T. Geoffrey W. Henslow

“ Let us solve the riddle of Avebury or Stonehenge with certainty before we can decide the age of any other likely form of horologe; let us move the sands of the desert of Egypt and dig down into every ruin of the past before we can hope to fix a date at which mortal man constructed a dial, mural or pedestal, to record the passing of the day. ”

“ Whatever part the sundial has to play in the future history of individuals and nations, it must never be forgotten that as a faithful recorder of the passing hour—under certain conditions—it remains for ever the most accurate timekeeper that has been discovered by mortal man.
Great minds have loved to dwell upon its study, and noble men have handed down to generations that were to come specimens of the craftsman’s art and the scientist’s discoveries. In our own land exist many historical dials fashioned to satisfy the fancies of individuals, and also for the benefit of the public. ”

“ Again, note the motto—Cosi la vita, “Such is Life,” on a dial at Albizzola. This is of far greater force than “Prepare to die.” We do not intend to die if we can help it, we intend to live! and so we put the motto “Prepare to die” from our mind as crude and unfeeling. But not so the former; it appeals to us, and the imperceptible moving shadow on the dial’s face that soon will be gone gives with the motto a gentle lesson that is considered by all. ”

“ SUNDIAL AT ASTBURY, CHESHIRE.
Love alone outlives our day,
Vanquishing e’en time,
For when we have passed away,
’Tis found in halls sublime.
392
SUNDIAL ON PENN CHURCH, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
Dissolved ’tis possible men may be,
In mind and matter eternally,
But things created here below,
A future resurrection show.
393
SUNDIAL AT ALDINGTON HALL, KENT.
If ’tis earlier than you thought,
Use time’s balance as you ought,
Waste not hours that you need,
To further work you fain would speed. ”

“ Ye watch this dial my speed to prove,
Yet cannot see me make a move.
Things come in cycles, so men say,
But who shall view a yesterday?
My use and value unto you,
Is gauged by what you have to do.
I regulate the lives of all,
That walk, or run, or fly, or crawl. ”

“ Surrounded by all that most appeals to the human mind—transitory gems of the garden—the sundial exercises a subtle charm and exerts a soft and more kindly influence which is felt in after life. So much could be said on the so-called poetry of the sundial that I hasten to control my pen and deal with a more important item concerning its value. ”

“ Without ye gnomon who can tell,
Upon this dial where sunlight fell?
Good luck, just like a summer’s sun,
Lies in the path of everyone.
Man need never darkness know,
Who early to rise and sleep doth go. ”

“ SUNDIAL.
Dated 1740.
We live by each kind action,
And die by those of hate;
Then let no day or fraction
Show worthless estimate.
291
SUNDIAL, 20th CENTURY.
A girl’s life without love,
And a dial without light,
Are as hopeless I’d prove
As a man without sight.
292
SUNDIAL AT HARWORTH, DARLINGTON.
Build not on the morrow,
Sufficient for the day,
Anxiety brings sorrow,
No matter what men say.
293
SUNDIAL, 19th CENTURY.
I’m never in a hurry,
Neither time I lose;
Our life’s too short to worry,
And hours to misuse.
294
SUNDIAL OVER CHURCH PORCH, STOKE ALBANY, NORTHANTS. ”

“ Since no man e’er can live for naught,
See that you live e’en as you ought.
Hour by hour I yearly strive,
To show to men this dial’s alive.
If life’s chances you ignore,
Blame but yourself when you are poor. ”

“ I work for the sun and man alone,
By marking the hours upon this stone.
Learn, like me, to waste no time,
Words are empty, actions climb.
Man made this dial, with gnomon to plan
A shadow in time to govern the man. ”

