GARDENS OLD AND XL'.'/. 



THE FLOWER WALK AT EYDON HALL. 



had surrounded them completely, but it must be remembered 

 that there is an appropriateness in the style, with most agree- 

 able variety in the design, and that many sanctions exist for 

 such an arrangement. For a garden to be grouped about a 

 dial seems peculiarly appropriate, and we are tempted here to 

 add some reflections upon dials to those which were offered 

 in the Introduction. As a recent writer has remarked, the 

 whirligig of time has brought sundials into fashion again, 

 though it might be truer to say that they have never been 

 really out of favour, but only laid aside until :he particular 

 mode of time-reckoning in the garden has come round once 

 more. The dial, as Charles Lamb remarked, is a differe.it 

 tiring from a clock, "with its ponderous em bowel ments of lead 

 or brass, and its pert or solemn dulness of communication." 

 Let it be remembered that none should regard this as a serious 

 slur upon the venerable clock, but only as an expression 

 of Lamb's greater liking for the dial, which he somewhat 

 fancifully described as " the garden god of Christian gardens." 

 We mortals, as another writer says, have a rooted antipathy to 

 the intangible Father Time, and so love all time-markers that 

 reveal his presence and passage. There is a picturesque 

 nlj dial in the garden at Belton Hali, in which old 

 Chronos is seen grasping his dial, while a cupid clings to 

 it reproachfully and with downcast face, as if regretting its 

 admonitions. 



~\\M dial at Eydon Hall which has indu:ed these remarks 

 is of a plain and simple type. Its congeners exist in scores 

 in all sorts of places, but it is not to be denied that in such 

 garden features there is greater scope for the imagination than 

 is revealed in dials of this class. We may see everywhere, 

 indeed, that the sundial now takes on a more ambitious, and 

 withal a more beautiful, form. To some the very characteristic 

 Scottish dials are an example, and where there are Scottish 

 associations may well be regarded as appropriate. It should 

 not, however, be beyond the ability <>f the architect to devise 

 dials of attractive forms suitable for Hnglish and other gardens. 

 I here is, as an example, an exceedingly tine mo !ern dial in the 

 garden at the Old Place, Lindfleld, Sussex, illustrated in the 

 first series of " Gardens Old and New," in which the gnomon 

 is uplifted upon a pillar, with the motto, " Nunc sol ; nunc 



umbra " true of the garden an 1 the world and above it the 

 pelican " in her piety," while the shaft of the pillar is spirally 

 entwined with appropriate mottoes, and ivy clin.:s to its foot. 

 Couid a garden be graced with a fairer adornment ? Suitable 

 mottoes are desirable. " United in Time ; parted in Time ; 

 to be re-united when Time shall be no more," are the 

 words upon a recent dial of Scottish type, and a very 

 beautiful one, erected by Lady John Scott at Cawston 

 Lodge, Rugby, in memory of Lord John Scott. " Post 

 tenebras spero lucem," and " Ut umbra sic fugit vita," are 

 mottoes well known, and the terrible admonition, "On 

 this moment hangs eternity," is known to the writer 

 upon a dial. 



The position of the sundial at Eydon Hall is right and 

 let us recognise that in its baluster-like character it has 

 appropriate relation to the house for it is the centre of a 

 garden plan, and about it are disposed very brilliant 

 flower-beds, while behind rise noble groups of trees as a 

 charming background, and floral borders make a margin for 

 the walls. Indeed, it is a singularly beautiful picture that is 

 presented as one loo!<s from the house over the fish-pond to 

 the garden of the dial and the admirable trees beyond. 



It is an easy thing to criticise a garden design to offer 

 praise or censure upon this part of it or that. The more 

 difficult thing is to plan and shape a garden successfully. 

 What kind of pleasaunce would be most suitable for a place 

 like Eydon Hall ? The situation might have suggested to some 

 a bolder form of terracing ; but to our mind the arrangement 

 is as good as could be, the descents being utilised to make 

 shelter for excellent flower borders. As the house stands it 

 holds its right place in the composition, like the classic buildings 

 in the paintings of Claude. Any great terraces in such a 

 situation as that of Eydon would break the repose of the 

 charming picture, and would dwarf the edifice they were 

 intended to adorn. The midday picture over the sundial 

 garden towards the house, as witnessed from the front of the 

 orangery, will explain what we mean. That seems to us to be 

 an ideal classic garden composition, and to illustrate in a 

 striking manner how harmonious are the garden features at 

 Eydon Hall. 



