SUNDIAL FASHIONS.
The sundial which excited the most intellectual brains in the seventeenth century is said to be coining back into favour, not least in "the home of lost causes." I recorded some years ago the neat verse—in hendecasyllables—on a stone dial given to a retiring fellow of New College, to whom a vast circle of friends wish that his leisure hours volent serene. The subject is recalled by an ingenious comment in Oxford College Gardens (Eleanour Sinclair Rohde : Jenkins, 42s.): " It is curious that Wren did not adorn St. Paul's Cathedral with a sundial," to replace the famous old dial destroyed in the Great Fire. Wren had a peculiar delight in dials-and much knowledge of their mottoes, witness the dial on All Souls to which Miss Rohde refers, mis- spelling the famous motto : Pereunt et Imputantur. How often are the words quoted without knowledge of the context ! Martial has a worldwide reputation for smart epigrams and improper satire ; but those hendecasyllables (with the sundial motto in their midst) were as charming a tribute to a friendship as we could desire and indicate the true countryman that Martial was at heart. He was fonder than Horace, I think, of his pauca jugera, certainly of the rural population and amuse- ments.
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