While attributing the early semicircular dial to the Saxons, evidence strongly points to the fact that the many-rayed circular dials are of the mediæval period. It will ever be very hard to determine the date of many of these dials, as the age of a stone, cut and faced by the mason, is an unknown quantity. And there is hardly a stone building in this country that does not contain stone quarried from the demolished buildings of the past. This being so, many a dial may now occupy a very different position from that in which it was originally set. As years moved on ye horologe was improved and immediately became more popular. The time on the face of the dial was more divided, and from being quite plain in appearance it gradually took a more ornate shape. Sundials continued to be erected long after clocks came into use, and in our land during the 17th century many very fine specimens were erected. Doubtless royal patronage and interest had much to do with their popularity, for we know that Charles I. took a keen interest in the art of dialling, and himself caused a sundial to be set up in the Privy Garden behind Whitehall, at Westminster. The beautiful dial at Holyrood Castle, Scotland, is said to have been a gift to his Queen, Henrietta Maria. When kings and princes set the fashion their subjects soon follow suit, and thus we find that some of the most beautiful dials are of this period. Until watches began to be made in numbers the sundial ruled supreme; clocks did not in any way diminish their popularity, and if the truth were known doubtless only helped to cause a greater number to be erected, since not only could they be relied upon to keep accurate time, but also to serve for the setting of a clock when it had stopped. To-day we introduce the sundial into our gardens more for an ornament than from any wish to add to it a timekeeper, and it is the love of the antique that causes old dials to change ownership and to be set up on new sites, irrespective of the fact that they may have been constructed and set for a different locality. It is curious to note that although sundials have ever been in use, since their discovery there seems to have existed from time to time what I would like to call waves of popularity in the history of “ye horologe.” Such are clearly marked by the many existing dials which appertain to certain periods. If we could only get a census of dates, it would be a matter of great interest to trace the state of the country at the time of varying output, and to note the years of war and peace, of prosperity and depression. I think it would be found that even as “ye horologe” marks only _our_ sunny hours, so also the sunny hours of a nation’s life has bade the sundial live.