tide tarry for no man." In the year 1828 an ancient building on Inner
Temple Terrace was demolished, and with it a sundial bearing the strange
but not inappropriate inscription, "Begone about your business." The story
runs that, many years before, a crusty old bencher had promised the
dial-maker to provide a motto for the then new dial. The messenger,
however, arrived at an inopportune time, received the above curt dismissal
in answer to his request, and conveyed it to his master as the legend to
be engraved.

[Footnote A: The devices of the Middle and Inner Temple are a lamb and a
horse respectively, and they may be frequently seen blazoned on window and
wall. An irreverent wit once scrawled these lines on the Temple gate:

As by the Templars' hold you go,
The horse and lamb displayed
In emblematic figures show
The merits of their trade.

The clients may infer from thence
How just is their profession:
The lamb sets forth their innocence,
The horse their expedition.

O happy Britons, happy isle,
Let foreign nations say,
Where you get justice without guile,
And law without delay!

In answer and in ridicule of which, a second scribbler penned the
following stanzas beneath: