M. Taylor Pyne, Esq.

were double-flowering Peach trees, and that thereby their time of beauty would be so multiplied, quad- rupled, in glory. When I saw them in their glo- rious bloom, they were the first double-flowered Peach blossoms that I had ever seen. There are
246 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
certain flower-pictures of extraordinary beauty that seem indelibly imprinted on our eyes and brains, - wonderful scenes which we can never forget ; this is such a one. 1 have only to close my eyes on the dullest day in midwinter, on the longest sleepless night, and I see these wonderful irregular mounds of intense pinkness, these masses of flowers with the pure white sun-dial among them. Its warning words of coming night and darkness and death had scant weight in the sight of such beauty which, like all beautiful things, seemed to me, in my first and unreasoning delight, immortal. All this flower-talk opens another line of thought, namely, whether the flowers in the immediate vicinity of the sun-dial should not be carefully regarded as to their relation to the character of the decoration of the sun-dial. But perhaps, in Horatio's words, "'Twere to con- sider too curiously, to consider so."
Another wonderful background was a row of Pine trees which had been left standing from the old forest when the house was built and the garden planned. Not near enough to shadow basely the dial at midday, but close enough to render useless the markings of the hours of later afternoon, they watched over the dial, and the sound of their branches seemed the very passing voice of Time.
I never hear now the soft musical sighing, the tender low breathing of the Pines without recalling the tree-planting in Hardy's Woodlanders — a won- derful description, yet of few words, wherein you smell and hear and see the beautiful young trees the moment they are planted upright. How solemn
The Setting of Sun-dials
247
and weird is that sighing in an old tall forest ! It
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is a distinct third of three notes, formed perhaps by the different height of the trees or by cross-currents
Sun-dial in Garden of the late Hon. William H. Seward, Auburn,
New York.
of air, I walked through such a forest last sum- mer, one with grand mast-trees like those marked by the king's broad arrow of old; trees born to be masts and with the tone of the sea in their chords.
248 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
And the tree-voices seemed to bear the weight and profundity of the centuries of their lives, — a solem- nity that is not sad, but seems filled instead with the essence of a noble life. It is one of the inarticulate nature-sounds that speak more clearly than words.
The voice of the Pines differs at times. Lowell knows the Pine-tree like a brother, knows its moods and its voices : —
" Pines, if you're blue, are the best friends I know ; They mope and sigh and share your feelin's so ; They hush the ground beneath so, too, I swan You half forget you've got a body on."
" Under the yaller pines I house
When sunshine makes 'em all sweet-scented, And hear among their furry boughs
The baskin' west wind purr contented."
Forests of tall-growing Pines and forests of masts in our harbors alike are disappearing; thus we lose the finest of those beauties given to us simply through the repetition of perpendicular forms. 1 presume the brother outline, the long ranks of bayonets, will also disappear from our marching armies, and some insignificant little deadly weapon fill the bayonet's place. Yearly are the picturesque elements of our life taken from us. We are given many comforts to replace them, but no work of science or art can ever equal the wondrous natural beauty of the serried Pine trees and Pine masts.
Even this row of a scant dozen Pines guarding the sun-dial has the charm of a succession of up- right lines. It is this beauty of perpendicular forms
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The Setting of Sun-dials
249
that make many plant rows of Hollyhocks as a back- ground to the sun-dial, where they are beautiful as long as they stand in erect lines even though the blossoms are gone and only the "cheeses" remain studdi ng the stalks with their curious forms. There is much dig- nity in all of the Mallow tribe in the gar- den, whether they be our beautiful wild Marshmallows, the Holly- hocks, or our friend the Rose of Sharon.
We are apt to think and speak of a sun- dial as being suited to a flower garden ; but it is equally so for an expanse of lawn, or even to a paved courtyard with no growing flowers. Of course its happiest home is like every one else's in a flower garden. There are certain gardens to which the garden-dial seems wonted and a part thereof; these are specially all old-fashioned gardens, and all
Sun-dial with Peonies at Kenmore. Fredericks- burg, Virginia ; Home of Betty Washington Lewis.
250 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday
formal gardens, and there is a certain type of garden which promises the presence of a sun-dial. It is impossible to formulate a description of such a one, nor can you give any details by which to know
of the treasure within. Sometimes the slightest hint will suggest the presence of a sun-dial to you ; sometimes you have an inspiration. I was driving along a Long Island road, on the out- skirts of a long-settled village, when we passed an old house with grand central chimney flanked by a nebulous growth of greenery of various heights, which suggested evergreen and ancient shrubbery. A hedge stretched across the front of the forecourt, that enclosure which we call the front yard, — a hedge ofcomparatively old growth for America. An aged negro was trimming this hedge with an old cavalry sword, which he gallantly and skilfully wielded. I know not whether it was the unusual sight of a sword used as hedge shears — and I assure you it proved an excellent one — or the
Sun-dial at Stenton, the Logan House. Presented to the So- ciety of Colonial Dames by Horace J. Smith, Esq., of Ger- mantown, Pennsylvania.
The Setting of Sun-dials 251
irregular expanse of shrubbery, but I at once sus- pected the presence within this garden of an old sun- dial ; and when we entered, there it was. The wooden pedestal had rotted away, and the poor stump with the rickety dial-face lay prone among the vast Box hedges, hidden save for such undaunted searchers as ourselves. The metal dial-face was fastened by a single rusted screw to the pillar, and twisted about, and was prone face down, with its gnomon thrust in the ground, in an utter abasement and degradation, which resembled in a half-comic manner the grinding of a nose in the dirt; which resemblance, of nose to gnomon, the poet sung in Cynthia s Revel, when "her nose was the gnomon of Love's diall, to tell you how runs your heart." 1 carefully pushed the decaying pedestal from under the edge of the heavy Box and turned the dial-face to the light, and then brushed off the decayed leaves and earth with which it was caked. I read thereon in well-worn letters these ironic words, Omnibus exemplum et regula —
A PATTERN AND A RULE FOR ALL.
Alas, poor dial ! thou wert a pattern and a rule but for a short time and season !