|
1550. |
UTINAM SAPERENT ET
NOVISSIMA PROVIDERENT. O that they were wise, that they
would consider their
latter end!(Deut. xxxii. 29.)
At Bellentre (Savoy). |
1551. |
UTINAM UTARIS NON
REDITURA. O that thou wouldst use the hour which will not
return.
With No. 1441 on a dial at
Crépy-en-Valois. |
1552. |
UTQUE REDIT VIAM
CONSTANS QUAM SUSPICIS
UMBRA FUGAX HOMINES
NON REDITURA SUMAS.
As he (the shadow) returneth ever upon his path at which
thou lookest up, so we
men are a fleeting shade which returneth not.
On a church at Pozzuoli. |
1553. |
VADAM ET REVERTAR.
HINC PROCUL UMBRA
(Picinelli).
I shall go and return. Hence afar shade.
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche." |
1554. |
VADENS ET NON REDIENS.
Going and not returning.
On an eighteenth century dial at Les
Pananches (Hautes Alpes). |
1555. |
VAE TERRAE ET MARI,
QUIA DESCENDIT DIABOLUS AD VOS, HABENS IRAM MAGNAM, SCIENS QUOD MODICUM
TEMPUS HABET.
APOC. C. XII. V. 12.
Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil is
come down unto
you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time.
The locality in which we find this
inscription, from the Vulgate translation and the Douay version, is
very
interesting. The dial is over an
archway which leads into the great convent square at the top of the
Sacro Monte
at Varallo; and through this opening, pilgrims from all parts of Italy
have
been wont to pass and repass, in order to pay their devotions at the
"Nuova
Gerusalemme del Sacro Monte di Varallo."
The Sacro Monte was founded in 1486 by
Bernardino Caimo, a Milanese nobleman, and it grew rapidly in riches
and
reputation; the visits paid to it by Archbishop Carlo Borromeo
contributing not
a little to its renown. Forty-six
chapels or oratories are dotted over the hill, in each of which there
is a
scene from the life of our Lord, represented by groups of full-sized
terra-cotta figures, clothed and painted to look like life, whilst the
walls
are covered with frescoes on which the Lombard artists exercised their
skill
for many years. Amongst these are
some of Gaudenzio Ferrari's finest works, but the screens and
partitions which
enforce the distance that "lends enchantment to the view" of the figure
groups
are by no means favourable to an examination of the frescoes. There
are, however, some very striking
groups, notwithstanding the
|
|
|
|
drawbacks of age,
eccentricity,
and excessive realism. Sometimes a
grand force and truth of expression are revealed, which must have made
the
sacred scene come home to the hearts of the mountaineers. The Sacro
Monte is crowned by the
convent, which overlooks the lovely Val Sesia, where the town of
Varallo lies
at the foor of its Mount Calvary.
The dial is large, painted on the
wall, and much ornamented. A kind
of eagle's head and wings rise above the plane, and something of the
same sort
appears below, the whole being inclosed in a narrow border. The width
of the dial exceeds that of
the arch beneath. The lines on the
face show the Italian hours only, from xii to xxiv. The tropics of
Cancer and Capricorn are described, and the
parallels of the sun's course at his entrance into the twelve signs of
the
zodiac, together with the characters of the signs. The motto is on a
spiral scroll on one side of the dial, and
a corresponding scroll on the other side, somewhat defaced, has an
imperfect
Latin inscription relating to the construction of the dial. This is
preceded by the figures -645,
which may be a partially obliterated date of 1645. |
1556. |
VANUM EST VOBIS ANTE
LUCEM SURGERE. It is vain for you to rise up early (Psalm
cxxvii.
2, Bible version).
At the Hameau des Arcisses, St. Chef
(Isère). |
1557. |
VASSENE 'L TEMPO, E L'
UOM NON SE N' AVVEDE. (Dante, "Purg." c. iv.) Time passes
on, and man perceives
it not.
Copied in 1866 from a house in the Via
Brondolo, Padua: so "Padova la dotta" may be said to maintain its
character
for learning, even in its dial, and to show its fidelity to the memory
of
Dante, who is reported to have lived here in 1306. Nevertheless this
dial is modern, it declines to the east,
and was painted on the wall just above the green shutters of the first
story
windows. The round-arched doorway
below, supported by a pillar on each side, opened into a carpenter's
shop; and though in a back street, there was
an air of departed grandeur about the building which suggested that its
owners
in the last century were people of greater consequence than the present
possessors. |
1558. |
VEDI L'ORA MIA, E L'ORA
TUA NON SAI? Dost thou see my
hour and not know thine own?
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche." |
1559. |
VEILLEZ SUR TOUTE,
CRAIGNEZ LA DERNIÈRE. Watch over every
(hour), fear the last.
On a scroll over a dial painted on the
wall of a house at Cannes; copied in 1860. |
|
|
1560. |
VELOCIUS SOLE TEMPUS.
Time flies quicker than the sun.
On a former Capuchin convent, now a
"filature," Orvieto. |
1561. |
VELOX UMBRA VITA
VELOCIOR. 1763. Swift is the shadow, swifter is life.
At Moulins (Tarn). The dial has been renewed since the
above date. |
1562. |
VELUT UMBRA FUGIT.
It
flieth like a shadow.
On the tower of the old church of St.
Léger de Guebwiller (Haute Rhin). Beside the dial the mitre and cross
of the Prince Abbot of Murbach, who
was formerly lord of the town, is painted, as are also the arms of the
town,
the "calotte plébéienne," and below, in German, is the republican
motto, "Live
free or die. 1791." |
1563. |
VELUT UNDA LATENS.
Like water it is hid.
On the presbytère, Arvieux (Hautes
Alpes), made by Zarbula. |
1564. |
VENI, VIDE, VALE.
Come, see, farewell.
At Ballakilley, Isle of Man. See No. 1122.
|
1565. |
VENIO UT FUR. I
come as a thief. Rev. xvi. 15.
Recorded by Mr. Howard Hopley, but no
place named. |
1566. |
VENITE ADOREMUS
DOMINUM.
27 Oct., 1863. O come, let us adore the lord.
This line, from the hymn "Adeste
fidelis," is on the church of St. Lattier (Isère). |
1567. |
VENTUS EST VITA HOMINIS.
The life of man is wind.
On a wind dial at the Certosa dei
Calci, Pisa. |
1568. |
VER NON SEMPER VIRET.
Spring is not always green.
At the Hameau des Glaises (Isère),
with "Picard fecit. An.
1783." This is the punning motto
of the Vernon family. |
1569. |
VERA INTUERE MEDIA
SEQUERE. 1855. Regard the
truth, follow the mean.
In the Rue de Rivoli, Paris. A mirror with Number XII. is held by a
figure. |
1570. |
VERA LOQUI AUT SILERE.
To speak the truth or to be silent.
On Highgate Grammar School; also at Cadenabbia. |
1571. |
VERITAS TEMPORIS FILIA.
Truth
is the daughter of time.
Formerly on the portal of Strasburg
Cathedral, dated 1669, with No. 1334. |
|
|
1572. |
VESTIGIA NULLA
RETRORSUM. There
are no steps backward.
On the mural dial in Essex Court, in
the Temple, and on a house at Brompton-on-Swale, Yorkshire.
