Sun-dials 
355 
mode of knowing of the midday hour was by a a noon 
mark,” a groove cut or line drawn on door or win- 
dow sill which indicated the meridian hour through 
a shadow thrown on this noon mark. A good 
guess as to the hours near noon could be made by 
noting the distance of the shadow from the noon 
mark. I chanced to be near an old noon mark this 
summer as the sun warned that noon approached ; I 
noted that the marking shadow crossed the line at 
twenty minutes before noon by our watches — which, 
I suppose, was near enough to satisfy our “ early 
to rise” ancestors. Meridian lines were often traced 
with exactness on the floors of churches in Conti- 
nental Europe. 
An advance step in accuracy and elegance was 
made when a simple metal sun-dial was affixed to the 
window sill instead of cutting the rude noon mark. 
Soon the sun-dial was set on a simple pedestal near 
the kitchen window, so that the active worker within 
might glance at the dial face without ceasing in her 
task. Such a sun-dial is shown on page 354, as it 
stands under the “ buttery ” window cosily hobnob- 
bing with its old crony of many years, the bee skepe. 
One could wish to be a bee, and live in that snug 
home under the Syringa bush. 
Portable sun-dials succeeded fixed dials ; they have 
been known as long as the Christian era; shepherds' 
dials were the Kalendars ” or “ Cylindres ” about 
which treatises were written as early as the thir- 
teenth century. They were small cylinders of wood 
or ivory, having at the top a kind of stopper 
with a hinged gnomon; they are still used in the 