“ SUNDIAL ON LIBERTON HOUSE, MIDLOTHIAN.
Date 1683.
Each moment finds the past increased,
So swiftly Time moves on;
The bells for Matins scarce have ceased,
Ere it is Evensong.
151
SUNDIAL AT WASHINGTON’S HOUSE, LITTLE BRIGHTON, NORTHANTS.
’Tis man alone divides the day,
Observing hours called Time,
But birds and beasts the sun’s bright ray
With care in every clime.
152
SUNDIAL NEAR DANBY MILL, LEYBURN, YORKSHIRE.
Ever keep a smiling face,
Finding mirth some room;
Hours and minutes flow apace,
Life’s too short for gloom. ”

“ SUNDIAL ON IMPERIAL HOTEL, SOUTHAMPTON ROW, LONDON.
Do not think me solemn,
For I am full of fun,
The hours when bright I hold them,
When dark I mark not one.
381
SUNDIAL AT MOOR PARK, HERTS.
Let mirth give place to sorrow,
Time is with you yet.
Live, for a to-morrow,
May never dawn or set. ”

“ Dated 1643.
Men worry ’til ’tis light;
Then ’til it is dark;
They worry through the hours bright,
Forgetting how soon lost to sight,
Is time, that leaves its mark.
41
SUNDIAL, 20th CENTURY.
Men grumble at the sun,
And also at the rain;
They grumble whilst the hours each one,
Speed on and show by minutes none,
True cause why they complain.
42
SAXON SUNDIAL BUILT IN OVER A NORMAN WINDOW.
The Saxons divided time into tides,
The Normans for hours found place;
But the English with minutes and seconds besides,
Added more lines than my dial divides,
And now fractions I’m likely to grace. ”

“ SUNDIAL FROM PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A.
O were this dial a mirror bright,
Then all would gaze at me,
And strive from morn ’til late at night
Each lineament to see.
228
SUNDIAL AT “THE COTTAGE,” CHORLEY WOOD.
Increase thy knowledge, ample store
I keep on dial mine;
Nor ever reckon cheap or poor
The rudiments of time.
229
SUNDIAL, EARLY 18th CENTURY.
Shifty as the wind is life,
The lot of everyone,
Swayed by pleasure, work, and strife;
How opposite the sun!
230
SUNDIAL OVER A SHOP AT LEIGHTON BUZZARD, BEDFORDSHIRE. ”

“ This has now nearly died out, and the curfew bell is in most places all that is left of a time-honoured method of telling the divisions of the day.
What? we might naturally ask, set the hour and fixed the time? Without doubt the ancient sundial, invariably found on all old churches, or which might have been carried by the clergyman or clerk in pocket form. We can imagine how unpunctual people must have been on days that were dull, and how very differently business matters must have been conducted in years that are gone from what they are in our own age. ”

“ The marked interest that has been taken in the sundial during recent years shows it has still a great future before it. If, then, age can add to its value, and yet in nowise impair its reliability, who will be without such a garden ornament that gives also a gentle touch to what is already a beautiful possession? ”

“ SUNDIAL AT SELBOURNE.
Date about 1760.
With the memory there is power
To re-create the fleeting hour;
O careful, then, all men should be
That they each hour shall wish to see.
280
SUNDIAL ON YORK MINSTER.
The day was given to enjoy,
And hours to usefully employ;
But men were never meant to be
Slaves to seconds continually.
281
SUNDIAL IN THE TEMPLE GARDENS, LONDON.
Mark well the hours of the day,
Note well each fleeting year,
And never let time slip away,
Through idleness or fear.
282
SUNDIAL IN CHURCHYARD, ROXBURGH PARK, HARROW-ON-THE-HILL.
Date 1725. ”

“ I myself discovered one, only two feet off the ground, built into the east side of an old Norman south porch, and the fact that the dial had been cut in order to fit the stone into its place—added to its position—showed very plainly that it had been taken out of an earlier building and used again. Without hazarding any date as to the earliest form of horologe in this country, I would but testify from my own experience that many dials of early workmanship actually exist unnoticed on many of our ancient buildings, principally churches. ”

