The Bells of England
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THE *- --. ^*kM^^ _jf . ^BL. ^Bh. ^^^fc. ^Hu. ^^^^^ fi 4V B. H. BLACKWELL LTD. Booksellers THE ANTIQUARY'S BOOKS GENERAL EDITOR : J. CHARLES COX, LL.D., F.S.A. THE BELLS OF ENGLAND FORMING THE MOULD PART OF THE BELL FOUNDER'S WINDOW IN YORK CATHEDRAL THE BELLS OF ENGLAND BY J. J. RAVEN, D.D., F.S.A., OF EMMANUEL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, VICAR OF FRESSINGFIELD AND HONORARY CANON OF NORWICH CATHEDRAL WITH SIXTY ILLUSTRATIONS METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON 591S55 First Published in 1906 OC CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE EARLY HISTORY i " Small beginnings" Bronze Its Hebrew and Greek equivalents The Old Testament Homer Hesiod Herodotus Pomponius Mela Dionysius Periegetes Eustathius on Cornwall Crotals Basque names of metals Pliny Copper in Cumberland Names for bells Tintinna- bulum, Squilla, Bell, Campana, and Nola Their derivations Walafridus Strabo Polydore Vergil Chladni, etc. Gerard Voss Holyoke Martial Hieronymus Magius Historians of the present day Analysis of the following chapters. CHAPTER II THE BRITISH PERIOD 14 Variation in civilization among the British tribes Routes Essedse Small bells, open and closed Crotals at the end of spears Bells of the Irish type ^ -^o.\Koiv Pcupds The specimen from Marden Archbishop Beresford's collection St. Boniface's present to the Pope St. Teilo Bells become sacred Scotch instances The Kilberry clagan of St. Barry Festal days Congleton The passing bell. CHAPTER III THE SAXON PERIOD 28 Retrogression at first St. Augustine's mission "The Old Minster" Bells probably hung in trees Towers necessary for thanedom Antiquity of St. Hilda of of the equilateral arch The death Excerpt Archbishop Egbert Saxon towers Crowland Examples of small bells played by hand Alleged baptism of bells Hand-bells and hanged-bells at Sherburn-in-Elmet. vi CONTENTS CHAPTER IV PAGE THE NORMAN PERIOD 42 Comparison of the Norman Conquest with the present day Norman towers Bells in Normandy Revival at Crowland Fergus of Boston and Alwold of London, founders Double bell-cots Canterbury Cathe- dral St. Alban's Exeter Norwich St. Bene't at Hulme Fire at Ely Methods of sounding Augustinian priory at Cambridge Improve- ments in hanging Presumably old bells remaining Development of Bury Abbey Improvement in small bells. CHAPTER V THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 56 Change in architecture Development in shape of bells Earliest inscriptions Instructions in founding by Walter of Odyngton Letters by strips of wax Gerbertus Scholasticus Founders called ollarii The old Caversfield Sance bell Lichfield Cambridge Paignton Lynn The Claughton bell Bridgewater Waverley Bury St. Edmund's The Westminster Guild of Ringers. CHAPTER VI TIMES OF DEVELOPMENT . '. 71 The mortar at York The window in the Minster Crokesden Ely Sacrist's rolls Early London founders and their works. CHAPTER VII PROVINCIAL FOUNDERS MEDIEVAL USES .... 85 Canterbury William le Belyetere Stephen Norton, of Kent York Minster Leicester Robin Hood and the potter Lavers Sandre de Gloucetre A Cumberland laver Lynn Norwich William de Notyng- ham there Thomas Dekun in Holderness The Curfew The Angelus bell The hours Bishop Grandison Notes from Bishop Lyndewode's Prwittciak Lydgate on the sacring bell. CONTENTS vii CHAPTER VIII PAGE THE CIRE PERDUE HEXAMETERS ORNAMENTATION MI- GRATION OF FOUNDERS POWER OF BELLS OVER STORMS, ETC. THE PASSING BELL ANGELIC DEDICATIONS . 101 The tire perdue method Chertsey, and the date of a bell there The Leonine hexameter Royal heads Edward I. and his Queen Edward III. and his Queen Robert Rider of London Suffolk men in London Site of the foundry A Yorkshire founder in Norfolk Power of bells over evil spirits and thunder The passing bell The Archangel Michael Gabriel bells Raphael bells. CHAPTER IX THE BEGINNING OF THE BLACK-LETTER PERIOD 118 The coming in of black-letter Confluence of two types at Greystoke Dedications to the Virgin Mary One nearly identical with the seal of St. Mary's Abbey, York Stella Mart's Apostolic dedications The Fathers A Clement An Augustine The Martyrs : St. Katherine, St. Barbara, St. Apollonia, St. Lucy Dedication to SS. Margaret, Ethel- dreda, Antony, Thomas a Becket, Vincent, Giles, Martin, Laurence Prayers for benefactors Ornamental lettering Norwich Lincolnshire Chime barrels Will of John Baret of Bury Coventry regulations about death-bells. CHAPTER X EARLY FOUNDRIES LONDON AND THE SOUTH-WEST . .139 Metropolitan founders of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Galfrid of Hedemton William Dawe, alias Founder John Walgrave Richard Hille and his widow Henry Jordan and King's College, Cam- bridge John Kebyll William Culverden Bristol and its ship-mark The Katherine wheel Gloucester Robert Handley, William Henshawe