SUNDIALS 



319 



great as the literature on the sub- 

 ject would lead one to suppose. In 

 those days, when no cheap watches 

 were to be had, when indeed a 

 watch was handed down from one 

 generation to another as a valuable 

 possession, sundials were of real 

 use, even though they told none 

 but sunny hours. " The Art of 

 Dialling " was a recognised branch 

 of polite learning, and an intricate 

 subject it was ; dealing not only 

 with horizontal and vertical dials, 

 but with those which faced in some 

 other direction than due south. 

 Dial stones may sometimes be seen 

 with one side brought slightly for- 

 ward, so that the face is not quite 

 parallel with the wall in which it 

 is set. This is an expedient to 

 make the face look due south, in 

 order to simplify the setting out 

 of the lines. Needless to say that 

 when the sun was relied on to tell 

 the hour of the day, the introduc- 

 tion of " Summer time " would have 

 been impossible ; for the power to 

 set back the shadow on the dial, as 

 it was set back on that of Ahaz, 

 has never been given to man. 



From the earliest days it had 

 been customary to give import- 

 ance to the entrance of a house. 

 When means of defence were a 

 necessity, the access was through a portion of the main build- 

 ing, and so into a courtyard. The portal was flanked with 

 turrets which at first were devised for its protection, but in later 

 times were retained as handsome architectural features. Then 

 came the period when defence was no longer necessary, and the 

 forecourt was merely surrounded by a wall. Access to this 



FlG. 235. Seventeenth- 

 Century Date-Stones. 



1. Bulwick, Northamptonshire. 



2. Drayton, Leicestershire. 



3. Moulton, Northamptonshire. 



