Bells : their history, legends, making, and uses

SATIS N. COLEMAN

MUSIC LIBRARY

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BELLS

From a fourteenth-century MS.

King David playing bells

BELLS

THEIR HISTORY, LEGENDS
MAKING, AND USES

By

SATIS N. COLEMAN

The Lincoln School of Teachers College,
Columbia University

With a Foreword by

OTIS W. CALDWELL

The Lincoln School of Teachers College,
Columbia University

RAND M9NALLY & COMPANY
CHICAGO NEW YORK

Copyright, 1028, by
Rand M^Nally & Company
All rights reserved

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For much of the material in this book the author is in-
debted to Mr. WilHam Gorham Rice, author of several
works on the carillon, and to Mr. H. B. Walters, whose
book on The Church Bells of England afforded a text of
great value.

Acknowledgment is also due for courtesies shown by
the following publishers : Houghton Mifflin Company (by
permisssion of and by arrangement with) for poems by
Henry W. Longfellow and two selections from Longfellow's
Diary; Dodd, Mead & Company; the Groher Society; by
the Asia and Mentor magazines, and for a large num-
ber of photographs from the Crosby-Brown Collection of
Musical Instruments furnished by the Metropolitan
Museum of New York.

For courtesies extended by Mrs. Marjorie Barstow
Greenbie, Mrs. Eloise Roorbach, Mrs. De Witt Hutchings,
Mr. Frank A. Miller, Mr. Frederick Rocke, Mr. John D.
Rockefeller, Mr. Adolph Weinman, and many others,
thanks are due.

To the bell makers — Gillett & Johnston of Croydon,
England; John Taylor & Co. Bell Foundry of Lough-
borough, England; Meneely Bell Company of Troy, New
York; Bevin Bros, of East Hampton, Connecticut — all of
whom have contributed to the making of this book, the
author is most grateful.

The author is especially indebted to the children of the
Lincoln School, whose interest in bells gave stimulus to
the research which has resulted in this book.

Made in U. S. A.

A-28

THE CONTENTS

PAGE

A Foreword vii

CHAPTER

I. Introductory i

II. Bells of Primitive Peoples ... 9

III. Bells of Ancient Civilizations . . 22

IV. The First Christian Church Bells . 34
V. The Sacred Bells of Ireland . . .41

VI. Celtic Bell Lore 47

VII. Bell Making ........ 57

VIII. Inscriptions 74

IX. The Baptism of Bells ..... 84
X. Different Uses of Church Bells . 96

XI. Bell Hanging 116

XII. Peals and Change Ringing . . . .125

XIII. Ringing Societies 138

XIV. Bells as Musical Instruments:

Played by Hand 149

XV. Clock Bells 158

XVI. The Story of Big Ben 169

XVII. Chimes 178

XVIII. Carillons in General . . . . .187

XIX. Important Carillons 200

XX. Doctor Burney on Carillons (1775) . 215

XXI. The Bells of Russia 220

XXII. Other European Bells 231

XXIII. European Bell Legends 247

XXIV. The Bells of America 268

XXV. Chinese Bells 294

V

VI THE CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XXVI. China's Big Bells and Their Legends 309

XXVII. The Bells of Japan 316

XXVIII. Japanese Bell Legends 326

XXIX. The Bells of India 332

XXX. Burmese Bells 341

XXXI. Bells and Buddhism 351

XXXIL Bells and Architecture . . . .359

XXXIII. Various Kinds of Bells and Their

Uses 377

XXXIV. The Miller Bell Collection . . . 395
XXXV. The Poetry of Bells 402

XXXVI. School Experiments in Bell Making

AND Playing 430

The Bibliography 442

The Index 449

A FOREWORD

An abundance of good reading material adds much to
the value of music in education. But the reading material
must be vital ; it must really mean something to the reader.
This idea is accepted, indeed is basic in the educational
practices regarding history, science, and literature; and
those subjects have an abundance of books which are fairly
well graded to the different levels of advancement.
Music, like other fine arts, of necessity has been largely
a ''doing" subject, and because of that fact it has become
much less of a "reading" subject than seems best. It
has its wonderful literature, although inadequate perhaps
as a full record of its cultural development. Certainly
more needs to be done toward the development of reading
on music subjects for both school and home. It is hoped
that this book about bells will prove interesting to adults
as well as to pupils in schools.

Bells is the outcome of studies made especially for the
benefit of a group of pupils in the Lincoln School who were
learning to play Swiss bells in their Creative Music periods.
These pupils had already explored the field of other per-
cussion instruments; they had made drums, Pan pipes,
and marimbas, and had played on them not only original
tunes but folk songs and classic themes. Bells seemed also
to challenge them to exploration. They wanted to make
bells : to know who invented bells, how many kinds there
are, how tuned, what they are used for, what countries
have the best bells. These and other questions caused
the author and the children who were guided by her to
begin a genuine search for facts about bells.

vii

vill A FOREWORD

At first there seemed to be little material available.
Mr. William Rice's books about carillons, and Mary
Tabor's small bell anthology were useful American books
on the subject. The Old World offered several interest-
ing volumes, many of them gray with age and hidden
away as if the world were to forget the old legends and
superstitions and the many interesting facts about the
bell, which has been a common messenger to all mankind.

None of the printed material as found, however, was
quite suitable for the needs. But many a musty old
magazine of forgotten days yielded a rich contribution to
the subject. From many divisions of the New York
Public Library, from the Congressional Library at
Washington, and from foreign countries, materials were
gathered. This material was organized into the thirty-
six divisions shown by the chapter headings. Then
began the preparation of short accounts of famous bells,
or of the folk lore or religious stories associated with
certain bells and their uses. Most of this material was
mimeographed for the children whose interest had initi-
ated the search. Adults who were interested in music
also used and enjoyed the stories. The pupils made bells
— wooden bells, clay bells, glass bells — and wrote stories
and poems about bells. The search for authentic source
materials was long and extended to far countries, and con-
tinued as the writing proceeded. Collections were made
of drawings and photographs and separate descriptions of
bells from all over the world, with the hope that the
various types might be adequately represented. Effort
has been made to include the world's famous bells, and
to present, as fully as one volume may, the kinds of bells
and the uses which people have made of them.

A FOREWORD IX

This book is designed for the instruction and growing
pleasure of those students and citizens who may be led
to catch a bit of the inexpressible glow of satisfaction which
music has given to sensitive humans throughout the ages.
In all countries one may see the busy streets slow down
and a measure of appreciation become evident when any
of the famous bells begin to ring. The aim of this book
is to carry to all a little of this widespread feeling for the
music of bells. The language is universal and is inter-
preted through training in sensing of emotional values,
not by learning technical language forms. It is hoped
that Bells may make a contribution to America's growing
acceptance of music as an essential to the best life of her
people.

Otis W. Caldwell
Director of the Lincoln School

m.

BELLS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

In the Middle Ages there Hved in a European
monastery a friar whose Hfe was one of cheerful
devotion to his church. Every day — a dozen times
a day — he moved at the summons of a sweet -toned
bell that hung in a tower within the monastery.
It was a large bronze bell which had been cast
more than a hundred years before, on those very
grounds, and a Latin inscription ran around the
bell which Lorenz had one day climbed the tower
to read: Cantabo laudes tuas Domini^ (*'J will sing
thy praises. Lord''); and many times after that he
said to himself, ''How well the bell carries out its
own plan!"

There were other bells, but this one seemed to
speak most intimately to Lorenz. The first thing
the friar heard, every morning in the year, was:
** Arise, Lorenz! To prayers, Lorenz!"

and as he listened further, he always thought he
heard it sing the motto which it carried on its

shoulders :

''Cantabo laudes tuas Domini!''

1 The Latin of medieval times is not the perfect Latin of Cicero.
Wherever medieval inscriptions are quoted in this book, divergences
are retained as found.

2 BELLS

After it had signaled to him many times during the
day, its last ring seemed to say:

"To rest, Lorenz, and sleep in peace!"

The bell was to Lorenz a dear companion that
roused him, inspired, cheered, encouraged, and
soothed him; and he loved its clear and vibrant
voice.

Then there came the time^ when the monastery
was destroyed, and all the bells were taken away.
The friars grieved over the loss of their home, their
treasures and sacred relics; but Lorenz missed
nothing so much as his bell. Morning after morn-
ing he awoke, unbidden, to miss anew the cheerful
call to prayers; and night after night he found it
hard to go to sleep without the bell's vibrant
blessing.

After many weeks of loneliness, his restless spirit
could bear it no longer. So he took his staff, and
started out to find his lost companion. The bell
had been carried away by two husky men who
fastened it to a pole, and placed the pole on their
shoulders; but whether they carried it away to
have it melted down for bullets, or to send it into
another country, he had no means of finding out.

In those days the way was long from one village
to another, and the paths were rough. But Lorenz
little minded that, if he could only find some one
who could tell him where the bell had been taken.
For weeks he traveled on foot from village to village,

^ The Reformation.

INTRODUCTORY 3

and listened to the bells. ''No, that one is too
harsh," or "That sound is not my bell," he would
say to himself, as he heard the different bells of
every town in that part of the country. Perhaps,
after all, it was melted, and made into something
else!