“ Seen in a Curiosity Shop.
As a minute is to the hour,
And the hour is to the day,
So proportion while you’ve power,
With fairness work and play.
249
SUNDIAL, 18th CENTURY.
Work, then while you have the time,
Never let thy talents rust;
Take a lesson from my sign,
The dial says die all we must.
250
ROMAN SUNDIALS, FROM VILLA SCIPIO, ROME.
I think all men will well agree,
At this similitude sublime,
Since bounds there are to earth and sea,
Nought beats the shifting sand for time. ”

“ As an ornament it is the greatest acquisition that any garden can possess. As a time-keeper, if constructed for the locality and carefully set, it is beyond compare; and like the flowers themselves it will to the end of time remain one of the finest monitors that reasoning man can follow. ”

“ In this case there would often be hardly room for a lengthy verse or verses. Possibly, too, in an economic age, the extra cost was a bar to such; anyway, the fact remains that verses are seldom found. But, be it verse or motto, one thing is most noticeable—namely, that nearly every one gives force by potent words to some weighty, though time-worn idea, and they teach frail mortal man to moralise and dwell on a subject that he too readily thrusts from him—the brevity of life. ”

“ THE VERTICAL SUNDIAL, which in construction is similar to a horizontal dial, is for placing in an upright position, such as on the wall of a church or house, or one of the side faces of a tall upright pillar. It should be made for, and fixed on, a wall having a southerly aspect, so as to receive as much sun as possible.
Before constructing a vertical dial it is necessary for the maker to know the declination or true aspect of the wall, expressed in degrees, in addition to the latitude of the place. ”

“ SUNDIAL AT WROXTON ABBEY, OXFORDSHIRE.
O live not to the minute,
Keep some time well reserved,
Thus fates through life they spin it,
Ne’er cut it unobserved.
364
SUNDIAL ON THE MARKET CROSS, WOODSTOCK.
Consult this dial and you see,
A cause for fresh alarm,
Learn safety knows no certainty,
Save strength of thy right arm.
365
SUNDIAL IN THE GARDENS OF THE BISHOP’S PALACE, CHICHESTER.
It is given to each one,
To rise above the ills of life,
And of trials there are none,
That are unconquerable in strife.
366
SUNDIAL AT NEWBATTLE, SCOTLAND.
Date 1635. ”

“ Verses on sundials are comparatively scarce compared with short mottoes; and this is surprisingly strange, considering what I would like to term the poetry of “ye horologe,” for there is hardly anything on this earth that is better calculated to call forth from man the very finest expressions relative to our brief life, than the sundial. ”

“ Here and there the thoughts of great minds, aptly expressed to suit the dial’s power, stand out as red-letter days in a church’s calendar and proclaim by their individuality an exceptional character. But such verses are very rare, and where they exist they will generally be found on dials that have been erected by the order of the writer of the verse to mark some special occasion. ”

“ To the student of astronomy and mathematics, it will ever appear to be a most natural event that the sundial should have been constructed to record accurately the time of day; and such might doubtless express surprise that the age of the earliest known horologe is not of greater antiquity. ”

“ Sundials of good make have the hour-lines and other divisions radiating from two centres, which are at a distance apart equal to the thickness of the gnomon, consequently there appears to be two hour lines at XII. o’clock, but really it is one, as the shadow at noon fills the space between the two lines.
A sundial cannot be said to be complete without a motto of some description, and by inscribing one on the dial or pedestal it gives a fitting voice to the dignified dial. ”

“ If, then, any critic—confident in his or her powers of being able to compile a work vastly superior in every detail to the one which I have supreme pleasure in now placing before the public—should like to enter the lists and vie with my humble efforts, I will gladly forgive all criticism, and congratulate myself on having been instrumental in securing for FATHER TIME a fresh devotee ”

“ The difference between sundial time and clock time is due partly to the irregular motion of the earth travelling in its path round the sun. Sometimes it travels faster and sometimes slower. It is also due partly to the fact that the time shown by our clocks and watches, called Greenwich mean time, is purely artificial and imaginary, not agreeing with any natural time at all, nevertheless for commercial purposes, it answers very well. ”