The same phrase is found in Horace,
Epistles I. i. 74-75, in allusion to the fable of the fox invited into
the
lion's den, but astutely declining –
"Quia me vestigia terrent
Omnia te adversum spectantia, nulla retrorsum."
It is interesting to remember that
this motto was adopted by John Hampden, when he took up arms for the
Parliament. In "Amor Mundi,"
Christina Rossetti writes:
"Oh,
where are you going with your lovelocks flowing,
On
the west wind blowing, along this valley track?
The
down hill path is easy, come with me an' it please ye,
We
shall escape the up hill by never turning back.
* * * * *
Turn
again, O my sweetest, turn again, false and fleetest:
This
way whereof thou weetest I fear is
hell's own track;
Nay,
too steep for hill-mounting, nay, too late for cost counting:
This
downhill path is easy, but there's no turning back."
|
1573. |
VIA CRUCIS VIA LUCIS.
The way of
the cross is the way of light.
At Hurstpierpoint School there is a
recumbent cross dial with this inscription. The hours are indicated by
the position of the shadow on
different points of the cross. |
1574. |
VIA VITÆ. The
way of life.
Over a large square stone dial which
was placed between pinnacles against the south side of the tower of
Sheffield
Parish Church. The dial was
removed when a new clock was erected, but happily the vicar took care
to have
the older timekeeper restored to very nearly its former position. The
same inscription is on the
cross-dial at Elleslie, see No. 104; and
was formerly on Himbleton
Church, Worcestershire; it was
also on Cawthorne Church, Yorkshire, "S. H. fecit. 1798," but
was taken down at the partial rebuilding of the church in 1876. |
1575. |
VIDE, AUDI, TACE.
See,
hear, and be silent.
The position of this dial motto is not
identified. |
1576. |
VIDES HORAM ET NESCIS
FUTURUM. 1836. Thou seest the hour, and thou
knowest not the future.
On the wall of a house at Pra on the
Riviera, which forms part of what was once a little chapel. The belfry
tower is the oldest portion
of the building, constructed in the true Genoese style, with alternate
stripes
of black and white marble. All
other traces of its former use have now disappeared. The windows on
either side if the dial may usually be seen
festooned outside with clothes after a washing day, and the tenants are
poor
people. It stands in the middle of
the Piazza, which is the great rendezvous of all the inhabitants of
Pra. |
|
|
1577. |
VIDES HORAM NESCIS
HORAM. 1853. Thou seest the hour, thou
knowest not the hour.
Over the door of the church at
Alassio. |
1578. |
VIDES PRÆSENTEM FUTURUM
COGITA UTRINSECUS REGIMUR. Thou seest the present hour,
think on that
which cometh, from both sides are we ruled.
At the Cloître des Jacobins, Rue St.
Dominique, Paris. |
1579. |
VIDETE VIGILATE ET
ORATE NESCITIS ENIM DIEM NEQUE HORAM. Take heed, watch and
pray, for ye know
neither the day not the hour. – St. Mark, xiii. 33: St. Matt.
xxv. 13.
Over the south door of the Frauen
Kirche at Munich. The dial is very
large and handsome, painted on a ground of blue with gold stars. A
small seated figure in the centre of
a glory of golden rays holds the gnomon, and a flying angel on each
side bears
up the scroll on which the hours are marked. The dial seems to date
from the seventeenth century. |
1580. |
VIDI NIHIL PERMANERE
SUB SOLE. I saw there was
no profit under the sun. – Eccles. ii. II.
At Cividale, Friuli. |
1581. |
VIGET QUODCUMQUE VIDET.
What he looks upon flourishes.
At St. Jean de Grosbec, near Aups (Var). |
1582. |
VIGILA, ORAQUE; TEMPUS
FUGIT. Watch and pray; time flies.
On a buttress of the south transept of
the parish church, Leighton Buzzard. With others. See No. 101. |
1583. |
VIGILARE ET ORARE
TEMPUS DIRIGIT. To watch and pray, time ordains.
Over the porch of Harewood Church,
near Leeds. "Robert Smith fecit
1751." is engraved on the plate. |
1584. |
VIGILATE ET ORATE.
Watch and pray.
On Bridges' Almshouses, Thames Ditton, dated 1720 (the date of
the building) and 1746; below is
inscribed "Ex dono Henrici Bridges, |
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|
|
Gent." Also on Rothwell
Church, near Leeds,
with "I. Verity fecit 1821"; at
Reading, "1727 G.P."; at Warwick; and over the church porch at
Clovelly. There is a handsome dial
at Loch Inch Castle, Wigtonshire, on which this motto has been
inscribed. The graceful shaft and wide circular
base of four steps are old, but the upper part, which bears the motto,
and
which consists of a facetted block of stone, surmounted by a pyramidal
cap and
crowned by a ball, was added in 1889 by Lord Stair: his crest and
mottoes also appear upon it. |
1585. |
VIGILATE ET ORATE;
TEMPUS FUGIT. 1781 . Watch and
pray; time flies.
High up on the tower of Ellastone
Church, Derbyshire, are these mottoes. The dial is fixed over a small
built-up window, or what seems like it,
and below is the additional inscription, "Knowe thyselfe," which looks
of older date.
The same mottoes, with the date 1797,
are on a dial upon the Wesleyan Chapel at Thorpe Hesley, near
Rotherham; and likewise on the endowed school at
Brampton Bierlow, with the date 1807. |
1586. |
VIGILATE, NESCITIS QUA
HORA. Watch, ye know not what hour.
On the meridian dial at Nevers
Cathedral. |
1587. |
VIGILATE, QUIA NESCITIS
DIEM NEQUE HORAM. Watch, for ye know
neither the day nor the hour. St. Matt. xxv. 13.
In the Via San Vittore al Teatro,
Milan. The dial is 8 feet square,
the gnomon a circular disk standing out from the wall by means of three
iron
rods. The motto was also on a
western wall of the Capuchin convent at Velletri; and has been read at
the Grand Séminaire at Avignon, with
Nos. 75, 698.
It is also on a dial
in Mr. L. Evans' collection. See
No. 135. |
1588. |
VIGILATE, QUIA NESCITIS
HORAM. Watch, for ye know not the hour.
Seen in 1870 on a house at Arles (Pyrenées
Orientales), which looks into the small square where on fête days the
peasants
dance their national dance in the white caps and espartillos worn in
the
Eastern Pyrenees. This Arles must
not be confounded with Arles in Provence. It lies at the head of the
valley of the Tech, thirty-nine kilometres from Perpignan. The motto
has also been read near the
baths of Diocletian at Rome; and
at Cimiez. |
1589. |
VIRO SENSO SOULEOU IOU
MARQUI PAR SENS 'LOU. [SI (LE MOULIN) TOURNE SANS LE
SOLIEL, MOI JE NE MARQUE PAS SANS LUI.] If (the mill) turns
without the sun, I do not mark
time without it.
In the Provençal dialect on a flour
mill at St Jean de Bresque, near Fox Amphoule (Var). |
|
|
1590. |
VIRTUS AD ASTRA TENDIT,
IN MORTEM TIMOR. Courage strives towards the stars, fear to
death.
On the château of Oberhofen, Lake of Thun, Switzerland. |
1591. |
VITA FUGIT SICUT UMBRA.
Life flies as a shadow.
