SUN-DIALS. 



645 



Fig. 868. — An urn, selected from many 

 others of various degrees of merit, from 

 the stock of the Grange- 

 mouth Coal and Fire- 

 clay Works. We have 

 here a vase evidently 

 intended for its legiti- 

 mate use in garden de- 

 coration, and not to be 

 desecrated into a mere 

 flower-pot. Such vases 

 associate well in con- 

 nection with Grecian, 

 Eoman, or even modern 

 Italian architecture. 

 The material employed 

 in this establishment, 

 like that we have no- 

 ticed in Section Fur- 

 naces, page 253, as 

 used in the Garnkirk Works, contains a 

 large amount of silica and alumina, both 

 of the most essential use in the produc- 

 tion of an infusible tire-clay. From the 

 same firm we received, but too late for 

 insertion, drawings of a very ornamental 

 and novel smoke-flue, made of fire-clay, 

 and forming a very neat balustrading. 



Sun-dials. — Sun-dials are both orna- 

 mental and useful. Their position always 

 should be that of full exposure to the sun. 

 A taste for dials appears to have been 

 much greater formerly in this country 

 than at present. No doubt, watches and 

 clocks were not then common ; and as 

 men measured time by them, they would 

 be set up as conveniently to their dwellings 

 as possible. These, from being an article 

 of use, would lead to their being intro- 

 duced in grounds as an article of decora- 

 tion. Fine specimens of ancient dials 

 exist in the flower-gardens at Drummond 

 Castle, Newbattle Abbey, and elsewhere. 

 Indeed, where they have escaped the frenzy 

 of reform, they seem as faithful chronicles 

 to inform us that a taste for gar- 

 den decoration existed in ages 

 long gone by. 4 



Fig. 870 represents one of the 

 two ancient dials at the latter 

 place — both being 15 feet in 

 height, and similar in design. 

 They are placed on modern base- 

 ments, giving them an elevation 

 in excellent keeping with their 

 size and importance. From the 

 initials (in the absence of date) 



S^ 9, the y must have stood 

 there for two cen- 

 turies at the least. 

 The panels under 

 those on which the 

 initials and arms of 

 the ancient family of 

 Kerr are cut, form 

 each a separate dial- 

 plate, and are in the 

 highest state of pre- 

 servation. Those at 

 Drummond Castle 

 are in the form of 

 obelisks of great 

 height and symme- 

 try, and, after the 

 manner of the times 

 in which they were 

 constructed, have 

 many concave dial- 

 plates cut on their 

 sides. Here, as at 

 Newbattle, the dials 

 are placed in gar- 

 dens, in the formal 

 Although the dial has now ceased 



Fig. 870. 