One evening, after walking almost all day, he
came within sight of the lights of a village. The
sun had gone down long before. If he could reach
the village before time for the curfew, he thought,
perhaps he could rest there for the night, and per-
haps some one would give him food, for he was
hungry. So he hastened his steps. But it was too
late! The ringing of the curfew began, and he
knew that no stranger might enter the village after
that. But listen! His keen ear had learned to
catch every tone quality in the ringing of a bell.
This curfew bell was signaling the people of the
village to put out their fires and go to bed, but to
Lorenz it was singing:

*'Cantabo laudes tuas Domini!
To rest, Lorenz, and sleep in peace!"

He had remembered its tone and recognized it.
What did he care if he must sleep on the cold ground
that night, and without food?

He slept, and dreamed that he was in his old place
at the monastery, and in the gray of the morning
his beloved bell was calling, "Arise, Lorenz! Can-
iaho laudes tuas Domini T'

4 BELLS

When he opened his eyes and saw the fields around
him, and felt the damp earth beneath him, he remem-
bered; and hastened into the village. The bell was
fastened in the belfry of the village church. It
was indeed his lost companion.

Here Lorenz would be content to live and die.
His happiness required nothing more than the bell's
cheery greeting to remind him of its nearness during
the day, and send him to peaceful rest at night. So
the friar gave himself up to be a common laborer
among the humble peasants of this village, that he
might end his days within the sound of the bell's
voice.

In years to come, little did the peasants of the
village know how sweet in the ears of the old man
who had worked among them for so long was the
sound of the Gabriel bell, still saying :

** Arise, Lorenz! To prayers, Lorenz!
Cantabo laudes tuas Domini!''

or how eagerly the tired old friar listened every
evening for the curfew bell to ring its benediction:

"To rest, Lorenz! Good night,
And sleep in peace!"

The strange, wild music of quivering metal!
How fitting that this magic token from the bosom
of the earth should have been, always, the people's
messenger and reminder, in all parts of the world,
to rouse them or summon them or frighten them,
and also to cheer, console, and inspire them!

INTRODUCTORY 5

Bells are ever with us, and ring for all the great
changes that come to us, from the cradle to the
grave. Nations rejoice with bell ringing, and the
same bells give voice to a nation's sorrow in times
of national calamity. Who did not hear the bells
ringing for joy on November the nth, 191 8? The
hearts of nations were so full of joy and thanksgiving
for the message of peace which came on that day,
that there was no adequate expression except to
ring the bells. How joyfully the ringers hurried
to their ropes, until all the bells in the world must
have been ringing at once! For this is one way in
which all nations alike may express their rejoicing.
A hundred and fifty years ago bells jo3rfully an-
nounced the independence of our nation. The writer
well remembers the tolling of the bells in London
when King Edward VII died; and there are prob-
ably many people still living who heard the tolling
bells express a nation's sorrow over the death of
our great Lincoln.

"Bells have rung in historical events, enriched
literature, colored romances, inspired architecture,
struck terror to the superstitious, or given conso-
lation. They have rejoiced with the rejoicing,
mourned with the grieving, chanted with the
praying of all nations. They have opened markets,
announced guests, roused for danger, summoned to
war, welcomed the victor. They have pealed mer-
rily for rustic weddings, joyfully announced the
birth of royal heirs, and tolled with muffled tone

6 BELLS

the passing soul along his way. They have tinkled
from the ankles of pagan dancing girls, and from
the sacrificial robes of Levitical high priests. They
have sorrowfully mourned 'The King is dead!' then
loyally shouted 'Long live the King!' "^

A traveler asleep in the broad expanse of the great
desert may be suddenly awakened by what he
believes to be the ringing of the church bells of his
native village, hundreds of miles away. A weary
sailor in a tumbling ship on the vast mid-ocean
thinks he hears the Angelus ringing from the steeple
of the little church at home, and falls asleep. Napo-
leon rides over the battlefield, gazing stem and
unmoved on the dead and dying that cover the
ground about him by thousands. ' ' The evening bells
of the neighboring town begin to ring. Napoleon
pauses to listen; he is no longer the Conqueror of
Austerlitz, but an innocent, happy boy in Brienne.
He dismounts from his horse, seats himself on the
stump of an old tree, and weeps ! ' '

The simple sound of bells always stirred the
inmost depths of the soul of this great conqueror of
Europe.

' ' How often, ' ' it has been written of Napoleon, ' ' has
the booming of the village bell broken off the most
interesting conversations! He would stop lest the
moving of our feet might cause the loss of a single
beat of the tones which charmed him. Their influ-
ence, indeed, was so powerful that his voice trembled

lEloise Roorback, "Bells of History and Romance," in The Crafts-
man, December, 1912.

INTRODUCTORY 7

with emotion while he said, 'That recalls to me the
first years I passed at Brienne.' "^

Even the stern, iron-hearted William the Con-
queror was often made to feel and weep by the
sound of bells. They seemed to him to ring ''with
a thousand tongues, and every tongue had its own
quick saying unto his ears; and if they spoke of
saints in heaven ; if they gave out mutterings about
sin and hell; — softly, too, did they whisper of
saint's love and heaven's forgiveness, and hearten
him, while yet time was, to crave mercy of Jesus,
and help from Mary."^

To a tired old grandmother, sitting in the chim-
ney corner, the ringing of a bell conjures up her
wedding day, the festive decorations and the gay
clothes, the rejoicing of all the merry party, and
again she walks slowly down the aisle, radiant and
happy.

To another it is a school bell ringing on an early
morning sixty years ago; the children hurry up the
lane, and the whiff of a warm lunch basket — alas!
it is only the sigh of an old man!

To Mathias, the burgomaster of the play,^ the
sweet, musical jangle of sleigh bells brings the wild-
est terror, because it recalls to him the night he
betrayed his trust, and murdered the rich traveler
for gold.

To a poor beggar sleeping on the street, the church
bells ring Christmas time again in his mother's

iDe Bourrienne. ^Miscellanea Critica. ^The Bells.
2

8 BELLS

home, and the happy voices of those he once loved
call him out of his lethargy to be a man again.

The witchery — the mastering magic — of bells;
Where will one find a talisman more powerful?

Is it any wonder that the feelings of people are
so bound up with their sounds? When the vast
still air between earth and heaven is suddenly made
alive and quivering by the sound of the magic
metal, is it any wonder that there are then set
free, phantoms, spirits, memories, that run riot with
the imaginations of men ?

CHAPTER II

BELLS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES

In the early ages of the human race, when primi-
tive man first evoked a vibrant sound from a stone,
it must have seemed to him the voice of his God
speaking the mysterious language of Mother Earth.
For was not stone a part of the sacred underworld?
Was not the tree also attached to Mother Earth
in a mysterious way, and would not the peculiar
sound of hard wood, when struck, seem to have
some hidden power attached to it?

The strangeness of these sounds led primitive
man to invest them with a sacred character. To
his thinking, everything which he could not under-
stand was something to be worshiped, and the sound
of stricken metal and hollow wood must have con-
veyed to him much that was supernatural. His
gods spoke to him in the crash of thunder, and in
all other vibrant and mysterious sounds.

It was probably a great revelation to him when
he realized that he too could make mysterious
sounds by using those things which the gods had
given him for special communication with them.
And the first bell — whatever may have been its
shape or tone — was probably fashioned as a means
by which man could make his gods hear him. What

lO BELLS

thrills of hope and fear those crude sounds must
have stirred within him!

Ever since those early ages, the sound of stone,
of hollow, resonant wood, and of all the metals
that come out of the earth, have made a strange
appeal to the mind and emotions of man. He has
fashioned these materials into various forms; bells,
of some kind, have been known all over the world —
civilized and uncivilized — and practically all primi-
tive peoples have used them. Rude tribes living in
the remotest islands in the midst of the sea have
been found to possess bells; and no matter how
civilized and cultured people become, they are still
moved in some way by their sound.

The first sound-producing instrument which primi-
tive man invented was probably a rattle. Maybe
it was a handful of pebbles in a hard sea shell, shaken
to call the attention of his gods to the dances he
gave for their benefit. Or he may have used first
a natural rattle (a nutshell or a dried gourd with
the seeds rattling on the inside) , and later fashioned
his first instruments in imitation of these.

The bell, as we know it, was gradually developed
from these simple rattles. Many tropical nuts and
fruits (the coconut, for invStance) offer possibilities
for natural bells, and primitive peoples still use
them as such, and also as models for bells of their
own make.

The first bells fashioned by primitive man were
probably made of wood, unless the ancient ** click

BELLS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES II

stone "1 may be called a bell.^ Wooden bells of
various shapes have been made by primitive peoples.
Figure i — a bell from Africa — was cut from a
single block of wood. A common type is made of
two pieces of wood, hollowed out and fastened
together, with a clapper, or several clappers, hanging
between them. Large bells made in this way are

iThis was a resonant stone suspended by a thong and struck with
a stick or with another stone.

2The question naturally arises, What is a bell? Webster's Dic-
tionary implies that a bell must be made of metal. But that definition
does not take into consideration the wooden and horn and clay bells
of primitive peoples, nor the wooden temple bells of the Chinese which
they called chung, the same word they used for their metal bells long
before European bells or dictionaries in the English language were
thought of. So if the usage of thousands of years is to be counted, we
raust give to bells a broader definition. There are several instruments
which seem so closely related to the bell that, in order to distinguish
among them, they also must be defined and the typical characteristics
of each class of instruments given.

