Curious Church Customs and Cognate Subjects Part 4

Another bell bears the date and churchwardens' names. At Coventry on a peal of bells, cast in 1774, are the following inscriptions--

1. Though I am but light and small I will be heard above you all.

2. If you have a judicious ear You will own my voice both sweet and clear.

3. Such wondrous power to music given, It elevates the soul to heaven.

4. Whilst thus we join in cheerful sound, May love and loyalty abound.

5. To honour both G.o.d and King Our voices shall in concert ring.

6. Music is medicine to the mind.

7. Ye ringers all that prize Your health and happiness, Be sober, merry, wise, And you'll the same possess.

8. Ye people all who hear me ring Be faithful to your G.o.d and King.

9. In wedlock's bands all ye who join With hands your hearts unite: So shall our tuneful tongues combine To laud the nuptial rite.

10. I am and have been called the common bell To ring when fire breaks out to tell.

On the bells of S. Peter's, Nottingham, the appended lines appear:--

Our voices shall with joyful sound Make hills and valleys echo round.

We celebrate th' auspicious morn On which the Son of G.o.d was born.

Our voices shall in concert ring To honour G.o.d and King.

The bride and groom we greet in holy wedlock join'd, Our sounds are emblems of hearts in love combined.

I toll the funeral knell, I hail the festal day.-- The fleeting hour I tell, I summon all to pray.

The longest continuous bell inscriptions we have noted are from Bakewell, Derbys.h.i.+re, and on a peal of eight bells. They run thus:--

1. When I begin Our merry Din, This Band I lead from Discord Free; And for the Fame of human Name, May ev'ry Leader copy Me.

2. Mankind like Us, too oft are found Possess'd of Nought but empty Sound.

3. When of departed Hours We toll the Knell, Instruction take & spend the future well.

4. When Men in Hymen's Bands unite, Our Merry Peals produce Delight; But when Death goes his dreary Rounds, We send forth sad and solemn Sounds.

5. Thro' Grandsires and Tripples with Pleasure men range, Till Death calls the Bob & brings on the Last Change.

6. When Vict'ry crowns the Public Weal With Glee We give the merry Peal.

7. Would Men Like Us join & agree They'd live in tunefull Harmony.

8. Possess'd of deep sonorous Tone This Belfry King sits on his Throne; And, when the merry Bells go round, Adds to & mellows ev'ry Sound; So in a just & well pois'd State, Where all Degrees possess due Weight, One greater Pow'r, One greater Tone Is ceded to improve their own.

During a recent visit to Bakewell church we copied an epitaph blending in a remarkable degree business, loyalty and religion:--

To the Memory of Matthew Strutt.

Of this town, farmer, long famed in these parts for veterinary skill.

A good neighbour, and a staunch friend to Church and King. Being churchwarden at the time the present peal of bells were hung. Through zeal of the House of G.o.d, and unremitting attention to the airy business of the belfry he caught a cold, which terminated his existence May 25, 1798, in the 68 year of his age.

A beautiful Latin inscription has one--a Rutland bell--

Non clamor sed amor cantat in aure dei, _i.e._, It is not noise, but love that sings in the ear of G.o.d.

And it is in the same county that we find the modern use of the death-bell described,

I sound not for the souls of the dead but the ears of the living.

Cheltenham, too, bears out the spirit of this inscription in the following:--

I to prayer the living do combine The dead shall hear a greater sound than mine.

The offices of the various bells form a large proportion of their legends, particularly those uses which are the most common. Thus the death bell at Axbridge, Somerset, states,

For homesoever this bell doth toll The Lord have mercy on that sole!

Many Somersets.h.i.+re bells have the following and similar inscriptions:--

I to the church the living call, And to the grave I summon all.

Brent, Somerset, has a bell with--

When I doth toll pray mind your souls And in G.o.d put your trust, As may be well with you at last When you come to doust.

And Backwell, in the same county--

I sound to bid the sick repent, In hopes of life when breath is spent.

A bell at Stratton, Cornwall, is shorter--

I call the quick to church and dead to grave.

A bell in Ghent describes the purposes for which it was used: it is not an uncommon form in the Netherlands. Translated it reads:--

My name is Roelant; When I toll it is for a fire, When I swing then there is storm in Flanders.

Religious sentiments and quotations are found in thousands on bells old and new. Such are--

Te deum Laudamus.

On the bell at Peterborough Cathedral