uo 



KNOW I.I DCIL 



AiKii.. i'»i: 



siKiis his piitiirr. The positinii of the mason's 

 ■• mark" has varied from time to time. Apiiarently. 

 at the hefjinnin^,' of the sixteenth century it was 

 customary for a mason to 

 place his "mark" <m the 

 back of stone, and not 

 scratch it upon tlie face of 

 stonework as was done prior 

 to that period. Figures 151 

 and 152 are the "marks" 

 of two well-known masons at 

 present living in Xorwicli 

 (one of whom suggests th.it 

 Figure 145 — which is much 

 more frequently met with 

 than most others — is the 

 "mark" of a masons' guild. 

 not of an individual mason), 

 and they are shewn on the 

 joint and top bed of stone- 

 work respectively, these 

 being the positions usua]l\- 

 occupied by modern masons' 

 " marks." 



It was also suggested that 

 the Saxon dials might be 

 primitive " Protractors " bv 

 which masons set their 

 " sliding bevels " ! In sup- 

 port of this it was pointed 

 out that the angles at which 

 most stones were cut, were 



multiples of the angle of 15" intercepted by each 

 pair of radiating lines of the dial marks. How- 

 ever, the ■■ marks " selected for illustration 

 (Figures 145 and 149-152), and the many others 

 which have been examined, undoubtedly do awn\- 



r^ 



GNOMON 



ir.ruR 146. Mr. .Arlliiir F. C. Bcntley's " Con- 

 jectiir;il Mrthcid of Fixiiij,' the Giioiiion." 



with any justification for entertaining that idea. 

 .\part from tiie fact that com|)aratively few of the 

 marks are described sufficientl\ accurately to allow 

 one to suppose that they 

 were ever put to that pur- 

 l)osc successfully, stones — 

 where accuracy was of any 

 moment — • would in all 

 jirobability have been cut 

 to the required angle before 

 leaving the mason's "banker" 

 or bench, and therefore the 

 existence of such a pro- 

 tractor on the site would 

 not be necessary. A measure 

 of proportion by which the 

 parts of an order or of a 

 building are regulated in 

 clcissical architecture also 

 seemed destined to be con- 

 fused with sun-dials. The 

 measure in question is termed 

 a "module"; it consists of 

 a diameter or semi-diameter 

 of a column and is divided 

 up into sixty equal parts 

 (termed "minutes"). So 

 far as can be discovered the 

 circumference of a column 

 has ne\er been taken as the 

 miHiulf. but some persons 

 may ha\r had its division 

 such a scale to a sun-dial. 



in niiiul wlini liki 



The Saxon sun- 

 and sometimes ; 



Six -Dials. 

 lialsw hicb sometimes have a double 

 single outer circle iFisjures 1 ,iO 





FiGUKi; 147. Consecration Cross at Kirbv Hocion 



Fru!Ui; 148. Coiisocration Cross at Cl.Lxtoii. 



