THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE CHURCH BELLS RUTLAND. ( Tao hundred and fifty copies printed. ) THE CHURCH BELLS OF RUTLAND : Their Inscriptions, Traditions, and Peculiar Uses ; WITH CHAPTERS ON BELLS AND BELL FOUNDERS. BY THOMAS NORTH, F.S.A., Honorary Member and Honorary Secretary of the Leicestershire Architectural and Arc?i/eological Society, Honorary Member of the Derbyshire Auch.-eological and Natural History Society. WITH illustrations. LEICESTER: SAMUEL CLARKE. 1880. Printed by Samuel Clarke, Leicester. cc RsA/: -% SUBSCRIBERS. The Right Honourable the EARL OF GAINSBOROUGH, Lord Lieutenant of the County (2 copies). The Right Reverend the LORD BISHOP OF the diocese. The Right Honourable the Earl Beauchamp, M.A., F.S.A., 13, Belgrave Square, S.W. The Right Honourable the Earl of Effingham, 57, Eaton Place, S.W. The Lady Louisa Finch Hatton, 7, Elm Park Garden, Fulham Road, London. The Very Reverend the Lord Alwyne Compton, Dean of Worcester. Sir William de Capell Brooke, Bart., M.A., The Elms, Market Harborough. Sir Henry Edward Leigh Dryden, Bart., M.A., Canon's Ashby. The Reverend Sir J. H. Fludyer, Bart., M.A., Ayston Rectory. Sir William Henry Salt, Bart., Maplewell. The Right Honourable Gerard James Noel, M.P., Catmose, Oakham. The Venerable F. H. Thicknesse, M.A., Archdeacon of Northampton, Prebendal House, Peterborough. The Venerable R. P. Lightfoot, M.A., Archdeacon of Oakham, The Vicarage. Wellingborough. The Library of the Corporation of the City of London, Guildhall. The Library of S. Paul's Cathedral, London. The Society of Antiquaries of London. The Library of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln. The Bedfordshire Architectural Society. The Leicestershire Architectural and Archaeological Society. The Lincoln Diocesan Architectural Society. The Architectural Society of the Archdeaconries of Northampton and Oakham. The Liverpool Free Library. The Leicester Permanent Library. « b 731 9CG VI Church Bells of Rutland. Abernethy, Robert, Ksq., 21, Golden Sijuare, Aberdeen. Adam, Benjamin, Esq., Oakham. Adcock, Captain, North Lodge, Melton Mowbray. Allen. E. G., Esq., 12, Tavistock Row. Covent Garden, London. Armitage, William, Esq., Townfield House, Altrincham. Bailey, Messrs. W. H. and Co., Albion Works, Salford. Baines, F. J., Esq., Leicester. Baker. Charles, Esq., Architect, Leicester. Barrow, Mr. Joseph, Long Eaton. Beedham, B. H.. Esq., Ashfield House, Kimbolton. Bellairs, Major, Leicester. Bigge, the Rev. H. J., M.A., F.S A., Hallaton Hall. Bird. James, Esq.. Architect, Leicester. Bland. Thomas, Esq., Leicester. Bradley. Rev. E., M.A., Stretton Rectory-. Brooke, Thomas, Esq., F.S. A., Armitage Bridge, Huddersfield. Bumaby, Rev. F. G. (the late), Asfordby House, Melton Mowbray. Charters, Robert, Esq., Leicester. Clarence, Mr. Justice. Croxdon. Axminster. Clarke, the Rev. Canon Erskine, M.A., London. Clephan. Edwin, Esq., Leicester. Cokayne, G. E., Esq., M.A., F.S.A., Lan- caster Herald. College of Arms, E.C. Conant, E. N., Esq., Lyndon Hall, Oakham. Cooper, J. H., Esq., Evington Hall, Leicester. Cox, J. C, Esq., The Close, Lichfield. Deakin, Mr. Superintendent, 26, Newtown Street, Leicester. Donisthorpe, A. R., Esq., Old Manor House, Oadby. Dunkin, E. H. W., Esq., 14, Kidbrooke Park Road, Blackheath. Edmonds, J. R., Esq.. Sileby, Lough- borough. Edmonds, the Rev. G. M., Yarwell, Wans- ford. Evans, John, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S.. F.S.A., 65, Old Bailey, London. Evans, Robert, Esq., Architect, Nottingham. Fenwicke, the Rev. G. C, B.A., Blaston Manor, Uppingham. Ffytche, John, Lewis, Esq., Thorpe Hall, Louth. Field, Colonel G. J., S. Leonard's Place, York. Fisher, Edward, Esq., Blackmore, Sid- mouth. Flude, Mr. John, 94, Curzon Street. Lei- cester. Foster, Richard, Esq., Lanwithan, Lost- withiel. Fowler, the Rev. J. T., F.S.A., Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham. Freer, W. J., Esq., Stonygate, Leicester. Gill, Miss, 19, Princess Street, Leicester. Gill, Miss A. J., 19, Princess Street, Lei- cester. Goddard, C. V.. Esq.. Brasenose College. Oxford. Hacket, Miss, Langdale Lodge, Adkins Road, Clapham Park, Surrey. Halliday. Mr. T. C, Greetham. Hambly, C. H. Burbidge-, Esq., Barrow- on-Soar, Loughborough. Subscribers. Vll Hanbury, the Rev. T., M.A., Church Langton Rectorj', Market Harborough. Hancock, Mr. J. H., 54, London Road, Leicester. Harris, Joseph, Esq., Westcotes, Leicester (2 copies). Haworth, Jesse, Esq., Fair Lea, Bowdon, Cheshire. Hawthorn, Mr. J., Uppingham (2 copies). Heycock, the Rev. T., M.A., Seaton Rec- torj', Uppingham. Hickson, Thomas, Esq., Melton Mow- bray. Hill, the Rev. A. Du Boulay, M.A., The College, Winchester. Hillyard, the Rev. Canon, M.A., Oakfield Rectory, Tiverton. Holding, M. H., Esq., Architect, North- ampton. Holyland, Thomas, Esq., Leicester. Humberstone, Robert, Esq., Lansdowne House, Leicester. Hunt, Mrs., Stonygate, Leicester. Ingram, Thomas, Esq., Wigston Magna, Leicester. James, Francis, Esq., 190, Cromwell Road, London, S.W. Jenkyns, the Rev. J., M.A., Thornhaugh Rectory. Jerram, Mr. J. R., Long Sutton, Lincoln- shire. Johnson, Mrs. General, Brazen Nose, Stamford. Johnson, William, Esq., Saddington. Jones, the Rev. T. Harry, M.A., Ashwell Rectory. Jones, Thomas, Esq., De Montfort Square, Leicester. Jones, H. S., Esq., Stonygate, Leicester. Keck, H. L. Powys-, Esq., Stoughton Grange, Leicester. King, Miss, Thurnby House, Leicester. Kirk, Chas., Esq., M.A., Architect, Sleaford. Lakin, the Rev. J. M., M.A., R.D., Gil- morton Rectory, Lutterworth. Langton, Mr. Robert, Albert Chambers, Manchester. Latham, William, Esq., Melton Mowbray. Lee, the Rev. F. G., D.D., F.S.A., All Saints' Vicarage, Lambeth. Luck, Richard, Esq., Plas, Llanfairfechan (2 copies). Lynam, C, Esq., Stoke-upon-Trent. Mallaby, Mr. T., Masham, Yorkshire. Mitchell, the Rev. T., M.A., Clawson Vicarage, Melton Mowbray, Moore, A. P., Esq. Harlestone, Norfolk. Mowbray, Major, Overseile, Ashby-de-la- Zouch. Nevinson, Thomas, Esq., Leicester. Nicholson, Beckett, Esq., F.S.A., Wath- upon-Dearne. OsBOK.N, the Rev. M., M.A., R.D., Kibworth Rectory. Paget, Thomas Tertius, Esq., ALP., Humberstone, Leicester. Paley, Edward G., Esq., Lancaster. Palmer, Colonel, Withcote Hall. Oakham. Pearce, William, Esq., Solihull, Warwick- shire. Perry-Herrick, Mrs., Beau Manor Park. VHl Church Bells of Rutland. Pountain, Major, Barrow Hall, Derby. Pownall. the Rev. Canon. M..\.. R.D., F.S.A. South Kihvorth Rectory, Rugby. Kabbetts, the Rev. F. D., M.A., Buck- minster Vicarage. Grantham. Raven, the Rev. J. J., D.D., Great Yar- mouth. Richards, W., Esq., Belgrave, Leicester. Richardson, the Rev. H. K., M.A., R.D., Leire Rectory, Lutterworth. Richardson, the Rev. F. H., R.D., Belgrave Vicarage. Rigby, Samuel. Esq.. Warrington. Robinson, G. A., Esq.. Stonygate. Leices- ter. Robinson. T. W. U., Esq., F.S.A., Houghton- le-Spring. Rowe, R. Reynolds, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.I. B.A., Cambridge. Royce. the Rev. D., M.A., Lower Swell Vicarage, Stow-on-Wold. Rushin, W., Esq., Leicester. Sheild, W. T.. Esq., Uppingham. Smith, Edwin. Esq., 19, Elvetham Road, Birmingham. Spencer, Messrs. J. and T., Leicester. Stainbank, Robert, Esq., Spring Lodge, Laurie Park. Sydenham. Stretton, Miss, Dane's Hill House, Lei- cester (2 copies). Sutton, the Rev. Canon, M.A., West Tofts Rectory, Mundford, Norfolk. Swithinbank, G. E., Esq., M.D., Ormleigh, Anerley Park, London, S.E. Taylor, Messrs. John and Co., Lough- borough (2 copies). Thompson, John, Esq., 43, Wood Street, Peterborough. Thompson, Charles. Esq., M.D., Leicester. Thring, the Rev. E., M.A., School House, Uppingham. Tilley, the Rev. H. T., B.A., Edgbaston. Timmins, Samuel, Esq., F.S.A. , Elvetham Lodge, Birmingham. Titley. the Rev. R., M.A., Barwell Rectory, Hinckley. Trollope, the Rev. A., M.A., Carlton Curlieu Rectory. Tyssen, J. R. Daniel-, Esq., F.S.A., Brighton (2 copies). Tyssen, Amherst Daniel-, Esq., D.C.L., 40, Chancery Lane, London. UssHER, Richard, Esq., Osmaston Hall, Derby. ViALLs, George, Esq., 24, Doughty Street, London. Ward, the Rev. H., M.A.. Aldwincle S. Peter. Warner, Messrs. John and Sons, The Crescent Foundry, Cripplegate, London. E.C. (2 copies). Wartnaby. Mrs., Market Harborough. Watson, G. L., Esq., Rockingham Castle, Watson, the Rev. J. S., M.A., Cotesbach Rectory, Lutterworth. Wellington, Mrs., Oakham. White, George, Esq., Ashley House, Epsom. Willcox, Mr. W., Melton Mowbray. Williams, J. H., Esq., Stonygate, Leicester. Wood, R. H., Esq., F.S.A., Penrhos House, Rugby. Wordsworth, the Rev. C, M.A., Glaston. PREFACE. This Volume, though complete in itself, is the concluding one of a larger undertaking — a Description of the Church Bells of the Diocese of Peterborough — the first portion of which was issued in the year 1876. That I have been enabled to complete the work is to me a source of great gratification, and I again tender to all my kind helpers, correspondents, and subscribers, my hearty thanks for their continued help and encouragement. With reference to this present Volume my thanks are specially due to the following gentlemen, without whose efficient and valuable help in procuring rubbings or casts from bells in the parishes placed against their names, it could not have been completed : — Baker, the Rev. John . . Bradley, the Rev. E. CooPEK, the Rev. T. Lowick Day, John, Esq. . . Dennis, the Rev. Philip G. Fluyder, the Rev. Sir J. Henry, Bart. Freeman, the Rev. J. . . Exton. Stretton. Empingham. Ashwell, Thistleton, Whissendine. North Luffenham. Ayston. Man ton. Church Bells of Rutland. Gav. the Rev. \V Burley-on-the-Hill. Handscombe, Mr. M. .. Hoskins, the Rev. Charles T. South Luffenham. Clipsham. Jones, W. H , Esq. Ayston, Belton, Bisbrook, Braunstone, Cal- decot, Essendine, Glaston, Greetham, North Luffenham, South Luffenham, Lyddington, Normanton, Oakham, Pilton, Ridlington, Seaton, Stoke Dry, Tinwell, Uppingham School, Wardley, Whitwell. Pearson, Mr. Matthew Barrowden, Brooke, Casterton Great, Casterton Little, Edith Weston, Egleton, Hambleton, Ketton, Lyndon, Morcott, Ryhall, Tickencote, Tinwell, Tixover, Wing. Rogers, the Rev. R. Basset Preston. Sprecklev, J. O., Esq. Stuart, the Hon. and Rev. A J. Langham. Cottesmore. Wales, the Rev. Chancellor Wingfield, the Rev. H. L. Wood, Mr. George Uppingham. Market Overton. Teigh. T. N. CONTENTS Church Bells The Church Bells of Rutland The Founders of the Rutland Bells Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells PAGE 1-35 37-39 40-81 82-112 Latin Inscriptions on the Rutland Bells (with Translations) . 113-115 A Table of Diameters of Bells with the approximate weights . 116 The Inscriptions on the Church Bells of Rutland, with the Diameter at the mouth of each Bell, from which its approximate weight may be ascertained. To which are added Extracts, where procurable, from Parochial and other Records, together with Local Traditions, Notices of Donors, etc., and Notes on the Uses of Church Bells peculiar to different parishes . . . . 117-16G ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE A Performer playing a Carillon of Five Bells, from a MS. said to be of the ninth centurj' ..... 36 Ancient Bell-tile found at Repton, Derbyshire ... 39 Initial Crosses, Marks, Stops, &c., used by the Founders of the Rutland Bells . . . . . .40-78 Figure of King David playing a Carillon of Five Bells (fourteenth century) . . . . . 81 Stamp used by Robert Mot, a London Founder . . 112 General Plates of Initial Crosses, Founders' Marks, Letters, &c., found on the Bells of Rutland . . . Plates i — vii at the end of volume. CHURCH BELLS. I N the oldest existing writings — those of Moses — we find mention of the bells which were ordered to be placed upon the hem of the ephod of the High Priest,* and which, we are told by the son of Sirach,t made a noise which might be heard in the temple, when he went in, and when he came out of the holy place. J Bells were even then no novelty, for they had long been in use in Egypt, small bells being found in very early mummies at Thebes. They were used as appendages to their royal robes, by the ancient Persians. Mr. Layard mentions the discovery, in the palace of Nimroud, of about eighty small bells of bronze with iron tongues, § shewing that they must have been common in Assyria. The ancient Etruscans used them in a variety of ways. The Greeks and the Romans used them not only to • Exod. xxviii. 33. that the sound of the Apostles was to go f Ecclus. xlv. 9. forth into all lands. Vide Bluttt's Church I According to Justyn Martyr these bells in the First Three Centuries, p. 131. (twelve in number) which tinkled on the § Discoveries at Nineveh, &c. Second garments of the High Priest, were a symbol Series, p. 177. B 2 Church Bells. call people to the baths and to the markets, but in a great many ways, public and private. Bells are plentiful in Northern and Central Asia, where they have, apparently, been familiar objects from time immemorial. They appear to have been used in very early times in Hindoo temples, and now, high up the Himalayas, in temples and on prayer wheels, the small musical bell is still heard. The Chinese have bells, and probably had them long ages ago. They are found, as of ancient use, on the African continent, and on the other side of the Atlantic ; indeed the use of bells or their substitutes may safely be said to be " coeval with the earliest periods of which we have detailed records, and coextensive with every race into which the human family has branched out."* Most, if not all, of these, however, were comparatively so small and insignificant that they have been more properly described as "metallic rattles" rather than as bells. Leaving these precursors of the Church Bell, and referring all who are interested in pursuing their history further to the researches of the many competent writers on the subject, I offer by way of introduction to the pages which follow, a few remarks upon the Bell as used in the Christian Church. In doing so I have little to add to the few historical facts which have become the common property of all writers on this branch of archaeology. I * See a learned and valuable paper : — by the late Rev. Abner W. Brown. Ass. " The History and Atitiqitities of Bells, and Arch. Socs, Reports and Papers, vol. 4 (1858). their connection with Mythology and Ethnology, Church Bells. 3 should have hesitated to reproduce some of these here if the following pages were only intended for the reading of campanists, and as a chapter in the history of the Church Bells of this country. This Work may, however, fall into the hands of some who may wish for a sketch of the origin of those musical ornaments of our churches which they so often hear, but so seldom see. I trust therefore to be pardoned for treading in the footsteps of several learned predecessors, and for availing myself, occasionally, of their researches. The early Christians, in consequence of the persecutions to which, from time to time, they were exposed, would be very unlikely to use any noisy summons to their meetings for prayer and praise. So soon as they were able to meet publicly, without fear, they used, in some places, trumpets, like the Jews of old.* S. Ephrem {circa 370) further men- tions the Signiim — a clapper or tablet — as the call then used to Holy Communion. t Bells do not appear to have been introduced into the Christian Church until the fifth century. The earliest Christian writer who refers to them is thought to be Saint Jerome, who in the Regula Monachorum [circa 422) mentions their use as a call to matins, &c.J Paulinus, bishop of • Bingham's Aiitiq., Bk. viii., c. 7. Tin E. C. Walcott, F.S.A., to whom I am iii- Trumpets preserved at Willoughton and debted for this reference, so interprets the Thorney are said to have been used to call " sign." the congregation together. Walcott's 5ac. J Quoted by i?offrt, D^ Cawf/rtw/s. Opera. Arch., p. 70. Roma:, 1719. Vol. i. p. 156. f Paranesi xliii. The Rev. Mackenzie 4 Cliurcli Bells. Nola, in Campania (a.d. 400), has been generally credited with their invention,* but inasmuch as there is extant an epistle from him to Severus, in which he minutely describes his church, but makes no mention of either tower or bells, we must consider he was ignorant, at least at that time, of their use.f From this tradition, however, we have the mediaeval Latin name, Nola, for a small hand-bell, and Campana for the larger bell hanging in the church tower or turret. Church Bells are also called Signa in mediaeval documents. It is not proposed — as being foreign to this work — to attempt a description of the Nola or Tintmnabuhtm, as the early portable hand-bell was called. Several of these, of great antiquity, are still extant in Ireland, North Wales, and Scotland. Some of them are very elaborately orna- mented, and are accompanied by covers of exquisite work- manship. They are frequently formed of a sheet of metal hammered into shape, and rivetted at the side. There does not appear to be any clue as to the precise original use of these curious bells, which in many instances were, until recently, held in high reverence, and even in superstitious dread, by the ignorant peasantry. Some antiquaries think they are relics of the early founders of Christianity in these Islands, and have been, as such, carefully preserved in • Dup'm's Eccl. Hist. Ninth Cent., p. i66. ancient bell "supposed to have been in- t The Bell, by Rev. Alfred Gatty, p. 13. vented or adopted by Paulinus, circa 420. The Rev. H. T. Ellacombe in his Bells of for church purposes." the Church, p. 338, gives an engraving of an Church Bells. 5 Religious Houses founded at the time by the saints themselves.* Pope Sabinian (a.d. 604) having ordered the hours to be sounded on the bells, t is thought by others to have intro- duced the use of the Campancs or Signa, as the large bells were called, into churches. He, however, more probably found bells in partial use, and recognizing their beauty and value, encouraged their general adoption, as it is soon after his time that we read of their use in this country. They are mentioned in the Ordo Romanus about this date, as being used to announce Tierce, Mass, and Processions, and * A very full and profusely illustrated account of these bells will be found in The Bells of the Church, a Tome lately put forth by my venerable friend The Rev. H. T. Ellacombe, F.S.A. In the year 1833 Dr. Petrie read before the Royal Irish Academy an Essay on the Ancient Consecrated Bells of Ireland. This Essay has never been published. He says " many passages from our ancient records prove that bells, as well as crosiers, book-covers of metal, chalices, and other religious utensils, were extensively manufactured in Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries ; and we find in the lives of S. Patrick, preserved in the Book of Armagh, that he is described as introducing bells through the country . . . . The use of bells for the service of the Church, from the time of S. Patrick and his followers down, can be abundantly proved by our ancient histories. And in after times the consecrated bells of the early saints were applied to various super- stitious practices. This he shows from the lives of the saints, ancient historical poems, annals, and other records. These bells, enshrined in costly cases of elaborate workmanship, were preserved in the churches to which they originally belonged, and many of them are still remaining in the country .... All these bells were of a quadrangular form and varying in height from four to fifteen inches. Owing to the slow progress of antiquarian investi- gation in Ireland, it is a remarkable fact that up to the time of the reading of this paper, few descriptions of any ancient bells found in this country had been given . . . . Petrie adds that he had seen not less than thirty of these ancient bells them- selves, and knew of the existence of as many more." Stokes' Life of George Pciiic, LL.D., pp. 277-280. f Walcott's Sac. Arch , p. 96. 6 CJiurch Bells. S. Owen in the life of S. Eloy [circa 650) speaks of the Campana.*' Legend tells of S. Columba hearing the midnight bell which called the brethren to matins in his church in lona, and of his hurrying thither with feeble steps, and there dying before the altar, on June the gth, a.d. 597. It is, however, nearly a century later before we meet with an authentic record of the church bell as being in use in this countiy. Bede mentions the existence of a bell at Streanseshalch (Whitby) in the year 680, which was used to awake, and to call the nuns to prayer.f The second excerp- tion of Egbert, issued about the year 750, commands every priest, at the proper hours, to sound the bells of his church, and then to go through the sacred offices of God. In the tenth centur}" we trace the existence of bells in one of the illuminations in S. /Ethelwold's Benedictional, a gorgeous manuscript, certainly executed before the close of that century : an open campanile appears in which are suspended four bells. J The building of churches, and the founding of bells, were much encouraged at that time by a decree which provided that a Thane's rank might be obtained by a Saxon churl or franklin if he were rich enough to possess about five hundred acres of land, and had a church with a bell tower on his estate. § About that time too, if we may trust Ingulph, we • Walcott's Sac. Arch., p. 66. J Arclmologia, xxiv., plate 32. f Eccl. Hist., Book iv., c. xxiv. (Gidley's § Churton's Early English Church, p. Translation). 230. Church Bells. 7 find a ring of bells at Croyland Abbey. Turketil, who was made abbot of that House about 946, had "one very large bell " cast, called Guthlac ; to that one bell his successor, Egelric the elder (who died in 984) added six more — two large ones, which he called Bartholomew and Bettelm, two of medium size, which he named Turketil and Tatwin, and two small ones to which he gave the names of Pega and Bega. The chronicler adds, that when all these seven bells were rung "an exquisite harmony was produced thereby, nor was there such a peal of bells in those days in all England."* From this we may infer that single bells, if not rings, were then well known in this country. Neither were the abbots of Croyland the only ecclesiastics of that period whose names are handed down to us as founders of bells. S. Dunstan, "the chief of monks," an expert worker in metals, cast a bell, which for many ages after his death hung in Canterbury Cathedral ; two bells cast under his direction were at Abingdon, where also were other two the work of its founder S. i^thelwold.f S. Dunstan also drew up Rules for the ringing of the Bells, as did Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. J In the year 1023 Aldred, Arch- bishop of York, gave to the church of " Blessed Mary ever Virgin," at Southwell, two bells which are said to have been the first of the kind in use in the County of Nottingham. § * Ingulph's Chron., Bohn's Ed., p. 107. t Rock's Church 0/ our Fathers, iii., § Ex infor. The Rev. R. II. Whitworth, Part 2, p. 57. the author of an interesting paper on The I See these Rules in Church Bells of Documentary History of the Church and Totiii Somerset, pp. 113 and 114. of Southwell. 8 Church Bells. Indeed there is every reason for believing that at the Norman Conquest the art of bellfounding was well under- stood, and carried to great perfection in this country : the law of Curfew could not have been carried into effect if bells had not then been in general use. The grand old Norman — if not Saxon — towers of our churches (witness Brigstock and Brixworth in Northamptonshire) clearly point to the large and heavy bells which they were built to contain. We find an early reference to Church Bells in the Church of Stoke T>ry, Rutland, where on a late Norman column is carved the figure of a man tolling a bell. The first Englishman who followed bellfounding as a trade at present known by name, is Roger de Ropeforde of Paignton, who, in 1284, was employed to make four bells for the north tower of Exeter Cathedral,* and about the same time Michael de Lichfield, bellfounder, was plying his craft in that city.f In the thirteenth century we meet with constant mention of bells as of things not in the least extraordinary or rare. * Ellacombe's Bells of Exeter Cathedral, kettles, brass mortars, and mill-pots. Also p. 3. See also Notes and Queries, 5th, s. iii., for 425 pounds received from one old bell, p. 77, for an interesting account of the Also, for 40 pounds of brass, received by casting of a bell in the same year (1284). purchase. Also, for 896 pounds of copper An endorsement on the parchment upon received by purchase. Also, for 320 pounds which this account is written shows not of tin received by purchase. only the constituent parts of the bell metal, " Sum i85i pounds, of which there has but also proves the fact that those who been melted in making the new bell 1781 could not subscribe to the cost in money, pounds ; and there are 81 pounds remain- gave in kind : — " Metal for the bell. They ing over." answer for 180 pounds of brass received as f Hewitt's Handbook of Lichfield Cathedral, gifts, as in pots, platters, basons, lavers, Church Bells. g Matthew Paris writes as if, at least, every church of note, possessed one bell or more.* He tells us that Otto the Legate was received with processions, and the music of bells. t That upon the return of Henry the Third, from Gascony, in 1243, when he had come to Winchester, he gave orders that all the bells in the place should resound with joy;:|: and he further tells that in 1250, the Canons of S. Bartholomew, London, received the Archbishop Boniface of Canterbury "amidst the ringing of bells. "§ In 1239, Henry the Third directed a bell-turret to be made for the chapel of S. Thomas, in the castle of Winchester ;|| and the same monarch, in 1243, commanded a stone turret to be built in front of the King's chapel at Windsor, in which three or four bells might be hung.^ He was probably a lover of the sound of church bells, for a few years later — in 1255 — h^ granted an annual payment of 100 shillings a year to the Brethren of " the Gild of Westminster who are appointed to ring the great bells."** In 1273 we hear of the bell of the church of S. Benedict, Cambridge, being used to convene the clerks to extraordinary lectures. ft The earliest mention of the existence of church bells in Northamptonshire that I have met with occurs in this — the thirteenth century. About the year 1232 Raljih dc Troublcville and Alice his wife founded a Hospital upon • Bohn's Ed., vol. iii. p. 51. f Vol. i. p. 55. + Vol. i. p. 455. § Vol. ii. p. 346. C II Turner's Dom. Arch., vol. i. p. 193. H Ibid, p. 259. • ♦ Dells of the Church, p. 34. ff Church Bells of Cambridgeshire, p. 3. lo Church Bells. their estate at Armston, in tlic parish of Polebrook, in which they had " Hberty of one bell,"* In 1294 an acre of land in the parish of Harleston was given to the then Rector, Richard de Hette, from the proceeds of which he was to purchase the necessary ropes for the church bells. The following century also furnishes early evidence of the existence of bells in the same county : the first bell in the present ring at Cold Ashby is dated 13 17 — a remarkably early dated bell — and in 1390-1 a dispute is recorded as having taken place between the townsmen of Daventry and the monks of the Priory there as to the ringing of the bells belonging to the parish church. f Early in the same century (1306 and 132 1) mention is made of church bells in two of the ancient churches of Leicester. J In the middle ages, when roads were bad, and locomo- tion difficult, bells were frequently cast within the precincts of Religious Houses, and in churchyards, the clerg}^ or monks standing round, and reciting prayers and chanting psalms. Southey says : — " The brethren stood round the furnace, ranged in processional order, sang the 150th Psalm, and then after certain prayers, blessed the molten metal, and called upon the Lord to infuse into it His grace, and overshadow it with His power, for the honour of the saint to whom the bell was to be dedicated, and whose name it was to bear."§ An instance of this occurred at S. Albans in the • Bridges, vol. ii. p. 418. + North's Church Bells of Leicestershire, t Bridges, vol. i. p. 47. p. 8. § Southey's Doctor, vol. i. p. 296. Church Bells. ii early part of the fourteenth century when the great bell called " Amphibalus " being broken was recast in the hall of the sacristry.