With date 1732 on a château at Sierre
(Canton Valais), now the Hôtel Bellevue; also at Place d'Armes,
Briançon (see No. 8). The same motto is
with Zarbula's initials on dials at
Vallouise, dated 1840 (see No. 133), and
at Abriès (Hautes Alpes). |
1592. |
VITA FUGIT VELUT UMBRA.
1790. Life flies as a shadow.
Formerly on the church at Sandal,
Yorkshire. The dial was removed
when the church was restored, but is soon to be replaced. |
1593. |
VITA HOMINIS SICUT
UMBRA FLUIT. The life of man flows away like a shadow.
At Courmayeur. |
1594. |
VITA HOMINIS UT UMBRA
FUGIT. The life of man flies
like the shadow.
Painted on the front of a house at
Mollia, Val Sesia. The dial looked
new in 1889. There is a second
dial on the same house, No. 380. |
1595. |
VITA QUASI UMBRA.
Life is a shadow.
At Sproughton Rectory, near Ipswich. |
1596. |
VITA SIC TRANSIT.
So life passes away.
On a square dial on Pickering Church,
Yorkshire, with "W. Putsey, delineavit, 1817." |
1597. |
VITA SIMILIS UMBRA.
Life is like a shadow.
At Paray-le-Monial, with others. |
1598. |
VITA TUA SEMPER INCERTA.
Thy life is ever uncertain.
Seen in the Chiostro del Noviziato,
St. Antonio, Padua, in 1888, but the words were nearly defaced. |
1599. |
VITA
UMBRA. 1867. Life is as shadow.
On Archbishop Abbot's Hospital,
Guildford, over the entrance gate. The building dates from 1619;
probably the date 1867 refers to the restoration of the dial. |
1600. |
VITAE FUGACES EXHIBET
HORAS. It shows the fleeting hours of life.
On the Maison des Ablets, near
Marseilles. |
1601. |
VIVE
HODIE
CRAS MINUS APTUS ERIT. |
|
|
|
Live to-day,
To-morrow will be less seasonable.
On two of three dials which adorn
three sides of the tower of the Lyme Cage, a building standing in Lyme
Park,
Cheshire. For the third motto see
No. 1087. Also compare Nos. 553, 1043.
|
1602. |
VIVE MEMOR LETHI, FUGIT
HORA. Live mindful of death, the hour flies.
On Makerston House, Kelso. The dial is a cubical block of stone
which projects from the wall with dial faces on three sides: two of
these are plain vertical dials,
but the third on which the motto is engraved, is a cup-shaped hollow.
It is seldom that this form is seen on
an attached dial. |
1603. |
VIVE MEMOR QUAM SIS
AEVI BREVIS. Live mindful how short-lived thou
art.
Outside the terrace walk at Wentworth
Woodhouse, Yorkshire, the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam, K.G., dated 1767;
also on a glasshouse in the garden,
dated 1766. The maker's name,
"John Metcalfe," appears on both dials. The motto, which is taken from
Horace, Sat. ii. 6, 97, is on the church
at Goosnargh, Lancashire, with "C.
Swainson, M.A., Minister of Goosnargh," and "H. Porter of Westfield,
delin.
& sculp., 1748."
With the word
"aevi" omitted, it is on a dial at Wigmore Grange, Herefordshire, on
which No. 127 is also inscribed. |
1604.
La Ferté-Bernard (72)
|
VIVENS MORTALIS.
He that
lives is mortal.
On the church at La Ferté Bernard,
written over an earlier motto: "Fugit umbra." |
1605. |
VIVERE CRUX DOCEAT, TE
MONET HORA MORI. Let the cross teach thee to live, the hour
warneth thee
of death.
On a house at Compiègne, in 1861; near a Calvary. |
1606. |
VIVERE DISCE. |
COGITA MORI. |
Learn how to live. |
Think how to die. |
Apord (?) Johannes
abio Austriaco |
Maximiliani
( ) us mai ( ) |
Renovatum
A.MDLXIII et MDCLIII
G. V. MDCXCI Archical. |
|
|
|
|
On a large dial painted upon
the wall
of St. Lorenzkirche, Nuremberg, over the south door. Above the dial are
ten lines in Latin explaining how the
dial may be read, according to the different colours in which the lines
are
marked. This inscription is signed
"Sebast. Sperantius, faciebat, Anno MDIII." The dial shows the
Italian, as well as the ordinary hours, the signs of the zodiac, etc.
Two of the lines above the word
"renovatum" are nearly illegible. Johannes Stabius was a noted
mathematician of the sixteenth century, and
a writer on gnomonics, but his works have never been printed. |
1607. |
VIVI BREV'ORE, INDI A
SERRAR VAI GLI OCCHI. Live thy
short hour then close thine eye for aye.
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche." |
1608. |
VIVIT MEMORIA ET FUGIT
HORA. Memory lives and the hour flies.
Seen on a house at Monthey (Canton du
Valais), in 1863.
"When Time who steals our years away
Shall steal our pleasures too,
The memory of the past will stay
And half our joys renew.
"Then talk no more of future gloom,
Our joys shall always last;
For hope shall brighten days to come,
And memory gild the past!" T.
MOORE.
|
1609. |
VIVIT
RELIGIO. BENEDICAMUS DOMINO.
Chapoullier fecit. 1824.
The faith liveth. Praise we the Lord.
|
|
At St. Hilaire du Rosier
(Isère). |
1610. |
VIVITE, AIT, FUGIO.
Live
ye, it says: I fly.
On a dial over the porch of Wrenbury
Hall, near Nantwich. This
inscription is thus alluded to in a letter from Bishop Atterbury to
Pope, dated
Bromley, May 25th, 1712: "You know
the motto of my sun-dial, Vivite, ait,
fugio. I will, as far as I am
able, follow its advice, and cut off all unnecessary avocations and
amusements." In the same
correspondence of the Bishop the following epigram occurs:
"Vivite,
ait, fugio.
Labentem
tacito quisquis pede conspicis umbram,
Si
sapis, haec audis: 'Vivite, nam fugio.'
Utilis
est oculis, nec inutilis auribus umbra;
Dum
Tacet, exclamat, 'Vivite, nam fugio.'"
Whoso on hushed foot mark'st the gliding
shade,
If
wise thou hearest, "Live ye, for I fly."
To
eyes and ears the shallow lends its aid,
Silently
crying, "Live ye, for I fly."
|
|
|
|
The dial was probably a
mural one on the ancient moated palace of the Bishops of Rochester, at
Bromley,
which was pulled down by Bishop Thomas in 1774. The building which he
substituted has ceased to be an episcopal
residence. VIVITE, FUGIO, Live ye, I fly, with
the date 1774, is
on the steeple of St. Cuthbert's, commonly called the West Kirk,
Edinburgh. VIVITE, ECCE FUGIO, Live ye, behold I fly!
1712, is on the church of Kirkby
Overblow, Yorkshire. |
1611. |
VIVO TRA VITI MA IL MIO
CORE INGOMBRA
TEMA DI SI SPARIR COME QUEST' OMBRA.
Midst vines I dwell, and yet my heart
o'erweighed,
Fears
that it too may vanish like this shade.
In the sacristy of the church of the
Frari at Venice there is an old clock, having a wooden frame
elaborately carved
with figures and devices. One of
these represents a man in armour standing amidst vines, and holding a
sun-dial,
above which the foregoing motto is inscribed. The four corners of the
clock represent Childhood, Youth,
Manhood, and Old Age, together with the Four Seasons, and the four
winds or
cardinal points. The setting sun,
and waning moon, a skeleton, an owl, and various other emblems are also
represented, and an explanation of the carving written on parchment is
affixed
to the door. The frame was carved
out of a single piece of cypress wood, by Francesco Pianta, A.D.