Rattle. A closed cavity in some hard substance, containing one or
more loose bits of hard substance which, when shaken, strike the inside
of the cavity and make a noise.

Jingle. Bits of hard substances so fastened that they strike against
each other or against another hard substance when shaken. (Often
called a rattle.)

Drum. A hollow substance with one or two coverings of skin or
cloth or some kind of membrane which vibrates when struck. (Kettle-
drums have one membrane; barrel drums have two.)

Bell. A sonorous substance with an open cavity which emits a
musical tone when struck either on the inside or outside of the cavity.
(A musical tone is a sound of definite pitch.)

Gong. A slab or plate of sonorous substance which, when struck,
eniits a resonant tone.

Cymbals. Two plates of metal which, when clashed together, make
a resonant tone.

Castanets. Two pieces of wood or bone which, when knocked
together in the hand, make a clicking sound.

Triangle. A bar of metal bent into triangular shape, open at one
angle.

Tambourine. A shallow circle of wood covered with a membrane
on one side, and with bits of metal fastened to the rim. (Sometimes
classed with drums.)

The ancient "click stone" mentioned above would be more prop-
erly called a gong. The gong is older than the metal bell, and may be
considered its direct ancestor. When the gong took on a hollow,
cuplike form it became a bell. When the rattle employed an open
cavity it, too, became a bell. And when the bell (whether it was made

12

BELLS

very sonorous when hard wood is used, and won-
derful effects can be obtained with them. In some
parts of Asia and Africa the natives fasten bells of

this kind on the necks of
elephants, so they may
be found easily, and also
that the sound of the bell
may keep away snakes
and other dangerous ene-
mies.

In the New Hebrides
Islands the natives have
a most remarkable kind
of bell, made from the
entire trunk of a large
tree! These instruments
are often called ' ' drums "
because of their deep,
drum-like tones, but their
shape is more that of a
bell; they have no mem-
branes covering the open-

Metropolitan Museum

Fig. I. A wooden hell from
Liberia, Africa

ings, and are more correctly called "bells." One of
these great wooden bells stands in the Metropolitan
Museum of New York. It is about six and one-

of wood, metal, or clay) acquired a skin fastened over its cavity it
became a drum.

Thus we see the close relationship of the bell, the rattle, the gong,
and the drum.

Some writers claim that our word "bell" is derived from the Anglo-
Saxon word bellan, which means to roar; others think it comes from
the Latin word pelvis, which means basin-shaped. In either case,
the definition given above is consistent.

BELLS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES

13

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Fig, 2. A "bell grove" in the New Hebrides

half feet high and sixteen inches in diameter — a tree
trunk hollowed out and rounded at the top, with the
base left solid. A long opening appears in the side,
and through this narrow opening, only two or three
inches wide, all the inside wood is cut out. It is
struck on the outside with a hard, wooden mallet,
and its deep boom stirs the imagination of all who
hear it.

Figure 2 represents a "grove" of these tree bells
in the New Hebrides Islands. They are used in

14

BELLS

the religious ceremonies of the natives. Occa-
sionally, in one of the islands, these bells are beaten
at midnight as a signal that one of the natives must
be killed as an offering to their gods. Imagine the

Merl La Voy

Fig. 3. A native heating on a Lali at Gizo, in the Solomon Islands

terror in the village until the name of the victim is
announced !

The natives of the Fiji and Tonga Islands in the
South Seas make a very interesting kind of wooden
bell called Lali (see Fig. 3). A traveler ^ some fifty
years ago described it thus: "Imagine the trunk of
a tree, three or four feet long, and hollowed out in
the form of a trough. It is placed upon the ground,

'Reported by Ellacombe, in Church Bells of Devon, 1872.

BELLS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES 15

Upon some elastic body, generally on a coil of rope,
and to protect from the rain, covered by a sort of
roof. When the natives want to give the signal
for Divine Service, they strike the mouth of the bell
with a mallet, which produces a sort of stifled roar.
I should have thought that it could only be heard
at a short distance, but my mistake was great.
There are Lalis the sound of which may be heard
for a distance of twelve miles when the air is calm,
and yet when you are near one, the sound is not
sufficiently loud to startle you in the least; but as
you recede it becomes clearer, more mild and
musical. When you go to a village to hear its
Lali, do not judge from the distinctness of the sound
which strikes your ear that you are approaching
the place, for you may be mistaken. The Lali is,
therefore, the favorite instrument at Tonga, and
deservedly so. Each Lali is named in the same
manner as we give names to our bells. On feast
days the Tongonian artists ring or sound on the Lali,
peals that are not wanting in harmony. They rival
each other in ability and skill, and are doubtless
no less proud of their performances than our bell
ringers in France."

A similar instrument is used by the natives of
Brazil, and on the South American continent as
well as in Africa it has long been used to send sig-
nals from one village to another. The Lali and
some kinds of drum serve the natives as very useful
forms of telegraph.

1 6 BELLS

Figure 4 shows a large wooden bell of strange
shape, from Africa. The lump on the side is evi-
dently the place where it is to be struck in order to
bring out the best tone. Bells of this kind are used
to call the people together for feasts and religious
meetings, in the same manner that our modern bells
call the people together.

The Chinese have used various forms of wooden

W

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Ittropolitan Museum

Fig. 4. A wooden hell from Africa

bells for centuries. The fig-shaped temple bells
made of teak and other hard woods are very reso-
nant, as are also the long treelike wooden bells
which are used in the monasteries. The weird
chanting of the priests, and the monotonous beating
on these wooden bells at intervals throughout the
night, are striking features of the environment to
Western travelers who may be trying to sleep in
the vicinity.

Miller collection

BELLS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES 17

The bamboo which grows in southern Asia and
in the islands of the Pacific is very easily made into
bells. The bamboo tubes are hollow, very hard and
resonant, and a joint of bamboo
requires only a clapper or a mallet in
order to become a bell. If it is struck
on the outside with a mallet, the sound
may be heard at a great distance.
Often a Malay, traveling at night, Fic^'sTATtone
carries one of these bamboo bells, song

which he strikes when he is uncertain as to the
way, and the people in the nearest village reply.
Bells of this kind are used by guards on some of the
Pacific islands. Each sentinel is obliged to strike
his bell every hour through the night, the next
watcher taking up the signal, and so on around the
island.

Probably the first ringing sound produced by a
primitive man (as we think of the word "ringing")
was made when he suspended a piece of sonorous
stone by a thong or cord of some kind, and struck
it with a stick or with another stone. These stone
gongs (see Fig. 5) doubtless led primitive peoples
to experiment with the sound of various metals.
The first experiences with metal must have revealed
to the savage its superior resonance over wood and
stone, and stimulated him to shape it into forms
that would ring. Little bells were made of metal
in the exact shape of nuts, with bits of metal or
pebbles on the inside to make the jingling sound.

BELLS

Thus when gong material and rattle design were
united, the first metal bells came into existence.

Bells of this form are very common among sav-
ages of all countries, and they are put to all kinds of
uses. They are made of gold, silver, copper, tin,
and every other kind of metal which can be worked
into a nut shape. We use this type of bell in sleigh
bells and other bells of the
''jingling " kind. Figure 6
shows a ceremonial rattle from
Africa, made of many small
metal bells.

When this point had been
reached in the working of
metal, the field was then open
to the imagination of the
blacksmith (for it is he who
makes bells among primitive
peoples). Bells of various
shapes and sizes have resulted,
all the way from small, concave
pieces of iron up to our own
idea of what a bell should be.
Primitive people have made
various uses of bells. Among
certain tribes of central Africa
a rude iron bell is the scepter
monial rattle of royalty. The same kind of

sound which, with us, locates the cows or sheep,
in Africa announces the coming of the king, who

Metropolitan Museum

Fig. 6. African cere-

BELLS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES

19

uses this bell only when he goes on visits of state
or business of importance. Figure 7 shows an iron
double bell which is carried before princes in the
Congo region.

Other tribes carry
clumsy iron ''magic
bells," which are always
a sign of the priest.
With these bells the
priests go in procession
from the villages, and
firmly believe they will
find treasure on their
return.

The ''medicine man"
wears an iron bell sus-
pended by an iron chain.
In some places in Africa ^^' ^'
the medicine man brings a small bell in his hand,
and rings it from time to time. He begins his treat-
ment by singing to the patient, who sits before him
on the ground. He sings ' ' Dabre-dabre " several
times in very solemn tones, and the patient answers
"Eh."i

Some savages wear small bells on their garments.
For instance, the natives of New Guinea make bells
out of shells and fasten into each bell a pig's tooth
for a clapper, and these are used by the natives to
decorate their scanty attire. The dress of the Naga

iRichard Wallaschek, in Primitive Music, London, 1893.

Metropolitan Museum

African double hell

20 BELLS

women of north Burma, which is only a short petti-
coat, is ornamented with bells, beads, and shells.
On the west coast of Africa the grown girls of Benin
city wear an apron consisting entirely of small
brass bells.

The Maoris in New Zealand use a bell called
Pahu for purposes of war.