* During excavations in the churchyard of Scalford, Leicestershire, some years ago, indications of the former existence of a furnace for the casting of the church bells there were discovered, and a mass of bell-metal was found, which had clearly been in a state of fusion on the spot ; and a similar discovery was made about four years ago in the churchyard of Empingham, Rutland. Until quite recently the bellfounders occasionally acted in the same manner. " Great Tom " of Lincoln was cast in the minster yard in i6io;t and the great bell of Canterbury was cast in the cathedral yard in 1762. J We also find instances (at Kirkby Malzeard, Yorkshire, and Haddenham, in the Isle of Ely,) where a furnace was erected, and bells recast within the walls of the church itself.§ The founders, too, sometimes itinerated with the implements of their craft to a central spot, where they set up their furnace, and did what business they could with the neighbourhood around. This was done at Winterton, in Lincolnshire, by Daniel Hedderly, of Bawtry, in 1734; and Henry Bagley (formerly of Chacombe, Northamptonshire), then of Witney, Oxon, says, in an advertisement issued in 1732, that he would if desired "cast any Ring or Rings of Bells in the town [to which] they belong." * Church Bells of Somerset, p. 127. fHist. Lincoln (1816), p. 75. § Bells of the Church, p. 287. Notes and X Bells and Bellringing, by Rev. J. T. Queries, 5th, s. ii. 147. Fowler, F.S.A. 12 Cliiirch Bells. It may he well to state liere that the composition of bell-metal may he roughly said to he one portion of tin to three of copper. The popular helief that silver entered into the composition of the metal of our ancient bells, and that it is to its presence they are indebted for the beauty and purity of their tone is a great error. It was a custom to cast a few coins into the furnace, but silver in any appreci- able quantity would tend to injure and not to improve the tone. Age, no doubt, which changes the colour and roughens the surface of a bell, also improves in some manner — it has been suggested that it is by a very gradual process of oxidation — the character of its tone. After the bell was cast, and was made ready for its high and airy chamber, it was set apart for its future use by a solemn ceremonial, and by the recitation of an Office which has been variously termed the Blessing, the Consecration, and the Baptism of the Bell. The use of this Office, if not coeval with the introduction of the church bell, is certainly of great antiquity. Mr. L'Estrange, quoting the Abbe Barraud, states, that since the year 800 the Order of the prayers and rites employed in the Benediction of bells has not varied much. " It appears from a Pontifical preserved in the British Museum (Cottonian MS. Vespasian D. i. p. 127^ that the service commenced with the recital of the Litany, and that whilst the choir sang the antiphon Asperges me, the psalm Miserere and psalm 145, with the, five following psalms, and the antiphon In civitate Domini dare sonant, the bell about to be blessed was washed with holy water, wiped Church Bells. 13 with a towel, and anointed by the bishop with the holy oil."* The De Benedictione Signi vel Campance of the Roman Pontifical enjoins the same ceremonies interspersed with prayers, psalms, and antiphons. The bell washed by the bishop with water, into which salt had been previously cast, was then dried by his attendants with clean linen ; the bishop next dipped the thumb of his right hand in the holy oil for the sick, and made the sign of the cross on the top of the bell, he then marked the bell again both with the holy oil for the sick and with chrism, saying the words : — '^ Sancti -\- ficeUir, et conse + cretnv, Domine sigmim istud : in nomine Pa + tvis et Fi + Hi, et Spiritils + Saudi : in honorem Sancti N. Pax tibi.'" after which the inside of the bell was censed. f The Pontifical of Egbert, Archbishop of York, and other Office books, have similar services. This Office bore so close a resemblance to that of Holy Baptism, both in the ceremonial used, and in the giving of a name to the bell, as to be frequently considered synonymous with it. That such was the case, even in early times, we gather from the fact that Charlemagne issued, in the year 789, an express injunction against the baptism of bells. Learned liturgical writers of the Roman Church maintain that the baptism of bells was not in ancient times. * Church Bells of Norfolk, p. ly. Pontifical (Antwerp, 1627) in Dells of the f See a full copy of this service from the Church, p. 83. 14 C III I nil Bells. and is not now, as used by them, such as confers remission of sins — Southey quaintly observes " the original sin of a bell would be a flaw in the metal, or a defect in the tone, neither of which the priest undertakes to remove " — but the bells are thereby set apart from all secular uses, and blessed or consecrated ; and the hope is that (in accordance with the prayers offered) by their sound the powers of demons may be restrained, and the sources of storm, tempest, and contagion, kept away.* Whilst this no doubt is quite true, it must, nevertheless, be evident that the ceremony did frequently, in mediaeval times, surpass that of a consecra- tion, and, by an addition of other ceremonies to those enjoined in the Pontificals just quoted, bore so close a resemblance to baptism, as to present, at least to the eyes of the vulgar, a too close and irreverent resemblance to that Holy Sacrament. Le Sueur, an old French writer, shows this to have been the case. He says " that the imposition of the name, the godfathers and godmothers, the aspersion with holy-water, the unction, and the solemn consecration in the names of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, exceed in ceremonial splendour what is common at baptism, in • Lawrence Beyerlink, Canon of Ant- not as if it were a living thing, but just as werp, &c., &c., in his "Select Sermons of names are given to gates, harbours, and various Subjects " (Cologne 1627) says : — fortifications, or rather it should not so " Hence the custom of sponsors is free from much be said that a name is given to it, as all impiety, although the Roman Pontifical that it is consecrated in honour of some orders no such thing. For why cannot saint whose name afterwards continues special persons be appointed to have care with it." Quoted in Bells of the Church, of the bell and contribute to its expenses, p. 93. A name is given to a bell, Church Bells. 15 order to make the blessing of bells more highly regarded by the people. Real baptism," he remarks, " may be ad- ministered by all kinds of persons, and the rite is simple, but in what is done to the bells there is much pomp. The service is long, the ceremonies are numerous, the sponsors are persons of quality, and the most considerable priest in the place, or even a bishop or archbishop officiates."* That this was the case in England, as well as in France, we learn from a curious entry made by the churchwardens of S. Lawrence, Reading, in their Accounts for the year 1499 :— s. d, " Itm, payed for haloweng of the grete bell namyd Harry vj. viij. And mem. that Sir Willm. Symys, Richard Clech and maistres Smyth beyng godfaders and godmoder at the consecracyon of the same bell, and beryng all o\ costs to the suffrygan."t This custom of blessing bells before raising them to their place in the church tower points to the origin of bell inscriptions ; the earliest inscriptions being simply the name of the saint placed upon the bell when it was cast, and ratified at its consecration. J There is a singular proof of this in an unique inscription on a bell at Crostwight, Norfolk : — ASLAK JOH'ES JOH'EM ME NOI'AVIT • Quoted by Gatty, The Bell, p. 22. was always indicated in the inscription : t Notes and Queries, 3rd s. vii. p. go. indeed some ancient bells have no inscrip- \ It does not follow that the name given tion at all. 1 6 Cliurcii Bells. John Aslak being clcarl}' the godfather at the benediction or baptism of the bell.* When the medieval form of consecration was done away with in this country at the Reformation, English church- men, unfortunately, were not furnished with any form of dedication to suppl}' its place. Consequently, the people in getting rid of the superstitious rite of their fathers, substituted, upon the advent of a new bell, or ring of bells, f indecorous conviviality similar to that which is described by White of Selborne, who tells us that when new bells were brought to his parish in 1735, the event was celebrated by fixing the treble bottom upwards, and filling it with punch. It is a matter for thankfulness that this profane " christening" is becoming a thing of the past, and that the church is again receiving bells within her towers with a dedication service, sanctioned and used by her bishops, which is joyous and reverent in tone, and calculated to give all, clergy and people, a fitting impression of the uses to which the Bells of the Church are intended to be put. After such a dedication they can scarcely be used, as they frequently have been in times past, upon most improper occasions — occasions when things had been enacted com- pletely opposed to the honour of God, and utterly alien to the teaching of the church, whose fast and festival the bells are to mark, and whose summons to prayer and praise they are day by day to sound. * Church Bells of Norfolk, p. 17. I A bell is spoken of by ringers in the called ' a ring ; ' a performance upon them feminine gender ; a set of bells is properly ' a peal.' Church Bells. 17 It is now time to turn to the bell itself, and to see what it has to say in elucidation of its past history. To do this we must ascend to the bell chamber in the church tower, or to the bell turret on the roof. This is not always, by any means, an easy, pleasant, or even a safe, thing to do. Some of the stone staircases in our church towers are so much worn that only a scant and precarious foothold is left, and some of the long ladders by which the bells are reached are almost perpendicular, and, occasionally, so decaying with age, as to render a climb up them a proceeding requiring great care and some nerve. The floor of the bell chamber, too, is occasionally found rotten and covered with filth. Once up, however, the difficulty or danger attending the ascent is forgotten ; the ancient bells, so often heard, never, perhaps, before seen, are looked upon with reverence, almost with awe. We think of the many changes which have taken place in all around — many of which they have noted with their solemn tolls or their joyous peals — since they were first placed there. Our reverie, however, is broken by the cold wind rushing through the louvre boards in the windows, so we hasten to complete our work — take our "rubbing" or our "squeeze," give one hasty glance through the openings at the grand peeps of the surrounding country, so well obtained in our elevated position, and then descend with greater ease, and with much less trepidation, than we ascended. The earliest bells do not generally tell us anything as to the date when, or the locality in which, they were cast. They usually bear nothing more than the names of the D i8 C/nirc/i Bcl/s. saints in whose honour they were dedicated. Upon the tenor, or largest, bell is frcciucntly found the name of the patron saint of the church ; upon the smaller ones, perhaps, the names of the saints whose altars were formerly in the church below, or who were the patrons of ancient Guilds or Confraternities in the parish.* We have already seen that the ancient bells at Croyland Abbey bore names ; and from an ancient Roll at Ely we learn that when they cast four new bells for the Cathedral in 1346-7 they gave them the names of Jesus, John, Mary, and Walsyngham.f Bells of this class (though not necessarily of this early date) are found in Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Rutland- shire. We may mention now at Cold Ashby. Two or three early dated English bells have, however, been discovered. One (supposed to be the oldest dated bell in the kingdom) is at S. Chad's Church, Claughton, Lancashire, and is dated 1296, thus : — + ANNO DNI • M • CC • NONO • AI . the letter V being reversed. Two, richly ornamented, dated 1323, are in the tower of S. Mary's Church, Somer- cotes, Lincolnshire, J and we must not forget the well- • Inscriptions are usually placed upon of the bell: on old bells they are sometimes the haunch, or, as some call it the shoulder, found nearer the canons, f Church Bells of Cambridgeshire, p. 6. ^ Associated Arch. Socs. Reports and Papers, vol. xii. p. 19. Church Bells. ig known Northamptonshire early dated bell (a.d. 1317) at Cold Ashby to which we have just referred. These early inscriptions are usually in stately Gothic capital letters, and in Latin — the language of the mediaeval church. We soon meet with a slight extension of the inscriptions such as — to quote Northamptonshire examples : — + ISTA CAMPANA FACTA EST IN HONORE STA ANDREE at Northborough. HVIVS SANCTI PETRI at Holcot. Bells cast in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries though undated, have generally founders' marks, initial crosses, and other means of recognition by which they can be classified, and, in many cases, assigned to their respective dates and foundries. " These trade marks, however," as is well observed by Mr. Ellacombe, " are by no means infallible guides to the uninitiated in such matters ; for foundries often went on for generations, and marks and stamps were, no doubt, handed down from father to son often for a century or more."* They also not unfrequently passed from one foundry to another. On bells of this date, and on to the period of the Reformation, wc frequently find the invocation " Ora pro nobis " added to the name of the saint, thus : • Church Bells of Devon, p. 226. 20 Church Bells. SANCTA AGATHA ORA PRO NOBIS as at Castle Ashby. SANXTE BOTOLFE ORA PRO NOBIS as at Fawsley, both in Northamptonshire, and SANCTA FIDES ORA PRO NOBIS as at Tixover, Rutland. These invocations were taken from the Litany ; and other inscriptions doubtless owe their origin to the various Offices of the mediaeval church. For instance, a learned corres- pondent in Notes and Queries says that the inscription on the tenor bell at Billesdon, Leicestershire, " Stella Maria Maris succurre piissima nobis," is from the Benedictiones de S. Maria Sarum and York.* Very many have the angelic salutation : — AVE MARIA GRACIA PLENA as at Alderton, Northamptonshire, or AVE MARIA GRACIA PLENA DOMINVS TECVM as at King's Sutton in the same county. SIT NOMEN DOMINI BENEDICTVM and IN MVLTIS ANNIS RESONET CAMPANA lOHANNIS are found upon bells in Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Rutlandshire ; and other inscriptions of a similar character will be found on other bells in the Diocese of Peterborough. * Notes and Queries, 5th s. i. p. 465. Church Bells. 2i Occasionally we find figures of men and of angels on bells of this date. Examples of such are found in Leicester- shire at Thurcaston, Welham, and Wanlip. Northampton- shire furnishes only one example — the figures of the Virgin and Child upon the fourth bell at Stanion. English inscriptions though rare as early as the four- teenth and fifteenth centuries, were sometimes used. At Long Sutton, near Odiham, Hants, and at East Dean, near Chichester, are bells inscribed : — HAL MARI FVL OF GRAS at Gainford, Durham, is another with : — HELP MARI QUOD ROGER OF KIRKEBY that is. Help Mary quoth, or saith, Roger of Kirkby, who was vicar 1401 — 141 2.* And at Hannington in Northamp- tonshire is one, of the early part of the sixteenth century : — LOVE HORTETH NOT The founder's name, too, occasionally appears, as at Great Billing and Slapton, Northamptonshire, and Leicester (All Saints) and Sproxton, Leicestershire ; and the donor's as at Ayleston in the same county, and on the Priest's bell at Harringworth, Northants. At the date of which we are now speaking there was no such thing known as change-ringing : and, indeed it would seem that neither ringing " rounds " nor chiming in " tune " * Sottanstall's Campanologia. 22 " Church Dells. were possible in tlic great majority of our churches. In the Returns of the Commissioners for taking lists of the orna- ments of the churches in the Hundred of Framland, Leicestershire, in 6 Edward VI. certain churches are mentioned as possessing *' bells of a corde " or " bells oi one ryng'' meaning, I suppose, that the notes of these bells were in musical sequence, and Stow, in describing S. Bartholomew's Church in Smithfield, says, " in the bell tower sixe Belles in a time.'' In the Returns from the Northamptonshire parishes, Chipping Wardon is described as possessing " iij bells and a sauncts bell in the steple of a meane ryng,'' and Edgcott and Gayton as each having " iij bells in the steple of treble ryng," which distinctive terms, however, probably applied rather to their weight than to their musical arrangement. All the other churches are noted, simply, as possessing a certain number of bells, unfit, apparently, for musical chiming or ringing, but quite adequate to the custom of the time. That custom, probably, was in ordinary churches to have in addition to its own, or parish, bell, a bell for the Angelus, and one for each of the several altars which were usually found there dedicated to different saints, and which was sounded when mass was about being said at its particular altar. At Ludlow in addition to the fore bell, second bell, third bell, second tenor, and great bell, they possessed " our Lady belle," "First mass-bell," and "the gild belle."* Even now one bell is all that is required by the Rubric and (as now * Ludlow Churchwardens' Accounts published by Camden Society. Church Bells. 23 followed) by the Canons to be provided, of necessity, in churches at the charge of the parish. There is, however, no doubt that all the bells, notwithstanding their being unfitted for musical ringing or chiming, were used for Divine Service on Sundays. We find the Bell-master at Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the time of Edward VI. or earlier, was obliged " to help to reng to sarvys if ned be." The custom in larger churches where the canonical hours were kept will be referred to hereafter. Towards the close of the sixteenth century care was sometimes taken when bells were recast to have them " in tune." An instance of this occurred at Loughborough, Leicestershire, in 1586, when the churchwardens paid fourteenpence " to John Wever for his tow dayes chardges when he went to Notting- ham for them that came to prove the tune of ye bells." The Reformation introduced many changes in connection with bells, as it did with other " ornaments " of the church. The stately Gothic capital, and the quaint small "black letter," gradually gave place to clumsy Roman letters for the inscriptions. The beautiful initial cross, also, gradually disappeared. Figures of saint or angel were discarded. English, although it did not supplant Latin, gained a full share of use on the bells. Ancient Inscriptions were some- times erased as at Apethorpe, Croughton and Great Houghton in Northamptonshire. The old forms of inscrip- tions were dropped, at first to give place to mottos of a reverent character, which, soon, however, drifted, in many instances, into doggrel rhyme — stupid, frivolous, and tho- roughly out of place, or into a bare list of names of vicar 24 Church Bells. and churchwardens. Dates, in Arabic numerals, now appear on every bell ; and founders' names abound. As specimens may be mentioned the fourth and fifth bells at Arthingworth, Northants : — Ihesus be our spid 1598. Feare God and obeai the Qwene 1589 the third at Preston, Rutland : — God save our Queene Elizabeth the fourth at Clipston, Northants : — Give God the praise 1589 the fifth at Thorpe Arnold, Leicestershire : — Cum Cum and Pray 1597 the fourth at Passenham, Northants : — + A + trusty + frende + is + harde + to + fynde + 1585 the first at Caldecot, Rutland : — Peter Brown gave me to this towne 1696 the first at Brafield-on-the-Green, Northants : — Cantate Domino Canticum novum 1699 the first at Kingsthorpe in the same county : — Robert Atton made me The treble bell for to be 1621 Church Bells. 25 the first at Brington, also in Northants : — When wee doe ring I sweetly sing (1723) the fifth at Langham, Rutland : — The Churchis prais I sound allways 1771 the first at Northampton, All Saints : — I mean to make it understood That though I'm Httle yet I'm good 1782 the first at Whilton, Northants : — At proper times our voices we will raise In sounding to our benefactor's praise 1777 the first at Towcester : — Ring boyes and keep awake For Mr. William Henchman's sake 1725 On other bells are found these, and many similar inscriptions : — Pull on brave boys, I'm metal to the back But will be hanged before I crack Ring us true And we'll praise you When four this steeple long did hold They were the emblems of a scold No music, But we shall see What Pleasant music six will be* * Cast by Henry Pleasant for All Saints' Church, Maiden, Essex. E 26 Church Bells. Other bells bear the names of the donors, or com- memorate some event of national interest, but these speci- mens will suffice to give an idea of the various kinds of inscriptions found on Post-Reformation bells. Bell inscrip- tions after the middle of the seventeenth century afford little interest. With the revival of Gothic art, and a clearer perception of the fitness of things, we may hope that our new bells, when they bear anything beyond the name of the founder, will have inscriptions befitting their position and their use. There are, comparatively, few ancient bells now left in our church towers. Many reasons have been assigned for their disappearance ; such as ordinary wear and tear, accidents to the fabric of the church entailing injury to the bells, the remodelling of rings of bells to adapt them for change-ringing, the spoliation of churches at the period of the Reformation, and the poverty or parsimony of church- men in after times. In the second year of Edward the Sixth's reign a Commission was issued to enquire into the quantity and value of the church furniture and ornaments throughout England. For some reason the Commission failed to complete its object, so four years afterwards another Com- mission was issued which carried out its purpose more effectually. The Commissioners appointed for Northamp- tonshire were Richard Wake, Francis Morgan, and Francis Fairfield Esquires, and the Mayor of Northampton was instructed to see that the provisions of the Commission were properly carried out. Amongst the instructions given CJiiirch Bells. 27 to the Commissioners is found : — *' And also to sell or cause to be sold to our use by weight all parcells or peces of metall except the metall of greatt bell saunse bells in every of the said churches and chapels" and "we geve unto you full power and auctorytye straigtlye to charge [the church- wardens, &c., that they] safely kepe unspoiled unembesiled and unsold all such bells as do remayne in every of the said churches and chapells, and the same to conserve untill our pleasur be therein further knowne." There are now in existence, so far as yet discovered, inventories — more or less perfect — of church goods for twelve of the Hundreds in Northamptonshire, and for two of those in Leicestershire,* taken in the reign of Edward VI. So far as can be learned from them the bells of the parish churches of those counties, in common, as it seems to me, with those throughout the country generally, suffered com- paratively little from the hands of the spoiler in the sixteenth century. Indeed, I incline to think, the bells were too popular with the people to allow of their being seized with impunity. It must, however, be borne in mind that some church goods were (as Fuller says) "utterly embezzled by persons not responsible, more were concealed by parties not detectable, so cunningly they carried their stealth, seeing every one who had nimmed a church bell did not ring it out for all to hear the sound thereof."f • At present I have been unable to find any such Returns from Rutlandshire although diligent search has been made in the Record Office. f Book vii. sec. 2. 28 Church Bells. Neither were church towers falling with sufficient frequency to make an appreciable inroad upon our Pre- Rcformation bells. Undoubtedly in the two hundred years succeeding the Reformation — and more especially in the eighteenth century — as churches fell into decay, in rural districts, a very common way of raising money to pay for the repairs, was to petition the bishop to grant a faculty empowering the parishioners to sell some of the bells, which they represented as being unnecessary, or as cracked, and so unfit for use. Happily it does not appear that many of the church bells in the Diocese of Peterborough were lost in this way. It is therefore to ordinary and (in some cases, not all,) unavoidable wear and tear, and to the intro- duction of change ringing that we must look as the causes of the loss of a great number of our ancient bells. As to wear and tear : — when we remember the nature of the metal of which bells are made — how easily it may be cracked, and how reckless and ignorant, as a body, have been the ringers, into whose charge the bells have frequently been entirely left, we can w^ell believe that many of our ancient bells have from time to time succumbed to their almost inevitable fate. They were cracked, and so obliged to be recast, to fit them again for their work. In this way, undoubtedly, many of them disappeared, to be replaced by more modern ones. The introduction, however, of change ringing in the seventeenth century produced more havoc among our ancient church bells than any of the causes already men- tioned. Early in that century ringing increased in popularity. Church Bells. 29 The churchwardens of Loughborough, Leicestershire, charge in 1616 : — " It. spent in giveing entertainment to the gentlemen strangers when they came to ringe ... ... xJ5."* Fabian Stedman, a printer, resident in Cambridge, is said to have reduced change ringing to an art.f He published his " Tintinnalogia " in 1668. Previously to the seventeenth century the ringing in use, where anything of the kind was attempted, was "rounds" or — as a slight advance upon that — at most " call changes," that is, the bells were rung " in one particular position for a great many pulls consecu- tively, and changed at some accustomed signal to a variation called by a fugleman or chalked on the belfry wall."}: These must, in most cases, have been sorry performances, the bells not being *' tunable " and so unfit for the purpose. " With change ringing proper the case " — to quote Mr. Ellacombe — '* is very different: here a change is made at each stroke ; the bells being never sounded twice in the same order ; and this is continued till the end of the peal, when the bells are brought ' home ' to their regular places. This end is only to be attained by each bell being made to follow a certain course, and to change places with the other bells by the evolution of certain rules or * methods.' To manage his bell properly in this respect, and guide it up and down the maze, making it strike now before, and now after, this or that other • Thirty years before this date we are Regis. See Mackerell's History of Lynn told that "certain Lusty young Fellows iJ^g-w (1738), p. 229. began to set up Ringing again" at Lynn fCkurck Bells 0/ Cambridgeshm. p. 37. J Bells 0/ the Church, p. 32. 30 Church Bells. bell, not only requires much practice and study, but a cool head and close attention ; and this necessity justifies the remark that ringing requires a mental as well as a bodily effort."* To meet this new art of ringing, important changes in the bells were necessitated. The old rings consisted, usually, of few bells and heavy ones, dignity and grandeur of tone being then the chief thing sought. To ring the '* changes," introduced by Stedman and his disciples, a larger number of bells was required. This want could be met in two ways, either by adding new trebles to the existing heavy rings, which was the best, but the most expensive way, or by re-casting, say, four heavy bells into six or eight light ones, and so increasing the number without buying more metal. This was the least expensive, and, therefore, the most popular plan, and was the course pursued in many of the Northamptonshire and Leicester- shire churches. By this means a great number of our ancient bells disappeared from the larger town churches. It ceases, therefore, to be a matter of surprise that it is chiefly in small rural churches, with few bells, where the temptation to change-ringing could not exist, that we chiefly expect, and usually find, ancient bells. Not understanding the art of change-ringing, my readers will not expect or desire me to attempt to explain its subtleties, for "great" may all say with Dr. Southey " are the mysteries of bell ringing !" * Bells of the Church, p. 33. Church Bells. 