Salisbury John Barber's will Ash Priors Roger Semson Dorset The Wimborne tenor Exeter Robert Norton and his misdoings at Plymptree Wokingham and Reading Roger Landon and his bronze chimney-pots for Eton John Michell William Hasylwood of Reading. CHAPTER XI FROM THE SOUTH COAST EASTWARD . -158 Warblington, Hants Arreton, Isle of Wight Nicholas, a founder, named on a bell at Bramber, Sussex Richard Kerner in Kent Essex viii CONTENTS I'AGE a metropolitan preserve London bells in East Anglia Early Norwich founders The Brasyers The Mildenhall law-suit The Brasyer bell at Ford Abbey, Dorset The Bury foundry H. S. Reignold Chyrch at Bishop's Stortford Thomas Chirche The Redenhall tenor Sudbury All Saints' seventh Cambridge work done at Bury Roger Reve No guns with the Bury mark Walter le Braszur at Cambridge. CHAPTER XII THE MIDLANDS AND THE NORTH . .176 Lincolnshire bells Foundry at Boston The unique lettering at South Somercotes, etc. The Leverton sanctus bell The Mellours of Notting- ham Their work at Wigtoft William Millers of Leicester Thomas Newcombe Thomas Bett The Leicester tragedy of 1 306 Northampton- shire and Rutland Buckingham Dorchester, Oxon. Warwickshire A Worcester family Ludlow Derbyshire Staffordshire Furness Yorkshire founders Robin Hood and the potter Bells in the lake counties York founders at work in Cumberland The Dacre bells Carlisle Cathedral Itinerant founders Austin Bracker Foreign foun- ders The Act of 1483 Evasion of it Venlo Mechlin. CHAPTER XIII THE TUDOR PERIOD 193 Depredations in the days of Henry VIII. Exaggerations Monastery bells The Commission of 1553 Stagnation in work at Norwich and Bury St. Edmund's Death of Sir William Corvehill Somerset Eliza- bethan Revival Wallis of Salisbury Whitechapel Leicester John Clarke John Dier Stephen Tonni of Bury, and his coadjutors William Land and Thomas Draper Removal of the latter to Thetford Shrop- shire Buckingham Reading Gloucester Yetminster Colchester " " Richard Bowler probably meant by Dick Baker Henry Topsell and the Beccles fire Valentyne Trevor The Kent foundries The Hatch family John Wilnar The Purdues Miles Graye The Lavenham tenor The Rev. William Gurnall Norwich and the Brends John Draper of Thetford Stamford Cumberland Yorkshire. CHAPTER XIV LATER FOUNDERS 212 Progress after the Restoration The Hodsons and Wightmans in London Richard Phelps The Fire of London recorded at Damerham Lester, Pack, and Chapman The Mears family Lawson The Knights CONTENTS ix PAGE The Rudhalls of Gloucester Dr. Parr there Closworth, Collumpton, Chewstoke and the Bilbies The Cockeys The Penningtons Kipling of Portsmouth and the Vernon Medal The Bagleys The Russells John Bunyan a ringer Kettering St. Neot's Downham Market The Taylors at St. Neot's, Oxford, and Loughborough The Darbies Edward Tooke The Newmans Difficulties at Haddenham Stephens Henry Pleasant The Gardiners Penn of Peterborough Other later founders. CHAPTER XV CHANGE-RINGING '. .229 " " Origin of change-ringing Call changes Whittington Excel- lence of old bell-frames Ease of chiming Rise of ringing Fabian Stedman's Tintinnalogia, and various methods from it The School of Recreation Ringing societies The Brethren of the Guild of West- minster The Schollers of Chepesyde The College youths The Cum- berland Society of Change-ringers. CHAPTER XVI SlGNA f 247 Canterbury : Prior Wybert's bell Prior Eastry's Thomas Prior Molass's Dunstan Bell Harry Peter of York Tom of Lincoln Accounts of the 1610 bell The present bell Bury St. Edmund's The absence of record of Signa Ely The work of John of Gloucester Query as to the use of the lantern Exeter : Bell Grandison Bell Peter Oxford Great Tom The Oseney bell Its conveyance to Oxford The 1612 bell The 1654 bell Christopher Hodson's bell, in 1680 St. Paul's Cathedral The 1716 bell Taylor's bell, in 1881 West- minster Big Ben Peter of Gloucester Manchester Town Hall Wor- cester Beverley. CHAPTER XVII CARILLONS, HAND-BELLS, AND TINTINNABULA . .262 The chime-barrel The word Carillon Grantham Doncaster " " Holbeach The Cambridge chimes, and their history The Tennyson chimes at Freshwater Boston Norwich The Carilloneur Perambu- lations Hand-bells Wells of Aldbourne Symondson Lammas Day at Congleton Chester Races Jack o' th' Clock. x CONTENTS CHAPTER XVIII PAGE LEGENDS TRADITIONS MEMORIES 277 The Fylfot St. Illtyd Influence of bells on thunderstorms" The Silent Tower of Bottreau by the Severn Sea" The stolen bell of Knowlton The lost Jersey bells The lost bell of Hunstanton The " blindness of Bishop Bulkeley of Bangor Crosmere The Dead Man's " Peal at Wentnor Sound of bells at the death of Bishop Grosseteste, and at the burial of Hugh the boy-martyr Year-day of St. Hugh of " " Avalon East Bergholt and its cage A Kincardineshire story A " " Vernon bell in Cornwall. CHAPTER XIX BELL POETRY 292 Dr. Corbet on Tom of Oxford Two poems from Tintinnalogia " Lines by