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PARK AND CEMETERY 
ness. But this period of destruction is indicated in 
many old churches in England, where dials are seen 
in reversed positions built into the walls of the struc- 
ture. In the seventeenth century the incorporated 
company of clockmakers was given jurisdiction over 
all dials as well as clocks and watches and were ex- 
pected to seek and destroy all false and deceitful work. 
There is an extensive literature of the subject in 
mediaeval times. 
It was probably at the time of the papal edict re- 
quiring sun dials in the churches that so many were 
set up in English churchyards. The measuring of 
time was regarded as a proper summons to prepare for 
eternity. At that early time the choice lay between 
the vertical and the horizonal dial. The vertical was 
TYPES OF SUN DIALS. 
affixed to the external wall of the church, often just 
over the main entrance, or sometimes it was made the 
feature of a stained glass window. A pillar or ped- 
estal was provided for the horizontal dial on the south 
side of the church. The broken shaft of the church- 
yard cross was sometimes used for this purpose. In 
one case (in an East Yorkshire churchyard) a stone 
coffin was sunk headforemost about half its length in 
the ground and the dial was placed upon its foot. 
This ingenuity was exhibited in 1769. It was quite 
unusual, though it sometimes occurred, that a massive 
square column was erected and bore a vertical dial 
upon each of its faces. 
The artistic possibilities of the sun dial are limited 
as regards the gnomon, though some of these are or- 
nate. That at Windsor contains a crown, and the 
monogram, “C. R.” for “Charles Rex,” having been 
erected by Charles II. But in the design for a ped- 
estal or for the surrounding slab of a vertical dial the 
opportunities are limitless. It was not thought be- 
neath the dignity of Inigo Jones to design a pedestal 
for a dial, and at least one of his designs (at Chilham, 
near Canterbury) survives to this day. 
In another direction the artistic possibilities are 
without limit ; that is, in selecting an inscription. 
Especially to be commended are those which suggest 
the connection between the passing of the time and the 
sunniness of the day. “Horas non numero nisi 
serenas,” is the Latin form. “I mark not the hours 
unless they be bright,” is a good English form. But 
there are still some thoughts which the sun dial calls 
up that can be clothed in original words, though the 
monumental designer will derive great benefit from a 
study of the sun dials of the past to be found in the 
British Isles. 
* * > 1 : 
Apropos of Ruth Harlow Landor’s paper on Sun 
Dials in the present issue, two incidents occur to the 
mind of the present writer and seem worthy of record. 
About a quarter of a century ago a sun dial was 
set up in a certain large city not far from New York 
City, in an adjoining state. There was a law in the 
state requiring that a monument be set up in the court- 
house yard of every country town, showing the meri- 
dian line. The sun dial in question was probably placed 
in obedience to this law, though there is the suspicion 
from the price paid for it that it was intended to dis- 
charge some political obligations from the county offi- 
cials to the man who furnished it. What was chiefly 
interesting about it was the perplexity it caused among 
the passers-by. The study bestowed upon that sun 
dial upon cloudy days was sufficient to have made a 
scientist, and it was not unusual to see a man stand 
so that his shadow would be cast upon the dial, study 
the same with his watch in his hand, but finally pass 
on without gaining any information and evidently 
wondering what that thing was intended to do. It 
was the custom of the “courthouse boys” when ap- 
pealed to, to explain it to say, “It’s run down. The 
janitor probably forgot to wind it up.” 
The other relates to the inscription, 
GOA BOW TYO URB US IN ESS 1838. 
upon a dial in the garden of the Dean of Bangor. 
For a long time this was regarded by visitors as a 
Welsh motto. But it seems that it was intended to 
perpetuate the curt injunction of a faithful but iras- 
cible gardener, who used to tell troublesome visitors, 
“Go about your business.” L. V. 