31 " Eight bells, which form the octave, or diatonic scale, make the most perfect peal. Ten and twelve bells are very often hung, and of course increase to an almost incalculable extent the variety of changes. This term is used because every time the peal is rung round a change can be made in the stroke of some one bell, thereby causing a change in the succession of notes. The following numbers are placed to show how three bells can ring six changes : — I 2 3 I 3 2 .2 I 3 231 312 321 " Four bells can in the same manner be shown to ring four times as many changes as three, viz., 24. Five bells five times as many as four, viz., 120. Six bells six times as many as five, viz., 720, and so on. And in this way it has been calculated that it would take 91 years to ring the changes upon twelve bells, at the rate of two strokes to a second ; and the full changes upon 24 bells would occupy more than 117,000 billions of years."* The English have been for many generations enthusiastic admirers of the melody produced by a ring of bells. Whilst other nations — the Russians and Chinese for example — possess far heavier bells, and make much more noise by a rude irregular clanging, we have long been accomplished • The Dell. p. 62. 3^ C In well Bells. ringers, and our joyous peals — our "rounds" and number- less •' changes " have in no slight degree added to the cheerful temperament of " merrie England." Indeed so popular did the art of ringing become after the invention of " changes " that England became known as the " ringing Island." Paul Hentzer, a German, who visited England in the year 1598, records in his Journal : — " The people are vastl)^ fond of great noises that fill the air, such as the firing of cannon, drums, and the ringing of bells ; so that in London it is common for a number of them that have got a glass in their heads to go up into some belfry, and ring the bells for hours together for the sake of exercise."* This love of the English for bell-ringing is also amusingly referred to by P. S. in '^ A Theory of Com- pensation:'' — "And even to this day next to the Mother Tongue, the one mostly used (in Britain) is in a Mouth of Mettal and withal so loosely hung that it must needs wag at all Times and on all Topicks. For your English man is a mighty Ringer, and besides furnishing Bells to a Belfry doth hang them at the Head of the Horse, and at the Neck of his Sheep — on the Cap of his Fool, and on the Heels of his Hawk : And truly, I have known more than one of my Country men who would undertake more Travel and Cost besides, to hear a Peal of Grandsires than they would bestow upon a Generation of Grand Children. "f * Quoted by Carl Engel in Musical f See Hood's Poems of Wit and Humouy, Instruments, p. 120. p. 42. C /lurch Bells. 33 Ringing does not appear, however, to have been in all cases acceptable, for when the bells of S. Stephen's Chapel at Westminster were rung " men fabuled," says Stow, " that their ringing soured all the drink in the town."* Northamptonshire and Leicestershire were not behind in this national taste. The rings of bells in many of the larger churches were soon increased in number, and the men of those counties knew how to use them as is testified by many a " peal-board " nailed up in the ringing chambers of the churches. In Northamptonshire the ringers at King's Sutton, at Maxey, at Kettering, and at Ecton were long noted for their skill. Mr. John Scott of Glinton was a great ringer, and gave the tenor bell there in 1798, and Mr. Henry Smyth of Charlton, who was passionately fond of, and practised, as well as patronized, bell ringing, gave the two first bells to King's Sutton in 1793. In Leicestershire the married men and the bachelors of Wigston Magna emulated each other in buying new bells in 1682. The youths of Aylestone wishing to increase their ring of bells went to the ruined church of Knaptoft to fetch its single bell, but, unfortunately for their scheme, they stopped at Shearsby on their way home with their booty to drink : the inhal^itants of that place supplied them with beer, but claimed the bell, and added it to their own ring. Mr. William Fortrey of King's Norton, was an enthusi- astic - admirer of church bells, and did much towards * Saturday Review, I5tli April, 1876. 34 . CI III veil Bells. encouraging improvements in tlic rin^s in different parishes in the county. He rebuilt the church at Galby and phiced in it, in the year 1741, a ring of six bells. He did the same at King's Norton, hanging a ring of ten bells, since reduced to eight to lessen the weight and consequent strain upon the steeple. He also gave bells to other churches in that county.* The ringers were formerly frequently the young gentle- men, and the farmers' sons of the parish, and decency and order were kept by the enforcing of a set of rules — usually written in verse — placed upon the walls of the belfry. Specimen copies of these rules are still existing at Bowden Magna in Leicestershire, and at Brington, Harleston, &c., in Northamptonshire. This love of bells is still so universal in this country that if after admiring a church tower of goodly proportions, fair design, and which carries its glorious spire tapering heavenwards, we are told it contains no bells, a feeling of disappointment is mixed with our admiration, and we are tempted to exclaim " how sad that a case so magnificent is without its music ! — that a structure so grand and imposing is without the usual means of proclaiming the passing events of human life by means of its iron-tongued melody !" We need not be surprised at this affection for bells and their music, for not only do they summon all — as well the denizens of the crowded city, as the scattered inhabitants of the rural hamlet — to the House of Prayer ; not only are ♦ See North's ChuirJi Bells of Leicestershire, p. 31. Church Bells. 35 they heralds of the Festivals of the church's 3'ear with their joyous and heart stirring music, but they are also connected with every marked epoch of human life ; the birth in some instances, the marriage in more, the death in almost all, are marked by the joyous peal or the solemn toll of our church bells. To the bell the lover of architecture owes one of the grandest and most striking features of our noble cathedral, of our beautiful parish church, and of the more modest hamlet chapel : the massive tower, the taper spire, and the cot or gable were called forth and necessitated as the homes of the church bell. So again, not only has the fancy of the poet revelled in the sweet sounds of the church bells, but the hearts of the stern and the impassable have been touched by their familiar tones. When William the Conqueror was dying, a prayer was called from his lips, by the sound of the early morning bell of the Cathedral of Rouen ;* and when Napoleon, riding over a battle-field, and gazing, stern and unmoved on the dying and the dead, heard a ring of bells suddenly burst into a merry peal, he was softened, and dismounting from his horse, burst into tears. f * Ordcriciis Vitalis, Bohn's Ed., vol. ii. pp, 417 — 18. f Bells of the Church, p. 230. A performer playing a Carillon of five Bells, from a MS. said to be of the ninth century. THE CHURCH BELLS OF RUTLAND. THERE are in the County of Rutland one hundred and ninety-one Church Bells. Of these only thirty- one can be said, with any certainty, to have been cast before the year 1600. The Dedications and Legends of these thirty-one bells may be thus summarized : — One (Teigh 3rd) is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Holy Name of Four (Morcott 4th, Preston Sanctus, Edith Weston 2nd, and Seaton 2nd) are also dedicated to, or bear inscriptions relating to, the Blessed Virgin in these forms : — 2. SVM ROSA PVLSATA MVNULA AL\RIA VOCATA 1597. One bell (Preston ist) is dedicated to the Archangel Gabriel ; two (Braunstonc ist and Wardlcy 2nd) to S. 38 The Church Bells of Rutland. Thomas ; one (Wing 5th) to S. Thaddacus ; one (Tixover) to S. Faith; one (Lyndon ist) to S. Martin; one (Whitwell 2nd) to S. Giles; and one (Ayston ist) to S. Ambrose. One bell (Ayston 2nd) refers to one of our English kings, and is inscribed : — There are two bells (Glaston 3rd and Seaton 4th) inscribed : — One (Langham 4th) bears : — j^it idomtn ;]©om:ni ]©£it£bxctum. And one (Wing 4th) : — Two of these ancient bells (South Luffenham 4th, and Ridlington ist) have the letter S repeated. One (North Luffenham 2nd) has the imperfect in- scription : — Xlltlobie ©crct ^omrn ^ampann. One (Barrowden 2nd) the invitation: — ttim tfam anb prtan 1595- One (Barrowden 3rd) the lo3^al prayer: — gob snbe Ibt qbcene 1595- The Churcli Bells of Rutland. 39 Another (Preston 3rd) : — One (Cottesmore 2nd) has : — ©€):xD MM--WM. 'M%^ m-M^^^Mm-M 1598. Two of these bells (Barrowden 4th and Manton ist) have portions of the alphabet. One (Ketton 4th) has the singular inscription : — XMi@- i2Ei@- J xne-^erjic"^ 'wi%'Mijh sjjn© 1598. Two (South Luffenham ist and Seaton 3rd) have the names of their founders, and one (Ridlington 3rd) the name of its donor. The earliest dated bell in Rutland is the ist of South Luffenham ring, dated 1563. In the Belfry at Ryhall is a copy of Ringers' Rules in verse, referred to on page 34. THE FOUNDERS THE RUTLAND BELLS, THERE is no evidence to show that a Bell Foundry was ever established in this County. That an itinerant founder occasionally set up his furnace is shown by the discovery recently made in the churchyard at Empingham as mentioned on a previous page (p. ii) ; but the founders in the neighbouring counties appear — at least in recent times — to have supplied, to a great extent, the wants of the Churchmen of Rutland. In directing attention to the Founders, known and unknown by name, of the Church Bells now existing in this County, the more ancient bells first claim attention, and then notes upon the founders of those of a more recent date will follow. This shield (fig. 35) with the 2j Royal Arms is found upon the 4th The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 41 bell at Langham, in company with the cross, fig. i, and the stamp fig. 36. From its use in so many I 36 different localities this shield is thought to have been originally the property of a London founder, who, it has been observed, must have flourished subsequently to 1413, when Henry V. substituted three fieur-de-lys on the ist and 4th quarters of his coat for a semee of the same. Upon ancient bells it is frequently found ensigned with a crown, and accompanied, as in this case, by fig. 36, and also by a handsome cross with the motto ibb • mcrci • labi • ^ijlp.* In more recent times this shield was in the hands of the Leicester founders, and appears upon bells cast by them, and now hanging in Leicestershire and Northampton- shire. The cross, fig. i, is upon bells at Tansor and Pilton in the neighbouring county of Northampton. The next little cross, fig. 4, which is upon the 2nd bell at Ayston, is also found in many parts of England, fre- • Engraved in Churcli liclls of Nortliamptonsliirc. 42 The Founders of the Rutland Bells. quently in conjunction with the "Royal Heads" to be referred to presently. The initial cross, fig. 6, is found upon two bells in Rutland, namely the 4th at South Luffenham and the ist at Ridlington ; it is also upon the ist at Cossington, Leicestershire, and the ist at Barnwell S. Andrew, North- 21 The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 43 amptonshire ; in all these instances the inscriptions are similar — a repetition of the letter .S probably for Sanctus. The Rutland examples are both accompanied by the stamp of an unidentified founder, fig. g, and the Ridlington bell further carries the stamp, fig. 21. This last mentioned stamp, which occurs only once in Rutland, is frequently found in Leicestershire in conjunction with fig. 9, and there are reasons for thinking that they both originally belonged to the early Nottingham founders.* The shield, fig. g, is further found on the 4th bell at Morcott in company with the intervening stamp, fig. 13, to be referred to hereafter. 29 12 32 The crosses, figs. 12 and 32, arc upon one bell only in this county — the single ancient one at Tixover dedicated to S. Faith ; they are accompanied by the shield, fig. 2g ; all It has been stated that the shield, fig. 9, probably belonged to Mcllor of Nottingham but it has to be proved. 44 TJic Founders of the Rutland Bells. whicli stamps arc also upon the 2iul and 3rd bells at Ufford, Northamptonshire. This shield is found upon many bells in Kent, and may therefore be supposed to have belonged originally to a founder in that locality. It appears that the letter stamps of these Kent bells, and so, perhaps, this shield fell into the hands of a founder whose initials, J, S., are upon bells in Hants, Berks, Bucks, Oxon, Surrey, Sussex, Somerset, &c. Those bells, and others bearing similar stamps, are supposed by Mr. Tyssen, for reasons given in his Church Bells of Sussex, to have been cast at Reading : the presence of the initials upon some of them leads to the inference that they were from the foundry of John Saunders, who was casting bells there from 1539 to 1559. At a later date the shield was in the hands of a founder who, in 1604, cast the 2nd bell at Kingsbury, Middlesex. The small cross, fig. 28, is upon the 2nd bell at Whitwell with an unusual dedication. It is found upon two interesting Sanctus bells in Northamp- tonshire, those at Harringworth and Walgrave. The former bears an in- scription from which we may fairly infer that it was the gift of Philip de 28 Repingdon, Bishop of Lincoln, 1405- 1420. Being thus enabled to assign a definite date to that bell, we may assume (other circumstances being in agree- ment) that this Whitwell bell, with the same founder's mark, is of the same date. The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 45 The singular stamp, fig. 15, which 1 first found as an intervening stop upon the 2nd bell at Dalby Parva in Leicestershire, is upon the only ancient Sanctus bell in Rutland — that at Preston, dedicated to S. Mary. The shield, fig. 20 (over), is upon the ancient bell (3rd) at Teigh, with the inscription : — I found the same stamp upon two bells in Leicestershire — the 1st at Muston inscribed "I H S Maria," and the 3rd at Thurcaston bearing " In the naym of I H S sped me." The^e instances of a similarity of inscription accompanying the same stamp, together with those mentioned before on page 43 as being found in several cases with the cross, fig. 6, tend to show that the founder himself frequently chose the inscription even in pre-Reformation times. On the Teigh bell this shield, fig. 20, is accompanied by the stamps, figs. 18 and ig, which are also upon the Thurcaston bell to which I have just referred. These stamps, known to campa- nists as " Royal Heads," are assigned from peculiarities in treatment to Edward L and Queen Eleanor; other stamps of a similar character are assigned to Edward 111. and Queen Philippa, Henry VI., Margaret of Anjou, and lu;r son Prince Edward. These "Royal Heads" upon the Teigh bell arc the most common of the series, being found 46 TJic Foundcys of the Rutland Bells. in most parts of the kingdom. For that reason they are supposed originally to have belonged to London founders. 33 The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 47 At a later date they were in the hands of the Nottingham founders, and, as I have shown, one, at least, was occasionally used by an early founder at Leicester.* The large cross, fig. ;^2)} is found on one bell only in Rutland — the Gabriel bell (ist) at Preston ; it is also on a single bell in Leicestershire — the 3rd of the Frolesworth ring. The cross, fig. 30, which is upon bells in Leicestershire, and upon one in Northamptonshire, is also upon the 4th bell at Wing, and upon the 4th at Barrowden, where it is accompanied by the stamp, fig, 22, here engraved. This 30 22 last stamp being found in Northants upon bells from the Newcombes' foundry at Leicester, makes it highly probable that this bell was cast there, and that the cross, fig. 30, belonged to them. Having called attention to the stamps upon the ancient bells by unknown founders, a few notes now follow uj")on • Church Bells of Leicestershire, p. 84. 4S The Founders of the Rutland Bells. those better known founders — ancient and more recent — whose bells are still in the churches of Rutland. Richard Benetlye. At Seaton hangs a bell (the 3rd) inscribed, in large semi-Roman semi-Gothic letters : — Ryecharde Benetlye Bell Fovndder and bearing the initial cross, fig. 25. 25 The locality of this founder has yet to be discovered, but the date when he lived is furnished by another bell, which I recog- nized to be his by the form of the cross and the letters, hanging at Passenham, in Northampton- shire, and which is inscribed : — + A -f TRV8TY -I- FRENDE + IS + HARDE + TO -I- FYNDE + 1585. LEICESTER. Johannes de Stafford had, there are good reasons for believing, a foundry in Leicester at least as early as the middle of the fourteenth century ; but I do not find a single bell in Rutland bearing his initial cross or letters. William Millers is the next known Leicester Bell- founder. He was admitted a member of the Merchants' TJie Founders of the Rutland Bells. 49 Guild, Leicester, as a "Bell Heytau"* in the year 1499- 1500. t He died soon afterwards (in 1506), for his will — wherein he is described as of All Saints, Leicester, Bell- founder — dated 29th Nov. 1506, was proved on the 12th of the following Januar}^ His widow, Margery, married for her second husband Thomas New-combe, who described himself in his will as of Leicester ^^ fiisor campanariiis.'^ He carried on the business of the Leicester foundry until his death, which took place in the year 1520. He was buried in All Saints' Church, Leicester. His will, dated the 20th March, 1520, was proved on the 25th of August following. He left by his wife Margery, the widow of William Millers, two sons and three daughters, namely, Robert, Edward, Joan, Agnes, and Margaret. His widow (now twice a widow) having suc- ceeded to the bulk of her second husband's property and to the foundry, married a third husband, viz. : Thomas Bett. He was Mayor of Leicester in 1529, and is styled in a Roll of the Mayors " Bellfounder of All Saints" and "ancestor of the Newcombes." Thomas Bett outlived Margery, and afterwards married Anne .... His will, dated 19th Dec. 1538, was proved on the 6th of February following. By it he left nearly the whole of his property to Robert Newcombe who had married his daughter Katherinc (his only child, apparently, by a former wife) : by this means he enriched his son-in-law, who also • " Heytaur " or Yeytaur, that is, Bellyetter, Bellzetter, or Bellfounder. f Hall Book, 1477-1553, p. 67. H The Founders of the Rutland Bells. succeeded to the foundry, and so, in tliis way, Thomas Bett became, in a sense, according to the Mayors' Roll just quoted "ancestor of the Newcombes." This Robert Newcombe, in 1540, purchased from George Belgrave a messuage in All Saints' parish, Leicester, situate between his own tenement on the south and Thomas Bridge's on the north, and abutting on the east part upon the Church of All Saints, and on Clement's Lane on the west. This transaction shows the site of the foundry. A bell hangs at Manton in this county, inscribed with a portion of the alphabet, and another at Ayston, bearing the name of Ambrose, which, for several reasons, I incline to attribute to this founder rather than to his son of the same name ; they both bear the stamp, fig. 1 1 ; in addition to which the Manton bell has the cross, fig. 2 (which will be referred to presently), and the Ayston bell shows also 24 the stamp, fig. 24. This stamp (fig. 11), which was fre- The Pounders of the Rutland Bells. 51 quently used by the early Leicester founders, is found upon many of Newcombe's bells in Leicestershire and North- amptonshire. Robert Newcombe was elected Mayor of Leicester in 1550. He left four children, Thomas, Edward, Anne, and Robert. The three sons being all associated with the foundry, it is necessary to speak of them separately. I. Thomas Newcombe as ''primus filius Robti New- combe " was admitted a member of the Merchants' Guild in 1567-8. In 1562 " Mayster Newkom " recast *'o' Ladye bell " at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. That bell — the 5th of the present ring — still hangs in the fine tower of Melton Church, and it enables us to show the founder's mark, bearing his initials, used by this Thomas Newcombe, and, undoubtedly, also by his predecessor of the same name in the craft in Leicester. It is fig. 27 here given. The same shield is found upon three bells in this county — Braunstone ist, Wardley 2nd, and Wing 5th. It is frequently associated, as in these three instances, with the initial cross, fig. 2. 27 52 The Founders of the Rutland Bells. Thomas Newcombc died in 1580-1, being buried in All Saints' Church, Leicester, on the 7th of February in that year. His will was proved in the Archdeaconry Court of Leicester in the same year (1581). He had several sons, but none of them appear to have been connected with the foundry. 2. Robert Newcombe was another son of Robert, the son-in-law of Thomas Bett. He placed his name upon the -r| 4th bell of All Saints, Leices- ter, in 1586. Upon that bell is the cross, fig. 23,* which is also found upon bells at Glaston (3rd), Ketton (4th), and Pres- ton (3rd). These bells may therefore be assigned to the Newcombes, or more properly to them in union with Francis or Hugh Watts of Leicester, whose stamp (see p. 56) also appears upon thesebells, and with whom, as is known, they were occasionally in partnership. This cross is found upon earlier bells in Norfolk, and elsewhere, bearing the mark of Richard Brasyer of Norwich ; t it may have fallen into the hands of the Leicester founders when the Norwich foundry was closed for a short time after the year 1513. 23 * There are two sizes of this cross object would be gained by engraving more found, but as they are precisely alike, no than one. f Church Bells of Norfolk, p. 32. The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 53 3. Edward Newcombe was the third son of Robert Newcombe, the son-in-law of Thomas Bett. He married Elizabeth Martin in All Saints' Church, Leicester, on the I2th January, 1573-4. He lived in S. Martin's parish, was one of the "Stewards of the Fairs" in 1574-5,* became a member of the Town Council in I577,t and was elected Mayor in 1599. Three, at least, of his sons were connected with the foundry, viz. : 1. Robert Newcombe, his eldest son, baptized 20th January, 1576-7, was admitted into the Merchants' Guild as a " Bellfounder and Tann' " in 1600-1, when he paid " a pottell of wyne " as his fine. 2. Thomas Newcombe, the third son of Edward, placed his name upon bells in Leicestershire in 1604 and 161 1. 3. William Newcombe, the fifth son of Edward, cast (in partnership with Henry Oldfield of Nottingham) "Great Tom " of Lincoln in the Minster yard in the year 1610.J At the commencement of the seventeenth century the Newcombes ceased to use, excepting in rare instances, their old initial crosses, and other marks, as well as their old sets of letters and forms of inscription, and began to use the form (in plain Roman capitals) to which they subsequently, as a rule, adhered : — 4- Be . yt . knowne . to . all . that . dotli . me . see . that . Newcombe . of . Leicester . made . mee . with the cross, fig. 31 (over), prefixed. The 6th bell at Ketton is an example of this. * Chamberlains' Accounts. f Hall Book. % ^^'^'' Lincoln (i8iC), p. 75. 54 The Founders of the Rutland Bells. At that time the Newcombes were largely employed in various parts of the country to cast church bells : but the most noteworthy bell of that date from their p^j^^jf -4 foundry is one which is — so far as at present l^^'T'r*'^*^! known — quite unique. It is the well known 4th ^--^ » bell at S. Mary's, Oxford, called the " Music 31 Bell."* In 161 1, when Edward Newcombe and his sons recast the 2nd bell at S. Martin's, Leicester, he was styled by the churchwardens there " old Mr. Newcome." Although I find no record of his death, he probably died soon after that date, after which the foundry appears to have been merged into, or to have been eclipsed by, that of Hugh Watts, the son and successor of Francis Watts, and who about that time began to acquire a great reputation as a Bellfounder. The last dated bell of the Newcombes in Rutland is the one just mentioned at Ketton, cast in the year 1606. Hugh Watts. On the ist bell at South Luffenham is inscribed: " Hew Watts made me 1563," and it bears the stamps, figs. 3 (see p. 56) and 37 (next page), which we know from bells elsewhere were in the hands of the Watts family, but I have been unable at present to identify him with certainty as one of the Leicester founders, though I suspect he is referred to in the following entry in the Accounts of the Churchwardens ofS. Martin's, Leicester, forthe year 1617-18: " Item for the bells for olde Mr. Watts and buryall in the church xij5. * An account of that bell is given in the Church Bells of Northamptonshire, p. 286. Tlie Founders of the Rutland Bells. 55 This was not Francis Watts, who died in 1600, and so possibly his father, this *' Hew Watts " mentioned on the South LufFenham belL Their house, and most probably their foundry, being in the Gallowtree Gate, they would be in S. Martin's parish. The first member of that family I find mentioned as connected with Leicester is Francis Watts, who, in the year 1564-5, bought the bell wheels belonging to S. Peter's Church, Leicester, then being taken down.* He resided, and probably had his foundry in the " Galtry^e gate of the burroughe of Leicester." In 1585 he, in partnership with the Newcombes, cast the tenor bell at Loughborough, Leicestershire. To him may be safely assigned the founding of the 2nd and 3rd bells at Barrowden, and most probably the 4th at Morcott, upon which are placed as a stamp fig. 13 — both this stamp, and the one mentioned above, fig. ^j, were used by him, and occasionally by his son and successor, Hugh d>7 13 • Chamberlains Accounts in MS. 56 Tlic Founders of the Rutland Bells. Watts.* Francis Watts also appears to have been con- nected with his neighbours and relations t the Newconnbes in the casting of the 3rd bell at Glaston, the 4th at Ketton, and the 3rd at Preston, each of these bells bearing, as before mentioned (p. 52), in addition to Newcombe's stamps, the shield, fig. 3, which we shall see presently was in the hands of the Watts family. The only bell known to me as bearing the name of Francis Watts hangs at Bingham, Notts., it is inscribed : — Francis Watts died in the year 1600. His will, dated 8th February, 3 1 599- 1600, was proved on the 2nd of September in that year. He left the chief of his property to his wife, and to his second son Hugh — his eldest probably died young. Hugh Watts was born about the year 1582. He placed his name, in 1600, upon a bell at Burrow-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, since recast, and upon the present 2nd bell at Evington in the same county is " Hugh Wattes made me 1605." These are the only two instances I have found * The presence on the Morcott bell of fig. 9, mentioned before as probably origi- nally belonging to the Nottingham founders, should be noted. f Helen, daughter of Francis Watts, appears to have married Robert New- combe. The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 57 in which he adopted a custom so soon prevalent with all founders of putting their names upon the bells they cast. Upon this Evington bell is the shield (fig. 3) just given. The presence of this shield in conjunction with his name enables us, as we have seen, to assign several older bells, bearing the same mark, to his father Francis Watts then lately deceased. Hugh Watts was admitted a member of the Merchants' Guild in 1611-12.