228 



Gardens J or Small Country Houses. 



account of it to English Leadwork : Its Art and History. The next illustration 

 (Fig. 341) shows an eighteenth century variation of the simple baluster treatment, 

 with women's masks connected by festoons of drapery. This, again, is an 

 example of an interesting pillar, which loses much of its possible effect by its lack 

 of a proper base or platform and a margin of paving. At Marsh Court there is an 

 example of to-day, designed by Sir E. Lutyens, which is admirable for many reasons. 



The octagonal stone seat from 

 which it rises provides a digni- 

 fied base, and the stone pillar, 

 which carries the most 

 modern and scientific form of 

 dial, has a charming entasis. 

 Recourse was made for its 

 decoration to a byway of the 

 leadworker's craft, viz., inlay. 

 It was popular enough in the 

 Middle Ages, but has since 

 been neglected, save for the 

 dreary purpose of making im- 

 perishable the lettering on 

 tombstones. Bands of simple 

 conventional ornament wind 

 spirally up the column between 

 diamonds, all of lead inlaid in 

 matrices cut in the stone. The 

 whole composition is inter- 

 esting and unusual. Wholly 

 of lead, except for the iron 

 gnomon, is the sundial illus- 

 trated in Fig. 343. Made by 

 Mr. George Bankart, it is a 

 good example of what can be 

 done with the most typically 

 English metal (in the Middle 

 Ages and later the Continent 

 much of its lead from 

 Good use has been made 



got 



usj. 



of a simple device which has 

 pleased many generations of 

 plumbers since the Roman 

 occupation of Britain — ■ the 

 rope-moulding — and the leaf- 

 work round the base is 

 pleasantly modelled. Round 

 the top is cast one of those 

 many legends about the flight of time which have exercised the ingenuity of rhyme- 

 sters since sundials were first made. Another, and more delicately adjusted, kind 

 of outdoor timepiece is illustrated in Fig. 344. Its combination of slender hoops is 

 pretty in itself, and the column which carries it did more active garden service 

 once. It is a stone roller retired from work in favour of the more manageable 



FIG. 



-A GOOD SUNDIAL B.VDI.Y PLACED. 



