Bells of the Church Rev. H. T. Ellacombe
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Bells of the Church BY Rev. H. T. Ellacombe File 04 – Chapter VIII Pages 389 to 418 This document is provided for you by The Whiting Society of Ringers visit www.whitingsociety.org.uk for the full range of publications and articles about bells and change ringing SIGNA. 181 CHAPTER VIII. "Paulo majora canamu::."-VIRGIL. SIGNA. LARGE BELLS. "Vox mea, vox vit:e, voco vos ad sacra. venite." I come now to speak of large bells, known in medireval times by the name of signa ; on the continent of Europe, they are called bourdons, or the base. They are the bells on which the clocks usually strike the hours, and such as are rung or tolled for curfew. Hoffman, in his Lexicon. under the word signum, speaking of bells, says : "Dicta sunt signa, tracto a militi~ vocabnlo, quod uti milites cantu signorum nimirum tubarum, buccinarum, aut cornuum ad pugnam, ita Christiani sono signorum ad ecclesiam convocarentur." A very few words about the Curfew Bell (couvre feu) may not be out of place here. It was introduced into England by William the Conqueror from Normandy, or, at least, he firdt enforced it here. It was nmg at eight o'clock in the evening, when every person was ex pected to extinguish fire and light in his house, hence it was called Ignitegium. But it appears by the statutes of Lichfield, that the Ignitegium was sounded every night at the seventh hour,7 excepting on the Festivals. The not tolling the Curfew on Festivals may be accounted for by the ancient ritual of the English monks, A.D. 1085, which com manded all the bells to be rung at Festivals, "et bane pulsationem CI..AssiCUM vocant."8 There is reason to believe that as a signal for extinguishing fires, all the houses being built of wood, the custom of sounding the Ignt"tegium prevailed in Spain, Italy, and Scotland, and all the countries of Europe, at 7 See Du Cange. 8 See Bona, Edit. 1671, p. 178, L. 1, C. 22. 190 SIGNA. the time when it was instituted by King Alfred at Oxford, and more rigidly .enforced by William for the purpose of preventing nocturnal assemblies. This uow appears to us to have been a very arbitrary law ; but it was intended to prevent a conflagration of houses, at a time when they were mostly built of wood and light materials ; and it only lasted in full force during the reign of the first two Williams, for the law of Curfew was abolished by Henry I. in llOo.• Blackstone (vol iv., pp. 419-20) calls it "the melancholy Curfew," and says, "though it is mentioned in our laws a full century after Henry's time, yet it is rather spoken of as a known tirne of night (so denomi nated from that abrogated usage), than as a still subsisting custom." The custom of ringing at eight o'clock 1 still prevails in many places as an ancient custom of by-gone days. In some places it is only rung during the winter months ; and there are many cases on record of persons being saved by hearing the sound " Over the wide watered shore, Swinging slow with solemn roar ;" and when " The curfew to11s the knell of parting day," the sound falls with a soothing influence on the ear of the meditative wanderer, and seems to shed a holy charm over the happiness of the quiet English home. In some places the Curfew Bell is rung, at others it is tolled; m the latter mode, the clapper strikes only on one side of the bell, in ringing, it strikes on both, the bell being swung round. WESTMINSTER CLocK BELL.-Beginning with English bells, I shall first mention the largest we have, viz., the greflt clock bell at Westminster, which has obtained the nomen horrendum of Big Ben. 2 The history of 9 Spelm. Oodd. L.L., W., I., 288 ; Hen. I., 259. 1 The great Peter bell at Exeter is tolled at this hour, and the vulgar notion is, that if it t1hould ever be omitted, the Dean and Chapter would forfeit their charter and loee all their e<Jtatcs. 2 Benjamin Brain, a native of Bitton, Gloucestershire, was a noted boxer in the early part of the present century, and being a very powerful man he was nick-named Big Bm. Sir Benjamin Hall being the head of the Board of Works when the bell was first cast, and hiJ name inscribed on it, it was named after hin1, and from ita size was naturally called Big. SIGNA. 