The hill tribes in southern India have a small
cowbell which they worship as a god. It is the one
which is worn by the bell-buffalo of each sacred
herd. When this bell-buffalo dies her eldest daughter
inherits her rank, just as modern kings and queens
inherit their crowns and kingdoms. The holy bell
is then worn by the new bell-buffalo for three days
and nights in order that she may be thoroughly
consecrated. It is then removed and never worn
again in that cow's lifetime, but is lodged in the
priest's house where all may worship it. However, no
one except the priest may touch it or even look at it.^

In some pa.rts of Africa the natives have mimic
representations of the gorilla, during which an iron
bell is rung and a hoarse rattle mingles with the
other sounds.

The Bahama negro dances to the accompaniment
of ringing bells, while various individuals in the
crowd keep time by stamping their feet and slapping
their hands against their legs.

When the first Spanish explorers came to America
they found that the Indians in Mexico used small

iSee Chapter XXIX, "The Bells of India," pp. 332-40.

BELLS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES 21

bells tied to their rattles. A wand decorated with
bells and rattles of deer hoofs is still used in cele-
brations of the Zufii Indians.

Some of the Indians in Peru dance in the street
to the music of a pipe and tabor, while the time is
marked by the ringing of small bells tied to the legs.
The Morris dancers of Old England also had this
custom.

The Indians of Ecuador worshiped idols shaped
like lions and tigers; and when a chief was ill the
natives rang bells and beat drums before these idols
in order that the gods might be appeased and
restore the health of their leader.

In East India the Pegu unite twenty bells into
one instrument, which is beaten with sticks, and,
as one traveler writes, "they make no bad music."
The Javanese bells on Banda Island, to the number
of twelve, from a distance sounded to one traveler
"like a string orchestra."

Some of the African tribes who think that loud-
ness is the greatest thing to be desired in music,
beat their drums with immense energy, and at
the same time they bang with sticks upon a row
of brass kettles which hang on poles and form a
kind of bell series.

The ancient shepherds tied bells to their sheep,
and thought that by the sound of them the sheep
grew fat.

CHAPTER III
BELLS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

CHINA

The most ancient civilizations of which we have
any record seem to have made use of metal bells.
Their invention cannot be claimed by any one
nation, but China is, perhaps, the oldest known
country where the bell appears in history. Bells
are said to have been known in China for more than
forty-six centuries. But vsince the bells of China
have also a place among those of modern peoples,
the discussion of the ancient as well as of the modern
bells will be given in Chapter XXV.

ASSYRIA

It is certain that the ancient Assyrians made use
of bells. They are seen on the headstalls of horses

Ellacombe

Fig. 8. Ancient Assyrian hells

in Assyrian monuments, and were probably used to
announce the coming of the horses. Sir Austen

BELLS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS 23

Henry Layard, in his excavations at Nimrud, found
about eighty bronze bells that had been buried in
a copper caldron. Drawings of four of these bells
(now in the British Museum) are shown in figure 8.

EUacombe

Fig. 9. Egyptian hell Fig. 10. Ancient Egyptian

of 200 B.C. hand bells

They are so corroded that it is not possible to tell
how these bells sounded in the ancient Assyrian days.

EGYPT

Bells have been found in Egyptian mummy cases.
Those found in the tombs are of bronze, and some
of them resemble the bells of the Assyrians. Imi-
tations of bells may be seen in the ancient Egyptian
necklaces made of gold and silver, and also carved
of precious stones as pendants to gold necklaces.

Figure 9 shows an Egyptian bell which was proba-
bly made about 200 B.C. Historians tell us that the
Egyptians hung bells on the necks of horses, oxen,
and sheep; also that small bells were sometimes
hung at their doors, and were used in the houses to

3

24

BELLS

awaken the family in the morning. (See Fig. lo
for drawings of Egyptian hand bells found in ancient
tombs.)

The sistrum (see Fig. ii) is a metal instrument,
more properly called a jingle than a bell, which is
always associated with Egyptian music. It is first

found in the ancient wor-
ship of Isis in Egypt, where
it was called seshesh, and
was used by the priestesses
and "holy women," who
were sometimes of highest
rank. The sistrum consists
of a metal hoop with a
^^ j^^^m^ handle. Through the hoop

^8 ^ 11 are passed several rods of

metal, and little bells, or
sometimes jingling plates
of metal, are suspended
from the rods. The tink-
ling sounds of the sistrum
were considered indispens-
able in the religious cere-
monies of the Egyptians.
What is more remarkable,
the sistrum is still in use, being employed by the
priests of a Christian sect in Abyssinia. The
Copts, in upper Egypt, who are likewise Christians,
shake a tinkling instrument of metal, called mara-
outh, in their religious ceremonies, avowedly for the

Metropolitan Museum

Fig. II. Sistrum of the
ancient Egyptians

BELLS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS 25

purpose of keeping off the Evil One. The sistrum
seems to have a close relation to the sacred cere-
monial bells.

JUDEA

From several references in the Bible we know
that the early Hebrews were familiar with bells,
and used them. In Exodus xxviii, 34, the direc-
tions are given for the robe of the ephod: "A golden
bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pome-
granate, upon the skirts of the robe round about."
In Exodus xxxix, 25, the robe has been finished:
"And they made bells of pure gold, and put the
bells between the pomegranates upon the skirts
of the robe round about, between the pomegranates;
a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate,
upon the skirts of the robe round about, to minister
in; as Jehovah commanded Moses." The tink-
hng sound of these golden bells upon his robe
announced the coming of the High Priest for the
sacred ministrations.

In Zachariah xiv, 20, ''In that day shall there be
upon the bells of the horses ''Holy unto Jehovah,"
which implies a custom of having bells upon the
horses, — probably fastened on the bridle, or upon
the forehead of the horses, as they were used in
Assyria, and as we find them at the present time in
many countries.

Josephus says that the ancients regarded bells
as signifying thunder. In many cases they looked
upon them as signals of victory and dominion. He

2 6 BELLS

also says that the golden roof of vSolomon's temple had
bells fixed on it to keep birds from alighting thereon.

ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME

Euripides says that the head gear of Greek war
horses was adorned with small bells for the purpose
of terrifying the foe and spurring the warriors to
the fray. The Greek foot soldier carried bells
attached to his shield or hidden in its hollow interior,
probably for the same purpose.

Bells were hung upon Porsena's stately tomb
and upon the car which carried the body of Alex-
ander the Great. Numerous bells have been found
inside tombs, and were probably buried with the
dead because of their supposed power to protect
bodies from evil spirits.

Augustus caused a bell to be hung before the
temple of Jupiter, and probably before other temples
also. Bells were used in the religious rites of the
priest of Cybele in Athens; and at the moment of
the death of an Athenian, brass kettles and bells
were rung in order to scare away the furies. In
Sparta, when a king died women went through the
streets striking a bell, and this, says Herodotus,
was the signal that from each household a man and
a woman should put on mourning.

Bells preceded funeral processions, were hung on
triumphal cars, and summoned guests, as in later
days, to feasts. Pliny, who died about 79 a.d.,
says that in the market place at Athens the fish

BELLS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS 27

sales were announced by the ringing of small bells.
Figure 12 represents an ancient Greek bell that has
been preserved since the 4th century b.c.

A silver bell was the prize run for at races, and the
familiar expression ' ' bearing away the
bell" has its origin in this custom.
The silver cup which is given in
modem times as a prize in races and
games of skill is only the ancient bell /7/ P LA<

inverted and used as a drinking vessel, /k^ g f Q

malefactors on their way to execu- (^^ \ r^*^
tion, ''lest innocent persons," says British Museum

the historian, ''should be defiled by ^oflL%th^ZlL^rf
touching them," and probably also ^•^^

to draw the gaze of the people upon the criminal
to increase his punishment and the value of his
example to the public.

It is said that from this Greek custom the Romans
derived their habit of hanging a bell upon the chariot
of the emperor that he, in the height of his pros-
perity and power, "might be admonished against
pride and be mindful of human misery."

Both the Greeks and the Romans hung bells
about the necks of horses, dogs, and sheep. In
one place in Rome Bacchus is represented as riding
upon an ass to whose neck a bell is attached, and
Pan also is pictured in similar manner. There are
many representations of elephants wearing bells,
either for superstitious or protective reasons.

28 BELLS

The Romans ''belled" their flocks in order that
wild beasts might be scared away by the sound.
In the rural laws of Justinian it is enacted that
*'if anyone take away the bell from an ox or
sheep, let him, being convicted, be scourged as a
thief, and if the animal be lost thereby, let him pay
the loss."

Several historians mention the custom of testing
the spirit of horses by seeing whether they were
frightened by the sound of bells. The custom of
training horses to these sounds gave rise to the
habit of speaking of an untrained person as ''one
not used to the noise of the bell."

In Rome the bathing hour was announced by a
bell, as were other times of the day, there being no
clocks. The wealthier Romans used them in domes-
tic life to assemble their families.

