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 Walton Hall, Wakefield (Waterton Hotel)- Multi-Facet Head - SRNO0167
This remarkable dial stands in the grounds of Walton Hall, the former home of Charles Waterton the famous conservationist.
Waterton travelled extensively in South America and was one of the first people in the world to set up a nature
reserve.
The dial is described in great detail by Waterton's friend, Dr R. Hobson, in his book 'Charles Waterton,
his home, habits and handiwork', first published in 1866.
"On the southern side of the mansion on a slightly elevated mound, stands a most complete and very beautiful
sun-dial, deserving of careful observation, inasmuch as it deflects great credit on the sculptor, the late George
Boulby, who was a common mason at the contiguous and rural village of Crofton, in 1813.
As a work of art and especially when it was well known to have been executed by a totally uneducated man - by a
common mason, not only devoid of inculcated Iiterary attainments, but by one having had no guiding artistic instruction
- by a man having to earn, "by the sweat of his brow,'' the few shillings sufficient to enable him to secure
some of the works of the philosopher of Athens - by one having to entirely depend on self counsel so as to elevate
him in his financial and social position. I venture to say, considering all these formidable disadvantages and
impediments, that this specimen of sculpture is a wonderful development of innate talent, and must be admired and
applauded, for generations in futurity, as a relic of the scientific execution of this common mason. (Click
here to see an illustration of the dial from his book)
This dial is composed of twenty equilateral triangles, which are disposed as to form a similar number of individual
dials, ten of which, whenever the sun shines out, and whatever may be its altitude in the heavens, are always in
use, and ever faithful time keepers. On these separate dials are engraven, severally, the names of cities in all
parts of the globe, which are placed in accordance with their different degrees of longitude, by which arrangement,
the solar time, at each of the cities recorded on the different dials, can be simultaneously ascertained. Boulby
was truly a self-taught sculptor. "Abnormis Sapiens," "wise without instruction." In early
life he saved a little money, with which he purchased some of Plato's works, and was so struck with Plato's observation,
that every solid contained twenty equilateral triangles, that he hewed out a globular stone, and reduced that very
stone to the dial here described. On one occasion Mr. Waterton, having to pass Boulby's house, on returning home
from the hunting field, accidentally saw this dial in the stonemason's yard, for which Boulby asked a mere trifle.
The Squire, delighted with the execution and the ingenuity of this simple minded man, generously presented Boulby
with twenty guineas by way of purchase, when the ingenuous and unaffected mason was infinitely more delighted to
have the honour of his own artistic skill exhibited at Walton hall, under the patronage of the Squire, than with
the douceur which the sculptor erroneously considered far beyond its value."
The hall is now a modern hotel and conference venue.
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