Feb. 14, 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



155 



^aw when be proposed to turn "disasters" into 

 " disastej-ous" and to supply the verb. 



I have no alteration oi' my own to propose ; but 

 I think possibly a suggestion as to the directions 

 to be taken in search of the right text may be of 

 service. In the case of a line or lines being lost, 

 notliing can be done ; but I discern a gleam of 

 hope in two other directions. In the first place it 

 is to be observed, that the thoughts of the speaker 

 would in all probability be turned to night-^or- 

 tents. There is a reference to the same circum- 

 stances in Julius Ccesa?; Act II. Sc. 2., as having 

 occurred in the night, and been seen by the watch. 

 Now, though there is certainly no reason why 

 Horatio might not have enumerated spots in the 

 sun as one of the omens preceding terrible events, 

 it seems scarcely probable that it was in the order 

 of his allusions to the events of the " fearful night" 

 preceding the death of Csesar. Let the corrup- 

 tion then be sought for here. Or look for a verb 

 in the place of "disasters" that shall intelligibly 

 connect "the sun" with what precedes. "As 

 stars" must not be changed into " asters" until it 

 can be shown that such change is necessary to a 

 better constructed sentence tlian any which has 

 jet been suggested. Samuel Hickson. 



St. John's Wood. 



DIALS, DIAL MOTTOES, ETC. 



(Vol. iv., p.47l., &c.) 



Perhaps the following will be of use to your 

 correspondent Hermes (Vol. iv., p. 471.), referring 

 to dials, which I take to mean sun-dials. 



Lately there was rather an interesting object of 

 that kind to be seen upon the south wall of Glas- 

 gow Cathedral, with this motto or inscription: — 



" Our life's a flying shadow, God's the pole, 

 The index pointing at Him is our soul ; 

 Death the horizon, when our sun is set. 

 Which will through Christ a resurrection get." 



That the above cannot now be classed amono- 

 living inscriptions is entirely to be ascribed to the 

 ^eal for clean walls exhibited by Her JMajesty's 

 Commissioners of Woods and Forests, under 

 whose auspices the renovation of our cathedral 

 has been accomplished. I regret to mention some 

 other memorials have also disappeared, long fa- 

 miliar to the eye of the antiquary — not granting 

 but that these gentlemen have a power to do what 

 they please ; however, en passant, we would en- 

 treat, if they can, to lay on their hands as charily 

 as possible when such innocent matters come in 

 their way. Though the following well-known 

 lines — 



" Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear, 

 To dig the dust inclosed here ; 

 Blest be the man that spares these stones, 

 And curst be he that moves my bones" — 



be not literally applicable in the present case, they 

 breathe such a spirit as would almost make any 

 one " nervous" in tampering with revered and 

 time-honoured relics nearly become sacred. 



Glasgow does not appear at all rich in dial 

 erections ; the only one I know of is in our old street 

 the Gnllowgate (or Gallow's Gate; as you would say, 

 the 7-oad to Tybuni), on the south front of a tene- 

 ment, with no motto, but date 1708. Our long 

 fame for numerous public clocks and excellent 

 bells, according to the ancient adage — 

 " Glasgow for bells, 

 Linlithgow for wells, 

 Falkirk for beans and pease, 

 Edinburgh for wh s and thieves," 



together with our frequent wet murky atmosphere, 

 may all have contributed to the unfavourableness 

 of endeavouring to mark the flight of Time 

 through the medium of the solar rays. 



The cities and villages imder the sunny skies of 

 southern climates, and where also a{)pears a better 

 taste generally than with us for inscriptions on. 

 public and private monuments, would, I think, be 

 the richest field for Hermes to explore. I speak 

 from some little observation in a tour of France 

 and Italy, &c., in the year 1846. Sun-dials were 

 to me objects of curiosity, but not of that im- 

 portance as to be engrossing. On a loose memo- 

 randum I have the two following mottoes which 

 particularly struck me, but have not preserved a 

 note of the places, that I think lay on the route 

 from Florence to Bologna : — 



(Latin Englished) " This dial indicates every hour 

 to man but his last." 



" Se il Sol benigno, mi concede il raggio, 

 L'ora ti mostra, e il ciel ti dia buon viaggio." 



On a building near the Cathedral of Geneva, 

 there is rather a novel and curious example of 

 the sun-dial, in a perpendicular line bisected on 

 each si<!e by two curves, the curve on the one 

 side black, the other gilded, with the following : — 

 " Fait en 1778— Restaure en 1824, 

 La Courbe noire Indique le Midi du 21 Juin au 21 

 Decembre, 



et la 

 Courbe doree du 21 Decembre au 21 Juin." 



Meridian lines, though not, properly speaking, 

 coming under the order of sun-dials, may be reck- 

 oned so far cognate ; fine specimens of these may 

 be seen in the cathedrals of Milan, Bologna, &c. 



Public clocks occasionally become objects of 

 considerable interest, as at Berne, &c., not to 

 mention the monster of Strasbourg, which all the 

 world has heard of. 



Quaint allegorising on such subjects as the 

 foregoing, as presenting difierent stages in the life 

 of man and the fleeting nature of times and things, 

 were not unusual among our old Scotch divines, 

 as in the subsequent quotation from The Last 