* He soon obtained a high reputation as a founder ; his bells are still extremely numerous both in his own county, where there still are about 200, and in Northamptonshire, where more than 170 now hang in the belfries. Although Hugh Watts upon rare occasions used the stamp, fig. '^y^ which had been used by his father, he, as a rule, used no other mark in addition to the shield already mentioned (fig. 3). This is upon other bells in Rutland from his foundry, viz. : the 3rd at Braun- stone, the 5th at Ketton, the 6th at Oakham, and the 3rd at Ridlington. It is worthy of note that this mark was used for a short time by the Norwich founder, Richard Brasyer {circa 1450), who, however, afterwards exchanged it for a more heraldic one with an ermine field, in place of the diapered one. At the death of Richard Brasyer in 15 13, the foundry at Norwich was closed for a short timc.f It is not improbable that the father of Francis Watts (perhaps the " Hew Watts" of the South Luffenham bell) had been employed there, and leaving at the closing of the foundry, found his way to Leicester, opened a foundry there • Hall Book. t Church Bells of Norjolh, pp. 28-33. ;8 The Founders of the Rutland Bells. on his own account, and used as a mark the shield and some other stamps, with which lie had been famihar at Norwich. For many of their inscriptions both Francis and Hugh Watts used handsome gothic capitals (see figs. i6, 17, and 16 17 38), but Hugh Watts more generally used a rather clumsy Roman capital letter. His favourite inscriptions were " God save the King," " Celorum Chrste platiat tibi Rex sonvs iste " (the letter I being always wanting in the second word), ''Cvm sono si non vis venire nvnqvam ad preces cvpies ire," " Cvm Cvm and pray" and portions of the alphabet. His most frequent inscription, however, was "IH'8 : Nazarenvs : Rex Jvdeorvm : Fili Dei : miserere mei " (the first S being always reversed). Of this inscrip- tion there are still no less than sixty-seven examples in Northamptonshire, and nearly ninety in Leicestershire : indeed so frequently did Watts use this form that his bells I The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 59 became known as " Watts' Nazarenes." A peculiarity in his gothic lettered inscriptions may be mentioned : he pos- 38 sessing no capital letters W and Y — these being seldom required in Latin inscriptions — they always appear in small black letters. Hugh Watts' inscriptions are usually carried all round the bell, the spaces between the words being filled up, in the majority of cases, with an ornamental band of stiffly formed acorns and oak leaves (fig. 39). T-T 39 6o TJic Foumicrs of the Rutland Bells. Hugh Watts was elected one of the Chamberlains of the Borough of Leicester in 1 620-1 and Mayor in 1633-4. He had a younger son — another will be mentioned presently — Francis Watts, who was apprenticed to his father as a Bellfounder, and who was admitted to the Merchants' Guild in 1636. He probably died before his father. After taking his full share in municipal matters in the stirring times in which he lived, Hugh Watts died in 1643. His Will, dated ist February, 1642-3, was proved on the 23rd of the next month. In it he described himself as " Hugh Watts of the Borough of Leicester, the elder, Bellfounder," and his dwelling house as " The Talbott." He left all his "tools and implements belonging to the trade of a Bell- founder " to his son Hugh Watts, who, however, does not appear to have been in any way connected with the foundry, and who certainly did not carry it on after his father's death. George Curtis has been mentioned as a Leicester Bellfounder. He w^as apprenticed to Hugh Watts and "took up his freedom " on the gth May, 1627,* t»ut I think he was never more than a foreman under Hugh Watts. He occupied a tenement in the South-gate which Hugh Watts held of the Corporation of Leicester. t The only reference to him I have seen in connection with the foundry is a charge by the Chamberlains of the Borough in 1644-5 of 2S. 6d. paid to " George Curtice for exchangeinge of Thomas Hartshorne's bell," Hartshorne being the cryer. * Hall Book. f Chamberlains' Accounts, 1644-5. The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 6i This would be shortly after Hugh Watts' death, and when Curtis was probably winding up his master's business. His name has not been found upon any bell. He died in 1650, as we are told in the following entry in the Register of S. Martin's Church, Leicester, — an entry which no doubt has led to the inference that he was a master founder : — Ano Dni 1650 Septem. 5th George Curtis Bellfounder was burydd. To show that the Leicester foundry was closed about that time we find the following entry in the Chamberlains' Accounts for the year 1655-6 : — Itm payd for castinge the Cryer's Bell and for the carriage thereof to Nottingham and bach againe 00 . 07 . 04 Portions of Watts' foundry gear passed into the hands of the Nottingham founders. We find his letters used by them upon bells in Leicestershire, but his mark (fig. 3) and band ornaments never appear after his death. Thomas Clay. After the closing of Hugh Watts' foundry and the dispersion of his gear there seems to have been no attempt made to revive the craft in Leicester for several years. At length, in 171 1, the name of Thomas Clay of Leicester appears as a founder upon two bells yet existing in Leicestershire, and in 1715 he cast the present tenor bell at Great Harrowdcn, Northamptonshire. Beyond these notices of his existence, and the fact that he cast a ring of eight bells for Southwell Collegiate Church, wliich were so 62 Tiic Fouinh-rs of tlic Riifhnid Bells. much disliked tlmt they were speedily recast by Rudhall of Gloucester,* I know nothing. Edward Arnold. After another interval of several years a foundry was again opened in Leicester by Edward Arnold, w^ho had worked with, and succeeded, his uncle, Joseph Eayre of S. Neots, and from which foundry he supplied the present ist bell at Brooke in 1780. His foundry at Leicester is said to have been in Hangman's Lane — now called Newarke Street. The first ring of bells he cast in Leicester was that of Rothley, Leicestershire, in the year 1784. He did not supply many bells to Rutland : the 5th at Ashw^ell, the Priest's bell at Barrowden, the ist at Ryhall, and the ist at Whissendine, are from his Leicester foundry\ Messrs. Taylor. During part of the time that Edward Arnold carried on the Leicester foundry, he also continued his business at S. Neots, into which he received, as an apprentice, Robert Taylor, w^ho towards the close of the eighteenth century succeeded to the foundry there, which at that time was carried on in a lofty brick building situate in the Priory, and built in the form of a bell. The business was carried on there by Robert Taylor, then by Robert Taylor and Sons, until the year 1821, when they removed to Oxford. In 1825 ^^e late Mr. John Taylor, one of the above firm, w^ent to Buckland Brewer, near Bideford, Devon, to cast the bells there, and after casting several rings and odd bells in Devon, Cornwall, &c., returned to * Midland Counties' Historical Collector, vol. ii. p. 355. The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 63 Oxford in 1835. In 1839 or 1840 he and his son came to Loughborough, Leicestershire, to cast the bells there, and finding the town well situated for business, took up their residence in that place. Since that time Mr. John Taylor has died, leaving his son, the present Mr. John William Taylor, the head of the now justly celebrated Leicestershire foundry. The Oxford foundry, which had been chiefly under the superintendence of Mr. William Taylor, brother of the above mentioned Mr. John Taylor, was closed upon his decease which occurred in 1854. The Messrs. Taylor have supplied many bells to Rutland from their foundries. As their names appear upon them a list in detail is rendered unnecessary.* STAMFORD. There was a foundry here which supplied numerous bells to the churches of Rutland and the surrounding counties. f Tobias (or Tobie) Norris, Bellfounder, took up his freedom on the 4th of June, 1607. He was one of the "Capital Constables" in that year, and again in 1621-2, and warden of S. George's Church in 1613-14. His name also occurs in connection with charities belonging to S. George's parish in i6og. He died on the 2nd November, • For a full account of the ancient shire, pp. 37-74. Several more of the stamps Leicester Bellfounders with copies of their used by them are also engraved in the Wills, &c., &c., see Church Bells of Leicester- Church Bells of Northamptonshire. f See further on under the account of the Nottingham founders for a suggested origin of this foundry. 64 The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 1626, and was buried in the north aisle of S. George's Church, Stamford, where a small brass thus records the fact :— HERE LIETH THE BO DY OF TOBIE KORRIS BELFOVM ; WHO DEC EA : THE Z OF KO 1626 and the Register of the parish says : — 1626 Tobye Norris Bell-founder was buryed the iiij daye of November His earliest bell in Rutland appears to be the 2nd of the ring at Little Casterton, dated 1608, and his latest the 3rd at Ayston, dated 1626. He did not usually place his name as founder upon the bells from his foundry (it only appears once in this county — upon the 3rd bell at Ayston), but he used several stamps. He placed the initial cross, fig. 26, upon his bells at Ayston (3rd), Glaston (ist and 2nd), Hambleton (2nd), and Lyndon (2nd), and with this cross he placed as an intervening stop fig. 5 at Edith Weston ^ ,s ^ 26 10 TJie Founders of the Rutland Bells. 65 (ist), and North Luffenham (3rd). He also placed the initial cross, fig. 10, upon the 4th bell at Hambleton and the 4th at Tinwell. Figure 14 appears as an initial cross upon his bells at Brooke (2nd), Little Casterton (2nd), Hambleton (ist), and South Luffenham (3rd). Another — ToBYAs NoRRis, also a Bellfounder (probably a son of the above Tobias), took up his freedom on the 4th June, ' 1628, and we find his name as "Toby Norris of Staunford bellfounder " men- 14 tioned in a document relating to the church estate in 1638. He apparently occupied a sub- ordinate position in the foundry. Thomas Norris — who, upon the death of Tobias the elder, succeeded to the business — took up his freedom as a Bellfounder on the 31st December, 1625. He was warden of S. George's Church from 1630 to 1632, spelling his name as Norys and Norris. He was constable for the parish of S. George g and 10 Car. ist; elected a "capital burgess" (that is, a member of the body corporate) 25th September, 1638; Chamberlain in 1641-2 ; and Com-burgess (or, as would now be said, Alderman) 27th January, 1652-3. He was also one of the "Conduit Masters" for several years. While he sat in the Council Chamber it is recorded of him that he was upon several occasions fined iJ5. vj^. for non-attendance at meetings. In 1656-7 he served the office of chief magistrate as "Alderman" — the title of " Mayor" was not then adopted at Stamford — for his native K 66 Tlic Founders of tJic Rutland Bells. town.* Besides being a member of the Borough senate, Thomas Norris was also a useful parochial officer of S. George's parish, filling several offices of trust and considera- tion. At a meeting of the Hall, held loth May, 1663, it being agreed that the sum of ;f200 should be borrowed towards defraying the expenses of a new Charter from the King, Thomas Norris was one of the sureties. His career in the Corporate Chamber was not always a pleasant one, for we find that at a Common Hall held on 13th July, 1665, "Thomas Norris and Robert Whatton two of y^ Aldermen" had notice "to appeare at y^ next hall, and in the interim shall doe and p'forme their duty as is injoyned on 3^^ rest of y^ Aldermen, or others to be chosen in their place." The duty alluded to as being shirked, consisted in carrying out a previous order made by the Hall, that in consequence of the plague raging very severely at Peterborough and adjacent places, a strict watch was to be kept day and night to prevent any person entering Stamford without a pass : and in order to see that the guard did their duty, one of the first company (Aldermen) was to be with the guard, one every night in his turn. From some cause not recorded in the municipal books, Thomas Norris appears, some years later, to have taken umbrage, for at a meeting of the Hall, held 29th August, • During his tenure of office his appren- corporate records of Wm. Saunders. It tice, William Saunders, "because he hath may be worth noting that at a meeting of served seven years apprenticeship in this the Council held 28th April, 1664, the Fee Corporation is freely admitted to scott and for taking up the Freedom of Stamford by lott." No further mention is found in the a Bellfounder was fixed at £1^. The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 67 1678, the following letter, resigning his seat, was read by the Mayor :— Mr. Mayor I have not of late received soe much content and satisfaction in my residence in Stamford as formerly so am resolved to retire myselfe amongst other my relations in y" countrey soe y* I shall not bee capacitated to doe y* corporacon any further service, and am desirous to resigne up my office of Alderman, and my requests are y^ you will bee pleased to accquaint y* rest of y° brethren therew'"*, and accept of this my resignation, and although I cannot bee flfurther serviceable to y' Corporacon yet I shall alwaies pray for y* p'spitye thereof and am Yo"' most humble serv* Thomas Norris. Stamford Aug. y" 6, 1678. The resignation was accepted, but to what place Thomas Norris retired is unknown : perhaps to Barrowden or to Tickencote, in this county, where, as the Registers show, a family of his name was living from 1610 to i6gg.* There are several of Thomas Norris' bells in Rutland. They are found dating from the year 1626 at Ryhall (3rd) to the year 1671 at Ridlington (2nd). A bell of his hangs at Fakenham, Norfolk, dated 1678, the year when, according to the above letter, he resolved to leave Stamford. He occasionally placed his initials upon his bells, as at Ryhall (5th). His son and successor (who occasionally placed his own name on bells during his father's lifetime), • Edith the wife of Thomas Norris (according to the parish registers of S. George, Stamford) was buried 2bth July, 1G73. 68 The Foiimh'is of the Rutland Bells. Tobias Norris, was baptized at S. George's Church, Stamford, on 25th April, 1634. He was Overseer of the Highways in 1660-7, of the Poor 1678-9, and Churchwarden in 16S5-6; his name also occurs in connection with parish charities in 1693. He was buried, as appears by the register of S. George's parish, 19th January, 1698-9. His bells in Rutland range in date from 1675, ^^^ ^f the ring at Exton, and the 2nd bell at Clipsham, to 1699, the 5th bell at Cottesmore, so he continued casting until his death. He occasionally used figs. 26 and 10 as initial crosses, but frequently placed his name as founder without any cross or stamp. The favourite inscriptions of the Norris family were " Mvlti vocati pavci electi " (which, however, does not appear in Rutland) — " Cvm voco ad ecclesiam venite " — "Omnia fiant ad gloriam Dei" — " Non clamor sed amor cantat in aure Dei " — and, occasionally, on the tenor bell, as at Tinwell and Hambleton, " Non sono animabvs mor- tvorvm sed avribvs viventivm," which, as has been said, was perhaps " a fling " at the old faith. Mr. Justin Simpson of Stamford, to whom I am indebted for much of the above information respecting the Stamford bellfounders, tells me that there is, unfortunately, no known record pointing out the precise site of the foundry, but that it is generally believed to have been in the vicinity of the present Gas Works, or of Mr. Blashfield's Terra-cotta Works. Alexander Rigby appears to have been connected — perhaps as foreman — with the Stamford foundry for some The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 69 years before the death of Tobias Norris in 1698-g, for at Great Billing, in Northamptonshire, the ist bell cast by him is dated as early as 1684. There are not many bells by Rigby, or as he sometimes spelt his name " Rigbe," in Rutland, but there are plenty to show that he carried on the foundry for a few years (until his own death) after the decease of the last Norris. Rigby's bells extend from 1703 at Greetham (2nd) to 1706 at Barrowden (ist). Upon several of these he placed the cross, fig. 14, used, as we have seen, by the Norris family. He died at Stamford in the year 1708, and was buried at S. Martin's as appears from the Register : — 1708 Alexander Rigby, bellfounder, bur. Oct'. 29. He is referred to, in a not very complimentary manner, on the treble bell at Badgworth, Gloucestershire : — Badgworth ringers they were mad Because Rigbe made me bad ; But Abel Rudhall you may see Hath made me better than Rigbe. At his death the Stamford foundry was closed.* KETTERING. The Parish Registers of Kettering show that several families of Eayrc, Ayre, or Aire were living there in the latter part of the seventeenth, and early in the eighteenth centuries. • Other stamps used by the Stamford founders are engraved in The Church Dells of Northamptonshire. JO The Founders of the Rutland Bells. John Eayrc was Constable in 1662. He and Thomas Eayre (probably his brother) signed the Kettering Vestry Book in 17 14, and the latter also signed, with others, the order in the same Book, and in the same year, for recasting the ancient church bells. The new bells were cast by Richard Sanders of Bromsgrove, from which we may infer that the Kettering foundry was not then opened. The Eayres were clockmakers, and as such Thomas Eayre's name appears upon the 4th bell then cast as " T. Eayre Horo." "Thomas Ayre sen'" was buried 15th April, 1716. I gather from the Register that he was the Thomas Eayre the clockmaker just mentioned, and that he had two sons " Thomas, son of Thomas Eayre and Anne his wife [who] was born 26th August, i6gi, and baptized 21st January, 171 1 ;" and "Mr. Jos^ Eayre an adult person baptized October 26, 1731." This Joseph Eayre subsequently, as we shall see, opened a foundry at S. Neots. Thomas and John Eayre. It would appear that very shortly after the death of Thomas Eayre the elder, his son Thomas Eayre, in partnership with (as I suppose) his uncle John Eayre, opened a bellfoundry at Kettering, for the 2nd bell at Cranford S. John, Northamptonshire, is inscribed " Thomas et Johannes Eayre de Kettering fecerunt," and is dated " Oct. 1717," and other bells in that county were from their foundry. I do not know the date of the death of John Eayre, but I find no bells bearing his name of a later date than 17 18, and the Kettering foundry appears soon after that date to have passed into the sole management of The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 71 Thomas Eayre, whose bells soon became very plentiful in this, and in neighbouring counties. It was of this Thomas Eayre that the Rev. J. Ludlam subsequently wrote: — " I saw a great deal of the art of bellfounding in the time of the late Mr. Thomas Eayre of Kettering, a man who had a true taste for it, and spared no expense to make improvements. Much of tone depends on minute circumstances in the shape, and Mr. Eayre had crooks or forms cut in thin boards, carefully taken from the inside and outside of all the good bells he could find . . ."* Thomas Eyre continued the business of a clockmaker. He made a curious chime for Lord Mahon of Harrowden House, Northamptonshire, which was unfortunately de- stroyed by fire in March, 1791. Thomas Eayre died on one of the last days of the year 1757. He was buried in Kettering Church, most probably in the south aisle of the chancel, and in the same grave as his wife Susannah, who had died three years previously, but no inscription records his sepulture. The entry of his burial in the parish register is : — 1758. Mr. Thomas Eayre Buried January y' 3''. From his will, dated the 24th of September, 1757, we learn that he had then four children : three daughters, Ann, Sarah, and Frances to each of whom he left a legacy of £^0, and one son, Thomas, who was his sole executor. f This Thomas Eayre, who, according to the parish * Brewster's Encyclopadia, article Horology. t This Will is in the District Probate Registry at Northampton. 72 TJic Founders of the Rutland Bells. registers, married Eliz. IMarshall on the nth Oct. 1748, was associated with his father in the foundry. Thomas Eayre (2nd) carried on the Kettering foundry for a few years after his father's death. Mr. Ludlam says he was " a good bellfounder " and that " he cast a dish bell of 5 or 6 cwt. for the church clock of Boston, Lincolnshire, the tone of which was very deep and wild." According to a tradition current at Earl's Barton, Northamptonshire, this Thomas Eayre was employed — as the present inscription testifies — to recast the tenor bell of that ring in 1761 : he is said to have become bankrupt at that time, and not to have had enough metal to make the bell the weight it ought to have been. He employed his nephew Edward Arnold, afterwards of S. Neots and Leicester, to complete the job. About that time the Kettering foundry was closed. The bells cast at Kettering are very numerous in this and in the neighbouring counties. They are generally well cast and good in tone. They range in date in this county from 1726 at Morcott (3rd) to 1761 at Stoke Dry. The favourite inscriptions of the Kettering foundry were " Omnia fiant ad gloriam Dei " — " Gloria Deo soli " — " Gloria Patri Filio et Spiritui Sancto " and " I H S. Nazarenus Rex Judeorum Fili Dei miserere mei." The date and founder's name are usually given (Belton ist and Morcott 3rd are exceptions) and a liberal supply of Croslets fitchy are used to fill up vacant spaces. The street in Kettering now called Wadcroft was formerly known as " Bell-Founder's Lane." It is so named The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 73 in old maps of the town. A few yards down this street, on the left hand entering from the High Street, is a blank wall : about mid-way along this wall may be traced in the pave- ment the edge stones about what was once the mouth of a well now filled up. This was known as " The Foundry Well," and the wall (to which is still fastened the iron hook which once held up the wooden covering of the well when open) was no doubt the exterior wall of the Kettering foundry. In Gold Street is the Grammar School : a short distance above which — standing a little back from the street, and partially hidden by a modern building — is an old fashioned house of a fair size : this was Thomas Eayre's private residence.* PETERBOROUGH. Henry Penn commenced business here during the last days of the Stamford foundry. He supplied some very fair bells to Rutland and the neighbouring counties. His bells in this county date from the year 1708 — when he sent the 2nd bell to Tinwell — to the year 1723, when he supplied single bells to Edith Weston and Oakham. Although the site of the Peterborough foundry cannot be fixed by reference to any legal document hitherto discovered, there is little doubt about its having been situated on the east side of Broad Bridge Street. Several cottages formerly • I am obliged to the Rector of Ketter- W. H. Jones for notes on the site of ing (the Rev. Canon Lindsay) for extracts the foundry. from the Parish Records, and to Mr. 74 The Founders of tlie Rutland Bells. stood there belonging to the family of Shepheard, some member or members of which married into that of Penn, one of which latter family was Henry Penn the bellfounder. In course of time the old property consisting of the cottages — and which was then called "Rotten Row" — passed from the Shepheards into the possession of a gentleman named De-la-Rue, an extensive merchant in Peterborough, who pulled down the cottages, and built a large mansion on the site, which house now remains, and is occupied by Dr. Waller. At the back of these cottages, and in the recollection of persons now living, there were the remains of certain pits which were supposed to have been "tan-pits," but which were more probably connected with the work of the foundry. At the rear of this property there was — it was filled up four or five years ago — a canal known as " Bell Dyke." It was fed probably from a spring then called "Tom Lock." It was of sufficient size to carry large boats into the river with which it communicated. Its name leads to the inference that this canal was constructed by Henry Penn for the purpose of more readily conveying his bells by water carriage. There is a popular belief (an erroneous one) in Peterborough, that the name originated from " Tom of Lincoln" being conveyed from Peterborough to that city. The estates of the Penn and Shepheard families were all copyhold of the Manor of Peterborough. The late Mr. James Cattel, the Deputy Steward of the Manor (who very- kindly searched the Court Rolls for me), said that whilst he had no doubt that the site just indicated was that of the The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 75 foundry, the one fact to establish it, namely the entry of Henry Penn as the occupier, he had not been able to find. Henry Penn cast some good bells, but not pleasing the people of S. Ives for whom he cast a ring, they instituted a lawsuit against him. The case was tried at the Hunting- donshire Assizes, held at S. Ives, in 1729, and the verdict given in favour of Penn. After the trial, as he was mount- ing his horse in the Inn-yard at S. Ives, to return to Peterborough, he fell down and died from the effects of over excitement. S. NEOTS. Joseph Eayre, the son of Thomas Eayre of Kettering (see p. 70), opened a foundry here probably soon after his baptism at Kettering as "an adult person" in the year 1731, for he sent a ring of bells to Chatteris, Cambridge- shire, in 1735, and on the ist November, 1736, his marriage is thus noted in the Kettering register : — Mr. Joseph Eayre of S. Ncots and Mrs. Sarah Soame of Kettering. He sent a few bells to Rutland dating from 1741 at Greetham (ist), to 1763 at Exton (6th). For his foundry he erected a lofty brick building in the form of a bell in the Priory. After his death the business at S. Neots was held jointly for a short time by his late foreman Thomas Osborn, and his cousin Edward Arnold. After they dissolved partnership 76 Tlic Founders of the Rutland Bells. Edward Arnold held the foundry at S. Neots, sending from thence the ist bell to Brooke in 1780. In 1784 he opened his foundry at Leicester (see p. 62), still however keeping on the S. Neots foundry at least for a short time. NOTTINGHAM. There are a large number of bells in Leicestershire, and several in Rutland, from the Nottingham foundry, a careful memoir of which would be a welcome addition to the history of the craft. It is not improbable that William of Notyngham and William of Norwich, who was casting bells in the fourteenth century, were identical.* If so the foundry at Nottingham was of ancient date. Richard Mellour of Nottingham, " Belyetter," was living in 1488, was Mayor of that place in 1506, and died before 1509. Robert Mellour, Alderman of Nottingham, and bell- founder (son of Richard) died in 1525. From Robert Mellour the foundry probably passed intq the hands of the Quernbies and the Oldfields. Thomas " Owefeld " of Nottingham cast the sanctus bell at Melton Mowbray in 1553. Henry Oldfield, " bellfounder ov' the Longe Row" in Nottingham, was living in 1574-5.! The Oldfields seldom placed their names upon their bells. This Henry Oldfield's * Church Bells of Norfolk, p. 84. Eliz.) for allowing immorality in his house, f He was prosecuted in that year (17th Sessions Roll of the Town of Nottingham. The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 77 stamp (and a similar one was used by other members of his family) was a cross calvary between his initials, with a crescent and a star above (fig. 7). 7 This stamp is upon the following bells sent by him to this county : — Ketton 2nd, North Luffenham 5th, Whissendine 2nd and 4th, and Cottesmore 2nd ; in all cases, excepting the two last, accompanied by the cross, fig. 34. He also used a stamp (fig. 8) upon the 4th bell at Seaton, dated 1597, which stamp ap- pears to ])e identical in form with one used at a later date by Thomas Norris of Stamford, and found upon some of his bells remaining in Northampton- shire. This points to the probability 34 8 78 The Founders of the Rutland Bells. of the Stamford foundry being an offshoot of the older one at Nottingham ; perhaps the first Tobye or Tobias Norris ser\-ed his apprenticeship at the latter place. Henry Oldfield, whose bells acquired a good reputation, is said to have died in 1615 ; if so his successor George Oldfield must have used his stamp (fig. 7) for some years afterwards, as it appears upon the North Luffenham bell, which was not cast until i6ig. George Oldfield's mark appears upon bells in Leicestershire (there are none of his now in Rutland) from 1620 to 1673. The 3rd, 4th, and 6th bells at Ashwell, dated 1708, are from the Nottingham foundry — they bear the band ornament (fig. 40) used there — cast probably by a member of the Oldfield family. 