Sun-dials -355 



mode of knowing of the midday hour was by a "noon 

 mark," a groove cut or line drawn on door or win- 

 dow sill which indicated the meridian hour through 

 a shadow thrown on this noon mark. A good 

 guess as to the hours near noon could be made by 

 noting the distance of the shadow from the noon 

 mark. I chanced to be near an old noon mark this 

 summer as the sun warned that noon approached ; I 

 noted that the marking shadow crossed the line at 

 twenty minutes before noon by our watches — which, 

 I suppose, was near enough to satisfy our " early 

 to rise" ancestors. Meridian lines were often traced 

 with exactness on the floors of churches in Conti- 

 nental Europe. 



An advance step in accuracy and elegance was 

 made when a simple metal sun-dial was affixed to the 

 window sill instead of cutting the rude noon mark. 

 Soon the sun-dial was set on a simple pedestal near 

 the kitchen window, so that the active worker within 

 might 'glance at the dial face without ceasing in her 

 task. Such a sun-dial is shown on page 354, as it 

 stands under the " buttery " window cosily hobnob- 

 bing with its old crony of many years, the bee skepe. 

 One could wish to be a bee, and live in that snug 

 home under the Syringa bush. 



Portable sun-dials succeeded fixed dials ; they have 

 been known as long as the Christian era; shepherds' 

 dials were the " Kalendars '" or " Cylindres " about 

 which treatises were written as early as the thir- 

 teenth century. They were small cylinders of wood 

 or ivory, having at the top a kind of stopper 

 with a hinged gnomon; they are still used in the 



