem to please Gilbert White's very quiet tastes. He had an interest, we know, in things allied to sun-dials. Read his letter upon, building a heliotrope in the garden — two, indeed; one for the summer, the other for the winter solstice. Several who could own a costly dial have reproduced the Oueen Mary's dial at Holyrood Palace; others have adopted it in part. I do not, in general, like an alteration of an historical model. The moment it is imitated in part, it has lost its value, — that of exact picturing. Even an association through the selec- tion of a motto is better than no association.