1500. |
1612. |
VIX ORIMUR ET
OCCIDIMUS. Scarce do we arise, and we have set.
Formerly in a court at St. Géneviève,
Paris. |
1613. |
VOICI VOTRE HEURE.
Behold
your hour.
Read near Geneva; and at Les Hières
(Haute Alpes). |
1614. |
VOLA L'ORA ED IL TEMPO
ANCORA. The hour flies and time yet more.
At Castel Nuovo, near Bormida. |
1615. |
VOLANO L'ORE, I GIORNI,
GL'ANNI, E I MESI (Petrarch).
Hours, days, months, years,
all fly.
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche." |
1616. |
VOLAT IRREPARABILE TEMPUS
DEMUM SUB SOLE NIHIL.
Time
flies, never to be retrieved; at
length there will be nothing beneath the sun.
At La Buiserate (Isère). The first line was formerly at St.
Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna; and
also on an engraving of a sun-dial in "Gnomonice de Solariis," 1572, by
B. Schultz, with other
mottoes. |
|
|
1617. |
VOLAT
IRREVOCABILIS HORA. The hour flies never to be recalled.
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche." The first two words of this motto are
on a house at Sierre. |
1618. |
VOLAT SINE MORA.
It flies without delay.
In the Cloister of the Franciscan
convent at Cimiez, with other mottoes. See No. 1111.
|
1619. |
VOLAT TEMPUS. Time
Flies.
OH, EARLY PASSENGER, LOOK UP, BE WISE,
AND THINK HOW NIGHT AND DAY TIME EVER FLIES.
On the east dial of the pillar at
Tytherton Kellaways, Wiltshire. This pillar, surmounted by a block of
stone bearing dials on three of
its faces, stands on the banks of the Avon, beside a bridge over which
runs the
road from Chippenham to Tytherton. It was erected in 1698 by the
trustees of Maud Heath's Causeway, and
each dial bore originally a Latin motto only; but about 1828 the Rev.
William Lisle Bowles, who was rector
of the adjoining parish of Bremhill, obtained leave to engrave a
poetical
paraphrase on each face, as he doubted the power of the ordinary
passers-by to
understand the mottoes as they stood. His couplets are engraved in
small letters below each dial, the Latin
mottoes being above. For the
mottoes on the south and west faces see Nos. 250,
1077.
|
1620. |
VOLUMUS A TE SIGNUM
VIDERE. We would see a sign from Thee. (St. Matt. xii.
38).
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche." |
1621. |
VOLVITUR
IN PUNCTO.
PUNTOQUE RESOLVITUR.
17 Aetas 44.
(Time) passes in a moment,
And
in a moment it is gone. |
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This
motto, with its inconsistent spelling, is on a wooden dial-plate bought
by
Charles T. Gatty at a sale at Sotheby's. "Bruyère fecit" is on the
plate. |
1622. |
VOS UMBRA ME LUMEN
REGIT. The
light rules me, the shadow you.
On an eighteeth century dial on an old
hospice at Doussard (Savoy). VOS UMBRA REGIT, SOL ME, The
shadow rules you, the sun me,
was once on the Bastille; but
after the 14th July, 1789, both sun and shadow ceased to rule over the
terrible
building. |
1623. |
VOULEZ-VOUS ÊTRE
HEUREUX, RESTEZ EN VOS DEMEURES,
ET N'ALLEZ PAS CHERCHER MIDI À QUATORZE HEURES. |
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If ye would happy be,
Remain content
at home:
Nor
seek the noonday sun
When two
o'clock is come. |
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It seems doubtful whether
these lines,
or the quatrain quoted with No. 537,
formed the motto improvised by Voltaire
for the sun-dial at La Ferté sous Jouarre, which was still in existence
at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. The explanation of the phrase
"chercher midi à quatorze heures" is given
under No. 537. |
1624. |
VOVS QUI PASSÉ SOVVENÉ
VOVS AN PASSANT QVE TOVT PASSE COMME JE PASSE. 1773. (VOUS QUI PASSEZ
SOUVENEZ VOUS EN PASSANT QUE TOUT PASSE COMME JE PASSE.)
You who pass by
remember in passing that all passes as I pass.
On a vertical dial which shows the
hours from XII to VI, at Villard St. Pancrace (Hautes Alpes). |
1625. |
VOYAGEUR, HÂTE TOI, IL
EST PLUS TARD QUE TU NE PENSES. Traveller, make haste, it
is later than thou dost
think.
At Noyarey (Isère). |
1626. |
VULNERANT OMNES, ULTIMA
NECAT. All (hours) wound, the last kills.
On the church tower of Urrugne (Basses Pyrenées). Urrugne is on the
great western road
leading from France into Spain, and has the wild irregular ridges of
the
Spanish mountains in view. The
dark Spanish-looking church has associations with the Peninsular war.
The "Subaltern" gives an account of a
night spent in it after the assault and capture of the village on the
previous
day, in November, 1813, when he and his men were cantoned in the
church, where
the thick walls were proof against the field artillery of the French.
This village formed part of Marshal
Soult's famous position in front of St. Jean de Luz. The motto is also
on the church at Ciboure in the same
neighbourhood; on a house at
Négrepélisse; at the Capuchin
convent at Cimiez, dated 1789; and, with slight variations, on several
dials in Dauphiné. It has been read on the Duomo at
Grosseto; at Crespano in Italy; and also on the tower of the Hôtel de
Ville at Middleburg, Holland. |
1627. |
WACHET; DENN IHR WISSET
NICHT, UM WELCHE STUNDE EUER HERR KOMMEN WIRD.
Watch,
for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. – St. Matt. xxiv.
42.
At Erstfelden, near Altdorf, Canton
Uri, there was in 1863 a dial on the wall of the little village church.
It was circular, with the face of the
sun at the top, out of which came the gnomon. A full-length skeleton
was painted on each side of the dial,
like the supporter to an heraldic shield, and appeared to hold it up.
Beneath were cross bones |
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and some words which had
become
defaced and illegible. The motto
was above the dial. |
1628. |
WAN ICH BIN EIN GESCHENCKH VOL,
SO ZAIG ICH DI STUNDT GER WOL;
BIN ICH ABER LEHR,
SO DIE ALS NIT MER.
When I am full,
I
show the hour;
But
when I am empty,
I
do so no more.
Engraved on the outside of a
goblet-shaped dial in the Nuremberg Museum; made of silver or of copper
gilt. The gnomon is attached to
the edge of the brim, and its shadow falls upon the numerals which are
within
the cup. The name of the maker,
"Marcus Purman, Monach: fecit," and the date 1590, also appear on the
dial. |
1629. |
WASTE NO TIME.
This motto appears twice on a dial at
the House of Mercy, Horbury, near Wakefield, which was brought there
from
Thornhill Churchyard. It is a
cross dial, the gnomon being in the shape of a Greek cross, round the
base of
which this motto and two others (see Nos. 278,
921) are inscribed. |
1630. |
WATCH. St.
Mark, xiii. 37.
Inscribed by the Rev. E. Z. Lyttel on
his dial at Woodville, Burton-on-Trent. |
1631. |
WATCH AND PRAY.
