366 
Old Time Gardens 
and there was a beautiful “ Fugio dollar” cast 
in silver, bronze, and pewter. Though this de- 
sign and motto were evidently Franklin’s taste, 
the motto in its use on a sun-dial was not original 
with Franklin, nor with any one else in the Congress, 
for it had been seen on dials on many English 
churches and houses. In the form, “ Begone about 
Your Business,” it was on a house in the Inner 
Temple; this is the tradition of the origin of this 
motto. The dialler sent for a motto to place under 
the dial, as he had been instructed by the Bench- 
ers ; when the man arrived at the Library, he found 
but one surly old gentleman poring over a musty 
book. To him he said, “ Please, sir, the gentlemen 
told me to call this hour for a motto for the sun- 
dial.” “ Begone about your business,” was the testy 
answer. So the man painted the words under the 
dial; and the chance words seemed so appropriate to 
the Benchers that they were never removed. It is 
told of Dean Cotton of Bangor that he had a 
cross old gardener who always warded off un- 
welcome visitors to the deanery by saying to every 
one who approached, “ Go about your business ! ” 
After the gardener’s death the dean had this motto 
engraved around the sun-dial in the garden, “ Goa 
bou tyo urb us in ess, 1838.” Thus the gardener’s 
growl became his epitaph. Another form was, 
“ Be about Your Business,” and it is a suggestive 
fact that it was on a dial on the General Post-office 
in London in 1756. Franklin’s interest in and knowl- 
edge of postal matters, his long residence in London, 
and service under the crown as American post- 