In the garrison the Roman sentry wore a set of
bells on his breastplate, so that the centurion might
know from the sound that the sentry was faithful
to his duty. The centurion's bell was used in the
camp in two ways. "In one custom, a watchman,
or patrol, made the rounds of the camp, ringing a
bell, and the sentries replied to him by shouting,
or in some other way. If they did not reply, he
suspected that they were asleep, and investigated
the matter. The second custom was for a bell to
be sent around the circuit of the camp, each patrol-
man carrying it over his beat and delivering it to
the next patrol until it made the rounds and came

BELLS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS 29

back to the commander. If any patrolman, through
sleepiness or from absence from his beat, failed to
appear to take the bell from his neighbor, the bell
was sent back again in the same fashion to the
commander, who at once inquired into the reason
for the patrolman's failure to appear."^

Bells played a very important part in the later
warfare of both Greece and Rome. The ambitious
young soldier proved his mettle by performing the
trying duties of a patrolman, pacing the ramparts
and rousing the guards with the hand bell which
was passed from patrol to patrol. This practice
once nearly caused the loss of a fortress; for, as
Thucydides tells us in his History of the Pelopon-
nesian War, during the siege of Potidaea, in Mace-
donia, the Lacedemonian general, hearing by the
sound of the bell that the sentry had passed a cer-
tain spot, raised his scaling ladders there, and was
driven back only with great difficulty.

A still more remarkable instance of the use of
bells for military purposes is related by Plutarch
in his life of Brutus, which may be thus trans-
lated :

"As a river ran close to the town (Xanthus, in
Lycia), several attempted to escape by swimming
and diving; but they were prevented by nets let
down for that purpose which had little bells at the
top to give notice when anyone was taken."

lA. S. Pease, in "Notes on Uses of Bells among the Greeks and
Romans," in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology.

30

BELLS

''The Roman infant played with bells as his toy,
and the same sound preceded him to the funeral
pile."i

The Romans also employed bells of various tones
arranged in some order for the playing of tunes.

Fig. 13. Roman crotal {rattle) hells found in Ireland

Among the Etruscan antiquities an instrument has
been discovered which is constructed of a number
of bronze vessels placed in a row on a metal rod.
Likewise, numerous bells, varying in size and tone,
have been found in Etruscan tombs.

Figure 13 shows three types of bells found in
Ireland, which were probably brought there by the
Romans. They may have been used in the ancient
war dances, or by the Roman pagan priests.

The use of bells continued in Rome, and increased
as Christian usage brought them more and more into
play. The Greeks, however, were compelled to

iBenjamin Lomax, in Bells and Bell Ringers, London, 1879.

BELLS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

31

give them up when the TurkvS took Constantinople
(in 1453) and prohibited their use.

OTHER COUNTRIES

The Turks forbade the ringing of
bells lest the sound should disturb
the repose of souls which, they sup-
posed, wander in the air; they also
regarded bells as the symbols of un-
faithfulness. It is quite possible that
the Turks prohibited the use of bells
for reasons that were as much polit-
ical as religious, as the ringing of
bells might serve as a signal in case
of rebellion. So the lack of bells in
the churches of the Greeks was not
from principle, but from compulsion.

After the edict forbidding the use of bells, the
newly conquered Christians substituted for them
metal or wooden plates to be struck with
a hammer. Such plates are seen today
in some Greek churches. The voice of the
muezzin often calls the Turkish people to
prayers, and the clapping of hands is the
signal used for calling attendants.

In spite of their objections to the use of
bells, the Mohammedans look forward to
hearing bells in Paradise, shaking on the
*' golden shafted trees of Eden." In "Paradise and
the Peri," Thomas Moore refers to this hope:

Fig. 14

Ancient Roman

hand bell

Fig. 15

Roman hell

of the ist

century

32

BELLS

And she already hears the trees

Of Eden with their crystal bells
Ringing in that ambrosial breeze

That from the Throne of Alia swells.

The ancient civilizations of
North and South America seem
to have employed metal bells
for various purposes. Unlike
the Chinese, the Incas of Peru
and the ancient civilizations of
Central America and Mexico
have not left records which
give the use of their bells; but
some very fine specimens have
been found. Small gold bells
have been excavated in Panama,
and may be seen in the Museum
of the American Indian in New
York. In the same museum is
a large collection of bronze bells
which were found in a cave in
the valley of the Chamelecon
River in Central America. (Fig.
1 6 gives drawings of three of
these bells.)

Figure 17 (p. 33) illustrates a
copper bell which was found in
a tomb of ancient Peru. It was
doubtless used in the religious
services of the Incas, ages ago.

Fig. 16. Ancient bronze
hells of Cefitral America

BELLS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

33

Figure 1 8 shows a cluster of yotl bells (now in the
British Museum) from the ancient civilization of
Mexico. Such yotl are found in the picture writings

Fig. 17. Ancient copper
bell from Peru

Fig. 18. Ancient yotl bells
from Mexico

that show the various objects which the Aztecs
used to pay as tribute to their sovereigns. The
Aztecs and Incas also made bells of clay.

CHAPTER IV

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH BELLS

No church bells called the first Christians of
Europe together for their services, for they could
meet only by stealth. Very soon after the death
of Christ the Christian church was organized in
Italy. The Romans in authority soon became so
bitterly opposed to this religion that they sought
to kill all Christians, and for a time the only way
the followers of the new faith could come together
was to meet in secret caves under the ground.
Even today one may go through the dark tunnels
into these caves or ''catacombs," and see the walls
black with the smoke of the torches which the early
Christians used, nearly two thousand years ago,
to light these caves when they held their meetings.

When more and more of the Romans became
Christians, and finally the Emperor Constantine
himself adopted the faith, there was no longer need
for secrecy, for Christians were allowed to meet
openly, in buildings above the ground. This was
in the early 4th century.

For a long time the Romans had used bells to
remind the citizens that the public baths were ready,
so it seemed natural that bells should now be used to
summon them to church. At first they probably
used the same hand bells that had announced the

34

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH BELLS 35

bathing hour; and probably the bell ringers ran
about the streets in the same way, ringing the bell
on every street to let the people know it was time
to come together for worship, just as the "town
crier" in our own country, before the days of the
newspaper, distributed information and called the
people to meetings. Sometimes, probably, they
used trumpets also for this purpose, as was the
custom in Egypt and the countries of the East.

About the year 400, in the city of Campania,
Italy, the bishop of Nola (whose name was Paulinus)
conceived the idea of having one large bell fastened
on top of the meetinghouse so that all the people
might hear it, instead of having a bell ringer go
about the streets. One writer says that Paulinus
suspended above the roof of the church a large brass
kettle, which was struck with a hammer to notify
the people when prayers were supposed to begin.
The records are so meager that no one knows exactly
how it happened. Some writers claim that Pope
Sabinianus was the first to use church bells, in the
year 604, and that he had them rung at different
hours of the day so the people could keep up with
the times which had been set for them to pray.
Paulinus, however, is the one whom the modem
Italians honor. The feast of St. Paulinus is cele-
brated on July 25 th of every year, and in many
cities of Italy small clay bells, costing not more
than a penny, are sold in great numbers to the poor
people on that day.

36

BELLS

Fig. 19. French church
hell of the yth century

We do know, however, that
when Clotaire, the king of the
Franks, besieged the city of Sens
in Burgundy in 610, his army was
frightened away by the ring-
ing of the bells in St. Stephen's
Church there; so it seems that
church bells were not very com-
mon at that time, especially with
the French. (Figs. 19 and 20.)

About 680, says Bede, an Eng-
lish historian of the 7 th century,
church bells were introduced
from Italy into England. Bells
were carried by the missionaries
into the British Isles, and those
good saints, Patrick and Cuth-
bert, always announced their
coming by the sound of the bell,
just as the town criers did many
centuries later. Bells came with
Christianity into Great Britain,
and they have been very closely
identified with church service
ever since, — more than any
other musical instrument. (Fig.
21 shows an old English church
bell of the earliest type.)
It must have been in the 8th century that Tur-
ketul, abbot of Croyland, hung the first peal of bells

Fig, 20. German hell
of the 7th century

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH BELLS

37

in an English belfry. He first presented to the
abbey a large bell called ' ' Guthlac, ' ' and afterwards
added six others named Pega, Bega, Betteline,
Bartholomew, Tatwin, and
Turketul. Gifts of bells to the
churches and monasteries be-
came very common about this
time.

It is recorded that "a cer-
tain English nobleman named
Litholf , who resided in a wood-
land part of the neighborhood,
gave two large bells to the
tower of St. Albans. Having
a good stock of vsheep and
goats, he sold many of them
and bought a bell, of which,
when he heard the new sound suspended in the
tower, he jocosely said, 'Hark, how sweetly my
goats and my sheep bleat!' His wife procured
another from the same place, and the two together
produced most sweet harmony, which when the
lady heard, she said, 'I do not think this union is
wanting in Divine favor, which united me to my
husband in the bond of matrimony and mutual
affection.' "

During the century that followed, a great many
bells were made for the churches of England
and France and other European countries. They
increased in size, and were given special places in the

Fig. 21. Old English
church bell

38

BELLS

Fig. 22. Church hell
of the Qth century

religious services. (Fig. 22 shows a bell of the 9th
century.) The Saxon king Egbert gave orders that
all priests should ring the bells of
their churches at appointed hours.
In 816 the bells were ordered to
ring upon the death of a bishop.
A little later, Alfred the Great
ordered the church bell to ring
every evening at eight o'clock as
a reminder that it was time for
everyone to put out the fire and
go to bed. This was known as
the ''Curfew bell" (see p. 103).
As time went on, more bell-ringing orders were
given, until the bell came to be one of the most
important parts of the church.

For a long time the bells were made in the monas-
teries, and it was the priest's office to ring them.