40 William Noone of Nottingham cast a bell for S. Martin's, Leicester, in 1700. Whether the Nottingham foundry was temporarily closed about that time I have not learned. Some years afterwards — in 1749 — it was in the hands of The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 79 Thomas Hedderly, a grandson (?) of Daniel Hedderly, bellfounder of Derby (1732), and of Baltry or Bawtry, Yorkshire (1733). In that year (1749) he sent the present single bell to Normanton ; in 1760 he supplied the 2nd to Ashwell, and in 1771 the 5th to Langham. Thomas Hedderly died about 1778, leaving four sons, Thomas, George, John, and Samuel. George Hedderly — who subsequently emigrated to America — supplied the single bell to Thistleton in 1793. Soon after that date the Nottingham foundry was closed : the old building is still thought to exist in Bellfounders' Yard, Long Row, Nottingham ; it is now used as a slaughter-hoiise, and only passed out of the possession of the Hedderly family about the year 1850. CHACOMBE, NORTHANTS. Henry Bagley, the second of the name as a bellfounder there, supplied the ist bell to Seaton in 1684.* LONDON. The Whitechapel Foundry was, in 1578, and perhaps a few years earlier, in the hands of Robert Mot, who held it until the year 1608, when he * See Church Dells of Northamptonshire for a full account of this and the other Northants foundries. 8o The Founders of the Rutland Bells. died. From Robert ]\Iot the foundry passed through several hands who did not supply any bells to this county, until Pack and Chapman sent bells to Uppingham in 1773: after several more changes C. AND G. Mears supplied the ist bell to Ashwell in 1850. G. Mears sent bells to Oakham in 1858, and the whole ring to Empingham in 1859. Mears and Stainbank cast the 4th bell at Ryhall. Mr. Robert Stainbank is now the sole proprietor of this foundry ; Mr. George Mears, his former partner, died about the year 1874, having then been out of the business for some years. ALPHABET BELLS. Upon several bells in this county, are portions of the Alpha- bet. It has been suggested that the founders being desirous not to offend by placing ancient precatory or devotional, and therefore often unwelcome, inscriptions upon their bells, and yet being too illiterate to suggest new ones, adopted this plan to escape the difficulty. By it they ornamented their bells with a goodly show of Gothic capitals which could give offence to no one. This may have been the case with the later bells, but the use of the alphabet surely had another origin on the more ancient ones. We find the alphabet, or portions of it, on encaustic tiles on the floors of churches. It appeared on the top of a Norman Font The Founders of the Rutland Bells. 8i discovered at Severn Stoke in Warwickshire. In the Pontificale Romanuni the Bishop is directed in the dedi- cation of a church to write, in the form of a cross, two alphabets, one in Greek and the other in Latin, first from the East to West, then from North to South. There was clearly some symbolic meaning in the alphabet. Some writers on the subject say the letters represented the beginning and rudiments of sound doctrine, and the simple and pure truths of the Gospel. M PECULIAR USES OF THE RUTLAND BELLS. THE only direction as to the use of a Church Bell in the Rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer is in that relating to Daily Service : — " And the Curate that ministereth in every Parish-Church or Chapel, being at home, and not being otherwise reasonably hindered, shall say the same in the Parish-Church or Chapel where he ministereth, and shall cause a Bell to be tolled thereunto a convenient time before he begin, that the people may come to hear God's Word, and to pray with him." The Canons give a few more directions : The 15th which directs ^^ Litany to be read on Wednesdays and Fridays,'" orders, that warning be "given to the people by tolling of a bell." The 67th Canon entitled " Ministers to visit the Sick " says : " And, when any is passing out of this life, a bell shall be tolled, and the Minister shall not then slack to do his last duty. And after the party's death, if it so fall out, there shall be rung no more than Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 83 one short peal, and one other before the burial, and one other after the burial." So much for their use. The 88th Canon directs churchwardens not to allow the superstitious use of bells upon " Holydays or Eves abrogated by the Book of Common Prayer, nor at any other times without good cause to be allowed by the Minister of the place, and by themselves." And the iiith Canon is directed against such as shall... "by untimely ringing of bells... hinder the Minister or Preacher." Ringing for Divine Service. Although one bell is all that is really essential for carrying out such of these direc- tions as are now usually followed, it is generally only poverty or some other difficulty which hinders the erection in our modern churches of a number of bells, with which to ring those peals, in which almost all English churchmen delight. It will be seen that in Rutland, where there are no large towns, there are two rings of eight bells, four of six, ten of five, eleven of four ; and whilst several churches have not more than three, or two, scarcely any, excepting a few small modern ones, are content with a single bell. And so it was in more ancient times. In churches where the Canonical Hours were kept the bells, or some of them, would be ringing very frequently ; for "the ringing of these Canonical hours let the world know the time, by day and by night ; and in those larger churches where such a custom was followed, the several bells, as well as the different ways in which they were rung for the purpose, told the precise service which was then 84 Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. about to be chanted."* The bells of parish churches were frequently rung by the Deacons. That was the case at Holy Trinity, Coventry, in the year 1462,! and at the parish church of Ludlow in 1551, when the churchwardens paid twelvepence to "the dekyns for rynginge of day belle. "J " Bishop Oldham (of Exeter) in his Statutes, 151 1, directs how the Annualarii (or Chantry Priests) were to sound or toll a certain number of times with one bell then a full tolling of all the bells, at the Canonical Hours, after the accustomed manner ; at the close of which the service was to begin. "§ In our smaller parish churches, too, those bells appropriated to the side altars in chantry chapels, or belonging to Guilds and Fraternities, would ver}^ frequently be sounding. || On Sundays and high-days all the bells appear to have been rung for Matins and Evensong — the two services which all were expected to attend : and so the custom has continued to the present time. The Bell-master of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the time of Edward VL, was "to help to reng to sarvys if ned be." Hooper, in his Injunctions, dated 1551, whilst * Dr. Rock's Church of our Fathers, iii. the early hours between midnight and part 2, p. 143. Prime. f Bells of the Church, p. 276. || At Ludlow in addition to the fore- + Church'ivardens' Accounts of Ludlow bell, second bell, third, second-tenor, and (Camden Soc). p. 47. great bell, they possessed "Our Lady § The Cathedral Bells of Exeter, p. 13. belle" ("our Lady Ghauncelle" is men- The Canonical Hours were Prime 6 a.m., tioned), " First-Mass-Bell " and " the gild Tierce, Mass, at 9 a.m., Sext at Noon, belle," all apparently bells of moderate Nones at 3 p.m.. Vespers at 6 p.m.. Com- size. See Ludlow Churchwardens' Accounts pline at 9 p.m.. Matins and Lauds in published by Camden Society. Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 85 forbidding ringing at unseasonable times, adds ** but before services, as well morning as at even, to warn the people by as many peals or ringings as they think good." In 162 1 the Churchwardens of S. Martin's, Leicester, paid 35. " ffor ringeinge to praiers every sabboth and holie daie." The mode of ringing or of chiming for Divine Service varies somewhat in different parishes. The "uses" followed in the majority of the parishes in this county are given under the different churches further on, when the bells are described. With the introduction of the " new sarvis " (as the Book of Common Prayer was called) in the time of Edward VI., the singing of the Canonical Hours — with the exception of Matins and Evensong — was dropped. The only traces of them we now have in the use of our church bells, excepting the ringing or chiming for Morning and Evening Prayer, are in the ringing of the "first and second peals" on Sunday mornings, at seven and eight, or eight and nine o'clock, in very many parishes. In Pre-Reformation times Matins was said in all parish churches before breakfast, as a preparation for mass. The "first peal" was the call to Matins, the " second peal " to tierce and mass.* It is a curious proof how tenacious custom is in having con- tinued the ringing (jf tlicsc bells for over three; hundred years after the purposes they served were abrogated, and • Sir Thomas More said " Some of us so longe fasting, as on the Sonday to com laye men think it a payne ones a weeke to and heare out thcyr matins." — Rock. iii. ryse so soon fro sleepe, and some to tarye part 2, pp. 5, 143. 146. 86 Peru liar Uses of the Rutland Bells. when few even think of, or enquire as to, the meaning of their sound.* For these *' peals " (which are rung in many Rutland parishes) the smaller bells are generally used, but at Preston the tenor, instead of a smaller bell, is rung at eisfht o'clock in the morninj]^ when a sermon is to be preached. At Braunstone a bell is first rung at the same hour if Morning Prayer is to be said, then the day of the month is tolled. The Sermon Bell. In the *' Rites of Durham " is this reference to the Sermon-bell : — " Every Sounday in the yere there was a sermon preached in the Galleley at after- noone, from one of the clocke till iij ; and at xij of the clocke the great bell of the Galleley was toulled every sounedaie iij quarters of an houre, and during the forth quarter till one of the clock, that all the people of the towne might have warnyng to come and here the word of Code preched."t The Royal Injunctions of 1547 ordered a bell in convenient time to be rung or knolled before the sermon. When Hugh Latimer visited Melton Mowbray, Leicester- shire, and preached in the church there, that custom was followed ; for the churchwardens charge in their accounts : — " 1553 October. Itm. payd to John Hynmane and to Robert Bagworth for rynginge of y^ great bell for master latimore sarmon iji." The Sermon bell was sometimes rung during the Litany • See the Rev. H. T. EUacombe's Bells the bells there in 1339, and for Bishop of the Cathedral Church of Exeter for Bishop Oldham's Statutes relating to the same, in Grandisson's Statutes as to the ringing of 1511. f Published by Surtees Society, p. 33. Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 87 to give notice to the people that the sermon was coming on ;* and one of the duties of the Bell-ringer at Exeter Cathedral, in 1670, was "to toll y^ Sermon Bell every Sunday after the second lesson of the Quire Service in y^ morning when there is a sermon. "f The Puritans were so often ready to go to Sermon, but not to Prayers, that the bishops tried to check the unseemly practice of going into church after Prayers were said, by directing attention to it in their Visitation Articles, and Wren (1640) directed with regard to the Sermon-bell " That the same ringing of bells should be observed at all times whether there was a Sermon or not.":}: The ringing of this bell before the service when a sermon is to be preached is a general though not an universal custom in the county. At Whitwell the treble bell is rung at 8,30 a.m. when a sermon is to be preached in the morning, and is called the Sermon-bell, but usually the tenor bell is rung after the chiming. Occasionally the inscription upon this bell refers to the custom. At Blakesley, Northamptonshire, and at several other places in this diocese the tenor is inscribed : — I ring to sermon with a lusty borne That all may come and non may stay at home. At Brafield in the same county we find on the tenor bell: — " When I do ring or tole my voyce is spent That men may come to here Gods word and so repent." • See Lathbury's Hist, of Book of Com. f Bells of Exeter Cathedral, p. 83. Prayer, 2nd Ed. p. 83. \ Lathbury, p. 175-6. 8S Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. The Passing-Bell. Besides the use of bells for calling to Divine Service the Canons enjoin the tolling of the '* Passing-bell." The custom of notifying, by this means, the passing of a soul out of this life, is almost, if not quite, as ancient, in this country, as the use of bells by the church. Bede mentions "the well known sound of the bell by which they [the Nuns of Hackness] were wont to be aroused or assembled to prayers when any one of them was called forth from this world," as being heard in the year 680.* Durand, who wrote about the end of the twelfth century, says : " when any one is dying bells must be tolled that the people may put up their prayers, twice for a woman and thrice for a man ; if for a clergyman as many times as he had orders. "t The Passing-bell was, of course, then rung at all hours of the night, as well as by day. This custom is referred to in an entry in the accounts of the Church- wardens of Peterborough for the year 1572 : — " Itm to Scarlet (the sexton) beyng a poore olde man and rj'syng oft in the nyghte to tolle the bell for sicke persons the wether beynge grevous, and in con- sideration of his good service towards a gowne to kepe hym warme viiJ5." After the Reformation the custom of ringing the Passing- bell in the ancient way was continued. Bishop Hooper in his Injunctions, issued in 1551, says: * Bede, Book iv. c. xxiii. + Brand's Pop. Ant. ii. 129. Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 8g " Item. That from henceforth there be no knells or forthfares rung for the death of any man ; but in case they that be sick and in danger, or any of their friends will demand to have the bell toll whiles the sick is in extremes to admonish people of their danger, and by that means to solicitate the hearers to pray for the sick person, they may use it." The Passing-bell is enjoined by the royal Injunctions of 1559, and the Advertisements, issued in the year 1564, show that it was still usual to ring or toll the Passing-bell whilst the person was believed to be dying, but not yet dead : "That where anye Christian bodie be passing that the bell be tolled, and that the curate be specially called for to comforte the sicke person." The bell was ordered to be used by Grindal in 1570, " to move the people to pray for the sick person."* The Bishops, in after years, enquired in their Articles whether the Passing-bell was so tolled. In 1624 D'Ewes mentions the bell tolling for a person whom he visited, and who lived some hours afterwards. The Puritans used the Passing-bell, as Fuller shows in his account of John Rainolds, one of the Puritan advocates of the Hampton Court Conference: he says: "The morrow after, death seazing upon all parts of his body, he expressed by signcs that he would have the passing-bell tole for him."t Amongst the fees belonging to the Bell-ringer of Exeter Cathedral in 1670 were : — • Lathbury, p. 80. f Ibid. p. 151-2. N go Ptxuliar Uses of the Rutland Bells. " For tolling tlie bell for every sick person is. For ever}- childe 6^."* The custom was continued to recent times. Nelson in his Meditations for the Holy Time of Lent, speaking of a good christian says : "If his sense hold out so long he can hear his passing-bell without disturbance. "f At Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, the custom was first departed from in the case of Mr. Crane, who died about 1738. He "was the first person in Melton," says Nichols, "for whom the bell tolled after death, till when the custom was for it to pass before, agreeably to the primitive institution." Wheatley speaks of the passing-bell as being generally disused in 1755. The late Mrs, Law, who died in 1874, aged about 94 years, not only remembered the Passing-bell being rung in the ancient manner at King's Cliffe, North- amptonshire, but she used to relate that upon one occasion it was tolled for a lady who did not then die as was expected, but recovered her health. The inscriptions on some tenor bells refer to their use for the Passing-bell : e.g. at Warmington, Northamptonshire : — " I measure life : I bewail death." * Bells of Exeter Cathedral, p. 32. + Bells of the Church, p. 273, where the 1567; Sir Owen Opton, Constable of the following instance is given from Brayley's Tower, perceiving her drawing towards History of the Toiver, p. 460. "We have a her end, said to Mr. Bokeham, 'Were it remarkable mention of this custom in the not best to send to the church that the bell narrative of the last moments of the Lady may be rung ?' and she herself hearing Catherine, sister of Lady Jane Grey, who him, said, ' Good, Sir Owen, be it so,' and died a prisoner in the Tower of London, in immediately died." Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. gi At Whissendine in this county : — " My roaringe sounde doth warning geve That men cannot heare always lyve." One other in this county — at Hambleton — refers to the modern custom in contrast to the ancient : — " I sound not for the souls of the dead but for the ears of the living." The bell now used for the Passing-bell (or more properly the Death-knell) is usually the tenor, but this is sometimes changed in the case of children, a smaller bell being used. At the close, or the commencement, or at both, of the Passing-bell it has long been the custom to indicate the sex of the person departing, or departed, by certain strokes or tolls of the bell. These have generally been three for a male (in honour of the Holy Trinity) and two for a female (in honour of our Saviour born of a woman) on the tenor bell, as at Ayston, Bisbrook, Seaton, and other parishes in this county. Sometimes the tolls — three for a male and two for a female — are repeated thrice on the tenor bell, as at Belton, Braunstone, Cottesmore, and many other places ; indeed this is the prevailing custom in Rutland. In some parishes a distinction in the number of tolls is made in the case of children. At Teigh, and occasionally at Braunstone, the age of the deceased is tolled out after the knell. Other peculiarities will be mentioned hereafter under the description of the bells in the different parishes. 92 Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. At Preston there is now nothing to distinguish age or sex at the ringing of the Death-kncll. At Exton it is only rung for about five minutes. At Essendine the bell is tolled, not rung. These tolls are sometimes called "tellers," and it has been suggested that the old saying : — " Nine tailors make a man " is a corruption of a saying arising from the thrice three tolls or "tellers" at the close of the Passing-bell, " Nine tellers mark a man." Death Knell. In addition to the Passing-bell, the Canon enjoins that " after the party's death, if it so fall out, there shall be rung no more than one short peal." Durand mentions this custom, and after the Reformation it is referred to in some of the Articles of Enquiry issued by the bishops in such words as these... "or to ring a knell presently after the departure, that notice may be taken by all to give God thanks for that party's deliverance out of this vale of misery."* Wheatley writes of " the short peal " after the party's death as being generally rung in 1755, but the custom has now fallen entirely into disuse : no traces of it are found in this county. Burial Peals. The Canon mentions "and one other (peal) before the burial, and one after the burial." This sounding of bells at funerals was an ancient custom, * Vide Walcott's Ed. of Canons, S^c, p. 94. Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 93 and had been carried to great excess ; indeed, so early as 1339, Bishop Grandisson, of Exeter, found it desirable to check the long ringings on such occasions, on the grounds that "they do no good to the departed, are an annoyance to the living, and injurious to the fabrick and the bells."* We find traces of this custom constantly in Churchwardens' Accounts. For instance in those of S. Martin's, Leicester, for the year 1546, under the head of burials, there is a long list of such entries as these : — Itm for y° buryall of Mr. Clought v bells and lyenge in y* churche xijs. Itin Agnys brown iiij belles xxd. Itm Best Wyffe iij belles vn]d. Itm ij chyldren of Wittm Mabres thon iij bells and y* thod' iiij bells ijs. iiiji. Itni Mr. gyllotts dought' iiij belles xxd.f In the accounts of the Churchwardens of S. John Baptist, Peterborough, are many receipts "for the bells" — evidently for Burial Peals. One may be here quoted : it relates to the burial of Queen Catharine of Arragon : — Itm payd for Ryngars when my Lady Katern was bcryed ijs. vj^. This custom of chiming or ringing all the bells at funerals is now becoming obsolete ; it, however, still lingers in this county. At Whitwell the bells are then rung: at Wing the bells are still occasionally chimed as the funeral procession approaches the church. Though not now followed, the • Bells of Exeter Cathedral, p. 7. t See a long list in North's Chronicle of S. Martin's Church, pp. 82-4. 94 Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. custom is remembered, as of recent date, at Wardley, Lyddington, Glaston, Belton, and Teigh; at the last named place the bells were chimed after the funeral. At Ticken- cote the custom is to toll the tenor bell for an hour while all is being made ready to bring the corpse to the church : at South Luffenham the tenor bell announces the age of the deceased by tolling the number of years an hour before the funeral : at Burley-on-the-Hill the distinctive tolls showing the sex of the dead person are given before and after the tolling for the funeral: at Braunstone it is an ancient custom to have three tellings at intervals of an hour before a funeral. Simple tolling before the funeral, however, now appears to be the prevalent custom. In some parishes the tenor bell is tolled for a few minutes about an hour before the funeral, to give warning to the " bearers " and to the neighbours. It is called the " Invitation Bell." This bell is tolled at Exton and Manton. In addition to these uses of the Church Bell mentioned in the Rubric, and in the Canons, there are several others calling for brief notice. The Sanctus Bell. In the Inventories of church goods taken in the reign of Edward VI. where the bells are enumerated, a "sanctus bell," a " sauntes bell," or a "lytyll bell in the stepull," is generally mentioned. It was usually hung (in order that it might be heard by those outside, as well as by those within the church) in a little bellcote on the gable of the chancel roof between that portion of the church and the nave, or else in a convenient position in the belfry — not unfrequently in a window — so Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 95 that the rope came down into the church within easy access to the server at the altar. When the priest said the Sanctus in the Ofhce of the Mass three strokes were given on this bell (hence its name) so that all — the sick man in his chamber, as well as the worshipper in the church — could join in the holy song of adoration. A few successors of the sanctus bell are in the bell-chambers of the Rutland churches, in the "priest's bell" or "ting-tang" usually rung immediately before the service begins. These are, in most cases, modern, being probably recasts of the ancient sanctus bells. There is, however, one ancient sanctus bell still remaining in this county — the interesting little bell at Preston. There are several external small clock bells which may also be recasts of old sanctus bells : and a reference to one formerly at Uppingham will be found in the extracts hereafter given from the Churchwardens' Accounts of that parish. The Sanctus bell may have been used upon other occasions than the one just mentioned. Dr. Rock was of opinion that in many parish churches the practice followed at Durham (sec p. 86) was the rule, and that some kind of instruction was given every Sunday in the afternoon. To warn the parish of the sermon time a bell or bells would be rung, perhaps at 12 or i o'clock. The first ringing would be on the Signa or large bells ; the last quarter of an hour ringing was, perhaps, on the smaller, or sanctus bell.* Hence probably the origin of the modern use of • See Notes and Queries, vol. xi. p. 150 ( 1855). 96 Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. The Priest's Bell or Ting-tang which is so often sounded immediately before the commencement of Divine service. I have only found one bell mentioned as used as a Priest's Bell in Pre-Reformation times. At Ware, in Hertfordshire, there was (in 6 Edward VI.) " one lyttle belle to calle for y^ priste, clarke, or sexton when they arre absent."* The Sacring-bell. This was a small hand-bell also used in the Ofhce of the Mass to warn people that the Elevation was about to take place. Cranmer, in his Visitation Articles (1549), condemned the use of "ringing or sacrying Bells " in the time of Communion. He classed it among the customs kept up by those ministers who "Counterfeited the Popish Mass;" and Ridley, soon after his appointment to the Bishoprick of London, issued Injunctions (1550) for that diocese in which he forbad the "ringing of the Sacrying Bell." Indeed the necessity for its use passed away when the Reformed Liturgy, or Order of the Holy Communion, was commanded to be used in English in 1549. If the Edwardian Returns from the parishes of Rutland are ever found, there will be notes of the existence of both sacring bells and of hand-bells in the churches of the county at that time. Sometimes a number of small bells affixed to a wheel, which was pulled by a cord, were used to give warning of the Elevation. Eighteen such small bells are said to have hung in the church of Brokenborough, Wilts, f and, if I • Cussan's Church Goods in Hertfordshire, p. 123. -f Bells of the Church, p. 107. Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 97 mistake not, a similar arrangement was in use at Achurch in Northamptonshire, where we find " viij lyttell Belles in a chyme hang^mge on a wele " mentioned in the Inventory of Church Goods belonging to that parish in 1552. At Ludlow the sacryng bell hung in the chancel and w^as rung by a cord.* Hand-bells. In many of the Inventories of Church Goods from parishes in this Diocese in 1552 one or more " handbells " are noted. These small bells were used in a variety of ways in Pre-Reformation times. They were used in processions on Rogation days. The Injunctions of Archbishop Grindal, in 1571, whilst directing "perambu- lation to be used by the people for viewing the bounds of their parish in the days of the Rogation, commonly called Cross-week or Gang-days," prohibits the wearing of the surplice by the minister, or the carrying of banners or hand-bells. The bell master of Loughborough, Leicester- shire, would use one when he went according to his "dooty" every Friday about the town to bid all to pray for all Christian souls, f At Great Yarmouth it was the custom for the Beadmen or Bellmen of the parish church to go about the town praying at the head of every Row for the souls of those who had bequeathed money for that purpose. John Baret of Bury S. Edmunds by his will, made in 1463, directed the bellman to go about the town on his year day " that they that hear it may say ' God have mercy upon his • Churchwardens' Accounts of Ludlow (Camden Soc), jip. 6 and 91. t See Church Dells of Leicestershire, p. 22y. O g8 Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. soul' which greatly may relieve me."