102 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



paratively scarce, the making of dials was, of course, an 

 art of great practical value, and was much followed, up to 

 fifty years ago. Their theory and practice were often 

 taught in schools, and a knowledge of the subject was 

 frequently a requirement of teachers, some of whom were 

 practical masters of the art, and have left, in various parts 

 of the country, very creditable specimens of their skill 

 in this department of practical astronomy.* It will be 

 remembered by those who have read the life of that 

 remarkable genius, James Ferguson, the Banffshire star- 

 gazer, as. told by himself and Dr. Henderson in a book 

 of intense interest, gud fullest information,! that dialling 

 was one. of t}ie .early; subjects to which that young star- 

 gazer directed attention, guided by " God Almighty's 

 scholar," as his disciple calls him, Alexander Cantley, 

 mathematician, astronomer and diallist. 



John Duncan also became a theoretical and practical 

 diallist, making dials for himself and his friends, and 

 specimens of his handiwork still exist in and round the 

 Vale of Alford. Among his papers, there remain several 

 very creditable drawings of different kinds of dials, upright 

 and horizontal. Some of his correspondents also worked 

 at the same art, and sent him sketches of dials they had 

 seen or planned, with elaborate details of the form and 

 height of the stile, the elevation of the plate, the length of 

 the hour line, and the divisions of the hour circle. In 1830, 



* The elaborate dial in the churchyard of Currie, near Edinburgh, 

 made by the late parish teacher, Mr. Palmer, is a noteworthy 

 example. 



f " Life of James Ferguson, F.R.S., in a brief autobiographical 

 account, and further extended memoir by E. Henderson, LL.D." 

 (Fullarton and Co., 1867.) 



