Gardens of the Poets 
219 
unusual aspect of demureness and delicacy, and the 
plants seem to cling with affection and trust to the 
path of their human protector ; they look simple 
and confiding, and seem close both to nature and to 
man. This homelike and modest quality is shown, 
I think, even in the presentation in black and white 
given on page 216 and opposite page, 218, though 
it shows still more in the garden when the wide 
range of tint of foliage is added. 
A most appropriate companion of the old flowers 
in this Shakespeare Border is the sun-dial, which is 
an exact copy of the one at Abbotsford, Scotland. 
It bears the motto ’EPXETAI TAP NTS meaning, 
“ For the night cometh.” It was chosen by Sir 
Walter Scott, for his sun-dial, as a solemn monitor 
to himself of the hour “ when no man can work.” 
It was copied from a motto on the dial-plate of 
the watch of the great Dr. Samuel Johnson; and 
it is curious that in both cases the word TAP 
should be introduced, for it is not in the clause in 
the New Testament from which the motto was taken. 
It is a beautiful motto and one of singular appro- 
priateness for a sun-dial. The pedestal of this 
sun-dial is of simple lines, but it is dignified and 
pleasing, aside from the great interest of association 
which surrounds it. 
I had a happy sense, when walking through this 
garden, that, besides my congenial living companion- 
ship, I had the company of some noble Elizabethan 
ghosts; and I know that if Shakespeare and Jonson 
and Herrick were to come to Hillside, they would 
find the garden so familiar to them ; they would 