* This custom is evidently referred to in the following entries in the Church- wardens' Accounts of Peterborough under the year 1477 : — Itiii payd for the yere tyme of Abbot Genge xiij^. And to the bellman i]d. So too when the obit of " my lord of Huntyndon " was to be held in S. Martin's Church, Leicester, not only were the ringers paid for ringing to the service, but the bellman received twelvepence for giving warning about the town.t The hand-bell was rung in the procession when the Eucharist was borne to the house of the sick or the dying, in order that all, according to the then teaching of the church, might be warned of its approach, and pay reverence to it. At the burial of the dead the hand-bell was also used. In the representation of the burial of Edward the Confessor on the Bayeux Tapestry, a boy appears on each side of the bier carrying a small hand-bell ; and five hundred years later we read of the churchwardens of Ludlow expending twelvepence " for the mendynge of the corps belle. "J Indeed the hand-bell was used in a variety of ways in the mediaeval church. The Curfew. The origin of the Curfew is well-known. It was heard in Normandy at an early date, and its use was enforced throughout this country — where it appears to have * Palmer's Perlustration of Great Yar- f S. Martin's Churchwardens' Accounts, mouth, vol. i, pp. 20, 241. Leicester, 1546-7. J Camden Soc. p. 68. Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 99 been partially instituted by King Alfred — by William the Conqueror. When it sounded at eight o'clock every evening, all persons were ordered to extinguish fire and candle, hence its name — couvre-feu. Although its sound, and its use, were only enforced during the reigns of William the Conquerer and William Rufus — the law of Curfew was abolished by Henry I. in iioo- — the custom of ringing the bell still prevails in many parishes in this country. Its continuance is to be attributed to a religious, and not to a civil purpose. The evening " Hail Mary" was ordered by Pope John XXH. (1316-34), to be said at the sound of a bell called the " Angelas, '' and it is probable the Curfew was continued as a warning to all to say an " Ave " to the Blessed Virgin before retiring to rest. Dr. Rock says : " If this Curfew did not give pious individuals the earliest thought of saying an ^ Ave' at night-fall, the ringing of the bell was in itself so seasonable that it was looked upon, and employed, as a happy incident for calling upon the people, whether in town or country — throughout the land in fact — to say their greetings to the Virgin at sun- down."* Previous to the Reformation (as we gather from Hooper's Injunctions in 1551) the ringing of the " Curfaye " in some places was accompanied by, or replaced by, the ringing of all the bells in the steeple. Although since the Reformation the custom of ringing the Curfew, or last Angelus, has gradually been waning, * Cliurch of our Fatlicrs, iii. p. 337. 100 Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. still the practice lingers in a few Rutland parishes — Langham, South Luffenham, and Oakham — where it has no doubt been continuously followed since its first insti- tution. It is generally still rung at eight o'clock. In several parishes (as, traditionally, at Langham in this county) the continuance of the Curfew was sought to be secured by an endowment, provided by persons, who, in times when the roads were badly defined, and crossed an open unenclosed country, lost their way in the gloom of evening, or in the darkness of winter early nights, but were enabled to find their village homes by its welcome sound. Apparently with reference to this end it is frequently only rung during the winter months. The ringing of the Curfew was, for a long period, the signal for the closing of all taverns and ale-houses. In 1291 no wine was to be drawn after it had rung ; and although, until the reign of Henry VII., ale was sold without any restriction, still all public houses had to be closed at the tolling of Curfew.* It would appear to have been fre- quently, perhaps on that account, rung at nine o'clock in the larger towns : that was the hour formerly at Stamford Baron, and at Northampton All Saints, and is now the time at Towcester, Northam.ptonshire. So it is, and has been for many years, at S. Martin's, Leicester, where it was referred to in the following stringent bye-law passed 22nd February, 25th Elizabeth. " Item, that the keeper of- any ale-house that suffers any townsman to remain in his house after the * See Palme/s Perhcstration of Great Yarmouth, vol. i. pp. 30 and 85. Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. loi Curfew bell hath rung (without lawful cause) shall forfeit i2d. to be paid presently, or else to remain in ward that night."* The ringing at nine o'clock in the evening of Bow bell in London was also, in 1469, the signal for the closing of shops. From that circumstance the Curfew in the country was sometimes called " Bow-bell." f After the ringing of the Curfew it is customary in some places, as at Langham in this County, to toll the day of the month. A peculiar custom is followed at Sheepy Magna, Leicestershire : the ringing of the Curfew is dis- continued during the interval between the death and the burial of any parishioner : and at Bottesford in the same county it is not rung during Whitsun week. The Early Morning Bell. The origin of the ringing of the Morning bell arose from an extension of the practice of saying an ^^ Ave'' to the Virgin at nightfall. In 1399 Archbishop Arundel issued a mandate commanding that at early dawn one "Our Father" and five "Hail Marys" should be said. J As a reminder to all of this duty the Angelus was rung. This bell was often called "Gabriel" after the Angel of the Annunciation. The first bell at Preston is so called, and was doubtless rung for this purpose. The "Maria" bells too (of which there arc examples in • Nichols, t It was so called at S. Martin's, Lei- J Walcotfs Sac. Arch. Rocks Chinch cester. Sec Church Dells of Leicestershire, of Our Fathers. p. 115. 102 Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. Rutland) were perhaps, some of them, used for ringing the An gel us. The Early Morning-bell is still rung at 5 o'clock in the morning at South Luffenham. Until recently this early bell was also heard at Belton, and doubtless at many other places in the county, so the custom is quickly dying out. It has long been used simply as a call to daily work. Henry Penn, the bellfounder, had this in his mind, when he cast the bell at S. Ives, which is rung there early in the morning; for he placed upon it the pithy sentence : — " Arise, and go about your business." Other Daily Bells. A mid-day Angelus was rung in France in the fifteenth century, but the practice does not appear to have been introduced into England. In some parishes in Rutland, however, a mid-day bell is rung. This is the case at Belton (where it has taken the place of the early morning-bell formerly rung there), and at Thistleton ; at the latter place a bell is also rung daily at 8 a.m. In the absence of all evidence to the contrary, the use of these mid-day bells in this and other counties may be attributed to a secular origin — the giving warning to agricultural labourers and others of the time — rather than to a religious one. The Pancake-bell. In addition to the occasional con- fession of sin to the priest, it was considered, in mediaeval times, that the week preceding Lent was specially an appropriate time for all to perform that duty. It was hence called Shrove-tide, and the Tuesday in it called Shrove, Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 103 Shrive, or Confession-Tuesday — shrive being an old Saxon word for confession. The confession was made in the church, where the priest sat in an open chair, or stall, to hear the confessions of his people, to award them such penance as he thought good for them, or to give them absolution. In order that all might be reminded of this duty, and be informed that the priest was ready to receive them, a bell was rung calling them to the church. This was the origin of the ringing of the bell on Shrove-Tuesday. But another custom was followed in those times when Lent was more strictly observed than now as a time of abstinence from flesh meat. On Shrove-Tuesday, we are told by a writer in Notes and Queries, the housewives, in order to use up all the grease, lard, dripping, &c., made pancakes, and the apprentices, and others about the house were summoned to the meal by the ringing of a bell, which was naturally called "the Pancake-bell."* The ringing of the Shrive-bell, now called the Pancake- bell, is still continued in a goodly number of Rutland parishes on Shrove-Tuesday. The usual time for sounding it — it is generally one of the larger of the ring — is cither at II o'clock, or at noon, and it is generally tolled for an hour. Several parishes have recently discontinued the custom. Shrove-Tuesday has long been considered a holiday by the young people : in several parishes in this diocese they were allowed on that day to jangle the bells — a very bad practice now generally disallowed ; and in other places the • Notes and Queries, 3rd s. vi. 40.). 104 Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. "women folk" were allowed to do the same. At Belgrave, Leicestershire, it used to be tolled by the oldest apprentice in the parish, and at Hedon all the apprentices whose indentures terminate before the return of Shrove-Tuesday assemble in the belfry and in turn toll the tenor bell for an hour.* Shakespeare, in A IPs well that ends well, speaks of a pan- cake as fit for Shrove-Tuesday, and Taylor the Water Poet (1630) mentions the Pancake-bell as being then rung on that day : so too in Poor Robin's Almanack, 1684, we read : — " But hark I hear the pancake-bell And fritters make a gallant smell." Christmas Peals are rung in most parishes : in many, as at Caldecote, Langham, Oakham, &c., peals are heard on the Eve of the Festival. New Year's Eve, too, is remembered in a similar manner at Oakham, Langham, and in other places. The Lenten Bell : a bell was formerly rung at Caldecote daily during the season of Lent at 11 a.m. ; for doing a similar thing at Cottingham in Northants, the clerk there collected eggs at Easter. Easter and Dedication Peals are heard in several parishes : the Great Festivals of the church and the Feast of the Dedication of the parish church are seldom neglected. So it was in Anglo-Saxon times, for we are told that then * Church Bells of Leicestershire, p. ii8. Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 105 " from Childermass all through the holidays a full peal was rung for matins, mass, and evensong."* Sacrament-Bell. At Uppingham the 7th bell is tolled (instead of the 5th or 6th being rung as is usual) for five minutes immediately before Divine service commences when a Celebration of the Holy Communion is to follow Morning Prayer. Banns Peal. At some churches a peal is rung after Divine Service, on Sunday morning, when the Banns of an intended marriage are first ''put up ;" this is attempted at Pickworth, where the single bell is sounded a few times upon that interesting occasion. Wedding Peals are of course usual in every parish. We find traces of the Wedding peal in Leicestershire in 1588, when it was agreed at Loughborough "... that ever}^ marridge haveing or reqring to have the bells rung shall paye vj^. to the poremen's boxc and vj^. towards repairinge of the bells . . . " The Gleaning-Bell. In many parishes, as at Ashwell, Empingham, and Market Overton, a gleaning-bell is rung during harvest in the morning, and sometimes both in the morning and at evening, giving warning when gleaning may commence, and when it must close for the day. This is done in order that all — old and feeble, as well as young and active — may have a fair start. At Lyddington the clerk • Roc/i, vol. iii. part 2, p. 5G. io6 Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. claims a fee of a penny a week from women and big children. The Mote-Bell was ordered by Edward the Confessor to be sounded in cases of danger to convene the people. This was the same as the alarm bell, of which we read as being rung by order of John to summon the citizens of London, when he wished to involve them in certain illegal acts during the absence of Richard I. (1193) in the Holy- land. Indeed the use of a bell as a summons to public meeting, or as an alarm in cases of danger, appears to have been very general. A bell for such a purpose was used at Newcastle-on-Tyne where it was called the " Common Bell." At Oakham the 7th bell called " The Meeting-Bell," is rung to call town meetings ; and at Bisbrooke a bell is rung for the "Duke's Court" (manorial), and for Vestry meetings. Gunpowder Plot. The discovery of this plot is still commemorated at Morcott by the ringing of joyous peals on the 5th of November, but the remembrance of the day is dying out, or as Fuller said of it even in his day " it looks with a paler colour in the almanack than it use to do." Loyal Peals. Upon all occasions calling for an expression of loyalty such as the anniversaries of the Queen's birthday, accession, and coronation the bells are rung in many parishes. It has long been our custom to express our loyalty by merry peals. In past times, when we were unhappily frequently at war with our neighbours, and when our victories by land or by sea called forth bursts of patriotic thankfulness and exultation from Englishmen, Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 107 their feelings found expression in no way more strongly than in the joyous and jubilant ringing of our glorious and spirit-stirring bells. References to such ringing will be found in the Churchwardens' Accounts of Uppingham here- after quoted ; indeed Churchwardens' accounts teem with payments for such, especially during the first few years of the present century. No doubt Church Bells have been in past years rung upon other and most improper occasions. Happily they are now looked upon as part of the ornaments, or requisite furniture, of a church, and set apart with it to be used for holy and sacred purposes, and upon occasions, when by their exhilarating sounds, they can add to the joyous thankfulness and innocent pleasure of all within reach of their sound. Of their occasional perverted use within the memory of many living, it will be well not to speak further, but rather to rejoice that a better feeling, and better customs, now prevail. The close of this chapter upon the Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells appears a fitting place to say a few words on the necessity of keeping the bells and their surroundings in good repair and in decent order ; and on the best mode of restoring the ringers to their proper position amongst the officers of the cliurch — a position which has of late years been too much ignored or forgotten both b}' the ringers themselves and by those under whose control the bells are placed. In doing this I would, rather than use my own words, write in those of one who has a much greater claim than myself upon the attention of cliurchmcn in tlic Diocese io8 Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. of Peterborough — one to whom they are indebted for much that has been said and written upon the architecture and history of many of its noble and beautiful parish churches, and whose suggestions as to the proper order and arrange- ment of their furniture and surroundings have been eminently practical and useful : — " . . . Bell-ringers and their office have been too much ignored as a part of the apparatus of the church ; and for the purpose of shutting them out from the sacred fabric, and from the sight of the congregation, two bar- barities have been perpetrated. The tower-arch has been closed, that the ringers may neither enter through the church, nor when employed in their proper work, be seen by the assembling worshippers ; and, as a necessary consequence, in Rectories where there is seldom an original West door (as there is in Vicarages) a door has been knocked out of the wall of the tower to admit the ringers from without. The closing of the tower-arch has deprived the interior of what was often its most beautiful feature ; and the unceremonious knocking out of a west door has been equally injurious to the beauty and to the stability of the tower. Has there been any necessity for the barbarous expedient ? I suppose it will be said that the ringers are not generally so reverential in the exercise of their office, as to make it seemly for them to go through the church ; and perhaps, to some over-refined tastes, the very act of ringing, even as seen from a distance, may be destructive of solemnity. The last notion, if it exists at all, seems to me Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. 109 too absurd to deserve an answer : the first, on the other hand, the real or supposed irreverence of Bellringers, is certainly too important not to demand our best attention ; and indeed it is to this and to its cure that I would devote your most serious attention " I need not tell you that the law places the key of the Belfry in the hands of the clergyman and the church- wardens ; but it will be far better, practically, that an instinctive sense of propriety in the ringers should be the keeper. And this brings me to the most important part of my Paper — the character and qualification of the ringers. With regard to the ringers themselves, we want a higher moral standard, and in some portion of them at least (so as to afford some security for decorum) a higher social position. And to get this we must have the office and the science of Bell-ringing duly appreciated. Some five or six generations ago Bell-ringing was a fashionable exercise among gentle- men. But it was not the eternal "round-ringing" of our villagers, but change-ringing, which is both a science and an art. Now, I would strongly advocate the formation of a Society of change-ringers in every parish ; and if he is young and active, I would have the clergyman not only the principal authority among them, but the best ringer. With such a Society there would be no inclination cither to use the Church bells on improper occasions, or to let them be silent on our festivals, or other special church observances. "The material of such a Society might be found in most parishes of three or four luindrcd inhabitants and upwards ; no Pcculiay Uses of the Rutland Bells. and its formation would not, I think, give occasion to any jealousies, if the new members were affiliated with the old ringers. With the higher tone that would follow, the admission of future members would depend, more than it often does at present, on character ; they would, of course, be churchmen, not only negatively, but positively ; and not only by repute, but by habit. Any glaring misconduct either in the Belfry or elsewhere would involve the necessity of dismissal. With such a body of ringers, all secondary questions, such as times of practice, occasions of ringing, scale of fees, and the like, would right themselves ; and the Belfry would be as well filled and ordered as any public office in the parish. "It is hardly necessary to say that the first preparation for such a Society would be the bringing the Bells them- selves, and all that belongs to them, into perfect working order. The ringers' chamber, and the access to it, ought to be made as easy and comfortable as possible, and it should be furnished with proper light, and with coat and hat pegs. The windows ought to be glazed, for the tower, without this precaution, is a bitter place for men who have been engaged in an exercise which has kept them warm for an hour or two ; and the little light-holes by which the circular stair-case to the Belfry is lighted may well be closed with a piece of glass. The Bellframes will too often need repair, and the Bells themselves will most likely want turning ; but I would strongly advise you not too hastily to admit the necessity of new frames. The old oak may be very rough, but it Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. iii is almost sure to be sufficient in strength and substance, and you will save some £i^ or ^20 a Bell by retaining it."* That bell-ringing is a healthy and desirable exercise has been well shown by a member of the medical profession who writes : — " I doubt if there be any physical exercise equal to bell-ringing for keeping the body in health ; if there be, there are certainly not many. In bell-ringing the important muscles of the chest, the spinal column, and the arms, are brought into powerful, steady, and regular motion — usually at regular intervals. The length of time which bell-ringers keep their muscles in exercise is generally sufficient to produce a wholesome effect ; seldom, I presume so long as to cause a feeling of exhaustion. " The majority of our belfries are on elevated ground — that is, where the air is purer and lighter ; and the floors (where the bell-ringers stand) of the greater number of our bell towers are elevated at least a few yards above the surrounding land. The temperature of the ringing-rooms, with their thick walls, is not easily influenced by alternations of heat and cold ; but, shcnild the weather unduly affect them its influence can easily be modified. The mental effort to ring in order, and the harmony of the bell-sounds produce a beneficial effect both on the mind and body. I Bells and Belfries, by the Rev. G. A. Poole, R.D. The Reports and Papers for 1873 of the Ass. Arch. Socs. pp. 102, 103, 105 and 106. 112 Peculiar Uses of the Rutland Bells. certainly know of no ' all-thc-year-round ' exercise which is as good for the health (especially of those persons who lead sedentary lives) as bell-ringing. "To those who have * an ear for music' the sound of bells has a cheerfully soothing effect, sometimes diverting thoughts from needless cares and anxieties, to calm and tender moods and pleasant remembrances : memories and scenes of the past are brought back fresh and new almost as in days gone by."* * George Gregorj-, Esq., M.D., on the Sanitary Influence of Bell-ringing and its Melodies in "Church Bells" Newspaper, ist Nov. 1876. LATIN INSCRIPTIONS ON THE CHURCH BELLS OF RUTLAND. [ With Translations.* ] ADMONEO CUM MOVEO. [ / admonish when I move. ] ov [ While on the swing I warnings bring. ] AGO GRATIAS HUMILLIME. [ / render thanks most humbly. ] AVE REX GENTIS ANGLORUM. [ Hail King of the English nation. ] COELORUM CHRISTE PLACEAT TIBI REX SONUS ISTE. [ Christ, King of Heaven, may this sound he pleasing to Thee. ] CUM VOCO VENITE. [ Come when I call. ] CUM VOCO AD ECCLESIAM VENITE. [ When I call come to Church. • For these I am indebted to the kindness of a friend. Q 114 Latin Inscriptions on CJiurcli Bells. DONUM DE DOMINA CAMBDEN. [ The gift of Lady Camhdcn. ] GLORIA PATRI FILIO ET SPIRITUI SANCTO. [ Glory he to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. ] GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO. [ Glory to God in the highest. ] GRATA SIT ARGUTA RESONANS CAMPANULA VOCE. [ May the little bell be pleasant, sounding ivith dear tone. ] HEC CAMPANA SACRA FIAT TRINITATE BEATA. {Let this bell be sacred to the Holy Trinity. ] IH'S NAZARENVS REX IVDEORVM FILI DEI MISERERE MEL [ Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. O Son of God have mercy on me. ] IN HONORE SANCTI EIUDIL [ In honour of S. Giles. ] IN NOIE IHS MARIA. [ In the name of JESUS. Mary. LABOR IPSE VOLUPTAS. [ The Labour is itself pleasure. ] i.e. ringing. MELODIE GERET NOMEN CAMPANA . . . [ This bell shall melodiously bear the name . . . ] MISERICORDIAS DOMINI IN ETERNUM CANTABO. [ / will sing the mercies of the Lord for ever. ] NICHO: BULINGHAM AB ME SUIS SUMTIBUS HIC COLLOCARI CURAVIT. [ Nicho : Bulingham A .B. caused me to be placed here at his expense. ] Latin Inscriptions on Church Bells. 115 NON CLAMOR SED AMOR CANTAT IN AURE DEL [ It is not noise hut love that sings in the eay of God. ] or [ In God's ear not rivahy Soundeth sweet, but charity. ] NON SONO ANIMABUS MORTUORUM SED AURIBUS VIVENTIUM. [ / sound not for the souls of the dead, but for the ears of the living. ] or [ Not for the departed soul But for the living ear I toll. ] NON VERBO SED VOCE RESONABO DOMINE LAUDEM. [ Not by word but by voice will I resound {thy) praise O Lord. ] or [ Not verbally but vocally The praise of God I signify. ] NUNC MARTINE EGO CANA VOBIS ORE lUCUNDO (sic.) [ Now Martin, I sing to you with pleasant voice. ] OMNIA FIANT AD GLORIAM DEI. [ Let all things be done to the glory of God. ] SACRA CLANGO : GAUDIA PANGO : FUNERA PLANGO. [ Holy offices I proclaim, joys I ratify : deaths I bewail. ] SANCTA FIDES ORA PRO NOBIS. [ Saint Faith pray for us. ] SIT NOMEN DOMINI BENEDICTUM. [ Blessed be the name of the Lord. ] SUM ROSA PULSATA MUNDI MARIA VOCATA. [ / being rung am called Mary the Rose of the world. ] ii6 Average Weight of Bells. List of the Average Weight of Bells cast by- Messrs. Taylor and Co., of Loughborough, Leicestershire. The diameter being known, a reference to this list will give the approximate weight of any bell. DIAMETER. WEIGHT. DIAMETER. WEIGHT. Inches. Cu'ts. Qvs. /&s. Inches. Cwts. Qvs. lbs. 12 I 20 37 900 13 2 6 38 10 14 2 20 39 II 15 3 16 40 1200 16 I 41 1300 17 I I 42 14 18 I 2 43 15 19 I 3 44 16 20 2 45 1700 21 2 I 46 18 22 2 2 47 19 23 2 3 48 20 24 3 49 21 I 25 3 2 50 22 2 26 4 51 24 27 4 2 52 25 2 28 4 3 53 27 29 5 54 28 2 30 5 2 55 30 31 6 56 3120 32 6 I 57 33 2 33 6 2 58 36 34 7 ' 59 39 35 7 2 60 42 36 8 I THE INSCRIPTIONS ON THE CHURCH BELLS OF RUTLAND, With the Diameter at the mouth of each bell from which its approximate weight may be ascertained (see page ii6). To which are added Extracts, where procurable, from Parochial and other Records, together with Local Traditions, Notices of Donors, &c., and Notes on the Uses of Church Bells peculiar to different parishes. Note. — The numbers between [ J refer to the woodcuts on the Plates. It being impossible to reproduce here the various forms of viediaval Gothic letters found on the ancient bells, one form of letter is here used to indicate where Gothic capitals are found [ ,^Jl Xi C^ ] ««^ one form where small Gothic or ^^ black letter'' is found [ a b c ]• For the various forms of Roman letters found on modern bells one form [ A li C ] will suffice. Errors of spelling, misplacement of letters, c^c, &'C., in the following inscrip- tions, are copied literally from the Bells. They are therefore Founders' blunders and not printers' mistakes. ii8 Tlic Inscriptions on the ASHWELL. S. Mary. 6 Bells. 1850. m er^ © m:^.M-:m^ jho:i^^ ( Diam. 27 in. ) 2. EX BONO BARTHOLEMEI BVRTON ARMIGERI ANNO DOM 1760. JOHN CHAMBERLAIN C. W. THO. HEDDERLY FOVNDER. (Diam. 26^ in. ) 3. GOD SAVE QVEEN ANNE ANNO DOMINI 1708. ( Diam. 28|^ in. ) 4. TEMPORE JOHANNI BVLL ET NICHOLAI COALE WARDENS 1708. (Diam. 31I in.) 5. EDWd ARNOLD LEICESTER 1786. O O ( Diam. 351 in. ) 6. ^M ^ampaita Mvntu ]H.iat JUrinrtafc ^eata 1708. ( Diam. 37 in. ) The donor of the ist bell was the brother-in-law of Canon Yard, the former rector — Beckford Bevan, Esq. His initials are upon it. The Burtons (see 2nd bell) were owners of the Hall, now no longer in existence. The Gleaning-bell is rung at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. during harvest. The Pancake-bell is rung at noon on Shrove-Tuesday. On Sundays the ist bell is rung at 8 a.m. ; the ist and 2nd at 9 a.m. All the bells are chimed for Divine Service ; no Sermon-bell. CJinrcli Bells of Rutland. iig AYSTON. S. IMary. 4 Bells. + [□ II] I. M.m:^^ic2>M^ [D24] ( Diam. 30 in. ) ( Diam. 31^ in. ) 3. [ + 26] VIO'A VERBO SED VOCE RESOPIABO DOMINE LAVDEM 1626. :b -MJjhjh lEi pB€> ^ €r:E: ' ^^M, WA TOBIE MORRIS CAST ME ( Diam. 341 in. ) 4. J. TAYLOR & CO. FOUNDERS LOUGHBOROUGH 1S77. LAUS DEO ( Diam. 42 in. ) At the Death-knell three tolls are given for a male, two for a female, both before and after the knell. On Sunday the ist bell is rung at 9 a.m. For Divine Service the bells are chimed, after which (when a sermon is to be preached) the tenor is rung. After morning service the ist and 2nd bells are chimed. The Pancake-bell is rung at noon on Shrove-Tuesday. There were only three bells until the year 1877, when the fine new tenor bell was given to the church by the Rector, the Rev. Sir J. Pienry Fludyer, Bart., in commemoration of the completion of his 50th year as Curate and Rector of Ayston. At the same time he had the whdle ring tuned and rehung, and the belfry put into good order, the cost of the whole, exclusive of a new floor, being ^207 2s. The tenor bell itself (which weighs i2cwt. 2qrs. 7lbs.) cost £cjG 14s. ^\d., being at the rate of £"] 14s. per cwt. The small cross on the first bell is a plain one as shown ; and the stamp * on the waist, which is too indistinct to engrave, represents an animal. 120 The Inscriptions on the The inscription on the second bell is most probably the first line of a hymn addressed to Henry VI., who was all but canonized, or to Edward, King and Martyr, or Edward the Confessor. BARROW. S. Mary. i Bell. There is one small modern bell. BARROWDEN. S. Peter. 