Old Time Gardens Part 22

SUN-DIALS

"'Tis an old dial, dark with many a stain, In summer crowned with drifting orchard bloom, Tricked in the autumn with the yellow rain, And white in winter like a marble tomb.

"And round about its gray, time-eaten brow Lean letters speak--a worn and shattered row:-- 'I am a Shade; A Shadowe too arte thou; I mark the Time; saye, Gossip, dost thou soe?'"

--AUSTIN DOBSON.

A century or more ago, in the heart of nearly all English gardens, and in the gardens of our American colonies as well, there might be seen a pedestal of varying material, shape, and pretension, surmounted by the most interesting furnis.h.i.+ng in "dead-works" of the garden, a sun-dial.

In public squares, on the walls of public buildings, on bridges, and by the side of the way, other and simpler dials were found. On the walls of country houses and churches vertical sun-dials were displayed; every English town held them by scores. In Scotland, and to some extent in England, these sun-dials still are found; in fine old gardens the most richly carved dials are standing; but in America they have become so rare that many people have never seen one. In many of the formal gardens planned by our skilled architects, sun-dials are now springing afresh like mushroom growth of a single night, and some are objects of the greatest beauty and interest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Two Old Cronies, the Sun-dial and Bee Skepe.]

If the claims of antiquity and historical a.s.sociation have aught to charm us, every sun-dial must be a.s.sured of our interest. The most primitive mode of knowing of the midday hour was by a "noon mark," a groove cut or line drawn on door or window 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 Continental 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 "b.u.t.tery" window cosily hobn.o.bbing 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 thirteenth 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 Pyrenees. Pretty little "ring-dials" of bra.s.s, gold, or silver, are constructed on the same principle. The exquisitely wrought portable dial shown on this page is a very fine piece of workmans.h.i.+p, and must have been costly. It is dated 1764, and is eleven inches in diameter. It is a perfect example of the advanced type of dial made in Italy, which had a simpler form as early certainly as A.D. 300. The compa.s.s was added in the thirteenth century. The compa.s.s-needle is missing on this dial, its only blemish. The Italians excelled in dial-making; among their interesting forms were the cross-shaped dials evidently a reliquary.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portable Sun-dial.]

Portable dials were used instead of watches. There is at the Was.h.i.+ngton headquarters at Morristown a delicately wrought oval silver case, with compa.s.s and sun-dial, which was carried by one of the French officers who came here with Lafayette; George Was.h.i.+ngton owned and carried one.

The colonists came here from a land set with dials, whether they sailed from Holland or England. Charles I had a vast fancy for dials, and had them placed everywhere; the finest and most curious was the splendid master dial placed in his private gardens at Whitehall; this had five dials set in the upper part, four in the four corners, and a great horizontal concave dial; among these were scattered equinoctial dials, vertical dials, declining dials, polar dials, plane dials, cylindrical dials, triangular dials; each was inscribed with explanatory verses in Latin. Equally beautiful and intricate were the dials of Charles II, the most marvellous being the vast pyramid dial bearing 271 different dial faces.

Those who wish to learn of English sun-dials should read Mrs. Gatty's _Book of Sun-dials_, a ma.s.sive and fascinating volume. No such extended record could be made of American sun-dials; but it pleases me that I know of over two hundred sun-dials in America, chiefly old ones; that I have photographs of many of them; that I have copies of many hundred dial mottoes, and also a very fair collection of the old dial faces, of various metals and sizes.

I know of no public collection of sun-dials in America save that in the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, and that is not a large one. Several of our Historical Societies own single sun-dials. In the Ess.e.x Inst.i.tute is the sun-dial of Governor Endicott; another, shown on page 344, was once the property of my far-away grandfather, Jonathan Fairbanks; it is in the Dedham Historical Society.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sun-dial in Garden of Frederick J. Kingsbury, Esq.]

All forms of sun-dials are interesting. A simple but accurate one was set on Robins Island by the late Samuel Bowne Duryea, Esq., of Brooklyn.

Taking the flagpole of the club house as a stylus, he laid the lines and figures of the dial-face with small dark stones on a ground of light-hued stones, all set firmly in the earth at the base of the pole.

Thus was formed, with the simplest materials, by one who ever strove to give pleasure and stimulate knowledge in all around him, an object which not only told the time o' the day, but afforded gratification, elicited investigation, and awakened sentiment in all who beheld it.

A similar use of a vertical pole as a primitive gnomon for a sun-dial seems to have been common to many uncivilized peoples. In upper Egypt the natives set up a palm rod in open ground, and arrange a circle of stones or pegs around it, calling it an _alka_, and thus mark the hours.

The ploughman leaves his buffalo standing in the furrow while he learns the progress of time from this simple dial--and we recall the words of Job, "As a servant earnestly desireth a shadow."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sun-dial at Morristown, New Jersey.]

The Labrador Indians, when on the hunt or the march, set an upright stick or spear in the snow, and draw the line of the shadow thus cast.

They then stalk on their way; and the women, heavily laden with provisions, shelter, and fuel, come slowly along two or three hours later, note the distance between the present shadow and the line drawn by their lords, and know at once whether they must gather up the stick or spear and hurry along, or can rest for a short time on their weary march. This is a primitive but exact chronometer.

