A Book About Bells by George S. Tyack File 03: Chapters VIII to VII (pages 137 to 219) 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 CHAP-'fER VIII. LJ AVING devoted considerable space to the consider­ r ation of the Lells themselves, we turn to the question of their use; and, as is natural, tt.e human agents in such employment of them first demand some attention. There is not much of interest, however, to record con­ cerning these until comparatively modern times ; for although bells, as we have seen, are very ancient, bell-ringing as it is understood in England to.day is a thing of the last three hundred years only. In the days when churches usually had two or three bells only, and these were chimed or tolled singly, the bell-ringers' art was not one to attract notice. Charle­ magne ordained that the clergy themselves were to sound the beUs as a summons to divine worship, and as late as the last century the custom was regularly observed in some places; at Notre Dame, in Paris, for instance, the priests, arrayed in surplices, rang the bells, and such is still the rule among the Carthusians. The churchwardens' accounts for the parish of Ludlow in 1551 have an entry of the sum of twelvepence paid to "the dekyns for rynginge of day belle;" and a trace of the same usage is to be found at Holy Trinity, Coventry, a century earlier. At Exeter, in I 51 I 1 the chantry priests were bidden to toll the bells, first one A BOOK ABOUT BELLS. and then all, at the canonical hom;s. Among the figures carved on one of the .shafts of the chancel arch at Stoke Dry Church, Rutland, and on the font at Belton. Lincolnshire, are men in albs ringing church bells. These do not, however, necessarily represent clergy, but more probably members of the separate order, as it was in some cases accounted, of bell-ringers. The Council of Cologne, held in IJio, decreed concerning these, that "those persons whose office it is to ring the church bells, shall know how to read, in order that they may be able to make the responses_; and also that they shall wear the alb during divine service.'J From this it would seem that they filled to some extent the place of our now almost extinct parish-clerks. It is said, however, that a gild of ringers existed at Westminster as early as the reign of S. Edward the Confessor, and that it can be traced at least as late as the time of King Henry III., from whom it received a royal patent. It may reasonably be supposed that such a society was not absolutely unique, though the absence of any records forbids our supposing that such provision for the ringing of the bells was common. By the middle of the sixteenth century, ringing had become well known in the country, although it was probably of a somewhat unscientific sort; and already the ringers had gained that evil reputation for irregularity of life which so long, and it is to be feared to some extent justly in past days, clung to them. "The people of England," says Paul Hentzner, who travelled among them about the year rsso, "are vastly fond of great noises that fill the ear, such as firing cannon, beating of drums, and the ringing of bells; so that it is common for a number BELI.rRINGING AND BELL-RINGERS. 139 of them that have got a glass in their heads to get up into the belfry and ring the bells for hours together for the sake of exercise." Early in the following century more system and .science were introduced into the art by the foundation of societies for the special study and practice of it. The " Scholars of Cheapside " came into existence in x6o3, but the fraternity was probably not long-lived In 1637 the far more famous " Ancient Society of College Youths " was established, taking its name from S. Manin's Vintry, on College Hill, London, where the '' youths" practised. Other societies with a similar. object quickly came into being ; Oxford, Cambridge, Nonrich, and other places had their ''scholars., or "youths," all eager to learn the intricacies of change ringing. and London saw others of these companies formed. The "Union Scholars" were founded about 1715, and lasted nearly half a century, and there still sW'vives the society of the "Royal Cumberland Youths,'' so called from the Duke of Cumberland, but originally named the "London Scholars." Whether the existing "College Youths" can trace their pedigree in an unbroken line from the Ancient Society of 1637, is a debated question, some authorities maintaining that the original body died out in 1788. The "College Youths, started their career under dis· tinguished auspices, Lord Brereton and Sir Cliffe Clifton being among the founders, but their special claim to recollection in the history of bell-ringing lies in the fact that to them was dedicated Stedman's "Tiotinalogia/' the earliest book on the principles of change-ringing, published in 1667. A BOOK ABOUT BELLS. Fabian Stedman, of Cambridge, is looked upon as the father of all modern bell-ringers, for to him is due that complex system of changes which makes a "peal." But little had been attempted in this direction before the year 1657, which date is assigned to the invention of" Stedman's principle" by him whose name it bas ever since borne. ., In his "Tinlinalogia " he thus refers to the art of ringing as practiced up to and at that time: "for the Art of Ringmg, it is admirable to conceive in how short a time it hatb increased, that the very depth of its intriC!acy is found out; for within these fifty or sixty years last past changes were not known, or thought possible to be rang: then were invented the sixes, being the very ground of a six-score : then the twenty, and twenty-four, with several other changes. But Cambridge forty-eight for many years was tbe greatest peal that was rang or invented ; but now, neith~r forty-eight, nor a hundred, nor seven hundred and twenty, nor any number, can confine \JS; for we ring changes ad infinitum." Stedman's system, as originally devised, was intended for application to a ring of five bells only, but it was very soon adQpted to rings of seven, nine, and other uneven numbers. It would be out of place to insert here anything in the way of an elaborate treatise on change ringing; some account of what is meant by tbe term, is, however, necessary to the completion of o\Jr subject. The number of permutations possible in any given series of things is found by a well-known rule of arithmetic, namely by multiplying the consecutive numbers together. Thus, two things can stand only in two ways : three in thrice as many, or six ways ; four in four times as many again, or twenty·four ways, and BELL-RINGING AND BELL-RINGERS. qt so forth. Briefly, then, change-ringing consists of sounding a ring of bells according to every possible combination, each of which must be used once only. It is usual to commence with a "round," or the simple sounding of the bells in regular scale from treble to tenor ; the order must then be continually changed, without repetition, until every permu­ tation pc;:>ssible to a ring of that size has been used. This would be a perfect and complete peal, but it will be obvious that in a ring of many bells it is impossible to actually ring all the changes. A ring of twelve bells, for instance, will allow of the astonishing number of 4 7 9,oo 1 ,6oo ; changes which at the average of 24 changes per minute, would take nt!arly 38 years in execution. In dealing with such rings, therefore, a certain section only of the possible changes is employed at one time. Five thousand changes, which it is only possible to ring with seven or more bells, is the smallest number to which the name of a peal is technically allowed, less than that number merely constitutes a "touch." From the intricacy of the work, it will at once be obvious that both deft hands and clear heads are needed for it j the former to keep the bell in such perfect control as to insure its sounding only in the right place, and the latter to determine that place amid the continually changing variations. Several different systems have b~en composed for arranging the possible changes in rings of various numbers; and ,each ringer must know by heart the course which his own bell is to take among the others, according to the special system employed. The oldest system is that known as a "Grandsire Bob," for five bells only. "Grandsire Triples " were invented by Benjamin Anable, who died in A BOOK ABOUT BELLS. 1755, and further elaborated by Mr. Holt. A manufacturer of barometers in the early eighteenth century, Patrick by name, was also a composer of peals. The names by which peals of different kinds are distinguished are curious. The Plain Bob, the Treble Bob, the Alliance (a combination of the preceeding two), and the Court Bob are all systems differing chiefly in the method in which the treble be1l passes through the order of the changes.