The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-10-31
OLD CHURCH BELLS.
Some Famous Castings That Are
Still in England.

have witnessed the rise of an aquarium
hobby which concerns itself with
church bells. and more especially the
few medieval bells which still hang in
the church towers or lie cracked on
belfry floors. The ancient founders
cast very fne-toned bells and adorned
them with deliberately moulded inscrip
lions and devices. But, though our
churches have been noted and described
in numberless publications, bells till
quite lately received little notice, and
We're too often neglected in every sense
Of the word. The compiler of one of the
last accounts of the church bells OF
the country records that belfry keys
were constantly handed to him with
the friendly caution. I'm afraid you
will find a great mess up there, but,
to tell you the truth, l have never been
up myself
The medieval bells usually bear in
scriptionS, very commonly in rhyning
leonine heXameters, pious invocations,
or slaves in honor of their supposed
benefcient powers. The oldest found
ers rarely put on the bells their own
names or the dates; but most of them
have been identified by the foundry
stamps and other devices with which
they ornamented their works. Large
bells were introduced in England about
the sixth century, the earliest founders
being monastic. Dunstan concerned
himself with bell founding. The Croy-
land Abbey ring, cast by monkish eX-
perts persisted by fire in 1897. A man
uscript in the library of Corpus Christi
college, Cambridge, contains directions
for beil-founding by a monk of Eve
sham in the time of Henry III. The
modern art of change-ringing, which
took its rise in the seventh century.
led to rings of eight and even twelve
bells being hung in some towers, but in
very early times cathedral and abbey
churches often had rings Of heavy bells,
some of the oldest surviving parish
churches. such as Bridgstock and
Brixworth in Northamptonshire and
Bene't church in Cambridge, were cyl
IDENTIFY designed to hold several bells.
The medieval bells now surviving are
comparatively few in number. In Sur
rey. out of l $50 bells, only a triAe oyer
per cent we're found in date before
the year 1900. In Lincolnshire the pro-
portion was H.5 per cent. In Norfolk
about one bell in six dates before the
reign of Queen Elizabeth. The mon
astery bells seem to have vanished
when the monasteries were suppressed
Some disappeared in private hands;
others were sold by the crown. The
Henry WITS reign one Iot Of 1OO non
pounds of bells and he'll meta, Tere
sold for e9OO with license to ..nonUov
utter and sell, the same bevond sea 4
very few monastery bells still hang in
stu. Forde Abbey, in Dorset. still pos
sesses one Of the old bells cast by the
Brasyers. who had q foundry at Nov
witch about the fifteenth century, bear
ing their foundry stamp and a hand
somely moulded invocation of ST Mar
Garet.
The parish church bells we're inven-
torfed and valued under commissions
about Edward WIS time. and some may
have disappeared by nrivate dishon-
esty. but such instances we're probably
few. Between that time and this the
greater part of the old bells have dis
appeared from various causes. MANY
were sold from time to time. as MONEY
was needed for repairs. or even desired
for secular purposes, At Norwich. in
Queen Elizabeth's time, the dean and
chaDter were selling HEN metal whole
sale. The CORPORATIONS we're also selling
parish church bells. Three Deyonshire
parishes gave away bells in aid off maxi
ing harbor, and the parishioners of q
Lincolnshire village sold two bells and
spent part of the money in securing
out their haven. Very many bells dis
appeared in the negIectful times of the
18th century. Five bells we're sold from
Salisbury Cathedral in 1777. Kings
college, Cambridge, sold several large
bells in 1853 When such corporations
made merchandise of their bells par
ishes were hardly likely TO be more
scrupulous Bells were sold by incum-
bents, church wardens and parishion-
ers, sometimes with faculties some
times without. sometimes to save the
making the rates for church repairs,
sometimes for purely secular purposes.
Strange and almost incredible things
took place Stories and traditions lin
ger of bells stolen from churches The
people of a Hertfordshire parish are
recorded as divided in their minds
whether their ancestors sold a miss
ing bell to q certain other parish or
whether the people of a third narish
stole IT. So little respect was maid to
the bells that in a parish on the south
coast smuggled goods were regularly
hidden inside them, dashed fast to the
cIappers.
Many bells. old and new, have been,
and still are, wrecked by careless and
sIoyenIy habit Of Checking that is.
tying a cord to the clapper and jerking
it against the bell in a manner Sthich
checks in vibration. Two medieval
bells still lie cracked on the floor of a
west country belfry. broken bV lada
who got into the belfrV and hammered
on the bells with heavy blows. n,o, ;s
this an UNIQUE instance of such Tan9