1735.
On the south wall of Alwalton Church,
Huntingdonshire; and on the church
porch of Terrington St. Clement, Norfolk, with the names of the
churchwardens,
"Mudd and Dewson," but no date. It
is also on Laithkirk Church, Yorkshire. It is with No. 1419 on the Church at Isleworth, which dates
from
1705; the plate is surmounted by a
figure of Time with his scythe, and has the hours marked for several
distant
places, such as Jerusalem, Moscow, etc. |
1632. |
WATCH AND PRAY
TIME FLIES AWAY.
Over the door of a shop at Leighton
Buzzard. The gnomon is surrounded
with rays, and below is a small dim landscape view with trees and a
windmill. Also on a handsome dial
erected in 1889 on the south wall of the western tower of St. Mary's
Church,
Colebrook, Devon. The dial was the
gift of Mr. Charles Turner, of Sydenham, and was designed and executed
by Mr.
Harry Hems. Colebrook Church dates
from the fifteenth century, and contains a mediæval fireplace in the
north
wall, which is almost unique; and some very quaint epitaphs |
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may be read
on the monuments. One of these
alludes to the art of wrestling, which was much practiced in the
neighbourhood:
"About
this instant rose a strife
Betwixt the claymers
Death and Life;
'Shee's
mine,' said Death, saith Life, 'Shee's mine,
I have
possession – shee's not thine.'
But
Death the stronger and more bold –
Prevayled, and Life gave up her hold.
God
parts the strife, takes her from Death againe,
And
gives her Life, forever to remaine."
In the churchyard
Abraham Cann, a well-known Devonshire wrestler, is buried. |
1633. |
WATCH AND PRAY
TIME HASTES AWAY.
Once a cottage at
Barton, near Darlington; also on the church porch of
Lanteglos-by-Fowey,
Cornwall; and on a horizontal dial in the churchyard of Westward,
Cumberland. |
1634. |
WATCH AND PRAY
TIME HASTENS AWAY;
WHEN TIME IS DONE
ETERNITY COMES ON.
On a horizontal
dial in Mottram Churchyard, Cheshire; with the names of Joshua Andrews
and James Goddard, churchwardens, 1811. |
1635. |
WATCH AND PRAY
TIME STEALS AWAY.
Jno Berry fecit 1757.
On St. Peter's
Church, Tavistock, Devon, over the south-west porch. |
1636. |
WATCH AND PRAY.
TYME IS SHORT.
"A stone of red
sandstone is built into the wall at the western door of Yarrow Kirk,
having on
it a sun-dial with the above motto. This dial belongs to Deuchar Kirk,
which Yarrow superseded, taking its
place as well as that of the chapel at Kirkhope, and also of the mother
church
of St. Mary of the Lowes: the
church which "feudal strife laid low," ("Report of the Meetings of the
Berwickshire Naturalists' Club," 1883.) The initials I. MF.
M. and date 1640 also appear, and the maker's initials in a
monogram, "R. M. fecit." The
Report says that Yarrow Church was built in 1640. |
1637. |
WATCH FOR YE KNO NOT
THE HOVRE. 1649.
On a stone with
three faces, which was formerly attached to the wall of the south-west
corner
of St. Anne's Court, Dunbar. Two
of the faces bore metal dial-plates, and the motto and date were carved
on |
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the third
face. Miss Ritchie, of Barnlea,
Dunbar, who has kindly contributed this motto, describes St. Anne's
Court as a
quaint mansion with two courtyards in front, and the side of one of
these was
formed by an old building supposed to have been part of the church of
St.
Anne's, built upon Dunbar Sands. According to the ancient thyme:
"St.
Abb, St. Helen, and St. Bees
They
a' built kirks which to be nearest the sea,
St.
Abb's upon the Nabs, St. Helen's on the Lea;
St.
Ann's upon Dunbar Sands, stands nearest to the sea!"
The church
has long ceased to be used for worship; the sea has made such inroads
on the
coast that it now washes the building at high tides in spite of a stone
bulwark. There is a tradition that
the dial was originally on the church, and was removed from thence to
the
Court, when the former was dismantled. Miss Ritchie's grandfather used
to live at the Court, and she recollects
when there was an old pulpit in the cellar. The property has now passed
from her family into other
hands, and the dial has been taken by her to Barnlea.
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1638. |
WATCH,
FOR YE KNOW NOT THE HOUR.
Inscribed 1862. M.G. |
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The fine old
village church at Ecclesfield, Yorkshire, was externally rebuilt, circa
1470. In the middle of the churchyard, on the south
side, stands
the broken shaft of a cross. Two
stone steps form the pedestal which supports it, and it is surmounted
by a
small copper dial. On the upper
step, around the shaft, the late Mrs. Alfred Gatty, the first compiler
of this
collection, had the above engraved in 1862. On the dial-plate the name
of the maker has been traced in
faint letters, "Andrewes, Sheffield." A correspondent has kindly
forwarded the following information:
"In the year
1782, a watch-maker of the name Nathan Andrewes, who carried on
business in
High Street (as is said), was enticed by a good-for-nothing fellow
named Frank
Fearn, to walk to Manchester with him there to dispose of some of his
wares;
and when passing over the edge of Loxley Common, Andrewes was murdered
and
robbed by his treacherous companion. When interrogated as to his
conduct, the latter equivocated so that he
was apprehended, and committed to take his trial at the York Assizes.
Here, when the Judges came round, he |
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was
convicted of murder, and sentenced to be hanged. Hanged he accordingly
was; and his body was brought back to
the place where the murder was committed, and there hung in chains upon
a
gibbet.
"The manufacture
of Dials was a branch of the business of a watch-maker in those times,
when
sun-dials were more common than they are now. And it appears highly
probable that the maker of the dial in
question was the Nathan Andrewes who was murdered by Fearn. The
murderer's body swung upon that
gibbet until the bleak winds and storms that beat over Loxley Edge had
destroyed every vestige of what once had been Frank Fearn. The gibbet
post was at length removed,
and placed across the Loxley stream, where for many years it served as
a
natural bridge for grinders employed in the wheels on the Loxley. I
remember as a boy cutting a chip from
the stump of the gibbet which remained in the ground; and I kept it for
some
time as a relic of the weird memorial. Whether any portion of the
gibbet still remains, I know not." –
"AUTOLYCUS."
The same motto is
on a dial on St. Margaret's Church, Ormsby, Norfolk. |
1639. |
WATCH WEEL.
This, which was
the heraldic motto of Sir Walter Scott, is inscribed on what was once a
very
graceful cubical dial, having four faces to the different points of the
compass, standing on a small column, and surmounted by a pyramid and
ball. It was at one time placed in a little
shrubbery near the arch of the ruined abbey of Dryburgh, under which
lie the
mortal remains of the great romance writer, and those of Lady Scott. It
is supposed that the date of the
dial is 1640. The Haliburton arms
and the initials "T. H." are carved on the eastern slope of the dial
stone, and
a corresponding shield with "I. C." on the other. At the back is the
motto Fiducia
constante.
A tree which was
blown down some years ago unfortunately fell upon the dial stone,
breaking the
piece which supported the ball at the top. It has never been repaired,
and the dial block now lies at
the foot of its pillar, and amongst other stones collected from the
ruins. The gnomons are gone, but the motto and
hour lines can still be traced.