5 Bells and a Priest's Bell. 1. [+14] ALEXANDER RIGBY MADE ME 1706. ( Diam. 29 in. Canons broken, fastened by bolts. ) 2. cbin [ □ 13 ] cbm [ □ 13 ] a^nb [ □ 13 ] pr^ag i595 [ U 3 ] ( Diam. 30^ in. ) 3. gob [□13] saitc [□ 13] ibc [ □ 13 ] ^^ttxxt 1595. ( Diam. 32 in. ) 4- [ + 30] M-1^ m:m:m^:E{<^M^% [022] ( Diam. 33^ in. ) 5. ALEXANDER RIGBY MADE ME 1704. ( Diam. 36 in. ) Priesfs Bell: — EDWD ARNOLD FECIT I786. ( Diam. 13 in. ) On a Tablet in the Bell-chamber : — These bells were rehung by J. Hurry for Mess" Mears W'Chapel London, A.D. 1857. Rev. C. Atlay Rector. J. Johnson Clerk. H. Mason and T. Taylor Churchwden's. T. Swann. At the Death-knell three tolls are given for a male, two for a female. Peals are rung after services on the Great Festivals. The Priest's bell (which is not now used for any purpose) was, forty Church Bells of Rutland. 121 years ago, rung after morning service when there was to be no sermon after Evensong. The Bells were rehung in the year 1857 at a cost of ^"102 8s., raised by subscription. BELTON. S. Peter. 4 Bells. 1. GLORIA PATRI FILIO & SPIRITUI SANCTO 1730. THOMAS PILKINGTON GENT. GAVE ME 1664. ( Diam. 29 in. ) 2. [+10] W WORTH TOBIE MORRIS CAST ME 1681. ( Diam. 31 in. ) 3. [+10] TOBY NORRIS CAST ME 1695. ( Diam. 32^^ in. ) 4. [ + 26 ] THOMAS NORRIS MADE MEE 1660. ( Diam. 36 in. ) The marriage of Thomas Pilkington, the donor of the ist bell, is thus noted in the Parish Register of Lyndon : — 1663. Mr. Thomas Pilkington of Belton & Mrs. Thomazin Collins of Hambleton w"" license Oct: 22. Mr. Pilkington married secondly at Colstcrworth on 22nd November, 1666, Mary, daughter of the Rev. Barnabas Smith, Rector of North Witham, Lincolnshire. She was half sister of Sir Isaac Newton, for her mother, who was a daughter of James Ascough of Market Overton, gentleman, married for her first husband Robert Newton, and their only child, Isaac, was baptized at Colstcrworth on the ist of January,* 1641-2. A Daily-bell is rung at i p.m. It used, until recently, to l)c also rung at 5 a.m. • Ex. Infor. Mr. Justin Simpson. 122 The Inscriptions on the The Pancake-bell is rung at ii a.m. on Shrove-Tuesday. At Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male ; thrice two tolls for a female, both before and after the knell. At Funerals all the bells used to be chimed, but now the tenor bell only is tolled. On Sunday the ist bell is rung at 7 a.m. The ist and 2nd bells are rung at 9 a.m. when there is to be Divine Service in the morning, or at 12 o'clock when it is to be said in the afternoon. For Service three bells are chimed, after which the tenor bell (Sermon-bell) is rung for five minutes. BISBROOKE. S. John Baptist. i Bell. I. J. TAYLOR & CO. LOUGHBOROUGH 1871. ( Diam. i']\ in. ) It is said that the old bell (which was rather heavier than the present one) being cracked some years ago, was carefully repaired with putty, and painted ! ! This not proving an effectual cure the bell was recast, the founders receiving £ij and the old metal for the present bell. The bell is rung for Vestry meetings and for the annual " Duke's Court " (lord of the manor). At Death-knell three tolls are given for a male; two for a female, before ringing the knell. The Gleaning-bell (formerly rung) was discontinued in 1871. The Church Books give no information about the bells, but the following entry occurs about the year 1820 : — s, " For cleaning the muck out o . i . o." an operation which might, with advantage, be carried on in many a bell-chamber. Church Bells of Rutland. 123 All Saints. BRAUNSTONE. 4 Bells. I. [ + 2 ] ^ wMom^M- [ ^ 27. ] ( Diam. 31 in. ) 2. W RAWLINGS T BRYON WARDENS 1710 (Diam. 33 in.) 3. )g>:Ei^j^:a: wM^ jh(^:m:^^: [us] ( Diam. 35^ in. ) 4. [ + 26 ] THOMAS NORRIS MADE MEE 1660. ( Diam. 39 in. ) A Gleaning-bell is rung during harvest. The Pancake-bell was discontinued lately. At Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male ; thrice two for a female, both before and after the knell. Upon a recent occasion the age of the deceased was tolled by the special desire of the relatives, but such a custom was quite unknown to the villagers generally. At Funerals it is an ancient custom here to have three tollings at intervals of an hour, e.g., at one o'clock to give warning, at two o'clock to call the bearers together, and at three o'clock for the funeral. On Sunday if there is to be Divine Service in the morning a bell is rung at 8 a.m., after which the day of the month is tolled ; if there is to be no Morning Service the bell is rung, and the day of the month is tolled, at noon. For Divine Service the bells are chimed for twenty minutes, after which the Sermon-bell is rung. A bell is rung after Morning Service if Evensong is to be said. BROOKE. S. Peter. 4 Bells. 1. EDVVd ARNOLD St NEOTS FECIT 1780. ( Diam. 27 in. ) 124 ^^'^' Inscriptions on the 2. [ + 14 ] JESVS • SPEDE • ME • CVM • VOCO • VENITE 1610. ( Diam. 28 in. ) 3. 1648. ( Diam, 30 in. ) 4. H ORTON CHURCHWARDEN R TAYLOR FOUNDER St. NEOTS 1811. ( Diam. 32 in. ) At Death-knell three tolls are given for a male, two for a female. For Divine Service the bells are chimed and the Sermon-bell (tenor) is runer. BURLEY-ON-THE-HILL. Holy Cross. i Bell. I. ALEXANDER RIGBY MADE ME 1705 BVRLEY IN RVTLAND. ( Diam. 43 in. ) At the Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male, thrice two for a female, both before and after the knell. The same number of tolls are also given before and after tolling for a funeral. There is a tradition that this large bell was cast from a former ring of smaller bells, but there is not room in the bell chamber for more. There was formerly a small clock bell which is said to have been taken down and sent to the Rectory at Oakham. CALDECOT. S. John. 5 Bells. I. [+10] PETER BROWNE GAVE ME TO THIS TOWNE 1696. (Diam. 28| in.) Church Bells of Rutland. 125 2. [ + 10] 96. ( Diam. 29^ in. ) 3. 1696. ( Diam. 31+ in. ) 4. [ + 10 ] TOBY NORRIS CAST VS ALL FIVE 1696. ( Diam. 33 in. ) 5. [ + 10 ] JOHN CHAPMAN ROBART COLLWELL C. W. 1696. ( Diam. 37 in. ) Mr. Justin Simpson writes to me : — " Thomas Browne of Uppingham, apothecary, 1681, married Prudence, daughter of — Kirkby of Calde- cote. He was grandson of the Rev. Robert Browne, Rector of Achurch, Northamptonshire, founder of the sect of Brownists, and who died in the year 1636, in Northampton gaol, whither he had been committed for assaulting the parish officer who had come to demand a rate of him. I have reason to believe that Peter Browne, the donor of the ist bell to Caldecott parish, was of the same family. He died in 1 710, and was buried under an altar tomb near to the south door of the church. The brass plate at the end recording his death disappeared within the last few years. His descendant, Mr. J. T. Browne, now resides in the house built by Peter Browne about the year 1707." The 2nd and 3rd bells are imperfect : previous inscriptions are apparently chiselled off, which leads to the inference that these bells were not originally cast for this church. The Pancake-bell is rung on Shrove Tuesday : a bell used to be rung here daily throughout Lent at 1 1 a.m. At Death-knell three tolls are given for a male ; two for a female, both before and after the knell. On Sunday the treble bell is always rung at 8 a.m. For Service all the bells arc chimed and the Sermon-bell (tenor) is rung. If there is morning service a bell is rung at its close to give notice of afternoon service ; if morning prayer is not said this bell is rung at noon. Peals are rung on Christmas Eve. 126 The Inscriptions on the CASTERTON GREAT. SS. Peter and Paul. 5 Bells. I, 2, 3, 4. HENRY PENN FOUNDER 1718. ( Diams. 25^, 27, 28, 30 in. ) 5. G. MANCELL THOMAS BROUGHTON CHURCHWARD- ENS 1718. ( Diam. 33 in. ) The Gieaning-bell is rung during harvest at 8 a.m. and at 6 p.m. At Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male, thrice two for a female. For Divine Service the bells are all chimed for a short time, then one bell is rung ; to which succeeds chiming, after which the tenor is rung. CASTERTON LITTLE. All Saints. 2 Bells. I. Blank. ( Diam. 13I in. ) 2. ^ryrx3^ : ^dxsfo : ^©:Ei3t^€f : :id : :© [ + 14 ] M^ '. 1608. ( Diam. 22 in. ) At Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male, thrice two for a female. CLIPSHAM. S. Mary. 3 Bells. I. 1671. ( Diam. 26^ in. ) Churcli Bells of Rutland. 127 2. [+26] W WI7IG T0BIEA2 MORRIS CAST ME 1675. ( Diam. 29 in. ) 3. [+26] THOMAS NORRIS MADE MEE 1657. ( Diam. 32 in. ) A Gleaning-bell is rung during harvest at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. At Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male, thrice two for a female, both before and after the knell. On Sunday a bell is rung at 8 a.m. if morning prayer is to be said, and again after morning service if Evensong is to be said. For Divine Service the bells are chimed and a Sermon-bell is rung. COTTESMORE. S. Nicolas. 5 Bells. I. THOMAS NORRIS MADE MEE 1660. ( Diam. 29^ in. ) 2. ©G):© SMT^^ -M^s :i^ » M(B:i2icB ♦ M-:m.%^iM-i^^3i^ (Diam. 38 in. Canons broken : cracked. ) There was formerly a Priest's-bell dated 1636. That and the ancient 3rd bell inscribed S. S. S., were exchanged for the present 3rd bell in 1861. A Gleaning-bell is rung during harvest. ChiD'ch Bells of Rutland. 135 KETTON. S. Mary. 6 Bells. 1. NICHO : BULINGHAM I AB : ME : SUIS : SUMTIBUS : HIC : COLLOCARI : CVRAVIT I 1640 : T : WOTTON : w : ROWLATT c w : 1748. ( Diam. 2g\ in. ) 2- [ + 34 ] I stocttlg tolling mnt bo cull to taste on meat tb:it fctbs the souk 1609 [07]. ( Diam. 30^. in. ) 3. MOSES : SISSON : CH ; W : HENRY ; PENN : FVSORE i 1713- ( Diam. 32 in. ) [U3] &^^M<^ 1598. ( Diam. 34 in. ) WMJS^ JSiOmX^E 1601 [U3]- ( Diam. 36 in. ) • KNOWNE • TO • ALL • THAT • SEE • THAT • NEWCOMBE • OF • MADE • MEE • 1606. ( Diam. 40 in. ) Nicholas Bullingham, tlie donor of the ist bell — whose baptism is recorded in the Parish Ref,nstcr of Kctton under date of " xxvj die Octobris 1609" — was the son of Nicholas Bullingham, who held the Prebendal Manor there under the Cathedral of Lincoln. This last named Nicholas was a son of the Nicholas l)ullin[,'ham who was suc- cessively Bishop of Lincoln and Worcester. He was baptized at Buckden, where formerly the Bishops of Lincoln had a palace, on the 30th September, 1566, and died at Ketton, where his burial is recorded thus in the Parish Register: — "1639 Mr. Nicholaus Bullingham ultimo Aprilis." It would appear that the above bell was given by 4- [ + 23] XHE ♦ ia^jhjh ♦ 5- sj7^.TiT3i:B, m 6. [ + 31 ] BE • YT DOTH • ME LEICESTER 136 TJic Inscriptions on the his son, bearing the same name, upon his accession to his father's property.* There is a piece of metal broken off the rim of the 3rd bell. The 4th (with the curious inscription) is a fine bell in perfect preservation. The bells are open on all sides to the weather: they are not rung on account of the supposed danger to the steeple ; indeed they could not be, for three of the wheels are broken. LANGHAM. SS. Peter and Paul. 6 Bells. 1. GRATA SIT ARGUTA RESONANS CAMPANULA VOCE -H THOs. EAYRE, FECIT O O 1754 -<- O ( Diam. 31 in. ) 2. J. TAYLOR & CO FOUNDERS LOUGHBOROUGH 1874. ( Diam. 33 in. ) 3. [ + 26 ] THOMAS NORRIS MADE ME 1636. ( O O O O four coins near the mouth. ) ( Diam. 34^ in. ) 4- [ + I ] M\i ^omcn :E)omini ^©nubitlum [ a ^6] [ U 35 1 ( Diam. 37 in. ) 5. THE CHURCHIS PRAIS I SOUND ALLWAYS. THOMAS HEDDERLY FOUNDER NOTTINGm 1771. ( Diam. 40^ in. ) 6. [ + 10 ] THOMAS NORRIS MADE MEE 1660. I. N. ( Diam. 44 in. Canons gone : hung by a bolt. ) The 2nd bell was previously inscribed " Thomas Norris made mee 1660:" when this bell was recast the whole ring was rehung. At the same time a new clock was given to the church by the Rev. John Mould, sometime curate and now vicar of the parish. * Ex. Infor. Mr. Justin Simpson from his MS. Collection. Church Bells of Rutland. 137 The Pancake-bell is rung on Shrove-Tuesday. The Gleaning-bell is rung during harvest at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. At the Death-knell three tolls are given for a male, and two for a female, both before and after the knell. The Curfew is rung at 8 p.m., during the winter months, after which the day of the month is tolled. Tradition says a lady being benighted, and finding her way home by the sound of the bells, left an endowment for the future ringing of this bell, but none such is now known. Peals are rung at Easter, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and on "the Feast Sunday." LUFFENHAM, NORTH. S. John Baptist. 5 Bells and a Clock-Bell. 1. [+ 14] JO EXTON ED HVNT RO MVNTON HE LAW CH WA 1630. ( Diam. 28 in. ) 2. Xlitlobic (5crtt [X^^omcu (STampana. ( Diam. 29 in. ) 3. [+26] OMMIA [05] FIAMT [DD5] AD [DD5] GLORIAM [ D D 5 ] DEI [ d d d 5 ] 1618 [005] [ -f 26 ] [ D 5 ] E [ D 5 ] HVWT [05] H [ D 5 ] STAFFORDE [05] GARDIAM [ d d 5 ] ( Diam. 31 in. ) 4. .:. THO • EAYRE FECIT • 1742 : OMNIA FIANT AD GLORIAM DEI .:. GLORIA DEO SOLI. ( Diam. 33 in. ) 5. [ + 34] JA DIGBY jo basset IZ JOHNSON ED HVNT HE STAFFORD DA GIBSON 1619 [ d 7 ] ( Diam. 38A in. Cracked and not used. ) There is also a small Clock-bell (about iS inches in diameter and without inscription) fixed about a century ago. T 138 The Inscriptions on the James Digby (whose name is on the tenor bell) was the son of Roger Digby of North Luffenham, descended from the ancient family of Digby of Tilton, Leicestershire. See his Pedigree in the Visitation of ^ Rutland 161S-19, published by the Harleian Society, p. 17. The Pedigree of John Bassett is also given in the same Visitation, p. 18. Isaac Johnson was the son of Abraham Johnson of North Luffen- ham, who was the son of Archdeacon Robert Johnson, Rector of that parish — (where he was buried 24 July, 1625) and founder of Oakham and Uppingham Schools. Abraham Johnson married twice. His first wife, to whom he was married at S. John's, Stamford, the 19th October, 1600, was Anna, daughter of Robert Meadows, Mercer, of Stamford, by whom he had Isaac — baptized at S. John's, Stamford, on the ist July, 1601 — whose name appears on the tenor bell. Shortly after his birth his mother died ; her burial being thus recorded in the Parish Register of S. John's, Stamford : — " 1602 the XXV day of August Mrs. Anna Johnson the wife of Mr. Abraham Johnson gent, professor of lawe was bur." Abraham Johnson quickly married a second wife — Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Laurence Chaderton, D.D., Master of Emmanuel College, Prebendary of Lincoln, and one of the Translators of King James' Bible. He died 1649 and she about the year 1667. Their son, Samuel, was baptized at S. Michael's, Stamford, 5th January, 1604-5. Isaac Johnson in company with his wife, Lady Arabella Fiennes, daughter of Thomas, Lord Clinton, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, went to New England with Mr. Winthorpe's party in 1630, arriving there on the 12th of June. He died at Boston on the 30th September, 1630, after appoint- ing John Hampden as his executor. His wife also died in New England in the same year.* » Ex. Infor. Mr. Justin Simpson from Johnson and his wife in The History of the his MS. Collections : see a Pedigree of the Puritans in England and The Pilgrim Fathers, family in Miscellanea Genealogica ct Hcraldica. p. 492. Vol.1, p. 450-1. And some account of Isaac 1 Church Bells of Rutland. 139 There are two vacant places for bells, showing tliat there were probably once seven bells here : on the bell frame is : — " Thos. Munton — John Pitts Churchwardens 1701." At the Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for an adult male, thrice two for an adult female ; twice three for a young man, twice two for a young woman ; three only for a boy, two only for a girl. On Sunday a bell is rung at 8 a.m. For Divine Service the bells are chimed. LUFFENHAM, SOUTH. S. Mary. 4 Bells. I. 39^1 ■a:xii [037] Eor^^xn [037] s^mM-is^ [ □ 37 ] j5zi'H:j^ [ u 3 ] Letters reversed and reads backwards : — " Hew Watts made me 1563." ( Diam. 22-Jl- in. ) 2. Blank. ( Diam. 24!- in. Cracked : no clapper. ) 3. [ + 14] OMI^IA : : FIAMT : : ad : : gloriam : : dei ::::: 1618. ( Diam. 27-J in. One-third of rim off. ) 4- [ + 6 ] S [ + 6 ] S, [U9] ( Diam. 32 in. ) On the bell-frame is AL • AW • CW • iGSr. At the Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male, thrice two for a female, at the beginning of the knell. An hour before a Funeral the tenor bell announces the age of the deceased by tolling the number of years; and is tolled again in llic usual manner during the procession to church. The Curfew (ist bell) at 8 p.m., and the Morning -bell at 5 a.m., arc rung from the ifjlh of September to the 25th of March, excepting 140 The Inscriptions on the during a fortnight at Christmas. For doing this the clerk receives the rent of about an acre of pasture land, called " Bell-ringing Close." Tradition says this land was purchased with a sum of money left as a legacy by a certain lady who losing her way "at the bottom of the Common near to Foster's Bridge," was enabled to find her home by the sound of a bell at eight o'clock, which was probably the ancient Curfew. On Sunday a bell is rung at 8 a.m., and again after Morning Service when Evening Prayer is to be said. LYDDINGTON. S. Andrew. 5 Bells. 1. [ + 10] J WARING TOBY NORRIS CASTE ME 1695. [ + 10] J IRELAND J CRADIN C.W. ( In two lines. Diam. 30^ in. ) 2. [ + 10 ] W BROWNE. ( Diam. 32 in. ) 3. GREGORY BATEMAN M.A. CURATE TAYLOR & CO FOUNDERS. T T BRYAN ^ JOSEPH WRIGHT f CHURCHWARDENS AD .86r ( Diam. 34! in. ) 4. [ + 10 ] W PRETTY. ( Diam. 38 in. ) 5. [ + 10 ] C PRETTY TOBYAS NORRIS CAST VS ALL ORE IN 1694. ( Diam. 42^- in. ) Cut on the Bell-frame is JAMES HILLAMD ROBERT COLL WELL CHIRCH WARDIMS lOHM BROW WE FECIT 1677. Church Bells of Rutland. 141 The family of Pretty still resides here. The cost of recasting the 3rd bell, in 1861, was £^0. A Daily-bell is rung at i p.m. ; this used to be rung at 8 a.m. The Gleaning-bell is rung at 8 a.m. and at 5 p.m. during harvest. Women and big children pay the clerk a fee of a penny a week. At the Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male ; thrice two for a female ; both before and after the knell. At Funerals all the bells used to be chimed, now the tenor only is tolled. The Pancake-bell is rung at 11 a.m. on Shrove-Tuesday. On Sunday a bell is rung at 8 a.m. For Divine Service the bells are chimed. If Evening Prayer is to be said in the afternoon a bell is rung after Morning Service, if later in the evening it is rung at 4 p.m. LYNDON. S. Martin. 4 Bells. 1. NUNC MARTME EGO CAI4A VOBIS ORE IVCVNDO REMMEDGHVMTE 1597. ( Diam. 26 in.) 2. [ + 26] OMNIA FIANT AD GLORIAM DEI AD 1624. ( Diam. 28 in. ) 3. SAMUEL BARKER ESQUIRE 1716. ( Diam. 30 in. ) 4. SR THOS BARKER BARONET OF LINDEN M P CLAYTON RECTER. ( Diam. 34 in. ) •. « There are marks of a Sanctus-bcU having been lonncrly in the east window of the tower. " King Edward VI., in the sixtii year of his reign, granted his license to Francis Peyton to alienate the mannor and advowsoii of Lind(Mi, with the appurtenances, in the County of Rutland, to John Hunt and his heirs. This John Hunt was the Father of Remigius Hunt [whose 142 TJic Inscriptions on the name is on the ist bell with the blundered inscription] who, in the 39th year of Elizabeth, borrowing £110 of Tobias Loveday of Stamford .... did joyn in a Lease with Elizabeth his wife Thomas and Francis his sons, whereby they demised certain Farms in this Town to the said Loveday for 21 years, by way of mortgage, for the security of the said sum ; the rent of which Farms being received by Loveday, and amounting to ^■^o per annum clear, one Will. Cook of Normanton in this County exhibited an Information against the said Loveday in the Exchequer upon the Statute of usury, but became nonsuit." — Wrighfs Rutland, p. 82. See a full Pedigree of Hunt, of Lyndon, in Visitation of Rutland 1618-19, published by Harleian Society, p. 14. Samuel Barker Esq. whose name is on the 3rd bell, was — as is shewn in the Parish Register — buried here on the igth of March 1759. Sir Abel Barker of Hambleton, who was created a Baronet on the 9th September, 1665, married Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Burton of Stockerston, Bart., and died in 1679. Shortly before his death he purchased the manor and advowson of Lyndon, which, upon his death, descended to his son. Sir Thomas Barker, whose name is on the 4th bell. This Sir Thomas Barker (the second, and last, Baronet), who represented the County in Parliament, was buried at Lyndon, where the following entry is in the Register : — 1706 [ 7 ] Sr Tho. Barker Bart, was bur 22 Mar. The arms granted to Thomas Barker, Esq. (grandfather of the last Baronet), on 7th February, 1663-4, were: — Per fesse nebulee sa. and or 3 martlets counterchanged. Crest : A bear sejant ppr. The Rev. Wm. Clayton died Rector of this parish, and was buried in this Church, on the 20th October, 1730. He was succeeded by the Rev. W. Whiston, the celebrated mathematician and translator of Josephus.* I am indebted to Mr. Justin Simpson for these extracts from the Register: and see Wright's Rutland. Church Bells of Rutland. 143 At the Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male, thrice two for a female. On Sunday the bells are chimed for Divine Service, and the Sermon-bell is rung. MANTON. S. Mary. 2 Bells. 1. [ + 2] M^-^^mi&i'Ml^iS-M^ [oil] ( Diam. 20 in. ) 2. CVM : voco : ad : ecclesiam : venite : 1619 t. s. ( Diam. 22^ in. ) The initials T. S. on the 2nd bell are most probably those of Thomas Smyth, who was, as can be gathered from the Register, Churchwarden about that time. In the Church Chest are fragments of a small bell which measured lof inches in diameter : it is without inscription or stamp of any kind. It may once have occupied the Sancte Bell-cot over the chancel arch, but its appearance rather favours a more recent date. The Pancake-bell, which was formerly rung on Shrove-Tuesday, and the Gleaning-bell during harvest, have both been discontinuctl for several years. At the Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male, thrice two for a female, both before and after the knell. A short time before a Funeral the tenor bell is tolled as a "call-bell :' it is again tolled when the time for interment has arrived. On Sunday the ist bell is rung at g a.m. For Divine Service both bells are chimed, after which the tenor is rung. MARKET OVERTON. SS. Peter anu Paul. 3 Hi;li.s. I. OMNIA FIANT AD CiLORIAM DEI • • CLOlvIA I'ATUI FILUJ FT SPIKITUI SANCTO ■ : V. i:. 1737. 144 ^^'^ Inscyiptions on the 2. TD WP 1658. 3. OMNIA FIANT AD GLORIAM DEI • : • GLORIA PATRI FILIO ET SPIRITUI SANCTO • : • THO : • EAYRE . : • 1737. ( Diam. 41 in. ) The Pancake-bell is rung on Shrove-Tuesday at noon. The Gleaning-bell is rung at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. during Harvest. At the Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for an adult male, twice three (a perversion of thrice two) for an adult female ; thrice two (a perversion of twice three) for a boy, twice two for a girl, all before the knell. On Sunday a bell is rung at 8.30, and again after Morning Service when Evening Prayer is to be said. MORCOTT. S. Mary. 4 Bells and a Clock-bell. I. [ + 26] THOS NORRIS MADE ME 1637. ( Diam. 28 in. ) 2. M^^m:^m:^^M^%:^i^mi:m^v.\.\.. I. GOD BE OVR 1749 SPEED. Hi: DDICK'LV. • The Bauderick was a leather attached to the clapper by which it was suspended to the bell. 146 TJic Liscriptions on the OAKHAM. All Saints. 8 Bells and a Priest's Bell. 1. JOHN TAYLOR & CO FOUNDERS LOUGHBOROUGH. AGO GRATIAS HUMILLIME H. F. i860. ( Diam. 30 in. ) 2. JOHN TAYLOR & CO FOUNDERS LOUGHBOROUGH i860. ( Diam. 31 in. ) 3. [ + 26] GOD SAVE THE KING T MEKINGS TOBIE MORRIg CAST ME 1677. ( Diam. 32^ in. ) 4 and 5. G. MEARS FOUNDER LONDON 1858. ( Diams. 34 in. and 36 in.) 6. I H ' 2 : NAZARENVS REX : IVDEORVM FILI : DEI MISERERE : MEI 1618 [ U 3 ]• (Diam. 38^ in.) 7. FRANCIS CLEEVE : WILL. MAIDWELL : CHURCH- WARDENS. HENRY PENN MADE ME 1723 O O O ( Diam. 42 in. ) 8. J TAYLOR & CO BELLFOUNDERS LOUGHBOROUGH 1875- ( Diam, 48!- in. ) There is also a Priest's bell inscribed : — H STINSON churchwardens 1840. J RUDKIN j The initials H. F. on the treble bell are those of the Rev. Heneage Finch, the then Vicar. Mr. Robert Blackburn, who died early in the sixteenth century, left by his will 3s. 4d. to the bells of Oakham Church. The tenor bell was previously inscribed " God save the King. Tobie Norris cast me 1677." Church Bells of Rutland. 147 The Curfew is rung from Old Alichaelmas-day to Old Lady-daj-. The Gleaning-bell is rung at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. during harvest. The Pancake-bell is rung on Shrove-Tuesday. The 7th bell is called " The Meeting-bell," being rung to call town meetings. At the Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male, thrice two for a female, both before and after the knell. On Sunday the 3rd bell is rung at 9 a.m. and again after Morning Service, For Divine Service the bells are chimed for twenty minutes, the Sermon- bell is rung for seven minutes, and after that the priest's bell for three minutes. Peals are rung on the Eves of Christmas and the New Year. There are" quarter-jacks " which strike the quarters. OAKHAM HOSPITAL. SS. John Evangelist and Anne. i Bell. I. T . : EAYRE : • A : • D . : • 1744 : (2 crowns.) ( Diam. i2h in. ) PICKWORTH. All Saints. i Bell. A modern church, built in 1823, with one small new bell in a gable. At the close of the Morning Service, after the first Publication of the Banns of Marriage, the bell is sounded a few times. PILTON. S. Nicolas. 2 Bells. I. Blank. ( Diam. 19 in., cracked. ) 148 TJic Inscriptions on the 2. Blank. ( Diam. 21 in, ) At the Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male, thrice two for a female, before the knell. On Sunday a morning bell is sounded at 8 a.m. For Divine Service the two are chimed, after which the Sermon-bell is rung. PRESTON. SS. Peter and Paul. 3 Bells and a Sanctus-Bell. I. [ + 33] ©•:^:em3f@"'^. ( Diam. 32J in. ) 2. 1771- (Diam. 35I in.) 3- [ + 23 ] mc:E)er ( Diam. 34^ in. ) 5. [ + 26 ] GOD SAVE THE KING 1669. ( Diam. 39 in. ) The inscription on the 2nd bell is probably a copy of that on tlic ancient bell before it was recast in 1597. The letters of the inscription on the 3rd bell are all reversed, (they cannot be so given in type,) and it reads backwards : — " Ryecharde Benetlye Bell Fovndder." Richard Broughton (whose name is on the 4th bell) was the son of Markes Broughton of Scaton, descended from a Lancashire family. He was living in 1613. The Pedigree of Robert Sheffield (son and heir of George Sheffield of Seaton) is given in the Visitation of Rutland 1C18-19, published by the Harleian Society, p. 19. The Pancake-bell and the Gleaning-bell were both fornuriy rung. At the Death-knell three tolls arc given for ;i male, two for ;i icniali-. before the knell. On Sunday a bell used tf) be rung at 7 a.m. anil again at 9 a.m. ; it is now rung only at the latter hour. I'or Divine Service one bell is (oiled fifteen minutes, then all arc chimed for ten minutes, after which the treble bell is tolled for five minutes. After Morning Service three bells are chimed to give notice that Evening Prayer will be said. 1^2 The Inscriptions on the STOKE DRY. S. Andrew. I Bell. I. •:••• THOs. EAYRE DE KETTERING FECIT 1761 .-. OMNIA FIANT AD GLORIAM DEI I LAUDATE ILEUM CYMBALIS SONORIS. ( Diam. 37^ in. ) At Death-knell thrice three tolls are given lor a male, thrice two for a female, both before and after the knell. On Sunday the bell is rung at 9 a.m. if Morning Prayer is to be said, or at noon if Divine Service is to be in the afternoon. For Service the bell is tolled for fifteen minutes, and then (when a sermon is to be preached) rung for the same time. Tradition says there were formerly two bells here within a steeple of wood. In the upper part of the present tower (built in the eighteenth century and which is very difficult of access) there is no room for more than the present single bell. Upon one of the two sculptured shafts of late Norman date support- ing the chancel arch is represented a man tolling a bell. STRETTON, S. Nicolas. I. HENRY PENN • FVSORE • 1710. ( Diam. 22 in. ) 2. [ + 10 ] THOMAS • NORRIS • MADE ( Diam. 23 in. ) 2 Bells. MEE • 1663. TEIGH. Holy Trinity. ' 3 Bells. I. OMNIA FIANT AD GLORIAM DEI. GLORIA DEO SOLI. T. EAYRE A.D. 1746. ( Diam. 32^ in. ) Church Bells of Rutland. OJ 2. OMNIA FIANT AD GLORIAM DEI. GLORIA PATRI FILIO ET SPIRITUI SANCTO 1746. ( Diam. 33^ in.) 3. x:m Mo^f^ XM.s m.j7^xii^M- [ d 19 d is u 20. ] (Diam. 34^ in. W. H. 1702 incised with a knife.) The present Church here — judging by a date on the ceihng — was finished in the year 1782: the above bells no doubt belonged to the previous edifice. The Pancake-bell is rung on Shrove-Tuesday. At the Death-knell three tolls are given for a male, two for a female, and the age of the deceased is tolled. It was formerly the practice to chime after a Funeral, but the custom is not now followed. For Divine Service the bells are chimed, and a Sermon-bell rung. There is a tradition that two bells were removed from this Church to that at Stapleford. THISTLETON. S. Nicolas. i Bell. I. W. Frear Ch. Warden G. H. Nott" 1793. The bell is rung daily at 8 a.m. and at i p.m. The Pancake-bell is rung at 11 a.m. on Shrove-Tuesday. At the Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male, thrice two for a female. There were formerly two bells here. Both being cracked, they were cast into the present bell by George Hcdderly of Nottingham, in 1703. at the cost of Mrs. Fludyer. TICKENCOTE. S. Peter. 