376 Old Time Gardens 



Court, Haverford, Pennsylvania. Sometimes the 

 pillars of old balustrades, old fence posts, and 

 even parts of old tombs and monuments, have 

 been used as pedestals for sun-dials. How pleas- 

 antly Sylvana in her Letters to an Unknown Friend^ 

 tells us and shows to us her cheerful sun-dial 

 mounted on the four corners of an old tomb- 

 stone with this fine motto cut into the upper step, 

 Lux et umbra vicissim sed semper amor. I mean 

 to search the stone-cutters' waste heap this summer 

 and see whether I cannot rob the grave to mark the 

 hours of my life. Charles Dickens had at Gadshill 

 a sun-dial set on one of the pillars of the balustrade 

 of Old Rochester Bridge. From Italy and Greece 

 marble pillars have been sent from ancient ruins to 

 be set up as dial pedestals. 



If possible, the pedestal as well as the dial-face of 

 a handsome sun-dial should have some significance 

 through association, suggestion, or history. At 

 Ophir Farm, White Plains, New York, the country- 

 seat of Hon. Whitelaw Reid, may be seen a sun-dial 

 full of exquisite significance. It is shown on page 

 375. The signs of the Zodiac in finely designed 

 bronze are set on the symmetrical marble pedestal, 

 and seem wonderfully harmonious and appropriate. 

 This sun-dial is a literal exemplification of the words 

 of Emerson : — 



"A calendar 

 Exact to days, exact to hours, 

 Counted on the spacious dial 

 Yon broidered Zodiac girds." 



