CHAPTER VII 



SUNDIALS AND STATUARY 



" True as the dial to the sun, 

 Although it be not shin'd upon." 



BUTLER. 



THERE is something so suggestive in the thin band of 

 shadow cast by the finger of the old dial, that even the 

 most frivolous feel sobered, almost awed, when we see 

 one of these quaint objects in the garden. Of late years 

 a growing fashion has set in for reintroducing sundials 

 into English gardens, where, once met with frequently, 

 they have too long been banished. The first mention 

 of the sundial occurs in the well-known passage in Isaiah, 

 and in later times we read that they were frequently 

 placed on public buildings, where they afforded the 

 passers-by a rough idea of the time of day. It was not 

 until the sixteenth century, however, that their use in 

 gardens became common, and from that date their 

 merely utilitarian value may be said to have steadily 

 diminished. Though no one would now think of 

 measuring time by the shadow on the dial's face, even 

 were it possible in our flickering and uncertain sunshine, 

 few will deny that the artistic value and old-world charm 

 of a sundial of satisfactory design, entitles it to a worthy 

 place in the gardens of to-day. Yet in spite of the 

 desirability of making free use of this particular feature, 

 and the excellent effect which may be obtained by 



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