Notes on Encaustic Tiles at Eei/tesburif House. 241 



confessedly the figment of an astronomer's mind. But in the 

 contest of clocks against sun-dials the latter were always hampered 

 by the imperative condition, that the sun should shine j a condition 

 never fulfilled in the night-time, and in England too rarely in the 

 day-time.^ So the clocks ultimately won the victory, and the sun. 

 dials, whose silent voices had so long preached " time's thievish 

 progress," fell into disuse and neglect, except when maintained or 

 renovated to adorn a terrace or a wall, or reconstructed according 

 to the fancy of some enthusiast in sciography. 



Whether or not the excavations in the dial now before us were 

 meant to be symbolical, or the whole arrangement to convey au 

 allegory, I will leave others to determine. 



By Hasoid Bbakspeae, A.E.I.B.A. 



i^^HE accompanying plates illustrate the encaustic tiles, now 

 preserved at Heytesbury House, which were exhibited 

 in the dining-room during the Society's visit to that place in 1893. 

 Lord Heytesbury can give nothing further of their history than that 

 they were taken up from the floor of the boot-hole (of the house) by 

 order of his grandfather. A further number were also found, but, 

 being broken, were unfortunately thrown away. 



It will be seen that the armorial devices are mostly of the 



* The average daily duration of sunshine in England is only three and a quarter 

 hours. Arago tells us of an ingenious device in the twelfth century in the 

 Abbey of Cluny to reckon the canonical times for nocturns and lauds. The time 

 of the recital of certain psalms was calculated in the day by the snn-dial, a'ld 

 the repetition of these at night by relays of wakeful monks furnished a measure 

 of time. 

 VOL. XXVII. — NO. LXXXI, S 