2 Bells. I. Blank. ( Diam. 26.J in. ) W 154 The Inscriplious on the 2. THOMAS M0RRI8 CAST ME 1630. ( Diam. 33^ in. Cracked and useless. ) The Gleaning-bell formerly rung during harvest is now discontinued. At the Death-knell three tolls are given for a male, two for a female. At Funerals the custom is to toll the tenor for an hour while all is being made ready to bring the corpse to the church. On Sunday the ist bell is rung at 8 a.m. and again at 9 a.m. For Divine Service the sound bell— the ist — is tolled for fifteen minutes ; and it is again tolled after Morning Service to announce a second Service. TINWELL. All Saints. 4 Bells. 1. [+26] THOMAS NORIS MADE ME 1654. ( Diam. 30 in. Canons broken : fastened with bolts. ) 2. THOMAS JOHNSON GEORGE ALLIN JOHN SISSEN HENRY GOODLAD CHURCH WARDENS f HENRY 1708 I \ PENN MADE ME | ( Diam. 32^ in. ) 3 [ + 10 ] THOMAS NORRIS MADE ME 1639. ( Diam. 35 in. ) 4- [ + 10 ] :moy^ * scDMCB » M-MmiLmiM:jB^^^ :m-wM ~wTWM:mmxwPEi 1620. (Diam. 38^ in.) At Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a man, thrice two for a woman : for a child of either sex thrice two tolls on the ist bell. On Sunday the bells are chimed for Divine Service and a Sermon- bell is rung. CJiurdi Bells of Rutland. 155 The old saying (showing that ringers have in past times borne an indifferent character) is quoted here: Singers and Ringers Are Httle home brinerers. TIXOVER. S. ]\Iarv Magdalen or S. Luke. i Bell. I. 3"autt:i ;]E\ibcs CDra '^xq X^obis [+12] [ IJ 29 ] [+32.] ( Diam. 35 in. ) At the Death-knell thrice three tolls are given for a male, thrice two for a female. UPPINGHAM. SS. Peter and Paul. 8 Bells. I, 2. PACK & CHAPMAN OF LONDON FECIT 1773. ( Diams. 28 in. and 29 in. ) 3. PACK & CHAPMAN OF LONDON FECPr 1772. ( Diam. 31 in. ) 4. MATTHEW CATLIN AND RICHARD WADE JUNk. CHURCHW\A.RDENS. TAYLOR St. NEOTS FOUNDER 1804. ( Diam. 34 in. ) 5. 6, 7. PACK & CHAPMAN OF LONDON FECIT 1772. ( Diams. 343 in. 37 in. and 40JJ in. ) 8. YE RINGERS ALL WHO PRIZE YOUR HEALTH AND HAPPINESS BE SOBER MERRY WISE AND YOULL THE SAME POSSESS PACK & CHAPMAN OF LONDON WALTER IxOPAKTS CH. WARDEN 1772. ( Diam. 44^ in. ) 156 TJie Inscriptions on the A Churchwardens' Account Book is preserved in the Parish Chest, from which the following extracts have been kindly made for me by my friend, Mr. \V. H. Jones: — 1633. It. to Wittm Yates for Ironworke about y'' Bells o . i . 11 1634. [ Steeple repaired and bells rehung. ] It. ffor the Role to draw" up the bells & other timber for the role o . 13 . 4 It. ffor 4 wheels making & the timber & nails ... 4 . 13 . 4 It. ffor timber for the Saincts bells frame & the yoke o . 3 . o [ Bell hanger and three men paid respectively IS. 8d,, i6d., i5d., i5d., for 57 days. ] It. Wood for the Baldracks for the Bells i . 2 It. ffor Whitleather for the Baldracks 4 To Thomas Clarke for Ironwork for the Bells. Im^. ffor three hundred & a half & 7 pounds of Iron work at sixpence the pound g . 19 . 6 It. ffor iron work for the Saints Bell [ &c. ] 6 . 4 It. ffor scrues & plates for the wheels 4 . 4 It. ffor bossing the second bells clapper 6 . 4 It. ffor three new clappers weighing five score & 3 pound at 8" the pound 3 . 8 . 8 It. ffor mending the second bell clapper being too light o It. ffor carrying the same to the smith o It. To Ri. Boydon for casting 68 pounds of old brass at 6*^ the pound i It. To him for five pounds of new brass o It. To Daniell Mackerith for one rope weighing 30 pound It. To him for fowr bel ropes It. To Solomon Day for 2 belropes & for mend- ing 2 ropes 2 . 8 2 . 14s 5 • 15 • 12 . Church Bells of Rutland. 157 1635. It. to Willjam King for Iron work for the great Bell & straightening the clapper o . i . 3 1636. Item payd to Anto. fFeilding & W" King for worke about the fore-bell o . i . i Item payd to John Sitton for a Baldricke for the same Bell o . 1.4 Item payd for leather to amend the baulderick of the fore-bell o . o . 5 1 63-. Imprimis payd to Robert Sherwood & his son for altering the first bell o . 8 . 6 Item for a peice of wood to M' Orme for the great Bell yoke o . 2 . 6 Item for sixe newe keyes for the first Bell o . i . o Item for bradds for the stayes for the same bell 0.0. i Item to Anthonye Gray for an yron Baldericke o . 1.0 Item to W" Yates for 18 new keyes to cotter the greate Bell o . 3 . o Item for a wedge of iron o . o . 9 1637. It. for a baldrig for the first bell i • 6 It. for a baldrig for the great bell i • o It. for a baldrig for the third bell i . o It. given to the ringers at the same time [viz., the Visitation held at the church ] o . o . 4 It. for 4 new bellropes i- • o 1637. It. to Antho. ffalkner for keeping the bells w'h was left unpaid in the yeare of our lord 1636 ... [No amoiiut.] 1638. It. for a new belrope for y' great bell 0.3.0 It. given y' ringers for y° kings happy return from Spane o . i . 6 It. to y* ringers upon y" kings day o . 1 . o 1639. Itm to the Ringers on the fift of November o. 1 . o Itm to Dan Makerth for 3 new ropes & 2 shootings o . 12 . o Itfn to Jo. Atton for the [fourth ?] Bell baldcry & whitlcathcr o. i . o 158 The Inscriptions on the 1640. It. given to y" ringers on the 5"' of November... o It. given the ringers on the king's day o It. to John Atton for a baldrick & a buckell ... o 1652. 1653. 1654. payd to Will Browne for keping the bells & Roopes one yeare i for a Theale for the grate bell for 2 bauldridges for mending the grate bell Roole [ Amongst " Rents due att Lady day." ] 1 66 1. Imp* John Wells for y" towne land called Bell- rope land 03 [ This entry occurs again in 1663, the amount being £2. I can find no trace of this land now. ] payd Phill ffleming in full for ringing y^ bell for y'' yeare 1660 02 it. given the ringers the 5"' of November o [ This entry occurs again in 1662, 1664, 1665. ] 1662. Paid j\Ir Norris in earnest ffor casting the bells o pd ffor Mr Norris charges o pd William Browne ffor mending the bells i 1663. To Robert Pakeman for carrying y° bells to Stamford o 1664. Pd to Grene off hoult [Holt] ffor bell Ropes: the waight 21' att 5" per lb o pd ffor board ffor y^ Ringers att y^ bishops visitation o 1665. pead for a boderick for the litell bell o 1666. for a litell bell rop o paid to green of holt for 3 bell rops o The bell chargis cometh to g Spent at Stamford for caridg I . . 6 I . 8 . I . 3 • 6 00 . , 00 2 . jo . , 8 . ■ jo i5 . 2 OJ . . 4 I . 4 4 • 10 7 • 3 • 6 4 • I 4 S 2 I lO 05 00 5 4 G Church Bells of Rutland. 159 for [ale ?] at upingam on lodin the bell 1667. paid to a man that went to Mr Norrice paid for charges when Mr Norrice came to hange y*" bell* o paid to men that helped up y^ bell o pd more to ye Bell Hanger 3 1668. paid to the Roper for keeping the bel Ropes ... 00 i66g. paid ffor mending the second & third bell o spent at Stanford w*h y' bell founder o 1670. pade to william browne and His sun for 4 dayes worke aboute the grate bell o . 12 pade to william fox for Irin worke aboute the grate bell o . 17 payde to william browne for mendin the thordc bell o . 5 1676. Item paid for a set of bell ropes 10 To goodman ifox for a piece of iron put into the crown of the great bell To the Ringers upon the 5th of November To the ringers May the 29th 1678. Paid y* the 29th of May to y' Ringers paid y' 5th of November to y* Ringers for a Baldrick ffor y' little Bell 6 1680. pd to y* Ringers Coronation day ; and y" 5th November o . 2.0 1688. pd at proclaming the King for ringing & bone fier &c o . 17 , o 1702. To the Ringers on y° proclamation day 5 . o To y' Ringers 29"* May & 5th Nov 4 . o To the Ringers on the day of Thanksgiving for destroj'ing 40 Ships men of Warr of the It will be noticed "bells" are mentioned as going to Stamford 1G62- 1663, but here "y" bull " only. i6o TJic Inscriptions on the o 06 . 06 2 . , 6 13 ■ 2 4 • , 02 . ffrench & Spanish Galleons at Vigo 10 Reed for Bell Mettle 1.2.0 [ This I suspect records the fate of the " Saincts " bell. ] 1705. paid for 2 new Bell ropes & shooting of the old ones 1706. pd to y' Ringers at y^ day of thanksgiving pd for Bell Ropes — a whole set o 1707. paid the Ringers for Ringing it being a day of thanksgiving for y" Vnion o 1710. May 29. pd for Ale y^ Ring*"" had o June 21. pd for Ale y^ Ringers had uppon y^ News of Dera}'' being taken o . 02 . o Aug. 12. pd for Ale y^ Ringers had uppon y^ Surrender of Bethune o . 02 . 6 Nov. 5th. pd for Ale &c o . 02 . o Nov. 7th. pd Jn° Harrison for Ale y^ Ringers had & Widdow York being a day of Thanks- giving for our success yMast Campaine o . 04 . o pd for Ale 3'e Ring" had when they work'd att y*" Church and Ale ye Ring"' had on y^ 8*" March being y* day of Her Majesty's Accession to y^ Throne o . 05 . 6 1 71 1. Iron worke to y^ 3" & 4"" Bells altering y' Clapper 2 new Stays 5 Keys 2 Screw pinns a Hook & Staple 00 1712. Paid John Green for 5 Bell Ropes 00 for Ale when y' new bell was hung 1714. pd Mr How for making y^ Articles w**" y^ Bell Hangers 2 . o pd Job Swayen for taking down y' Bell By ye order of the neighbours 12 . o pd for Ale for earnest for y^ Bell 2 . 6 pd expence at y^ Running y*" Bell at y' Bargaine 05 • , 10 13 ■ , 00 I . , Chnrdi Bells of Rutland. i6i making 13 . o pd Mr Palmers bill for drawing Bell-founders security 14 . 4 pd W" Burton for carrying y*" bell to & from Leis' 2.2.6 pd W" Burton extraordinary on same occasion o . 16 . o Expences at Leicester for Horses & charges ... i . 13 . 6 Half y* charges for Running y" Bell 12 . 4 . 6 I part of 3 for Hanging y* Bells 10 . o . o 1720. May 28. To the Ringers [ King George's Birthday] o. 2. 6 29 To the Ringers o . 2 . 6 Aug I Ale to the Ringers 2 . 6 Oct 20 Paid the Ringers [Coronation Day, George I.] 2 . 6 Nov 5 Paid the Ringers 2 . 6 1721. [ 2s. 6d. to ringers each of above five days.] June 22 Pd the Ringers for Ringing for a peace with Spaine 3 . o 1722. Ale to y' Ringers w° the L** Bp was here 7 . 6 Oct 7 Ale to ye Ringers for K. Georges Coron. 2 . 6 [This date is evidently a mistake. ] 1724. [2S. 6d. each date to ringers May 28, 29, Aug. i, Oct. 20, Nov. 5.] 1726. Paid for 5 Days Ringing 12 . 6 1727. Paid the Ringers it being the Queens birthday 2 . 6 [ King's Proclamation Day, 5s. — other four days, 28. 6d. each. ] At the Dcath-knell three tolls are given for a male, two for a female. On Sunday the ist bell is rung at 8 a.m. Half an hour before each service the 5th or 6th bell is rung for ten minutes, then all the bells arc chimed until five minutes before the commencement of Divine Service, when the 5th or 6th is again rung, excepting when there is to be a celebration of the Holy Communion, when the 7th bell is tolled instead. X 1 62 The Inscriptions on the UPPINGHAM SCHOOL CHAPEL. 3 Bells. I, 2. J TAYLOR & CO FOUNDERS LOUGHBOROUGH 1872. ( Diams. 33^ in., 37^ in. Notes B Flat and G. ) 3. J TAYLOR & CO FOUNDERS LOUGHBOROUGH LEI- CESTERSHIRE 1871. ( Diam. 49 in. Note D. ) There is not — it must be said with regret — room for these bells to be rung. For Divine Service on Sundays, Saints' Daj^s, and on Wed- nesdays during Lent, the bells are chimed, after which the Sermon bell (tenor) is sounded. If the day be wet two bells only are chimed to warn the boj^s to go direct into chapel without waiting for " call-over." It need scarcely be added that " breaking up " is celebrated by as merr}^ a noise as these really fine bells can produce in their present position. The tenor bell cost £162, 14s. 2d., the two smaller (weighing together 18 cwt. o qr. 6 lbs., at £?> 3s. 4d. per cwt.), ;^I47 8s. gd. The total cost of the three bells, with expenses of carriage, hanging, &c., &c., was ;^352 1 6s. WARDLEY. S. Mary or S. Botolph. 2 Bells. I. GOD SAVE THE KING 1677. ( Diam. 24 in. ) 2- [ + 2] m^-pt, bells used in, i. Ely Cathedral, ancient bells at, 18. Empingham, bells cast in churchyard, 11. Empingham bells, 105, 129. English inscriptions on ancient bells, 21. Enghsh, their love of ringing, 31. Ephrem, S., on call to Holy Communion, 3. Essendine bells, 92, 130. Etruscans used bells, i. Evington (Leicestershire), a bell at, 56 Exeter Cathedral, bells of, 8, 84, 89, 93. Exton bells, 68, 75, 92, 94, 130. Fakenham (Norfolk), a bell at, 67. Fawsley (Northants), a bell at, 20. "First Masse-bell," 22. Fortrey, Mr. W., a lover of bells, 33. Founders' marks, 19. Frolesworth (Leicestershire), a bell at, 47. Fuller on "nimming" a church bell, 27. Gabriel bells, loi. Gainford (Durham), a bell at, 21. Galby (Leicestershire), bells at, 34. Gayton (Northants), bells at, 22. Glaston bells, 38, 52, 56, 64, 94, 132. Gleaning-bell, the, 105. Glinton (Northants), gift of bell to, 33. Greeks used bells, i. Greetham bells, 69, 75, 133. " Guild-bell," 22. Gunpowder Plot, 106. Haddenham, a bell cast in the church of, II. Hambleton bells, 64, 65, 65, 68, 91, 134. Hand-bells, 97. Hannington (Northants), a bell at, 21. Harleston (Northants), bells at, 10, 34. Harringworth (Northants), a bell at, 21,44. Harrowden Great (Northants), a bell at, 61. Hedderly, Daniel, a bellfounder, 11. Hedderly, Thomas, a bellfounder, 79. Hedderly, George, a bellfounder, 79. Heutzer, Paul, on English love of ringing, 32. Himalayas, bells used up the, 2. Hindoo Temple, bells used in, 2. Holcot (Northants), a bell at, 19. Houghton Great (Northants), bell at, 23. India, bells used in, 2. Inscriptions on bells, 17. Inscriptions, ancient, erased, 23. Inscriptions on Rutland bells, 117. Invitation bell, 94. Ireland, ancient hand-bells in, 4, 5. Itinerating bellfounders, 11. Jerome, S., mentions bells, 3. Jews used bells, i. Justyn Martyr on bells {note), i. Kettering, a bellfoundry at, 69. Ketton bells, 39, 52, 53, 56, 57, 77, 135. Index. 171 King's Cliffe (Northants), Passing-bell at, 90. King's Norton (Leicestershire), bells at, 34. Kingsbun.' (Middlesex), a bell at, 44. King's Sutton (Northants), bells at, 20, 33, 33- Kingsthorpe (Northants), a bell at, 24. Kirkby Malzeard, Yorkshire, a bell cast in the church at, 11. Knaptoft, Leicestershire, bell taken from, 33- Lady-bell, 22, 51. Lanfranc, rules for ringing by, 7. Langham bells, 25, 38, 41, 79, 100, loi, 104, 104, 136. Latimer, Hugh, preaches at Melton Mow- bray. 86. Latin Inscriptions on Rutland Bells, with Translations, 113. Leicester, early mention of bells at, 10. Leicester, bellfoundries at, 48. Leicester, All Saints, a bell at, 52. Leicester. S. Martin's, ringing at, 85, 93, gS. Leicestershire, ringing in, 33. Lenten bell, the, 104. Lichfield, Michael de, a bellfounder, 8. Lincoln, "Great Tom" of, 11, 53. London modern bellfounders, 79. Long Sutton (Hunts.), a bell at, 21. Loughborough ( Leicestershire ) bell-master at, 23, 84, 97. Loughborough, ringing at, 29, 105. Loyal peals, 106. Ludlow bells, 22, 97, 98. Luffenham, North, bells, 38, 65, 77, 78, 137. Luffenham, South, bells, 38, 39, 39, 42, 54, 65. 94. 100, 102, 139. Lyddington bells, 94, 105, 140. Lyndon bells, 38, 64, 141. Manton bells, 39, 50, 94, 143. Market Overton bells, 105, 143. Maxey (Northants), ringing at, 33. Mears, Messrs., bellfounders, 80. Mellour, Richard, a bellfounder, 76. Mellour, Robert, a bellfounder, 76. Melton Mowbray (Leicestershire), a bell at. 51. MeltonMowbray, Hugh Latimer preaches at, 86. MeltonMowbray, passing-bell at, 90. Millers, William, a bellfounder, 48. Morcott bells, 37, 43, 55, 72, 144. Mot Robert, a bellfounder, 79. Mote-bell, the, 106. Muston (Leicestershire), a bell at, 45. New Year's Eve, 104. Newcombe, Thomas, a bellfounder, 49. Newcombe, Robert, a bellfounder. 50. Newcombe, Thomas (2nd), a bellfounder, 51- Newcombe, Robert (2nd), a bellfounder, 52. Newcombe, Edward, a bellfounder, 53. Newcombe, Robert (3rd), a bellfounder, 53- Newcombe, Thomas (3rd), a bellfounder, 53- Newcombe, William, a bellfounder, 53. Nineveh, bells found at, i. Nola, a small hand-bell, 4. Noone William, a bellfounder, 78. Norman Conquest, bellfounding in England at the, 8. Normanton bell, 79, 145. Norris, Tobias (or Tobie), a bellfounder, 63- Norris, Tobyas (2nd), a bellfounder, 65. Norris, Thomas, a bellfounder, 65. Norris Tobias (3rd), a bellfounder, 68. Northampton, All Saints, bell at, 25. Northamptonshire, earliest mention of bells in, g. Northamptonshire, Commissioners for temp. Ed. VI. as to bells, &c., 26. Northamptonshire, Inventories of Church Goods in, 27. Northamptonshire, ringing in, 33. Northborough (Northants), a bell at, ig. Nottingham, bellfounders at, 76. Oakham bells, 57, 73, 100, 104, 104, 106, 146. Oakham Hospital bell. 147. Oldfield, Henry, a bellfounder, 76. Oldfield, George, a bellfounder, 78. Owefeld, Thomas, a bellfounder, 76. Owen, S. (circa 650), mentions bells, 6. Oxford, S. Mary's, "Music bell " at, 54. Pack and Chapman, bellfounders, 80. Pancake-bi'll, the, 102. Paris, Matthew, writes of bells, 9. Passenham (Northants), a bell at, 24, 48. Passing-bell, the, 88. Paulinus, doubtful whether he used bells, j. Peculiar Uses of the Rutland liells, 82. Penn. Henry, a bellfounder, 73. 172 Church Bells of Rutland. Persians used bells, i. Peterborough, a bellfoundiy at, 73. Peterborough, ringing at, 93, gS. Pickworth bell. 105, 147. Pilton bells, 147. Pilton (Northants), a bell at, 41. Poole, Rev. G. A., on Bells and Bellringers, loS. FYayer wheels, bells used on, 2. Preston bells, 24, 37, 37, 39, 45, 47, 52, 56, 86, 92, 95, loi, 14S. Priests-bell, the, 96. Re..\ding, consecration of a bell at, 15. Reformation, changes at the, 23. Ridlington bells, 38, 39, 42, 43, 57, 67, 149. Rigby, Alexander, a bellfounder, 68. " Ring," a. of bells, not "peal" [note), 16. Ringers' Rules, 34, 39. Ringing, Rules for, by S. Dunstan, 7. Ringing, Rules for, by Lanfranc, 7. Ringing, the art of, 29. Ringing, English love of, 31. Ringing "soured the drink," 33. Ringing in Northants, 33. Romans used bells, i. Ropeford, Roger de, a bellfounder, 8. "Rounds" ringing, 21, 29. " Royal Heads," 45. Rutland, ancient bells in, 37. Rutland bells, founders of, 40. Rutland bells, Peculiar Uses of the, 82. Rutland bells, Latin Inscriptions on, 113. Rutland bells, Inscriptions, &c., on, 117. Ryhall bells, 62, 67, 149. S. Neots, a bellfoundry at, 75. Sabinian, Pope (a.d. 604), used bells, 5. Sacring-bell, the, 96. Sacrament-bell, the, 105. Sanctus bell, the, 94. Sanders, Richard, a bellfounder, 70. Saunders, Wm., a bellfounder's apprentice, 66. Saxon Churl, privilege conferred on by the possession of a bell tower, 6. Scalford (Leicestershire), bells cast in churchyard, 11. Scotland, ancient bells in, 4. Scott, Mr. John, a lover of bells, 33. Seaton bells, 37, 38, 39, 48, 77, 79, 91, 150. Sermon-bell, the, 86. Shearsby (Leicestershire), bell and beer at, 33, Sheepy Magna (Leicestershire), custom at, loi. Signum, a large bell, 4. Smyth, Mr. Henry, a lover of bells, 33. Somercotes (Lincolnshire), early dated bells at, 18. Southwell, bells at, 7, 61. Stafford, Johannes de, a bellfounder, 48. Stamford, bellfoundry at, 63. Stanion (Northants), a bell at, 21. Stedman Fabian, 29. Stoke Dry bell, 152. Stoke Dr\', carvang of a bell at, 8, 72. Stretton bells, 152. Tansor (Northants), a bell at, 41. Taylor, Messrs., bellfounders, 62. Teigh bells. 37, 45, 91, 94, 152. Thebes, bells found at, i. Thistleton bells, 79, 102, 153. Thorpe Arnold (Leicestershire), a bell at, 24. Thurcaston (Leicestershire), a bell at, 45. Tickencote bells, 94, 153. Ting-tang, the, 96. Tintinnabulum, a small bell, 4. Tmwell bells, 65, 68, 73, 154. Tixover bells, 20, 38, 43, 155. Towcester (Northants), a bell at, 25. Trumpets, precursors of bells, 3. "Tuning" of bells, 23. Ufford (Northants), a bell at, 44. Uppingham bells, 95, 105, 155. Uppingham School Chapel bells, 162. Virgin and Child on bells, 21. Walgrave (Northants), a bell at, 44. Wardley bells, 37, 51, 94, 162. Watts, Hugh, a bellfounder, 54. Watts, Francis, a bellfounder, 55. Watts, Hugh (2nd), a bellfounder, 56. Wedding peals, 105. Whissendine bells, 62, 77, 91, 163. Whitwell bells, 38, 44, 87, 93, 164. Wing bells, 38, 38. 47, 51, 93, 165. Whitechapel bellfoundry, 79. Winterton ( Lincolnshire ), a temporary bell- foundry at, II. Yarmouth, Great, custom at, 97. Printed by Samuel Clarke, Leicester. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Foolscap Quarto, 254 pagis, with several Illustrations, price los. 6d. ; or, on fine toned paper, cloth antique and red edges, £1. is. A CHRONICLE OF THE CHURCH OF S. MARTIN IN LEICESTER, During the Reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, with some account of its Minor Altars and Ancient Guilds, compiled from Original and Contemporaneous Documents. Some of the Opinions of the Press. " Mr. North has worked up this material into his history with great skill." — Athemtum. "These Guilds are of the highest antiquity, but their history has never yet received the attention from English antiquaries which it deserves. Mr. North's is a valuable contribution towards such a History." — Notes and Queries. " Mr. North has taken great pains with the book, which is a good specimen of its class. " — Guardian. "We earnestly recommend those interested in such matters to read the book for themselves." — Church and State Review. "This beautifully printed volume ... is made up with pleasant discussions and with much information." — The Churchman. " Mr. North . . . has done really good service to Archaeology by the publication of his present work, which is, without exception, the best of the kind we have seen." — The Reliquary. " We welcome and commend Mr. Norths Chronicle of the Church ot S. Martin at Leicester." — Ecclesiastic. " Is a valuable addition to our local histories and ecclesiological literature. '—C/i«n7( Review. "... carefully compiled and valuable work." — Church Times. " He has produced a book abounding in interesting memories of past times." — Leicester Advertiser. " Is worthy a place in the library for perusal now and hereafter." — Leicester Chronicle. " Is a veritable store-house of information." — Worcester Herald. " A thoroughly furnished handbook for the ecclesiologist ; and precious to the con- servator of parish memories." — Leicester Journal. " It is of much more than parochial value. It illumines the broad story of our country." — Newcastle Daily Chronicle. " . . . . abounds in interesting and valuable matter." — Northampton Mercury. LEICESTER I SAMUEL CLARKE. Also in Fcap. jfto., Cloth, Red Edges, 470 pp., ivith 125 Woodcuts, Price 215. [there are only a few copies unsubscribed for and on sale.] l'l|i^ ^\\\m\\ 1)cll5 of ^oi|lf(atn|i(on5ljj^, Their Inscriptions, Traditions, and Peculiar Uses, with Chapters on Bells and the Northants Bellfounders. SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS: " Three years ago, we had the pleasure of reviewing Mr. North's excellent ' Church Bells of F.eicester- shire;' we have still greater pleasure in recomTOeudiugihe second instalment of a series of Books which, the author says, is designed to describe the Campanology of the diocese of Peterborough. Thanks to the devotion of enquirers like Mr. North, we shall, in the course of time, possess accounts of all the bells in England, hut no compiler is likely to sui^pass Mr. North in care and diligence. This is saying a good deal, seeing what excellent volumes have been devoted to the subject." — Athenceum. " One after an otlier the bell lists of the different counties are being collected and published, and none of them better than tliose which have been undertaken by Mr. North." — Notes and Queries. " Full, careful, and accui-ate for the most part." — Saturday Revietv. "Mr. Norih, whose fulness of knowledge leaves nothing to be desired, has most admirably ac- complished the second part of his large task of chronicling the campanology of the diocese of Peter- borough. . . . [he] rightly devotes considerable space and attention to the bell 'uses' peculiar to Northamptonshire. The volume is excellently printed, and is liberally provided with illustration?. Mr. North has marshalled his materials in a way which leaves nothing to be desired.'' — Church Bells. "... is full of matter which Avill be specially useful to those whose attention is being directed to bells as a new subject for research and its value is much increased by the copious references to authorities which will be found at tlie foot of every page. The chapter on ' Peculiar Uses' will be read with peculiar interest being very thoroughly done indeed. . . . Mr. North is strongest on the subject which he has made so thoroughly his own, and we heartily wish him health and strength not only to give us a book on the bells of the little county of Rutland, but also one on those of the great county of Lincoln.' — Archceoloyical Journal. " The volume is one which cot only Campanists but the public generally may peruse with pleasure and profit." — Northampton Herald. " A handsomely printed, careful compilation. — Northampton Mercury. "A handsome volume so well and appropriately illustrated." — Newcastle Weekly Chronicle. SOME OPINIONS APART FROM THOSE OF THE PRESS: From the Very Rev. Lord Alwyne Compton, Dean of Worcester, and late Archdeacon of Oakham: — " I think your book is a very complete and thorough account of our Northants Church Bells of which every antiquai-y in the county should have a copy." From the Venerable F. H. Thicknesse, Archdeacon of Northampton : — i " I highly value your two Works descriptive of the Bells of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire: one copy of the latter work I have presented to our Cathedral Library, thinking it quite of sufficient importance to become one of our Diocesan Archives." From the Annual Report of the Architectural Society of the Archdeaconries of Northampton and Oakham : — " Mr. North, one of the Secretaries of the Leicestershire Society, the Editor of The Church Bells of Leicestershire has compiled all the information necessary for a similar work on the bells of Northants. The Committee .... recommended the work to the Members of the Society," From the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe, F.S.A., Author of " Bells of the Church," 4t., 4-c. :— " The bean-ideal of what such a Book should be." LEICESTER: SAMUEL CLARKE. Also in Foolscap Quarto, ^og pages, u,nth about a hundred Woodcuts, price 15s. [ NOW OUT OF PRINT. ] THE CHURCH BELLS OF LEICESTERSHIRE, Their Inscriptions, Traditions, and Peculiar Uses, with Chapters on Church Bells and the Leicester Bellfounders. Some Opinions of the Press. " We might continue much longer thus giving our readers interesting scraps from this work, but we feel that we ought rather to recommend them to see for themselves how excellent a work of the kind it is, and how deserving of a library corner." — Guardian. " It is the fruit of much research, it is carefully illustrated . . . and must be consulted by the historian of English manners." — Standard. "There is a capital index . . . will prove to many readers an unexpectedly pleasant book." — Saturday Review. " We must not omit to call attention to the engravings . . . some of these are of great beauty." — Academy. " May well be commended to the antiquary and the campanologist." — Athcuu'uin. " We pronounce it emphatically to be a capital book." — Notes and Queries. " We repeat that this is one of the best and most important additions to bell literature that has been made." — Reliquary. " An excellent book." — Leicester Journal. "Tradition and anecdote lend their interest to Mr. Norths pages." — Ncwcastle-on-Tyne Daily Chronicle. •'The author has diligently collected from all likely sources any particulars uf interest with respect to the bells of every parish." — Grantham Journal. "The work will prove in every respect an ornament and addition to any gontlomans library. — Leicester Chronicle. " Men who are not anticiuarics may well enjoy a perusal of his work. '— C7i»n7; Bells. LEICKSTEK : SAMUEL CLARKE. Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. m kECl ^nW ^Ht Form L9-100m-9,'52(A3105)444 212 the church bell; CC 212 R8N81 L 006 387 308 7 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 001 159 238 3