CHAPTER X

THE SETTING OF SUN-DIALS
I stand amid ye summer flowers To tell ye passing of ye hours ; When winter steals ye flowers away I tell ye passing of their day."
— Sun-dial Motto t REV. GREVILLE G. CHESTER, 1860.
OW readily a sun-dial may be made beautiful — or marred — by its setting! A pictu- resque or wise setting can do much to atone for or hide an ugly or ill-suited pedestal. Doubtless manyof thecharm- ing pictures formed by the sun-dial in old gardens came through the judicious and beautifying touch of Time. I am easily influenced by sun-dials. I must acknowledge myself when in each one's presence wholly under its dominion, and dominated a bit, too, by friendship for the owner of the dial. Thus when I am at Twin Beaches, I think a close-set row of English daisies around the circular foundation, a true daisy-wreath, is the sweetest setting any sun-dial could have. At Hillside, in the Shake-
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234 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
speare garden, I know the bunches of the homely old Snow Pinks are wonderfully satisfying, whether tipped with their low-growing sweet-scented pale stars of fra- grance or simply standing in clean clumps of grayish green grass-like foliage, — so suited in tint to the color of the dial-stone. At Cranford the pillar of the old Quaker dial is surrounded with Golden Honeysuckle,
- for " Time is golden " ; and what could be more graceful and appropriate ? But when I turn down the Rose walk of the Van Cortlandt manor garden, or walk through the blaze of sunshine and color and perfume of the Burnside garden near my Worcester home, and find the old sun-dials garlanded and sur- rounded with Roses, then I know that sun-dials and Roses are best of all. So in the garden of Dial House, which is the name of my country home — which is not, but which is ever to be — there my garden-dial, too, will be partly surrounded with Roses. If the sun-dial is set in a Rose garden, it will probably be at the crossing of two paths, whether these be of grass or earth ; or it may be on a grass-plot in the centre of the garden. But if Roses are set near it, they should always be low- growing bush Roses, and small of flower ; and pret- tiest of all would be any of the Pompon Roses, the tiny Fairy Rose, or the Pink Burgundy, or the charming Paquerettes ; these in their trim little quilled bosses of color and bloom would well adorn the sun-dial.
And in my garden these Rose-bushes must be set with precise regularity around the dial-base, --at the four corners probably; and the Rose-bushes must be
Sun-dial in Lippincott Garden, Germantown, Pennsylvania.
The Setting of Sun-dials 235
kept of the same size, and a bit formal of shape. I can look at and admire some irregularity of growth and blossom around the sun-dials of others ; but in my own garden, and with my own dial, I wish the precision of the laws which rule the dial, and make it the thing it is, to be suggested by some precision of decoration and surroundings.
That the bloom at the dial-base should be small and the encircling vine, if present at all, light in growth is proved by regarding the dial of E. V. B., shown on page 213, where the Clematis is scarce more than an outline, and the Lily a miniature thing — but you cannot doubt their fitness for their place.
If one has garden associations, — and especially childish associations, — and if one has, above all, some tender association of memory with a certain plant, I think it well ever to heed them, and to commemorate them if possible through the planting around a sun- dial. For there, in the presence of that which marks the flight of Time, let the Past be recalled in a permanent manner. It is appropriate to the mean- ing of a sun-dial.
I always like to see my friends' sun-dials, and this summer I walked down the garden path of a friend to see a pretty sun-dial which had been set on a pedestal made of an ancient granite gate-post. This stood on a square slate base raised a single step; this slate step was carved with initials and dates in the old-time manner of lettering, when the posses- sions of man and wife --Henry and Alice Earle, for instance — would be marked jfE. This stone step was edged around with Ribbon-grass, with large
236 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
clumps growing at the four corners. I knew why she had planted it thus, — it was in memory of her childhood in a garden. I looked at my friend in silence, then stooped and gathered two of the blades
Sun-dial with Crimson Rambler in Garden of Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, Fairfield, Connecticut.
of green and white grass. And oh, what a wealth of garden memories came to me with the sight and the touch of these grass-blades !
