“For a dial the place is too unsecure, Since the Privy Garden could not it defend; And so near to the Court they will never endure Any monument how they their time may misspend.” There is a quaint and humorous legend given in “Notes and Queries” (2nd S, v. ix., p. 279), concerning the motto “Begone about your business,” placed over a dial at the east end of the Inner Temple terrace, that makes very good reading. “When the dial was put up, the artist inquired whether he should (as was customary) paint a motto under it. The Benchers assented, and appointed him to call at the library on a certain day and hour, at which time they would have agreed upon a motto. It appears, however, that they had totally forgotten this; and when the artist or his messenger called at the library at the time appointed, he found no one but a cross-looking old gentleman poring over some musty book. ‘Please, sir, I am come for the motto for the sundial.’ ‘What do you want?’ was the pettish answer; ‘why do you disturb me?’ ‘Please, sir, the gentleman told me I was to call at this hour for a motto for the sundial.’ ‘Begone about your business,’ was the testy reply. The man, either by design or mistake, chose to take this as an answer to his inquiry, and accordingly painted in large letters under the dial, ‘Begone about your business.’ The Benchers when they saw it, decided that it was very appropriate, and that they would let it stand—chance having done their work for them as well as they could have done it for themselves.” Besides mottoes and verses that are of a serious or humorous nature, there exists many that express in well-chosen words happy ideas of the present or the past, such as the following:— “Let not thoughts of time depress A heart that owes but thankfulness.” * * * * * “Some men delight to weigh the showers, But few attempt to weigh the hours.” * * * * * “Like the flowers, ever try To catch the sun e’er it go by.” * * * * * “Believe me, mortals, when I say, The past is what we make to-day.” It is, however, a very difficult matter to trace the age of mottoes, and the dial by no means is necessarily of the same date.