The Revival of the Sun-Dial 
A NEW DIAL UPON AN OLD HOUSE 
TVhitfordy Penna. 
root of the question—the foundation. The 
vertical dial can he attached immovably to a 
wall or a house front at slight cost; but a 
horizontal dial requires a firm and an exactly 
leveled face, which must be so built as to be 
permanently stationary. The pedestal should 
therefore extend well below the frost-level or 
should be set in firmest cement and brick¬ 
work. This at once involves considerable ex¬ 
pense, but without it the horizontal dial is 
simply a decorative toy. Even as such it is 
pretty in the garden—though not fully satis¬ 
factory. The cheapest firm pedestal is a care¬ 
fully leveled tree-stump. The vast roots ex¬ 
tending many feet in every direction make an 
immovable foundation. It 
may be also a very prettv 
pedestal if it be planted at 
the base with closely-grow¬ 
ing, neat-foliaged vines. 
The cost of a handsome 
and appropriate pedestal 
often turns folks of moderate 
means from the ownership of 
a sun-dial. We do not use 
good sense and alertness in 
the matter. It is seldom 
necessary to have a stone¬ 
cutter make a special pedestal 
from our own design. In 
nearly every community the 
man of active mind can secure 
a fine and often a beautiful 
pedestal at small cost. For, 
unfortunately, good build¬ 
ings and railings and fences are being 
constantlv pulled down; and their 
single pillars serve most happily as 
pedestals. A beautiful old garden 
near Hartford and one on Cayuga 
Lake rejoice in twin pedestals of ex¬ 
quisite marble and rare workmanship. 
So fine are these in design that the 
New York owner declares his will be 
his ruin, for he has already felt con¬ 
strained to add a handsome gate and 
gate-posts, and he fears an entire 
house may follow. These two ped¬ 
estals were secured at comparatively 
slight expense when the marble man¬ 
sion built by A. T. Stewart on Fifth 
Avenue and Thirty - fourth Street, 
New York, was pulled down to make 
room for another building. Another beauti¬ 
ful pedestal started in life as the newel-post 
of a staircase. Another, a simple stone 
shaft, had had a quarter of a century of use¬ 
fulness as the roller for a lawn. Another, 
of wrought iron, had been part of a pump. 
A boulder forms a favorite support. Pro¬ 
vided the dial-post is strong, trim, and of 
good shape, almost anything will do. 
The many beautiful and costly gardens, 
Italianate of form and decoration, which 
have sprung up all over the highly culti¬ 
vated portions of our country within the 
past three years, like the exquisite marvels 
of Aladdin’s lamp, naturally furnish a fre- 
AN ENGLISH DESIGN FOR AN UPRIGHT DIAL 
Executed in Terra Cotta 