Dryburgh Abbey
belonged to the Haliburton family before it came into the possession of
the
Earls of Buchan, and Robert Haliburton, |
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grand-uncle
of Sir Walter Scott, ad settled it by will upon the poet's father, as
heir in
the maternal line. But this
ancient patrimony was lost to the Scotts through Mr. Haliburton's
commercial
misadventures; "and thus," wrote Sir Walter, in his brief
autobiography, "we
have nothing left of Dryburgh, although my father's maternal
inheritance, but
the right of stretching our bones where mine may perhaps be laid ere
any eye
but my own glances over these pages."
The collector
(M.G.) sketched the dial on the 10th August, 1839, and thus wrote:
"'Watch weel,' lest thieves should enter while
ye sleep –
But
pray to God His favour to obtain:
Except
the Lord Himself the city keep,
The
careful watchman waketh but in vain."
|
1640. |
WE ARE THE HOURS ON THE
PILLAR YOU SEE,
MARKED BY THE SHADOWS THAT EVER FLEE,
AND MOVE WITH THE SUN IN ITS
COURSE ON HIGH,
NOTING THE TIME PASSING
SWIFTLY BY.
SISTERS ARE WE, THEN WHY ARE WE CLAD
IN JOYFUL ROBES, AND ROBES THAT ARE SAD?
WE WHO HAVE RAYS FROM THE SUN AT MORN
ARE SERVANTS TO THOSE IN THE EAST WHO ARE BORN,
WHO LIVE IN THOSE REGIONS FAR REMOTE,
WHERE THE MEDES AND THE PERSIANS ROUND BABYLON FOUGHT.
WE WHOSE ROBES ARE RED AND BRIGHT
HAVE OUR NAMES FROM THE SUN'S RETREATING LIGHT.
ITALIANS, BOHEMIANS ALL ARE WE,
AND THE BRIGHT RED TINTS OF THE WEST YOU SEE.
WE WHO ARE DARK AND DUSKY IN HUE,
MARK OUT THE HOURS ON THE ZODIAC BLUE,
TO THE PEOPLE OF FRANCE, AND THE PEOPLE OF SPAIN,
WHO LIVE BY THE SIDE OF THE WELTERING MAIN.
These lines are the translation of a
Latin inscription (which we have been unable to obtain) on an obelisk
dial
erected in 1630 in Drummond Castle Gardens by the second Earl of Perth.
The shaft is covered with dial hollows
of various forms, the centre and wider portion with plane dials. The
architect, John Mylne, the third of
the name, was the maker. The above
rendering of the inscription is by Dr. William Barrack, Rector of
Dollar
Academy, near Stirling. There are
a few more lines at the base of the pedestal, but these are quite
illegible. |
1641. |
WE MAY NOT STAY. 1782.
Over the porch of Middleton Church,
near Pickering. |
1642. |
WE MUST AND SHALL ERE
LONG DYALL.
On a brass dial-plate formerly
belonging to the Rev. Vernon Yonge, |
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and given by him to be placed
in the garden of Blackden House, near Crewe, from whence it has
unfortunately
disappeared. It bore the date
1647, and at the four corners were quarterings of arms belonging to the
Yonges
of Charnes, Staffordshire, and the family motto, Et servata fides
perfectus amorque ditabunt. |
1643. |
WE MUST DIE ALL.
On the church porch, Writhlington,
Somerset; also on the tower of Redbourne co. Lincoln, with the last two
words
transposed, and the date 1780. "We
must — " may be seen in the engraving of
Hogarth's picture of "Chairing the Member," substituted for the motto
in the
painting, "Pulvis et umbra sumus." The engraver thought he knew better
than the artist what was fitting. |
1644. |
WE RESEMBLE THE SHADOW.
1812.
On a large dial of elaborate
workmanship, over the porch of Wragby Church, Yorkshire. The church
stands within the walls of
Nostell Park, near the site of the Priory. |
1645. |
WE SHALL — (scil.
Dial, i.e.,die-all).
This somewhat cumbrous joke is not
uncommon. It may be read in Buxted
Churchyard, Sussex, where it is inscribed on an old and rather
elaborately
engraved horizontal dial dated 1693. It was until 1858 on a dial over
the south porch of Bromsgrove Church,
Worcestershire, the inscription being in Old English characters. The
dial was removed when the church
was "restored." Wee shall – has been read on a house at Easton,
near Stamford; and at Kedleston, in
Derbyshire.
An old story connected with this
quaint conceit is, that a certain pious cleric, who had seen the
inscription
"We must" on a sun-dial, and ascertained how the "die all" to conclude
the
sentence was obtained, ordered the words "we must" to be inscribed on
the clock
face of his church!
It is a very old witticism. Sylvanus Morgan finishes his work,
"Horologiographia Optica," published in
1652, with these words: "So that as I began with the Diall of Life, So
we shall
Dye all. For Mors ultima linea." |
1646. |
WE SHALL DIE ALL.
1724.
On St. Eval Church, Cornwall; also
over the door of Mr. Emmerson's house, Walgrave, Northamptonshire, the
dial
being probably of the last century. It was formerly on a building in
the Potter Row, Edinburgh, known as the
"General's entry." See Sir D.
Wilson's "Memorials of Edinburgh," chap. ii., p. 125. |
1647. |
WE SPEND OUR YEARS AS A
TALE THAT IS TOLD. Ps. xc. 9.
This text with No. 528, is cut on a
dial column nearly 10 feet high, which was erected in 1840 in the
garden at
Bredisholm, near |
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Glasgow. It is described by
Mr. Ross as "a
massive horizontal dial supporting an octagonal column, from which
there juts
out in two tiers a series of radiating wings. These wings are carved
and sliced into innumerable figures
and shapes,... There are dials
on each corner of the flat table, three of them carved in the stone,
and the
fourth consisting of a metal plate. There are other contrivances on the
table, some of which it is believed
served the purpose of a rain-gauge. The maker's name, Alexander Fraser,
is below. The whole column is a very remarkable work for a dialler of
the nineteenth century to have achieved, when the art of carving
pillars of
stone into all manner of hollows and planes and drawing dials on every
vacant
space seemed almost lost. Alexander Fraser was a working mason living
in the neighbourhood of
Bredisholm, a builder of cottages, an unsuccessful gardener, a
stone-cutter who
had constant employment in cutting tombstones, and a diligent
dial-maker. "Whatever his occupation for the time
may have been, he, it appears, always had a dial on hand. He died about
1870." ("Castellated and Domestic Architecture
of Scotland," vol. v., page 417.) |
1648. |
WELCOME, CHAPMEN.
On a dial in a market-place. Given in Leadbetter's "Mechanick
Dialling," 1756. |
1649. |
WELL-ARRANGED TIME IS
THE SUREST SIGN OF A WELL-ARRANGED MIND.
On Prince Albert Victor's dial in the
Edinburgh Exhibition, 1886. See
No. 1306. |
1650. |
WEN DAS SONNENS
STÖCKLEIN RECHT SOL WEISEN
SO RICHT ES NICHT NAHE BEY EISSEN.
The style will not point right, I fear,
Should
there be any iron near.
On a cube-shaped portarium in the
British Museum. Also in Nuremberg
Museum. See No. 182. |
1651. |
WENN GOTT WIL, SO IST
DAS RECHT ZIL.
When God so wills, that is the rightful
term.