891 this monster might be drawn out to a great length, but by the kindness of Mr. Denison I have been favoured with the following succint epitome. " The first Big Ben of Westminster was cast by Messrs. Warner, of London, ·at the Norton Foundry, near Stockton on Tees, 25 August, 1856,a from the design of Mr. Denison. It was 9 feet 5l inches in diameter, and was intended to be 9 inches thick, and to weigh 15 tons; but by some mistake it was cast too thick. and weighed 16l tons, and required an enormous hammer and clapper of 12 cwt. to bring out the tone. It was luckily sounded in Palace Ya.rd every week for public amusement, before taking it up the clock tower, and was cracked in a short time. When it was broken up' to be recast, there was found a large internal flaw where the two streams of melted metal had met and not joined; probably this was partly the cause of its unwillingness to speak. a There is an illustration of the operation in the llludf'at6tl LmdOtJ N6UJI, 28 Aug., 1856. 4 See an illustration of this in the nlrutf'aktl Lond<m NtnDI, 6 March, 1858. ' 392 SIGNA. "In 1857 a new bell was cast by Mr. George Mears, of Whitechapel, from anothnr design by Mr. Denison, who made it smaller and thinner, in order to produce the same note E, to match the quarter he11s, though the first bell had been intended to be E flat. 6 It was raised October 22, 1858, and then an attempt was made to call it S. Stephen ; but the nomen horrendum has prevailed. The inscription runs thus: "This be11, weighing l::J tons 10 cwt. 3 qrs. 15 lbs., was cast by George Mears, of Whitecbapel, for the clock of the Houses of Parliament under the direction of Edward Beckett Denison, Q.C., in the twenty-first year of the reign of Queen Victoria, and in the year of our Lord MDCCCLVIII." It waa specified in the contract that the bell should bear ringing with a. clapper of 8 cwt., but after the clock had struck on it a few months some small cracks were perceived in the outside of the sound bow on the opposite side to where it was struck. These were examined by Dr. Percy, who cut a hole 3 inches deep to the bottom of one of them, and analyzed the metal. He reported it to be unhomogeneous, or harder and A The fil'llt bell Wall devoid of all ornament; the ornamentation on the second bell waa designed by the late Arthur Ashpitel, F.S.A., and is engraved in a large size in the Dictionary of Architecture b.v the Architectural Publication Society ; there is a view of it in the fll.utrautl New1 of the World, 29 May, 1858. A representation of the casting is in the lll.utratu Londo11 N ew11, 17 April, 18il8, and of the &rrivaJ of the bell i.n the number published 5 June, 1868. A view of the bell chamber and lifting apparat1111 is. given in the fllullrtJted Lorulon New1, 16 October, 1858. SIGNA. 398 more brittle at the outside, and also porous, and a defective casting. The Board of Works stopped the striking of the clock upon it for two or three years; but after complaints of the confusion caused by striking the hours on the fourth quarter bell, they allowed the striking of the big bell to be resumed (November, 1863), with a lighter hammer; the bell being turned a quart.er round by the button or mushroom head by which it is hung. The effect of the cracks is perceptible enough to experienced eal"8, but it is not serious, and they do not get deeper. On the whole the tone may be termed fine, "though it may lack grandeur and richness, be<'.ause, according to Mr. Wales by, it does not give out its fundamental note with its proper complement of harmonies, and this is the reason why the sound does not " ring " like that of a perfect bell~ The four quarter bells were cast without any known defect, and are remarkably good. A fuller account of these beHs and of the great clock may be found in Mr. Denison's Rudimentary Treatise on Clocks, 5th Edition. By the kindness of Messrs. Warner and Mears, I am enabled to give views of the two bells ; but, unfortunately, they are not on the same scale. YoRK.-Peter of York 18 the next largest bell in England; it was cast by Messrs. Mears early in the year 1845. The diameter is 8 feet 4 inches, the height 7 feet 7 inches, and the weight is 12 tons 1 0 cwt., the note, F sharp. The following legend is round the upper rim : In • santhe . et . ltttt1u! . Q!:tinitatis . bonattm . pecunia • sponte . collecta • Ebonnces . fatimbum . tutabrcunt • in • uaum • Ecdrsill . fltettop • lS • t!Jetti .