Solstice may be several days past; however, witty, smart women are always in season. Thank you, Mrs. Gatty for collecting (over 100 years ago in Britain) thousands of sundial mottos…including personal favorite:
| 57. |
ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS. Art is long, life is short. At Ballafreer Farm, Braddan, Isle of Man, see No. 1020. The dial was made by John Kewley. |
Thanks to Mary Mark Ockerbloom (Celebration of Women Writer’s) for another great read, the following is courtesy of Mary’s website.
Mrs. Gatty’s “Book of Sun-Dials” is an indispensible source for anyone researching old British sundials. It is full of fascinating information about the history, construction and function of dials. The collection of mottoes which Margaret Gatty began as a small girl numbered in the thousands by the time the fourth edition of her book appeared in print.
The mottoes are extremely varied. Religious feeling and awareness of the passage of time are the most frequent themes, but there are also witty puns, advertisements for public houses, and personal and familial messages. As people dashed about preparing for Christmas, I could not help wryly reflecting on motto # 1044: QUI RODIT RODITUR. “The consumer is consumed.” How much wiser to follow the course of the sun-dial in motto 443: HORAS NON NUMERO NISI SERENAS. “I count the bright hours only.”
The styles of sun-dials described in the book are incredibly varied. There was even a moon-dial! something which I had not known existed. Its motto reads in part (1019) “Everything under the sun is subject to the moon. All things ebb and flow. They pass away to appear again.”
Two of my favorite dials in Gatty’s book are those erected by the celebrated Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke. That able and excellent lady could discourse on every subject, “from predestination to slea’ silk.” The heiress of the great house of Clifford, she had to fight in the courts for her vast estates against opponents including James I. She erected a tall pillar dial at Appleby with the motto (1093): “RETAIN YOUR LOYALTY, PRESERVE YOUR RIGHTS.” Another pillar dial, between Brougham and Appleby, reads:
THIS PILLAR WAS ERECTED, ANNO 1656,
BY THE RIGHT HON. ANN COUNTESS DOWAGER OF
PEMBROKE, AND SOLE HEIR OF THE RIGHT
HONOURABLE GEORGE, EARL OF CUMBERLAND ETC.,
FOR A MEMORIAL OF HER LAST PARTING IN THIS PLACE.
WITH HER GOOD AND PIOUS MOTHER, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
MARGARET COUNTESS DOWAGER OF CUMBERLAND,
THE SECOND OF APRIL, 1616. IN MEMORY WHEREOF
SHE ALSO LEFT AN ANNUITY OF FOUR POUNDS
TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO THE POOR WITHIN THIS
PARISH OF BROUGHAM, EVERY SECOND DAY OF APRIL
FOR EVER UPON THIS STONE TABLE.
LAUS DEO.
I cannot help but wonder whether her annuity is still paid as she intended!
Amusingly, as I’ve worked on completing the book over the last few months, I seemed to find sun-dials wherever I went! While travelling in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada during the summer, we walked past a huge street dial! While vacationing in the area of Rochester, New York, we saw a dial made entirely of clear glass. A highlight of the fall was visiting a Galileo exhibit in Philadelphia, and seeing not only one of the earliest telescopes made, but also a selection of intricate and truly fabulous dials. Some of them may even have been ones mentioned by Mrs. Gatty in her book.
Best wishes for 2010!
Mary Mark Ockerbloom, Editor, A Celebration of Women Writers
FROM Mary’s wonderful website http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/ ’A Celebration of Women Writers’. Thanks, Mary, for illuminating women’s words with such thoughtfulness, scholarship and glee.
Julie Hellwich
