1 88 GARDENS IN THE MAKING 



or designs which are clearly anachronisms, and of ob- 

 jects which have not a real value in the garden scheme. 



But the sundial in its essence is a very practical 

 affair. It is a dial to tell us the hour of the day, 

 though as such it has long been superseded by the 

 clock and watch. In earlier days, sundials were 

 put up wherever people met together, in the market 

 place, on the village green, or on the church wall. 

 Moreover, as with all useful things in the days 

 when art was a common possession, "it was invested 

 with a simple beauty, and to people whose souls were 

 full of symbolism its mission had a genuine appeal 

 until it seemed to personify the spirit of time. So 

 it comes about that we, who live in a materialistic 

 age, are apt to find the sundial, with its old associa- 

 tions, a more poetic instrument than the clocks 

 and chronometers of the present day, though perhaps 

 the latter are more entitled to our contemplative 

 thoughts than the imperfect dial of the past. 



Still there is this to be urged in favour of the 

 continued use of the sundial — its construction and 

 material are both eminently fitted to its place out of 

 doors, and it makes use of the natural movements of 

 sunshine and shadow which are part and parcel of the 