In a life of Charlemagne it is stated that in the
Abbey of St. Gall a bell maker named Tancho made
a bell the tone of which Charlemagne liked very
much. Tancho said to him, "My Lord Emperor,
command a great quantity of copper to be brought
to me which I will purify by fire; and let me have
silver instead of tin,^ about a hundred pounds, and
I will cast for you such a bell that the others in
comparison with it shall be mute." Charlemagne
ordered the required amount of copper and silver
to be sent to the bell maker. Now Tancho, being

iCopper and tin were the metals used by the first bell founders.

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH BELLS 39

a great knave, put all the silver aside for his own use,
thinking no one would know the difference, and
made the bell of copper and tin. When the bell
was finished the emperor ordered it to be hung and
the clapper attached. The writer relates that ''that
was soon done, and then the warden of the church,
the attendants, and even the boys of the place, tried,
one after the other, to make the bell sound. But
all was in vain ; and so at last the knavish maker of
the bell came up, seized the rope and pulled at the
bell. When lo! and behold! Down from on high
came the brazen mass ; fell on the very head of the
cheating bell founder; killed him on the spot; and
passed through his carcass, and crashed to the
ground. . . . When the aforementioned weight
of silver was found, Charlemagne ordered it to be
distributed among the poorest servants of the
palace."

In the loth century it was decreed that any Saxon
churl (peasant) might become a thane (a freeman of
higher rank; nobleman) if he were rich enough to
own about five hundred acres of land, and had on
his estate a church with a bell tower. Of course
this encouraged the building of churches and the
making of church bells, and they became a neces-
sary adjunct to every church building. A canon
of the Church of England especially directs that
** parishes must furnish bells and bell ropes." More
and more the bell came to hold a place of honor and
distinction. A peal of bells was the fitting present
4

40 BELLS

for a king to bestow upon the people of a deserving
town; to deprive a town of its bells was the worst
of punishments. Henry V took away the bell from
the city of Calais and gave it to the city of Mon-
mouth. According to Scott, the town of Dunkeld
became so corrupt that it sold its bell for whisky,
and drank the proceeds.

O what a toun, what a terrible toun,
What a terrible toun was the toun of Dunkel ;
They 've hangit the minister, drooned the precentor,
Dung down the steeple, and drucken the bell.

CHAPTER V

THE SACRED BELLS OF IRELAND

When St. Patrick came from Gaul to Ireland about
the year 440 he brought with him a group of skilled
workmen and a number of bishops. Among the
workmen were metal smiths, bell makers, and bra-
ziers. He founded monasteries, placed the bishops
to preside over them, and set the smiths to making
bells for the monasteries. He especially designated
that "the smiths should make bells, and the bra-
ziers should make the patens, and the ministers the
altar chalices."

The bells which these smiths made were not
cast, as our modern church bells are, but were made
of thin plates of beaten metal, bent into a four-
sided shape, riveted along the sides, and with a
handle at the top. The best ones were dipped in
a solution of molten bronze which filled up all open-
ings and coated the bell, making it more solid and
resonant.

These early bells show indications that they were
rung by being struck like a gong with a hammer
or a small mallet, and that the clapper was added
at a later period. When the clapper was once
tried it proved more convenient, as it left one hand
free to the ringer, and it is possible that clappers
were then added to most of the old bells. However,

41

42 BELLS

some of the larger bells suspended in church towers
in various European cities, until quite recent times,
were rung by being struck like a gong.

The bells used by the early teachers of Christi-
anity were held in such veneration that they were
looked upon as sacred, and preserved with the
greatest care, together with the Bibles and walking
staffs of the saints. The Irish have always greatly
revered their sacred relics, and preserved them so
carefully that many of these bells have been handed
down for over a thousand years. There are said to
be fifty or sixty of them now in existence. It was
the custom to place the sacred bells or other relics
in the guardianship of some special family selected
for that purpose, and a generous grant of land was
allowed to go with the trust for the support of the
family. In case of invasion, or danger from fire,
the first care of the relic keeper was to see that the
sacred object was safe. The sacred bells of St.
Patrick, and many other relics and manuscripts,
have been preserved in this way. Had it not been
for this custom of the Irish we should probably
know very little today of the first Christian bells.

There are several bells still preserved as having
once belonged to St. Patrick. One of them is
broken, and is called ''The Broken Bell of B rigid."
It is said that St. Patrick had this bell in his hands
when he had his last encounter with the demons of
the North. When he found that the violent ringing
of the bell was not sufficient to rout the enemy, he

THE SACRED BELLS OF IRELAND

43

flung the bell with all his might into the thickest of
their ranks, and frightened the enemy so that they
fled terrified into the sea, and did not molest the
island again, as the story goes,
for seven years, seven months,
and seven days!

The ''Black Bell" of St. Patrick
(see Fig. 23) is considered by
many to be the oldest bell in Ire-
land. It certainly shows signs of
wear and tear. Formerly it be-
longed to a family in Headford,
and the people of that locality
believed that this bell was a
present from an angel to St.
Patrick, and was originally of
pure silver. Its present black
and corroded condition is caused, they say, by its
contact with the demons when the saint was expel-
ling them from the country. For a long time this
bell was brought every year, on Garland Sunday,
to a little oratory on Croagh Patrick, and while
here the pious pilgrim for a penny was allowed to
kiss it. If he had been suffering with rheumatic
pains, for twopence he might put it three times
around his body. But finally times got so bad that
the keeper of the bell sold it to help pay his pas-
sage to America.

Another bell of St. Patrick became the heirloom
of the Abbey of Armagh, and was used in 946 by

EUacombe

Fig. 23. The ''Black
Beir' of St. Patrick

44

BELLS

the abbot to measure the tribute paid to him by
a northern tribe. The bell-full of silver was given
to him for his ''peace" as St. Patrick's successor.
The most famous one of St. Patrick's bells is the
one known as the "Bell of St.
Patrick's Will" (see Fig. 24).
It is made of two plates of
sheet iron bent over to meet,
riveted, and then dipped in
bronze; it is six inches high,
five inches broad, and four
inches deep. The clapper is
apparently of a later date than
the rest of the bell. This bell
was mentioned in the annals
of Ulster as early as 552, and
it is believed to have been
buried in St. Patrick's grave and taken from his
tomb about that time. It possessed great magic
power, according to the people of former days,
and the breach of an oath upon it in 1044 was
said to have been avenged by a raid in which a
large number of prisoners and twelve hundred cows
were carried away. Its sound is supposed, even yet,
to scare away evil spirits, and all reptiles except
the deaf adder.

In the eleventh century this bell was considered
worthy to be enshrined. It seems that from the
6th century onward there were found, in the prin-
cipal churches of Ireland, costly shrines made for

Fig. 24. ''Bell of
St. Patrick's Will"

THE SACRED BELLS OF IRELAND

45

the preservation of their most sacred reUcs: the
bells, the books, and the croziers of the early teachers
of Christianity. So at some time between 1091
and 1 105, the king of Ireland (Donnel O'Loughlin)
had made, at his expense, a jeweled shrine worthy
of the noble origin of the Bell of St. Patrick's Will.
This shrine is covered with gold and silver filigree
set with jewels in green, blue, dull red, and crystal
(see Fig. 25).

The family of O'Mellan were the hereditary keepers
of this bell and shrine until 1441. At this time, it
is recorded in the annals,
on account of some mis-
demeanor on O'Mellan's
part the care of the bell
was given to another
family; it was later pur-
chased by the Royal
Irish Academy, and is
in the Dublin Museum.
This bell and its shrine are
among the most famous
objects in the country.

All of the bells of this
period are shaped like
our ordinary cowbells,
though when they were
to be used for church
bells they were made

The Art Workers' Quarterly

Fig. 25. Jeweled shrine of
''Bell of St. Patrick's Will"

much larger, even twelve or thirteen inches high.

46 BELLS

N one have been found in Ireland more than thirteen
inches high. As a church bell, this type belongs

especially to Ireland, for the

English soon departed from

this form.

By the end of the ninth cen-
\ tury bells were cast in bronze

in the same form as the old

: iron ones, which, however, did

(\ '' ' not go out of use. One of the

"'>*'- -- ' -l^f-^^^^ earlv bronze bells of Ireland

Fia26. ''Bronze Bell ^as been preserved, the

of Cumascach" ''Bronze Bell of Cumascach,"

shown in figure 26. This bell is cast of bronze,

without rivets; its handle and clapper are of iron;

it is nearly a foot high and eight inches across the

base. We know by its inscription, which means "a

prayer for Cumascach, son of Ailill," that it must

have been made about the year 900. (See p. 52.)

It is recorded that "pilgrims in the remote ages
of the Celtic church carried these bells with them,
especially when visiting heathen lands, and left
them behind as memorials of their Christianity."
The Welsh, as well as the Irish, hold their bells in
the highest veneration, and in former days took
great pride in making them. Some of the church
bells which date back to the seventh and eighth
centuries are remarkable for beauty and workman-
ship, as are also the shrines that have been made
for their better preservation.

CHAPTER VI

CELTIC BELL LORE

Just as the people in other parts of the world have
always given a religious meaning to the sound of
metal, most of the early Christians came to think
of the sound of bells as symbolic of the voice of
God. Many of them believed that bells could
perform miracles and cures, and that they even had
the power of going from one place to another with-
out human help. This belief continued in some
degree for hundreds of years, and bell superstitions
have not yet altogether disappeared.

