236 



^ote^ on a cSmt^^tal from % ||(atta0te^g oi 

 l&g C|ttu|. mux ^albkrg. 



By the late Eev. Robert Dixon, LL.D. 



[^Sead at the Warminster Meeting of the Society, July 26th, 1893.] ^ 



WN taking down the remains of the Monastery of Ivy Church, 

 •^ in the parish of Alderbury, near Salisbury, there was found, 

 built into one of the walls, a cubical stone, which, on examination, 

 was found to be the remains of a sun-dial. It measured 5| inches 

 iu length, by the same in breadth and 6| inches in height; 1 inch, 

 however, of the height had been inserted into a pillar, so that we 

 may speak of it as a perfect cube of 5 J inches, with five faces 

 available for sun shadows. By cutting off triangular pyramids from 

 the angles eight other faces have been made, and in consequence the 

 five-sided faces turned into octagons. Two other cubical stone-dials 

 of about the same size and apparently the same age, as this one, are 

 known to me. One, found at Wigborough, near Yeovil, is now in 

 the Taunton Museum. The other was found on the site of the 

 disused Church of St. Martins le Grand, Dover, and is now in the 

 Dover Museum. It has been carefully described and sketched in 

 The Archceological Journal, vol. xxi. 



The one now before us has suffered much damage from time and 

 wear, and it is surprising that a more durable stone was not used 

 for a purpose where sharpness iu the sides of the excavations was 

 most essential for the distinct marking of the shadow boundaries. 

 The Dover dial has also suffered much, but the Taunton dial hardly 

 at all, having been constructed of the hard freestone from one of 

 the Inferior Oolite quarries south of the Mendip Hills, which has 

 lasted so well in Glastonbury Abbey and Wells Cathedral. 



^ The drawings of the dial given in the accompanying plate were kindly made 

 by the Rev. the Hon. B. P. Bouverie, of Pewsey Rectory, where the dial now is. 