“ To-day, even a schoolboy has his watch, and there is hardly a man who fails to feel his loss when without this indispensable article, but it must be remembered that we are far more exacting as regards time than we used to be, and the closer observance of minutes and seconds demands a portable timekeeper that is not dependent upon the sun, which is so often hidden from our view. It has been recorded that George Washington was in the habit of carrying a pocket dial in the place of a watch ”

“ The past is what we make to-day.” It is, however, a very difficult matter to trace the age of mottoes, and the dial by no means is necessarily of the same date.
Even from the 16th century onwards we find suitable mottoes engraved on sundial plates, which called upon the visitor to moralise or dwell upon the passing beauties of creation. These verses give us an insight into the home life and secret feelings of many a great mind otherwise silent on matters concerning the more human side of life. ”

“ Their watches on to mine eyes, the outward watch,
Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,
Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.” In Henry VI. Shakespeare again takes notice of the sundial:—
“Methinks it were a happy life
To carve out dials quaintly point by point.” He also alludes to them in some of his other plays. Mentioned by many famous men in various ways they are dealt with directly by not a few.
So important did the study of gnomonics become that it was at one time considered to be a most necessary part of a student’s education. ”

“ Then, knowing the “magnetic variation” of the spot—for example, we will take London, which is 16° west of the true north—turn the sundial until the north end of the needle coincides with the 16° division west of the N. of compass dial. Take a pencil and mark the holes for studs; cut the holes and fill with grouting; place the dial on the pedestal and finally adjust with the compass before the cement sets.
Sundials can be fixed by the compass, and by the sun, providing the sun is shining on the dial, at any time during the day. ”

“ SUNDIAL ON ST. CUTHBERT’S CHURCH, DARLINGTON.
I divide ye hours,
And man ye days,
But ye heavenly powers
Ye sun’s bright rays.
162
SUNDIAL. Date 1674.
This hour is thine,
To mark if fine.
All hours are mine,
When sun doth shine.
163
SUNDIAL IN THE GROUNDS, LEE CASTLE, LANARKSHIRE.
Fear not the dark,
Fear thou the light;
For men but mark,
Things clear to sight.
164
SUNDIAL AT ABBEYFIELD, Nr. SHEFFIELD.
He put me high up for to make,
Men ever upward glances take;
So by degrees in times they see,
God’s light and love reflect in me.
165
SUNDIAL IN LEYLAND CHURCHYARD, LANCASHIRE.
Date 1714. ”

“ He the longest life shall live,
Who makes the most of hours I give.
The shades of night my dial enfold,
Like a story that is told.
Earn thou thy rest,
So shall each hour improved by thee,
Bring what is best continually.
416 INDEX TO PLACES. The sundials all are faithfully represented; the drawings are to suit the book, thus the sundials are introduced into pictures drawn to harmonise with the verses, for the purpose of recording which this work has been compiled. ”

“ It is very doubtful whether ancient Egypt with all its vast learning and resources will ever throw fresh light upon the subject of gnomonics. Situated so close to the Equator, both the horizontal and vertical dials would be of small service.
The angle of the gnomon being equal to the latitude of the place, the few degrees either side of the Equator would necessitate such a small elevation that a horizontal dial would be of little help. ”

“ The sundial, at the present time, is made in many forms, the one usually met with being the horizontal form seen on a pedestal in many gardens. The next is the vertical dial to be seen on many old churches and houses. There are also a number of others, such as the hemispherical, cruciform, cylindrical, polygonal, armillary sphere—commonly known as the “globe”—reclining, inclining, and a great variety of pocket dials. ”

“ Now, as the sun appears to travel from an easterly to a westerly direction each day, and takes four minutes to travel over one degree of longitude, it can be seen that it will take about 30 minutes to travel across the whole country, and the time of all places east of Greenwich is fast, whilst at others west the time is slow. For example, supposing a sundial in position at each of the following places, Lowestoft, Greenwich, and Land’s End, and it was noon at Lowestoft by the sundial, the time indicated at the moment by each dial would be as follows: Lowestoft, 12 o’clock ”