known work, The Book of Sundials (5th edition), where a good account of dials of Saxon type with eight, ten, twelve, or twenty-four notation may be found; also to the instructive notes and illustrations by the Rev. W. S. Calverley in Early Sculptured Crosses in the Diocese of Carlisle (Cumb. and Westm. Antiq. and Arch. Soc., Extra Series. Vol. xi., 1899). Here it will suffice to say these Time-dials' (as we prefer to term them) succeeded in date the early Saxon dials of the type of the one at Bewcastle in Cumberland, and preceded the modern scientific Sundial, ranging roughly over a period of some six or seven centuries, from the seventh to the middle of the fifteenth, when the modern Sundial began to make its appearance in England.

6

For all practical purposes, in an age when exact time was unthought of, the shadow thus marked upon the wall would enable the ringer to summon the worshippers with reasonable regularity. The dials are often difficult to find; in size they vary from some three to sixteen inches across; the position is usually some four to six feet above ground level, on wall, buttress, door-jamb, or porch, and on the south side of the building. Some, however, have been removed and others inverted at the time of restoration. When carefully examined, the rayspaces counted, details noted, and one compared with another, their real interest unfolds to the observer; no illustration conveys an exact idea of what will be seen, personal observation is necessary. We have in these dials an archæological feature of considerable importance, in some instances it is the only remaining object of antiquity, the dial-stone on the exterior of the church having escaped treatment when the interior has been restored or the face of the stone renewed. While they

cannot well be mistaken for consecration crosses, or masonic marks, the form and position of many of these

rays and circles is so unaccountable as to warrant the suggestion often made that they are not all time-dials, and may in origin be associated with ideas of healing, good luck, penance, sun-worship, or mediæval mysticism. Observation of other incised markings which suggest 'divining-dots,' and of letters formed by the joining up of dots by straight lines frequently recurring in identical grouping in all parts of the country, lends considerable support to such theory. For, quite apart from these rays and circles and masonic marks, there are many designs, graffiti, or markings, of earlier days still to be found upon our church walls and pillars. It is to be hoped a knowledge of their interest may lead to more careful search and record before they become wholly obliterated. In a few churches where they are conspicuous, as also in the Keep of Norwich Castle, glass has been placed over them for preservation.

Harold Bayley's work, A New Light on the Renaissance, dealing with water-marks on paper, and Raphael Garrucci's work, Graffiti de Pompéi, suggested to the writer a corresponding series of illustrations from incised markings on church walls. So far as he has at present been able to follow up the subject, there is a promising field of interest, but it covers a wide area, and needs many workers.

At Gooderstone is a dial with the central iron pin still in position, placed horizontally at right angles to the stone; whilst at Oxburgh is one of these dials, evidently in its original position, inside the building where the sun cannot shine upon it. Dials of this type are to be found in a great variety of form in other parts of England, but a further account of them would be outside the range of this article.

In the accompanying diagrams are shown all the dials in one deanery of Norfolk, so far as at present known.

TO VIMU AMIOTLIAD

PLATE I.

Fig. 1.

FUNDENHALL.-South-west quoin; similar type

at Tasburgh and Mulbarton; lines coarsely cut, early, Norman suggested.

Fig. 2. THARSTON.-Buttress; an ornamental cross in flint appears to have been inserted into the large older dial b, and a smaller one a afterwards carved on the stone above.

Fig. 3. HAPTON.-Buttress; double circle, well nigh vanished through time, though it must originally have been well and deeply incised. For the marks compare

Caldbeck and Bolton in Cumberland (four dots at 4 o'clock).

Fig. 4. FORNCETT ST. MARY.-Buttress; high up on a removed and inverted stone, rays unique, club shaped and deeply cut; probably denoting the canonical hours.

Fig. 5. STRATTON ST. MARY.-Jamb of priests' door; pellet holes, no circle. There is a Cross on the inner side of the post.

Fig. 6. TASBURGH.-Similar to that at Fundenhall, the stone has recently been damaged.

ASHWELLTHORPE.-On porch; in circle, one

Fig. 7. space is subdivided.

Fig. 8. CARLETON RODE.-Covering several stones on chancel wall near priests' door; a very interesting specimen showing the transition from Saxon type (ie., equal spaces between rays and unequal hours) to the modern dial with rays nearer together at the XII mark, and showing true hours of equal length. (Date, fifteenth or sixteenth century).

Fig. 9. MORNINGTHORPE.-b, Porch; only 3 inches across, minute figures, only a portion remains, the stone above being new; below is a circle, on the opposite side of the porch are the rays shown at a.