BRIDOL is the British Sundial Society's Register of Fixed and Mass Dials, which gives detail and photographs of about 8000 fixed sundials and 3000 mass dials in the UK.
Some of these are in private gardens, but the majority are publicly available.
The dial is inscribed ’RICHARD MELVILLE’, ’Fecit AD 1842’ for ’Latitude 54° 40’ North’ and with the Latin mottoes ’Tempus Fugit’ and ’Memento Aeternitatem’ (Time flies - remember eternity). There is a central 16-point compass rose, with the cardinal points marked E, S and W, and it has four small subsidiary dials. The central chapter ring shows 4am to 8pm in Roman numerals with IV for four, with no noon gap, divided to 30, 15 and 5 minutes.
The subsidiary dials indicate local time in Arabic numerals at :
NW corner: ’NEW YORK’ ’N.America’. 11 - 12 - 3, with ’Morning’ above.
NE corner: ’Cape of Good Hope’ ’Africa. 7 - 12 - 11 with ’Afternoon’ above.
SW corner: BOMBAY’ ’Asia’, 9 - 12 - 12 - 1, with ’Evening’ above.
SE corner: ’SYDNEY’ ’Australia’, 3 - 12 - 7, with ’Night’ above.
All five iron gnomons have corroded away and only the stumps remain.
There is an EoT table, in two parts one each side of the plate, reading from left to right, in the form of four concentric rows:
(1)’JAN’ to ’JUNE’ on east side, ’JULY’ to ’DEC’ on west side of the plate.
(2) EoT values in minutes.
(3) months divided into ten day intervals ’10, 20, 30 or 31’ as appropriate
(4)’clock too slow (add)’ ’clock too fast (sub)’ as appropriate.
There is a large abstract trefoil design centred on the north side of the plate and smaller four leaf designs fill otherwise blank spaces all over the plate.
Ref: Michael Harley, www.sundials-ireland.com