On an ivory compass dial made by Hans
Ducher, 1578, belonging to Mr. L. Evans. See No. 182. |
1652. |
WHAT I SAY UNTO YOU I
SAY UNTO ALL, WATCH.
From St. Mark, xiii. 37, and inscribed
on a horizontal dial in the grounds of Derryquin Castle, co. Kerry. The
pillar which supports it has at one
time formed the gnomon to a dial traced on the circular stone slab on
which it
stands, but this is now overgrown with grass. The maker's |
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name, "John Milne, Kenmare,"
is
on the plate, and it was probably put up about 1870. |
1653. |
WHATSOEVER DOTH MAKE
MANIFEST IS LIGHT. (Eph. v. 13.)
In Mr. Fryer's garden, Elm Hirst,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, on a modern dial. The hour is shown by a small disc
of light, "the sun's image brought to
a focus by means of a lens. Hence
the appropriateness of the motto." |
1654. |
WHEN JOSHUA FOUGHT
AGAINST HIS ENEMIES FORCE
BRIGHT SOL AND LUNA SUDDEN STOPT THEIR COURSE,
AND JAEL'S FEMALE STRENGTH HAD SIS'RA FOUND
THE STARS ASSISTED IN HIS FATAL WOUND,
AND HEZEKIAH'S SUIT FOR LIFE WAS DONE
THEN TEN DEGREES QUITE BACKWARD WENT THE SUN.
On a pedestal dial in the garden at
The Isle, Shrewsbury. It is
thought to have been erected by the great-grandfather of the present
owner,
Humphrey Sandford, Esq., who was born 1718, and died 1791. The dial is
shown in a map of the
property made in 1745. |
1655. |
WHEN O'ER THE DIAL
GLIDES A SHADE, REDEEM
THE HOUR, FOR LO! IT PASSES LIKE A DREAM;
BUT WHEN 'TIS ALL A BLANK, WE MOURN THE LOSS
OF HOURS UNBLESSED BY SHADOWS FROM THE CROSS.
At Kempstone Hall, Notts, on a dial in
the garden. The gnomon is in the
form of a cross. The lines are
evidently copied from Mr. Essington's motto (see No. 474) with slight verbal
alterations. |
1656. |
WHEN THOU DOST LOOK
UPON MY FACE,
TO LEARN THE TIME OF DAY;
THINK HOW MY SHADOW KEEPS ITS PACE,
AS THY LIFE FLIES AWAY.
TAKE, MORTAL, THIS ADVICE FROM ME
AND SO RESOLVE TO SPEND
THY LIFE ON EARTH, THAT HEAVEN SHALL BE
THY HOME WHEN TIME SHALL END.
Suggested by Mr Harrison, Sheffield,
as an inscription for a stone dial 18 inches square, dated 1748, which
he
bought and placed in Garden Plot 59, Totley Brook Estate, Abbeydale,
Sheffield, in 1877. |
1657. |
WHERE NOW YOU STAND THE
TIME TO SPY
WHO KNOWS HOW SOON YOU THERE MAY LIE,
BOTH TIME AND PLACE ARE MONITORY
THAT YOU AND THEY ARE TRANSITORY.
HEAVEN IS OUR TEMPLE, DEATH'S THE PORCH,
CHRIST IS THE WAY, HIS WORD OUR TORCH, |
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HERE LET US WALK WHILE
WE HAVE LIGHT,
TOO LATE BEGINS OUR WORK AT NIGHT.
Formerly at Hadleigh, Suffolk, with
Nos. 740, 1393.
|
1658. |
WHILE WE HAVE TIME
LET US DO GOOD UNTO ALL MEN. 1868.
From Gal. vi. 10. On the south side of the chancel,
Stamfordham Church, Northumberland. |
1659. |
WHILE YOU HAVE TIME DO GOOD.
On a vertical dial made by Mr. E. C.
Middleton, and placed in 1897 on his house in Stanmore Road,
Birmingham. It shows the signs of the zodiac and
the points of the compass as well as the hours, and has created great
interest
and some wonder amongst the passers-by. Some have conjectured that it
had
something to do with the telegraph; and others that it was "some sort
of an
incubator!" |
1660. |
WHILST PHOEBUS ON ME SHINES
THEN VIEW MY SHADES AND LINES.
On the Manx dial now at Barnes Lodge,
King's Langley, see No. 161. |
1661. |
WHO DULY WEIGHS THE HOURS.
At Breage in Cornwall, where Mrs.
Godolphin was buried. This eminent
lady, whose life was written by John Evelyn, one of her most intimate
friends,
was a daughter of Colonel Blagge, and born in 1652. She became a maid
of honour to Queen Catherine at the court
of Charles II., and, in 1675, married Sidney, third son of Sir Francis
Godolphin. What especially
distinguished her was her pious, modest, and discreet character, whilst
living
at a court where Christian virtues were strange. She died in 1678, and
was buried at Breage, where the
Godolphin family had been settled before the Conquest. Her husband was
created Earl of
Godolphin, and through their great grand-daughter they were ancestors
of the
Duke of Leeds. |
1662. |
WITH LOVELY PROSPECT
AND IN BALMY AIR,
I COUNT ALONE THE FLEETING MOMENTS FAIR;
ALAS! WHATEVER FLOURISHETH MUST FADE;
'TIS BRIGHTEST SUNSHINE MARKS MY DEEPEST SHADE.
Engraved on a stone beneath a dial
which stands in a beautiful walk at Pine Banks Tower,
Thorpe-next-Norwich. It was erected by J. O. Howard Taylor, Esq., in
memory of his
wife. |
1663. |
WITH WARNING HAND I
MARK TIME'S RAPID FLIGHT
FROM LIFE'S GLAD MORNING TO ITS SOLEMN NIGHT;
YET, THROUGH THE DEAR GOD'S LOVE, I ALSO SHOW
THERE'S LIGHT ABOVE ME BY THE SHADE BELOW.
Inscription on a sun-dial for Dr.
Henry J. Bowditch, written by |
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John Greenleaf Whittier and
published in the complete edition of his poems. |
1664. |
WO UNTO US! FOR THE DAY
GOETH AWAY, FOR
THE SHADOWS OF THE EVENING ARE STRETCHED OUT.
Jer. vi. 4.
HE MADE THE ☽
AND THE ☀ ☀ ☀ ALSO.
THIS IS THE NIGHT ☽ AND THE DARKNESS ALSO
17 I M. I C 67
These lines are on the sides and back
of a cube of stone, the fourth face of which has a dial. It was
formerly at Clackmarras,
Morayshire, and is now in the collection of Mr. Muil, Strypes, near
Elgin. The dial is of eighteenth century make.
"How far, how far, O sweet,
The grass beneath our feet
Lies in the even-glow!
Now, on the forward way,
Let us fold hands and pray;
Alas, Time stays, – we go!"
– AUSTIN DOBSON.
|
1665. |
WORK TO-DAY, AND PLAY
TO-MORROW.
On Turner's Hospital, at Kirkleatham, near Redcar, Yorkshire, with No. 287. |
1666. |
WORK WHILE IT IS DAY.
Lat. 53' 28'.
These words from St. John, ix. 4, form
the motto on a dial placed by the late J. Sidebotham, Esq., on the
south porch
of Bredbury Church, Cheshire.
"Swift fly the hours and brief the time
For action or repose; –
Fast flits this scene of woe and crime,
And soon the whole shall close.
