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Curious Dial.
[Illustration: Curious Dial.]
This Dial, which was really no common or vulgar invention, formerly
stood in Privy Garden, Whitehall, at a short distance from Gibbons's
noble brass statue of James II., which, as a waggish friend of ours
said of the horse at Charing Cross, remains in _statu-quo_ to this day.
The Dial was invented by one Francis Hall, alias Line, a Jesuit, and
Professor of Mathematics at Liege, in Germany. It was set up, as the
old books have it, in the year 1669, by order of Charles II.; and in
addition to the parts represented in the cut, the inventer intended to
place a water-dial at each corner, which he had nearly completed when
the original Dial for want of a cover, as he quaintly observes, (which
according to his Majestie's Gracious Order should have been set over it
in the Winter) was much injured by the snow lying frozen upon it. But
there was no chance of obtaining this out of Charles's coffers, and the
Dial soon became useless. Its explanation was, however, considered by
many mathematical men of the period as too valuable to be lost, and the
Professor accordingly printed the description at Liege, in 1673, in
which were plates and diagrams of the several parts.
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