What hours had we spent together as children
The Setting of Sun-dials 237
striving to find two blades whose colorings and stripes were exactly alike ! Nothing hung on the performance of this task ; there was no traditional promise of good luck, no dread of uncanny happen- ings if one failed to accomplish this grass-mating. It was absolutely without reason, yet we hung among the grass-grown bed at the foot of the garden all the long summer afternoon, parting and peering and culling and comparing them. I recalled with delight this garden dalliance, as it came to me with the pleasant touch of the hot green and white gauze ribbons of grass. Gardener's Garters was their quaint old English name. This grass-matching stood on a high plane, on some purely aesthetic principle which no grown folk could fathom, and which I have now forgotten if I ever understood it, but which formed the essence, the spirit, of all childish flower-lore. I wish I could still feel in any accomplishment of mine to-day the gratification which came to me as I seemed to approach success in our childish and meaningless Ribbon-grass play ; it was a triumph over all other garden frequenters. Yet I never found two blades that were exactly alike. Throughout the summer and even during the autumnal harvest of golden leaves, which we also tried to match and mate, we turned to the Ribbon- grass. No one can explain the fascination and charm which it held for us.
Another sun-dial has been set in the centre of a circle of Thyme about ten feet in diameter ; and around the base of the dial is a row of Golden Thyme in deference to the jest of the old herbalists ; and
238 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
without the Thyme circle is a circular flower bed of sweet-scented herbs, broken only by two openings of paths. This gives an effect not so much of beauty, but of gratification to the sense of smell ; whoever walks to the sun-dial has there a vast number of fragrances that he may snip off and bear away. Great bushes of Sweet Briar, Bayberry, Calycanthus, and Southernwood stand on either side of the path entrances ; and there are Lemon Verbenas and Frax- inellas and scented Geraniums, including the spicy Nutmeg Geranium beloved of children. Then there are bunches and strips of herbs, not the ranker herbs such as Rue, Sage, Mint, Pennyroyal, Tansy, and Camomile, for these so overwhelm all others, but there is Sweet Basil, and the pretty Burnet, Costmary or Tongue Plant, and a little Lavender, Sweet Cicely, Summer Savory, Woodruff, Tarragon, Rosemary. There were little low hedges of Box around the flower beds, but many declared that the perfume of the Box overwhelmed all other scents, and many did not like it; so to make the sun-dial a beloved resort for all, herbs of universal welcome only were kept. This sun-dial has been planted and set but five years, yet it is astonishing how it has become endeared to visitors as well as the family, partly through the power of associations of scents. One man writes, " I never smell now a bit of Rose Geranium or Verbena without thinking of your sun-dial and sunlight and summer."
A particularly suitable setting for a sun-dial — es- pecially one standing upon a square platform — is to plant Yuccas at the four corners of the dial-base.
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The Setting of Sun-dials
Sun-dial in Garden of Henry Souther, Esq., Hartford, Connecticut.
What an effect these Yuccas have thus planted ! Their beautiful blooms are those of a miniature Cen- tury Plant. They are like a marble statue, so clear and colorless ; indeed, they are like ice by night. How fine the starry columns of bloom seen with the
240 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
sun-dial against a hedge ; and when the great flower- stalk is dead and cut away, the cluster of sword-like, spiny leaves is as classic a decoration as the Aloe or Century Plant. I once sawthe balustrade of an Italian garden set with a row of Yuccas in full bloom in white marble jars, and their white spires were grand beyond compare. How much more white things tell in the garden than those of other colors, — the white flowered trees, the white blossoming shrubs ! White is the high light, the effective point of the garden, just as it is of stained glass ; and when white flowers are set near the white marble dial, they all seem a fine study of light and shade. In the daytime the Yucca's column is hung in scentless but graceful bells, and greenish in tint; but now it is night, and the bells open and stand up, full of odor as they are of light. Pale night moths hover round the flowers and float over the dial, lured by the rich fragrance.
" In such a night as this," the vivid moon-night of Shakespeare, — the moon-night of the Merchant of Venice^ the moon-night of Lorenzo and Jessica, - in such a night as this, when " tipped with silver are all the tree-tops," and all the living scenes of poetry and drama seem near us, — in such a night as this we would be like William Blake, a little mad, and know that there walked with us those whose names we honor, who died centuries ago. Blake had as companions Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar and Homer; but I would be deeply content in such a night as this to stroll with William Blake himself, and hear him speak of the icelike Yuccas.
