Star.
London, England, 1826-09-07 00:00:00

BOW BELLS.

Tuesday a Vestry Meeting was held at Bow Church,
to receive the Report of the Committee appointed
to examine into the state of the bells belonging
to the Church, and of the masonry of the tower, as
connected with them.

Mr. SIMPSON, the Chairman, stated that the Com-
mittee, after some proceedings, themselves thought pro-
per to take the opinions of their Architect, and of Mr.
Mears, a bell founder, who was a person of considerable
experience and science, on the subject. The Chairman
then read the Report of these Gentlemen. It stated, there
could be no question with persons acquainted with the
subject,that much injurybad been done to the tower since
1762, when the present peal was set up. This injury
they felt no doubt had arisen from three causes, namely,
from the injudicious mode of hanging the bells—from
part of the frame, on which the bells swing, being
wedged up against the masonry of the tower—and
from a want of sufficient solidity in the construction
of the tower itself to withstand the force cleated by
the motion of a peal of bells, consisting of ten tons
of metal. In the year 1762, two new bells, and a
considerable addition of weight to bells, then were added
to a light peal, consisting previously of only eight bells.
The old frame was altered to accommodate the addi-
' tion, but without any improvement. In course of time
it appeared the frame became sicken'', and, to keep
the bells steady, wedges were fixed between the frame
and the masonry of the tower, by which means the
motion of the frame in ringing was imprudently trans.
ferred to the tower; whereas, were the frame left pro.
perly detached from the walls, the motion would nearly
lose itself in it. The remedy which these Gentlemen pro-
posed for this evil, was to re•hang the bells, so that the
direction of the framing, and the ringing of the bells,
should be against the four angles of the tower, instead
of being against the four sides, as at present, and
at the same time disrosing of the weight of metal
as nearly equal on all sides ; and also the swinging reci-
procally in contrary directi ,ns, as far as circumstances
would allow. To remedy the want of solidity in the
tower, Mr. Gwilt suggested the fixing of a chain of
iron ties below the main timbers of the bell-frame,
which, he said, was decidedly the place were the tower
suffered most. The total expense of putting the tower
in complete and safe repair, and of effecting these al-
terations, they estimated at 7751. A model had been
prepared by these Gentlemen to exemplify the new mode
of hanging, and was exhibited in the Vestry.
After much discussion, in which the Committee urged that what
they had ordered was requisite, the Vestry agreed to sanction the
measure. The Report of the ommittee was approved, although
its recommendation had been rejected. The Meeting then adjourned.

We understand that one or two of the advocates for
the ringing of the bells are determined not to let the
matter rest here, but to apply to the ecclesiastical autho-
rities on the subject. Such was formerly the zertl in
favour of these bells, that one citizen left two houses in
Bow-lane, from which the parish receive 1001. per
annum for maintaining two of the bells. A Lady also
bequeathed 2,0001. for embellishing the church and
furnishing it with bells.

Saturday, the carcase of a young bullock, which had
apparently been drowned, was cast ashore in the bay of
Luce, in Galloway, here it was discovered soon after by
a farm servant who resides in the parish of Glenluce,
and not far from the town of the same name. As acci-
dents not unfrequently occur in ferrying cattle from
Ireland to Scotland, theAder congratulated himself on
•his good luck, and by some means or other got the
bullock conveyed to his own home. The neighbours,
who were soon informed of the circumstance, assembled
round him in considerable numbers; and while the men-
folk were engaged in skinning and cutting up the flesh
of the animal, the farm servant's wife cleaned and
boiled the head and feet, with the view of making
what is called 66 potted head." Of this dish her husbaro
and fourteen others partook, but the effects were dread-
ful; for, before the lapse of two or three hours, the whole
became alarmingly ill. The man who found the bullock,
and who had perhaps eaten more freely than the rest,
swelled to such a size, that his body threatened to burst
through his skin; and he died in the course of the same
day, after suffering the most excruciating tortares. Up
to Sunday evening, the remaining persons were all alive;
but as most of them had vomited coagulated blood as
black as pitch, the surgeons in aVtendance entertained,
we understand, very serious fears for the result. A
calamity so awful is fortunately of rare occurrence in
Scotland ; and the opinion expressed in the neighbour-
hood is, that the flesh of the bullock had either been
putrid, or that it had died of the disease called black leg.
fhe above facts have been communicated to us verbally
by a Gentleman in Glenluce, through the Guard of the
Galloway Mail ; and although our informant omitted
to take a note of the names of the sufferers, and then
places of residence, his information, we believe, may be
implicitly reled on, so tar as it gees...Dumfries Grimier.