February, 1906 AVuerveAN HOMES AND GARDENS 95 
Swine Garden Altar 
The Revival of the Sun-Dial in the American Garden 
By Durando Nichols 
NE of the best examples of the revival 
of popular interest in gardens in this 
country is the rapid appearance of the 
old-time sun-dial on the walls of our 
(¥9} buildings and in our gardens. 
SH The sun-dial is supposed by many 
_ writers to have been almost coeval with man. Primitive 
_ man knew the two great divisions of the day and night. 
| Moreover, he plainly marked them, for he arose to 
| seek food with the sun, ate when he found it, and when 
night came he slept. As his intelligence advanced and 
he acquired a fixed habitation, to which he returned at 
night, he learned to observe more carefully the height 
of the sun in the heavens, and governed his movements 
by its position, though it must have been ages before 
any systematic attempt was made to divide the day into 
fixed periods. 
The first knowledge of the dial, however, seems to 
have been associated with the Egyptians about the 
seventh century B. C. The credit of the invention and 
first use of the gnomon and dial combined as one in- 
strument has been variously attributed to the Greeks. 
In Rome, at the beginning of the fifth century B. C., 
the two natural divisions of the day were night and 
| morning, as mentioned in the twelve tables of the laws, 
and it was not till 450 B. C. that noonday was added. 
The first sacred historical mention of the dial is found 
in the Second Book of Kings, twentieth chapter. 
For over two thousand years the dial hasbeen the time- 
keeper of the human race, “‘simple, silent and sublime,” 
though surely, pointing to the passing hour until it has be- 
come almost a thing of the past and to many of us a name 
only. Possessed, when it has a motto, of both body and soul, 
this primitive register of the fleeting hour has a natural charm 
+ 
1—A Sun-Dial on a Beautifully Carved Pedestal of Classic Design 
for the thoughtful that is enhanced by the beauty of its 
surroundings; for whether half buried by the rank grass in 
a sunny corner of an old garden whose unclipped trees 
threaten to part it from the sun, or perched high upon the 
of “ Yaddo,” Saratoga, New York 
2—The Sun-Dial in the Bay of the Upper Terrace of the Garden 3—The Form of the Pedestal is Good 
Because of its Simplicity 
