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E CHURCTH H BELL F LINLITHGOWSHIREO S 1 6 . IV. E CHURCTH H BELL F LINLITHGOWSHIREO S . EELESC . F ,Y B . F.R.HiST.S., F.S.A. SOOT. In considering the bells of a Scottish county it is important to remembe maie th r n facts wit hbellf o regarcharactee e sth us o dt d an r in Scotland as a whole, as compared with England. During the later middle ages, as church bells increased in size and number, we find three methods growing up in regard to their arrangement. Sometimes bells were multiplie churca n di h tower without regarmusicae th o dt l relatio f theio n r notes, suc ha collectio f bellno s being rung together t haphazarda single th r eo , bells used separately. e Thith , s is was d ,an practice in the neighbouring parts of the Continent and in the larger churches of Scotland. In England, on the other hand, the tendency was to arrange the bells so that their notes formed part of a scale, and to ring them successively as well as all together, or each separately. A third metho e Continentth n Scotlani n do d ,an d thougn i t no h England, was to cast a large number of small bells upon which tunes could be played. After the Reformation period there was a great developmen e Continenth n o t thesf o t e musical bells sete f whicth ,s o h are know carillons na belle th s s: themselves were fixed " dead,t i s "a is called, and struck by hammers operated by a system of wires attached to a row of keys or levers. These carillons, unknown in England r largeou f ro ,Scottis w existee Continentfe th a n hn o di d an , O ' ' O churches, as additions to the other collections of much bigger bells, which were rung by ropes. In England, after the Reformation, there wa a paralles l though different development. Hero en thers wa e •carillon of many musical bells, but the collection of large bells, whose notes had all along formed part of the scale, was itself developed, and after the Restoration of Charles II. all the larger churches began to 2 6 PROCEEDING E SOCIETYTH P O S , DECEMBE , 9 1912R . r eigho hav x t si ebell s e majotuneth o drt scale, this number being afterwards increasetwelver o n te . o dt This developmen accoms wa t - panied by, and in its later stages was largely due to, the peculiarly English growth of change-ringing, which also caused the bells to be made extremely heavy, and to be hung in such a way that they could be easily manipulated. Wherea large sth eContinene bellth n so d an t Scotlann i merele dar y hung between beam gentld san y swunfrod ,an go t the heavy English bells are hung in a special kind of frame, with an apparatus of wheels, stays, and sliders, by which they can be swung right roun madd dan reso et t mouth upwards when necessaryt Ye . e lesth s massively cast Continental bells have frequently attaineda greater size. To put the whole matter in a few words : as far as bells are con- cerned, Scotlan s tildlha recently been Continenta practicen i l d an , little t alla f ,i , influence Englandy db . s alsi ot I worth whil o notict e e that wherea n mani s y partf o s England village churches had towers, each containing several bells, in Scotland, even in the richer districts, the country churches seldom had towers and seldom more than a single bell each. n vieI f thesw o t surprisin no e s facti t i so fingt d that froe mth fifteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth, bells were frequently imported into Scotland fro Netherlandse mth thad an ,t bell Scottisf so h make were cast on the Dutch or Flemish model, in some cases their very ornaments being actual reproductions of those on Dutch bells. In England foreign bells are remarkably rare. Bells in Scotland have been but little studied. The writer believes tha e accounth t f thoso t f Kincardineshireeo , whic e publisheh n di 1897, t 'ipresena s e onlth t y book dealing systematically wity an h e subjectth par f o t . Since tha s collectet ha tim e h e d materiar fo l similar account e churcth f so h bell Aberdeenshiref so f thoso f d eo an , Kirkcudbrightshir d Wigtownshirean e , besides examining numerous bell n Roxburghshirei s , Midlothian, Fife, Forfarshire d elsewherean , . THE CHDECH BELLS OF LINLITHGOWSH1KE. 63 The result of these investigations has been to confirm the views set e