12 MAY 1928, Page 12

Two SUNDIAL. MCYTTOES.

The alluring subject of sundial mottoes has been revived by the account of the garden of the author and only begetter of British summer time, whose dial " only records summer- time hours." It says : " Horas non numero nisi aesticas.", The other day, in the garden of a retired Oxford Fellow (whose zeal and energy both for his college and the University are still almost a household word), I was called upon to translate the motto of a new sundial just presented, just erected. The task of translation had one catch, but the motto, as the dial itself, seemed to a rusty scholar to possess peculiar charms.:

" Qui tam strenuus egit atque fidelis vis ut senserit hors quam volaret

huic postquam meritum otium est adeptus horas stare velint sui fugaces negant atque volant volent serenae."

" Sui," to wit " his friends," could scarcely have hit the truth with a prettier tribute ; and did ever English dial enjoy serener hours in its first spring ? May the owner enjoy his " second spring " as much.

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