The evening shadows deeper fall,
The daylight dies away,
Wake, slumberer, at the Master's call,
And work while it is day!"
H.
F. LYTE.
|
1667. |
YE KNOW NOT THE HOUR.
On the parish church, Newlyn, near,
Newquay, Cornwall. The present
dial is said to have been put up prior to 1846, to replace one of blue
slate
which bore the same motto, but was broken. |
1668. |
YET A LITTLE WHILE IS
THE LIGHT WITH YOU:
WALK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. (St. John, xii. 35.)
M. C. 1671
On an old school-house at Aynho,
Northants, with No. 284.
|
1669. |
YOU HAVE
SEEN ME RISE
BUT MAY NOT SEE ME SET. |
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|
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On a horizontal dial in St.
John's
Churchyard, Margate. No. 14 is
inscribed on the pedestal below. |
1670. |
YOU MAY
WASTE BUT CANNOT STOP ME.
Alexr Rae fecit. |
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On a wooden dial on the church
of King
Charles the Martyr, Tunbridge Wells, often spoken of as the "Old
Chapel." It was the first church in Tunbridge
Wells, built as a chapel-of-ease to Tonbridge between 1678-84, was not
consecrated till 1887, and for
a century and a half was the only church in the place. In 1684 it was
described as a
"commodious, beautiful, and elegant structure," and as a specimen of
church
architecture of that period it has considerable interest. There is no
date on the dial, which has
recently been repainted, but it probably belongs to the eighteenth
century.
Richard II. thus soliloquizes in his
dungeon in Pomfret Castle:
"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
For
now hath time made me his numb'ring clock:
My
thoughts are minutes; and, with sighs, they jar
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."
SHAKESPEARE, Richard II., Act
v. Sc. 5.
|
1671. |
YOU MUST ACCOUNT AT LAST
FOR ALL YOUR MOMENTS PAST.
On the south buttress of the tower of
Haresfield Church, Gloucestershire. |
1672. |
YOUR FACE ALONE MY
SECRET FINDS.
On a horizontal dial made by F. Barker
and Son, London. |
1673. |
YOUR MINUTES, READER,
LEARN TO PRIZE
THINK WHAT A MINUTE IS TO THOSE THAT DIES.
On Mavesyn Ridware Church,
Staffordshire. |
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|
1674. |
YR HOEDL ER HYD EI HAROS
ADDERFYDD YN NYDD AC YN NOS.
Man's life, though be prolonged it may,
Draws
to its close by night by day.
This motto is one of the most
remarkable in the collection. The
dial is on the wall of the south transept of St. Cybi's Church at
Holyhead. The church is supposed to
have been founded by St. Kebius in A.D. 650; but the
present nave and
greater portion of the building were erected in the reign of Henry VII.
On a frieze below the battlements on
the south transept, the cognizances of the Tudors are carved, and the
inscription, "ST̃S, Kybi ora Pũs"; on the north transept, in a similar
position,
is "Sanctus Kybi ora pro nobis." The ancient name of Holyhead was Kybi's
Place.
The motto was contributed by Viscount
de Vesci, and the Rev. H. E. Williams, rector of Llanaelhaiarn,
discovered the
interesting fact that the lines were the last of a stanza on the month
of
December, written by a Welsh bard named Aneurin Cwawdrydd, who lived
about A.D. 510. He wrote twelve stanzas on the twelve months of the
year, and the Rev.
R. Williams (Berw), the champion bard, kindly translated that on
December for
us. Mr. Williams was the chaired
bard of the London Eisteddfod. The
literal translation of the beginning of the stanza is:
"December month, short day, long night,
Crow
on buds, rushes on moor,
Silent
(are) bees and nightingale."
Then follows a description of
boisterous weather without, and in contrast the thought that "a
building is
happy (and) safe."
The two lines of our motto complete
the poem, and are thought to be the summing up of the whole of
Aneurin's "Ode
to the Months," rather than of this particular stanza. |
1675. |
ZEIT FEHRT MUST EYL.
HAST NIT VILWEIL.
MACH DIR BEREIT
ZUR EWIGKEIT.
Time goes with much speed.
You
have not much to spare.
Be
prepared
For
eternity.
On an engraving of a dial in Franz
Ritter's "Speculum Solis." Nuremberug, 1652. |
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ADDENDA
RECEIVED SINCE THE COMPILATION OF THE ALPHABETICAL LIST OF MOTTOES
1676. |
LECTOR MORTALIS
DUM SISTIT HORA:
TIBI FATALIS
VIGILA, ORA.
Full of fate each hour for thee,
Though
thou spend it heedlessly:
Ere
its moments pass away,
Mortal
reader, watch and pray!
Written by the Rev. S. E. Bartleet as
a motto for a sun-dial. |
1677. |
LUX HUJUS SOLIS VOBIS
INDICABIT HORAM.
The light of this sun will show you the hour.
This motto is inscribed below an
engraving of the sun's face on a slate horizontal dial. Contributed by
J. B. Wood, Esq. |
1678. |
MAKE TIME, SAVE TIME
WHILE TIME LASTS.
ALL TIME IS NO TIME
WHEN TIME IS PAST.
This motto has been chosen by J. B.
Wood, Esq., for a window dial which he is erecting at Henley Hall,
Ludlow. |
1679. |
MIJN UYREN DIE 'KU
WÈÈS, ZIJN IN EEN UUR VERDWENEN;
DIE MY DE SONTHANS LEEND, VLUGT MET MIJN SCHADUW HENEN
EN D'UUR DIE'K MOGELIJCK KRIJGH, ICK NIEMANT WIJSEN KAN,
SY SCHIJNT ALS NOCH BY GOD, EN BLIJST'ER WIJSN VAN.
My
hours which to thee I show, are vanished within an hour.
That
which the sun thus lends me, flees with my shadow hence,
And
the hour which I fail to catch, I can to no one show;
Albeit
it shines with God and (He) remains the demonstrator thereof.
This interesting Dutch motto is
printed below a sun-dial on the title-page of a work on dialling by
Philip
Lansbug, "Beschrijvingh du Vlacke Sonne-Wysers," by Jacob Mogge. Folio.
Middleburgh, 1675. Mr. Evans contributed the motto. |
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1680. |
VIDE ET VADE.
Look, and pass on.
At Porté (Pyrenées Orientales), over
the door of an inn, which is described in H. Spender's "Through the
High Pyrenees" as being "a large building,
something between a farm house and a palace, without the comfort of the
one, or
the grandeur of the other. The
walls were dirty and unwashed; but the balconies wore an air of faded
nobility,
and there was a touch of fallen greatness in the roof. Above the door
was a sun-dial, and over
it the curt words "vide et vade." |
1681. |
VIRTUE JOIN: PRECIOUS TIME.
On a pedestal dial which still stands
in its original position in Stanley Street, Warrington, a quiet,
old-world nook
in that busy town. The dial bears
the further inscription: "The gift
of Peter Winstanley to the Public in Stanley Street, Warrington. 1755."
|
1682. |
ZEIG NUR FEIN OFFT DU SCHONE SONN,
SO HAT EIN FREUT DER HERR PUTON.
Oh! beauteous sun pray oft shine bright,
That Herr Puton may have delight.
On a small white marble horizontal dial dated 1757, bought at Puttick
and Simpson's by J. B. Wood, Esq. |
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