I once saw a surf-dial surrounded by a row of
The Setting of Sun-dials 241
scarlet Tulips in full bloom ; it was a cheerful sight for its day and hour, and had a certain fitness in that it was found in the garden of a flower-lover of Dutch descent, who gave due honor of place to the sun-dial by encircling it with a favorite flower. But even in a Dutch garden, the Tulip seems of too fleet- ing a bloom to seem suitable as a sun-dial setting.
I can well comprehend the longing of a Tulip- lover to place it thus, — as the place of honor in a garden. No distinction was too great to be shown to the Tulip. With an admiration and affection which did not waver for centuries did the Dutch strive to place the Tulip in prominence. I have referred to this at some length in my chapter on Sun-dial Designs.
On page 242 is shown the sun-dial of Horace Howard Furness, Esq., at his home at Wallingford, Pennsylvania. How fine are the long stems and Poppy-seeds which surround this dial ! How beau- tiful must have been these Poppies in bloom ! Every minute of the life of a Poppy is beautiful, yet they are seldom a much-loved flower. Yester- day a flower-lover here at East Hampton was asked her favorite flower, and she answered Joan Silverpin, referring to old Gerarde's quaint words about the Poppy, — namely, " Being of many variable colours and of great beautie, although evill smell, our gentle- women doe call them Jone Silverpin." Constant reference is made by older writers to their vile scent which apparently every one loathed. But nowadays I find many like the smell of a Poppy ; I do, and I like to eat the seeds, as I always ate them in
242 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
childhood. In many countries they are baked with wheaten flour into cakes.
Sun-dial with Poppies in Garden of Horace Howard Furness, Esq., Wallingford, Pennsylvania.
In German bake-shops you may find, and in the so-called " Vienna Bakeries " of our American cities,
The Setting of Sun-dials 243
a certain roll glazed with yolk of egg, and bestrewn plentifully with tiny purplish grains, curious of aspect, but distinctly pleasing, albeit unusual of flavor. This coarse powder or grain is Poppy-seed, and here is a recipe for these cakes : -
u The seeds of white Garden poppies were made into Biskits or Comfits with honey and served up as a Bank- etting Dish. The rustical peasants of the country were wont to guild or glaze (as it were) the uppermost crust of their loaves of bread with the yolks of eggs, and then to bestrew it with Poppy-seed which would cleave fast to it. They would put them into the oven being thus seasoned which gave a commendable taste to the bread being baked."
You would think that recipe was for our New York rolls, albeit in the wording of a seventeenth century chirurgeon, but it is far older still. It is a translation of a recipe in Pliny's Natural Historic ; and should you partake freely of these cakes, I doubt not you would feel the opium which must be in the Poppy-seed, and when you slept there- from, you would dream of ancient Rome.
There is a certain appropriateness in surround- ing a sun-dial with flowers which have a subtle air of mystery ; they seem suited to the passing of time, to night and day, to all the magic of life. The Poppy has this quality, felt in full by the two great- est students of the very being of the Poppy that the world has known, - - Ruskin and Celia Thaxter. The growing Poppies of Celia Thaxter's gardens and the gathered Poppies of her home were miracles of
244 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
beauty. An arrangement of Poppies on a mantel, which she kept ever fresh throughout the entire summer, seems to have made a lasting picture of glorious beauty upon the minds of all who -beheld it.
Many have a distinct indifference or even dislike of planting flowers in the immediate vicinity of a sun-dial ; and I am sure it is wholly a modern fashion. You seldom find an ancient garden-dial, if in its original position, with flowers set near it. But when no herbaceous plants are near the dial, shrubs may be planted at a little distance with wonderful effect. I saw recently a sun-dial which stood in a grass-plot in the clear sunlight. In a semicircle, remote enough that they never could shadow the dial-face, were planted shrubs which through careful selection gave to the sun-dial a succession of blossoming companions from early spring till winter found only the scarlet hips of the Japanese Roses. The spring months are readily filled, but there is a period well known to all garden- makers when the sun-dial would have no blossom companions were it not for the Tamarisk, and those faithful relics from old-time gardens, the Althea, or Rose of Sharon.
Of course the very essence and being of the sun- dial lies in ample sunshine, still there may be a cer- tain proximity to trees great and small that will add much to its graceful existence. Three trees of small growth stood near the white marble shaft of one sun- dial ; in winter I knew that these small trees were Peach trees, and I knew they would have their day and hour of beauty, but I did not know that they
The Setting of Sun-dials
245
Sun-dial at Drumthwacket, Princeton, New Jersey ; Country Seat of