76 ON THE ANTIQUE HOUR-LINES: 
direction of the wind. Tach of the eight dials is exposed to 
one of the eight principal equidistant points of the horizon ; 
two of the dials being parallel to the plane of the meridian, 
The radii of the spheres from which the dials are projected, 
vary ; the smallest being about eight inches, and the greatest 
about twenty-five inches. In Sruart’s Antiquities of Athens, the 
building and the dials are represented in detail. 
The second example of the gnomonic lines of the ancients, 
js in the valuable collection of antiquities brought from Athens 
by the Earl.of Ereiy. It consists of four vertical dials, two of 
which are nearly south-east, and two nearly south-west in azi- 
muth. They are inscribed on a block of white marble, which 
bears the maker’s name. The radius of the generating sphere 
is about four inches and a half. 
The third example, is a projection of the antique hour-lines 
on the inner surface of a cone whose axis is parallel to the axis 
of the earth. It exists at Athens, and is figured by Sruarr. 
The fourth is a small east dial, on a vertical plane, described 
by DrvaMsre. It was found at Delos. The radius is half an 
inch. 
The fifth is a piece of Roman workmanship, figured by Bors- 
sarp *. It is composed of five dials on the upper part of a 
squared block of marble ; three of the vertical sides of which 
are covered with an ancient Roman agricultural calendar. In 
like manner, the treatise of Paruaprus de Re rustica, which is 
a set of agricultural directions for every month, contains a gno- 
monic table, shewing the length of a man’s shadow for each 
month, and for a climate in Italy. 
Some 
* Borssarv1 Antiquitates Romane. 
