Royal Victoria Park, Bath

This stone cross dial was donated by the Rev R W Essington (Vicar of Shenstone 1848-95). It stands on a column approximately 1200 mm high in the Botanical Garden, and until recently it was largely hidden by a laurel shrubbery which as now (April 2019) been cleared. There is a four-line inscription on the upper surface which is badly eroded, and only fragments can now be made out: ’THE HOURS ARE . . . WHILE TIS FINE . . . OF HOURS NOT . . . FROM THE CROSS’, but the whole verse can be found in the reference to the BSS Bulletin below. There is a six-sided capital, with the inscription ’SOLIS ADIT LUX / UMBRAM ADDIT CRUX / DATUR HORA / UMBRAM ADDIT NOX / HINC ABIT UMBRAE VOX / ABIT HORA’, all still clearly marked. In cross-section, the shaft is circular at the top, merging to octagonal, and sits on an octagonal base, on which is the inscription ’AQUIS / ET / HORTO / SOLIS / HOC / ESSINGTONUS / DDD / MDCCCC’. Refs: Gatty, 3rd Edition, 1890, p 149 BSS Bulletin, to be published, Christine Northeast, 2019.