Early historians tell us of certain portable bells
which all the people of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales
looked upon as having miraculous power. They
were even more afraid of swearing falsely by these
bells than by the Bible itself. Even now one hears
of the ''bell oath" among the peasants of southern
Ireland, and the ''Golden Bell of St. ^enan" is still
famous. This golden bell, kept in safety by the
Munster family for generations, has been ver>^ useful.
In cases of theft and the like, where the truth cannot
be found out by ordinary means, the loan of this bell
will be demanded, and the suspected persons required
to put their hands upon it and swear their innocence.
No one who is not truly innocent will dare do this,
for fear of being exposed and punished by the bell.

47

48 BELLS

Once, writes Mr. Fielding, during the last century,
a man who had stolen some linen was sent by his
parish priest to fetch the bell for the oath. In an
agony of guilt and terror he flung the bell over a high
cliff into the sea, only to find, when he came to the
priest's house, that the bell, mysteriously rescued,
had arrived there before him, and was calmly
awaiting the confession which he was now obliged
to make.

The bell of St. Oudoceus, a 5th-century bishop,
was supposed to have the power to heal the sick.
Its legend, according to one of the old writers, is
as follows: *'St. Oudoceus, being thirsty after
undergoing labor, and more accustomed to drink
water than any other liquor, came to a fountain in
the vale of Llandaff , not far from the church, that
he might drink, where he found women washing
butter, after the manner of the country ; and sending
to them his messenger and disciples, they requested
that they would accommodate them with a vessel
that their pastor might drink therefrom; who,
ironically, as mischievous girls, said, 'We have no
other cups besides that which we hold in our hands,
namely, the butter ' ; and the man of blessed memory
taking it, formed a cup in the shape of a small bell,
and he raised his hand so that he might drink
therefrom, and he drank. And it remained in that
form, that is, a golden one, so that it appeared to
those who beheld it, to consist altogether of purest
gold; which, by Divine power, is from this day

CELTIC BELL LORE 49

reverently preserved in the church of Llandaff, in,
memory of the holy man, and it is said that by
touching it, health is given to the diseased."

Many suffering pilgrims came to the church where
it was preserved, in the hope of being healed. It
had lost its clapper — being such an old bell — and
made an excellent cup from which to drink; and
no matter what one drank from this bell, it was
supposed to have wonderful healing power, even
though it were only pure water.

In a small village in Wales there is preserved a
bell which is said to have belonged to St. David,
and it is endowed with great virtues. Once a man
was confined in a castle near Warthremon, and his
wife secretly sent this bell to him, in order that it
might enable him to be set free. The keepers of
the castle not only refused to let him go, but kept
the bell and hung it on the wall. On that same
night, so the story goes, by ** Divine vengeance the
whole town, with the exception of the wall on which
the bell hung, was consumed by fire."

The Scottish people also preserved their sacred
bells with superstitious reverence. There is said to
be a very ancient bell in the chapel of St. Fillans,
in Scotland, an oblong bell about a foot high, which
was very highly respected in the olden days, and
this bell had remarkable curative powers. It was
usually kept on a gravestone in the churchyard,
and used to cure mad people. The sufferer was
first dipped in the saint's pool, and had various

50 BELLS

rites performed over him; then he had to remain
in the chapel all night, bound with ropes. Next
morning this bell was very solemnly set upon his
head in order to complete the cure, and the patient's
wits returned. It was believed that if this bell were
stolen it would extricate itself out of the thief's
hands, and return home, ringing all the way. For
some years past it has been locked up to prevent its
being used for superstitious purposes.

The power to return home of its own accord was
also attributed to a bell in Leinster. A chieftain
of Wicklow got possession of it, and he was obliged
to tie it with a strong cord to prevent its escaping
to its home, at St. Fillans' church in Meath.

The ability to prevent its being lifted was one of
the miraculous powers of another bell of vSt. Fillans.
It seems that some one who lived in a neighboring
parish at one time stole this bell and ran away. In
the course of his flight he sat down to rest on the
top of a hill, where he might draw his breath, and
laid the bell on a stone beside him. When he
started to continue his journey, however, the bell
would not leave the rock. Try as hard as he might,
he could not move it. He was terribly frightened,
and in the face of this magic he decided that the
only thing to do was to go back and confess his
theft. Fully resolved to restore the treasure if he
could but get it loose from the rock, he made one
more effort. The bell now came up quite easily,
and was light enough while the thief carried it back

CELTIC BELL LORE

SI

to its home. This bell of St. Fillans was made
after the fashion of most of the Celtic relics — iron
riveted together and coated with bronze.

There is a story about the sacred bell which is
treasured in Kenan's Convent. St. Kenan was an
Irish disciple of the Welsh abbott, St. Gildas. One
night when St. Kenan was staying in St. Gildas'
abbey, he dreamed that he heard
a voice bidding him to depart and
found a house of monks of his
own, in an unnamed land to
which a bell should guide him.
The monks of St. Gildas had no
bell which they were willing to
give away, so the abbott himself
made one out of a piece of old
iron, and blessed it, and gave it
to the parting guest. For a long,
long time, as they traveled, the
bell was silent, and St. Kenan
and his companions knew that
they must travel on until the bell should ring of
its own accord, and thus let them know where to
stop. Finally, in a Cornish valley, it sounded the
long-hoped-for signal, and the party stopped here
by the River Fal, and built Kenan's Convent, where
the bell has been preserved and honored ever since.

The "Black Bell of Drumragh" (see Fig. 27) is
still in the possession of its hereditary keepers, the
M'Enhill family. When a member of the keeper's

Fig. 27. The "Black
Bell of Drumragh''

52 BELLS

family died, the oldest man in the family carried
this bell before the coffin and rang it at intervals
until the church was reached. It seems that this
bell is especially thought of as a funeral bell, and
this is the story of how it came into the M'Enhill
family, as related by Mr. Milligan : ^

''Many centuries ago, before roads or bridges
were made to the old Drumragh graveyard, two
funerals were entering at the same time, one, a
person called M'Enhill, and the other, Campbell.
When the M'Enhill funeral was passing a certain
spot, a bell began to ring in the ground; but when
the other funeral passed that same spot, it ceased.
After this, when any member of the M'Enhill family
was being buried, and passed over this spot, the
bell rang ; but it never rang when anyone else passed
over, so the M'Enhills dug down and discovered
the bell, and it has been in their family ever since."

The ''Bell of Cumascach" (see Fig. 26) was also
called the Blessed Bell of Armagh, and was supposed
to have miraculous power to heal the sick. The
Henning family were the hereditary keepers of
the bell. It was an ancient custom to place it
near any of that family who were dangerously ill.
Mr. Bell, who was an eyewitness to one of the uses
of this bell, writes: "I visited Mrs. Henning, the
widow of Paul Henning, on her deathbed. She lay
in a large, badly lighted apartment crowded with
people. The bell, which had remained several days

^In Ancient Ecclesiastical Bells in Ulster, 1902.

CELTIC BELL LORE

53

near her head, seemed to be regarded by those who
were present with much interest. The vapor of
the heated chamber was so condensed on the cold
metal of the bell, that occa-
sionally small streams trickled
down its sides. This 'heavy
sweating ' of the bell, as it was
termed, was regarded by
everyone with peculiar horror,
and deemed a certain prog-
nostication of the death of
the sick woman, who departed
this life a few hours after I
left the room. The agonized
bell, I was told, had on many
previous occasions given sim-
ilar tokens as proofs of its
sympathy of the approaching death of its guard-
ians."

This bell was often borrowed from its keeper that
it might be rung at funerals, and it was also used
in administering the oath, in order to find out guilty
persons. It was considered the most binding oath
that could be taken, and many miraculous judg-
ments were visited on those who violated oaths
taken on this bell.

St. Patrick is supposed to have given fifty con-
secrated bells to the churches of Connaught. The
"Bell of Blood" (see Fig. 28) is believed to be one
of those bells. It was, like other sacred bells, used

Ellacombe

Fig. 28. St. Patrick's
"Bell of Blood"

54 BELLS

in administering oaths and in recovering lost
property, and was hired out on the following terms :
*'The borrower, before it was committed to him,
paid down a certain fee in silver: then he took an
oath on the bell, that he would safely return it
within a certain time, and that while in his posses-
sion, it should never touch the ground, or pass out
of human hands. In consequence it was customary
for the person who borrowed it, when he required
to be disengaged, to place it in the hands of a second
person, and so on ; and when night came, the family
used to sit up, or the neighbors to be collected as
at a wake, so that when one was tired holding it,
another might relieve him, and thus fulfill, until
the period of its loan had expired, the terms of the
oath, that it was never to pass out of the hands of
man."i

It is said that Breslin, the keeper of the "Bell
of Conall Cael," so far lost his reverence for the bell
that he sold it for three young cows. The cows died
the next day, and Breslin never prospered afterwards.

The legend of a bell which once hung in the bell
house of Aughagower, in the county of Mayo, is
still preserved among the people of that vicinity.
They say it was once buried for concealment in
a bog near by, and that ''of a quiet evening its
sound, like silver, could be heard across the waste."

The Clog-Oir was a bell that was famous for its
ability to recover stolen property. The common

iRev. H. T. Ellacombe, in Church Bells of Devon, Exeter, 1872.