There are serious objections to quoting from Charles Lamb: you are never willing to end the transcription--you long to add just one phrase, one clause more. Then, too, the purity of the pearl which you choose seems to render duller than their wont the leaden sentences with which you enclose it as a setting. Still, who could write of sun-dials without choosing to transcribe these words of Lamb's?

"What a dead thing is a clock, with its ponderous embowelments of lead or bra.s.s, its pert or solemn dulness of communication, compared with the simple altar-like structure and silent heart-language of the old dial! It stood as the garden G.o.d of Christian gardens. Why is it almost everywhere banished? If its business use be suspended by more elaborate inventions, its moral uses, its beauty, might have pleaded for its continuance. It spoke of moderate labors, of pleasures not protracted after sunset, of temperance and good hours. It was the primitive clock, the horologe of the first world. Adam could scarce have missed it in Paradise.

The 'shepherd carved it out quaintly in the sun,' and turning philosopher by the very occupation, provided it with mottoes more touching than tombstones."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Yes, Toby! It's Three O'clock.]

Sun-dial mottoes still can be gathered by hundreds; and they are one record of a force in the development of our literate people. For it was long after we had printing ere we had any general cla.s.s of folk, who, if they could read, read anything save the Bible. To many the knowledge of reading came from the deciphering of what has been happily termed the Literature of the Bookless. This literature was placed that he who ran might read; and its opening chapters were in the form of inscriptions and legends and mottoes which were placed, not only on buildings and walls, and pillars and bridges, but on household furniture and table utensils.

The inscribing of mottoes on sun-dials appears to have sprung up with dial-making; and where could a strict moral lesson, a suggestive or inspiring thought, be better placed? Even the most heedless or indifferent pa.s.ser-by, or the unwilling reader could not fail to see the instructive words when he cast his glance to learn the time.

The mottoes were frequently in Latin, a few in Greek or Hebrew; but the old English mottoes seem the most appealing.

ABUSE ME NOT I DO NO ILL I STAND TO SERVE THEE WITH GOOD WILL AS CAREFUL THEN BE SURE THOU BE TO SERVE THY G.o.d AS I SERVE THEE.

A CLOCK THE TIME MAY WRONGLY TELL I NEVER IF THE SUN s.h.i.+NE WELL.

AS A SHADOW SUCH IS LIFE.

I COUNT NONE BUT SUNNY HOURS.

BE THE DAY WEARY, BE THE DAY LONG SOON IT SHALL RING TO EVEN SONG.

Scriptural verses have ever been favorites, especially pa.s.sages from the Psalms: "Man is like a thing of nought, his time pa.s.seth away like a shadow." "My time is in Thy hand." "Put not off from day to day." "Oh, remember how short my time is." Some of the Latin mottoes are very beautiful.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Face of Dial at Sag Harbor, Long Island.]

Poets have written special verses for sun-dials. These n.o.ble lines are by Walter Savage Landor:--

IN HIS OWN IMAGE THE CREATOR MADE, HIS OWN PURE SUNBEAM QUICKENED THEE, O MAN!

THOU BREATHING DIAL! SINCE THE DAY BEGAN THE PRESENT HOUR WAS EVER MARKED WITH SHADE.

The motto, _Horas non numero nisi serenas_, in various forms and languages, has ever been a favorite. From an old alb.u.m I have received this poem written by Professor S. F. B. Morse; there is a note with it in Professor Morse's handwriting, saying he saw the motto on a sun-dial at Worms:--

TO A. G. E.

_Horas non numero nisi serenas._

The sun when it s.h.i.+nes in a clear cloudless sky Marks the time on my disk in figures of light; If clouds gather o'er me, unheeded they fly, I note not the hours except they be bright.

So when I review all the scenes that have past Between me and thee, be they dark, be they light, I forget what was dark, the light I hold fast; I note not the hours except they be bright.

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, Was.h.i.+ngton, March, 1845.

The sun-dial seems too cla.s.sic an object, and too serious a teacher, to bear a jesting motto. This sober pun was often seen:--

LIFE'S BUT A SHADOWE MAN'S BUT DUST THIS DYALL SAYES DY ALL WE MUST.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sun-dial in Garden of Grace Church Rectory, New York.]

The sun-dial does not lure to "idle dalliance." Nine-tenths of the sun-dial mottoes tersely warn you not to linger, to haste away, that time is fleeting, and your hours are numbered, and therefore to "be about your business." In a single moment and at a single glance the sun-dial has said its lesson, has told its absolute message, and there is no reason for you to gaze at it longer. Its very position, too, in the unshaded rays of the sun, does not invite you to long companions.h.i.+p, as do the shady lengths of a pergola, or a green orchard seat. Still, I would ever have a garden seat near a sun-dial, especially when it is a work of art to be studied, and with mottoes to be remembered. For even in hurrying America the sun-dial seems--like a guide-post--a half-human thing, for which we can feel an almost personal interest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fugio Bank-note.]

The figure of a sun-dial played an interesting part in the early history of the United States. In the first set of notes issued for currency by the American Congress was one for the value of one third of a dollar.