introductioth fort n i h o Churcht n Bells f Kincardineshire,o d an briefly outlined above. Linlithgowshire or West Lothian is a small county consisting of thirteen parishes, one of which, Whitburn, only dates from 1718, when it was taken from that of Livingston. While it is possible that there may once have been separate parishe f Binninso Auldcathied gan t i , therithay sw sa truno te o t eonl y remain twelv churchesd ol e r o , churches representin churchesd gol whicn i , h ancient bells remair no whicn i h they could have survived. The olde classifiee rb belly sma d thus :— ,T, „ -,. , C2 Scottish. (I.mediaeva3 ) l |j DoubtfuL (II. seventeent5 ) h f2 Scottish, century ]^3 Dutch. Dutch1 / . (III.) 4 eighteenth } 1 Danish, century "S 1 English. ( 1 Doubtful. Six parish churches now have modern bells, viz. Bathgate, Dalmeny, Ecclesmachan, Abercorn, Bo'ness, and Whitbuin, although at Bath- gate one of the bells is recast from an older one whose date it records, and at Abercorn and Bo'ness the older bells are still left. Of the three mediaeval bells, the earliest is probably the old bell now carefully preserved in the modern parish church of Bo'ness (fig. 1). Thivera s si y fine smooth casting wit gooha d e canontonth e; e sar large, plain and rounded, the shoulder is large and rounded off on to the crown, on which there are no rims or mouldings. Above and below the inscription are rims and shallow mouldings ; there are three rims whicf largeste o , th e middl s hi th e , immediateleon y above 64 PROCEEDING E SOCIETYTH F O S , DECEMBE , 19129 R . e soundbow th smalo tw ld onean , s abovinscriptioe e lipTh th e. n is in Lombardic letters, and is as follows: — + EN : KATERINA : VOCOR : VT : PER : ME : VIRGINIS : ALME Fig . Mediaeva1 . l Bel t Bo'nessa l . The initial cross, the stops, and the letters are each upon a separate rectangular die whicf o , groundwore hth bees kha n enriched with some kin f ornament do regularle ar l Al .y placed t closse , o eact e h other E CHDECTH H BELL F LINLITHGOWSHIEEO S . and close to the rims above and e belowe letterinth Th s . ha g appearance of having been much ornamentae use wornd th dd an an , - tion on the dies or paterae is very indistinct. The shape of the bell seems to indicate the middle of the fifteenth century as the prob- able date, but the lettering may well be from much earlier stamps (fig. 2) - I have been unable to find another instanc f thio e s lettering either herEnglandn i r eo . Similar letterin s commogi n Englandi n , bu t I discovecannotye s a t r another case wher identicals i t ei . The inscriptio whas ni knows i t n as a Leonine hexameter, but it is obviously incomplete, and was no doubt continued upon another bell. t KatharinS e patronesth s i e f o s d parisol e h th churc f Kinneilo h , the double belfry of which is still standing, and the bell is doubtless a paion f o er casthar fo t t church. Bo'ness Churc s originallwa h a y chape n Kinneii l s l Parishwa d an , buil n 1634i t s ;give .ie wa tth n status of a separate parish in 1649, but this was suppressed in 1669, since which time it has taken the FIG. 2. Initial Cross and Lettering i Bel t Bo'nessa l . VOL. XLVII. 5 66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, DECEMBEE 9, 1912. place of the old church of Kinneil as the church of that parish, which has since gone by the name of Borrowstounness. The bell was prob- ably brought from Kinneil when that church fell into ruin t hun:i g in the belfry of the old church of Bo'ness till the new one was built in 1887. Its place has been taken by a large new bell, cast by Taylor of Loughborough in 1894, and it is now preserved in the new parish churc objecn a s historif ha o t c valu interestd ean . The othe mediaevao tw r greae l th bell e t bellar s thirde th , t Lina , - lithgowe bel t th Uphalla l d an , . Thes froe e samar em th e foundry, and are of undoubted Scottish casting. The Linlithgow bell is 34f inche diameterhigrathea n sd i s han ha r t pointeI . d crown, with very large angular canons, quite plainshouldee Th . s surroundei r d with rims and mouldings, so large and numerous as to give the bell a some- what overloaded, though massive appearance. The waist is long rathed an r straight soundboe Th .

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