366 Old Time Gardens 



and there was a beautiful " Fugio dollar " cast 

 in silver, bronze, and pewter. Though this de- 

 sign and motto were evidently Franklin's taste, 

 the motto in its use on a sun-dial was not original 

 with Franklin, nor with any one else in the Congress, 

 for it had been seen on dials on many English 

 churches and houses. In the form, " Begone about 

 Your Business," it was on a house in the Inner 

 Temple ; this is the tradition of the origin of this 

 motto. The dialler sent for a motto to place under 

 the dial, as he had been instructed by the Bench- 

 ers ; when the man arrived at the Library, he found 

 but one surly old gentleman poring over a musty 

 book. To him he said, " Please, sir, the gentlemen 

 told me to call this hour for a motto for the sun- 

 dial." " Begone about your business," was the testy 

 answer. So the man painted the words under the 

 dial; and the chance words seemed so appropriate to 

 the Benchers that they were never removed. It is 

 told of Dean Cotton of Bangor that he had a 

 cross old gardener who always warded off un- 

 welcome visitors to the deanery by saying to every 

 one who approached, " Go about your business ! " 

 After the gardener's death the dean had this motto* 

 engraved around the sun-dial in the garden, " Goa 

 bou tyo urb us in ess, 1838." Thus the gardener's 

 growl became his epitaph. Another form was, 

 " Be about Your Business," and it is a suggestive 

 fact that it was on a dial on the General Post-office 

 in London in 1756. Franklin's interest in and knowl- 

 edge of postal matters, his long residence in London, 

 and service under the crown as American post- 