CELTIC BELL LORE 55

people believed that if anyone was wicked enough
to swear falsely upon it, the muscles of his mouth
would contract at one side until the opening reached
his ear. The truth of this was never tested, how-
ever, because no one was ever known to swear
falsely upon it, though it was very frequently
in use.

It is said that the last time it was used for this
purpose was about the year 1834. "A farmer had
his house broken into, and was robbed of twenty
pounds. He applied for the bell, as he suspected
the robbery to have been committed by persons
in his neighborhood. It was brought with much
ceremony to his house ; and after mass on the follow-
ing Sunday was the time appointed for the whole
parish to assemble, and 'clear themselves from sus-
picion upon the bell.' On Saturday night preceding
this ordeal, the farmer was frightened by a heavy
crash at the window, which was broken in. He
feared his days were numbered; but after waiting
some time in great terror, all became quiet. On
lighting a candle to see what had occurred, he found,
to his great astonishment, that his twenty pounds —
even the identical notes, tied with the same string —
had been thrust in through the broken pane, and
were on the floor ! Of course there was no occasion
for using the bell on the following day. There-
after, the keepers of the bell refused all applications
made for its use, because of religious scruples on the
subject, chiefly caused by the above incident."

5

56 BELLS

We do not hear so much of the "bell oath" in
English bell lore. The sacred bells of the English
were kept high upon the churches, where they could
not easily be reached or carried about. And per-
haps because they were kept so high up in the air,
the English people of the Middle Ages thought their
church bells had miraculous power over storms and
evil spirits of the air.^ These larger bells of the
English served the entire community at once, while
the smaller, portable bells of the Irish served indi-
viduals in a more personal way.

Some of these legends seem childish, even to chil-
dren of modern times; but it would be difficult to
say how much their bells meant to these people in
the hard lives they were forced to lead.

The fact that bells came to them with Christi-
anity, and were so soon invested with a deep religious
meaning, together with the naturally weird qualities
of bell sounds, must have done much to foster that
rich Irish imagination which is still contributing
so greatly to the literature of the world.

iThis phase will be discussed in the chapter on "The Baptism of
Bells," p. 84.

CHAPTER VII

BELL MAKING

The earliest Christian bells were made of pieces
of metal riveted together into a four- sided shape.
Figure 29 shows a very common pattern by which
the sheet iron was cut. It was bent along the
dotted lines, and when the sides were riveted, the
result was a shape somewhat similar to our modem
cowbells. Figure 30 shows three ways of fastening
the clapper into place. In figure 32 is seen the
row of rivets along the side of one of these ancient
bells.

Sometimes copper and perhaps other metals were
beaten into the desired form, and riveted. Figure 3 1
shows a rounded form with rivets in the side.

So long as these methods of bell making were
followed, the bells, even church bells, were not very
large. But when someone thought of melting metal
and molding it into shape (as the ancient Chinese
had done, centuries before), bells of much greater
size and finer quality could be made. Thus there
opened up a new and interesting field for European
bell makers, and since then practically all church
bells have been cast. This means that the melted
metal is poured or cast into a mold to make it the
desired shape, and left in the mold until it becomes
cool and hard.

57

58

BELLS

/

r^ — ' \

1 o 1 ,

1 . 1

1 ' ;

1 1

1 O 1

1 1

viiiii^^^^^^R^;::::::::"

Quick

Fig. 29. Pattern for making bells of sheet iron

Fig. 30. Early methods of attaching handle and clapper to hell

BELL MAKING

59

The place where bells are
cast is called a ''foundry,"
and the art of casting them,
the "art of bell founding."

The development of this
art not only enabled the
founders to make bells of
enormous size and weight,
but it gave them an oppor-
tunity to mix metals by
melting them together, until
they learned by experiment
what mixtures of metal

would give ^ the best tone, p^^ ^^^ Seventh-century hell,
"Bell metal" is a mixture of '^ith rounded form and rivets

copper and tin, with four or
five times as much copper as
tin; and sometimes a little
zinc and lead are also added.
The bells in the time of
the reign of Henry III had
twice as much copper as tin ;
in the Assyrian bronze bells
shown on page 22, ten times
as much copper as tin was
used. But experience has
proved that about four or
five times as much copper as
tin is the best combination
to produce a good ringing

Fig. 32. Early church
bell, with rivets in side

6o BELLS

tone ; and this mixture is made to vary according to
the kind of tone desired. If too much tin is used,
the metal will be too brittle, and will crack.

Although there are many stories of silver and gold
being added to bell metal "to sweeten the tone,"
the value of such additions is only a myth. Bells
have been made of silver, but they are not very
resonant. Steel also has been used for the casting
of bells, but it is not very satisfactory. Bells have
been cast of glass, with a considerable thickness of
the material, and these give a very fine sound, but
they are too brittle to be practicable.

Since the bells of early Christianity were so closely
associated with the church, and were looked upon
as being sacred, it was natural that the first bell
foundries should be set up in the religious houses.
In some instances the bells were actually cast in
the church. The casting was done with elaborate
ceremonials, the priests, abbots, and often the
bishops being the master founders. One of the
ceremonies was that of blessing the furnace in which
the metal was melted, probably to insure that the
metals would mix well and produce a good ringing
tone. The brethren stood around the furnace,
arranged in processional order, and chanted the
Psalm containing these verses:

"Praise Him with trumpet sound; praise Him with
psaltery and harp.
Praise Him with timbrel and dance: praise Him with
stringed instruments and pipe.

BELL MAKING 6 1

Praise Him with loud cymbals; praise Him with high

sounding cymbals.
Let everything that hath breath praise Jehovah."

Then followed certain prayers, after which the
molten metal was blessed, and God was asked to
infuse into it His grace and overshadow it with
His power, for the honor of the saint to whom
the bell was to be dedicated, and whose name it
was to bear.i

The early bell founders were proud of their work,
and some of them became very famous. They
stamped on the bells either their names or symbols
which stood for them. Usually the date was added,
and often a sentence or verse which ascribed a per-
sonality to the bell.

In the north aisle of the nave of York Cathedral
is a stained-glass window, called the ''bell founder's
window," which shows something of the bell-making
process in those early days. This window was given
to the cathedral by the bell founder Richard Tunnoc,
who died in 1330. It is impossible to show the
wonderful colors of the glass, but the outlines are
shown in figure 33 (p. 63). The design on the left
represents the method of forming the core, or inner
mold, for the bell. One man turns a handle like a
grindstone, while another, with a long, crooked
tool, vShapes the clay after the manner of the potter
at his wheel. There are two bells on the floor.

ijohn R. Fryar, in "The Functions of Church Bells in Old England,"
in American Ecclesiastical Review, Philadelphia, 19 10.

62 BELLS

The figures on the right are working with a furnace
fanned by a bellows, and are evidently running the
molten metal. A boy stands on the bellows, and,
steadying himself by the rod above, jumps up and
down on the bellows, to force the draft into the
furnace and thus keep the metal heated. The
entire window is ornamented with bells.

The practice of bell founding gradually passed
into the hands of workers who cast the bells outside
of the monasteries. In England some of the early
founders traveled about the country and set up
temporary foundries to cast bells wherever they were
wanted, for the transportation of a large bell was
a difficult matter in those days.^ The art gradually
spread over England, Belgium, and Holland, and
little by little the principles of shape and metal
mixture for the most beautiful and best toned bells
were gradually worked out.

The early art of bell founding left a reminder in
the names of families who took their surnames from
their occupations. In reading through early English
documents one finds the names "Robert Belgetter,
1333; Thomas Belgetter; Daniel Bellfounder, 1443,"
which doubtless applied to men in the bell-founding
profession. 2

A cast bell is nothing more than a layer of metal
which has been run into a space between two molds :

iTraveling bell founders were known as late as the 19th century,
when railroads made this unnecessary.

2lt is probable that the modern surname "Bell" resulted, in some
cases, from a shortening of those professional names.

'mm^mi^mm B^iiEiai

im!m^.

^^mm^mm. ^ <i

63

64

BELLS

Fig. 34. Making the "core"

an inner mold called the core, and an outer mold
called the cope.

This is one of the early methods of bell founding :
A block of wood was first cut the exact shape and
size to fill up the inside of the bell that was desired.
This was the core. The core was then covered with
wax, and the layer of wax was just as thick as the
bell was to be. This was the wax model. Outside
the model came the cope, made of clay, or hard
earth, which would hold its shape when dry. When
the earth was quite dry, wax was heated until
it melted, and the melted wax was allowed to run
out. The cavity, which was the shape of the wax
model, was then filled with molten metal from the
furnace, and allowed to cool. If a design of letters

BELL MAKING 65

or ornament on the outside of the bell was desired,
the design was made of strips of wax laid upon the
wax model before the earthen cope was put on, and
the same design appeared on the metal bell.

A modern bell maker would think this method
very old-fashioned, indeed ; but in the early days of
bell founding it was considered very wonderful.

A later method made it possible to produce better
and even larger bells, and the following is the
method by which most of the large bells now hanging
in Europe were made.

Instead of the core being made of a block of wood,
as in the previous method, a framework of bricks
was built, hollow inside, so a fire could be made
under it (see Fig. 34). Covering this brick frame-
work came a layer of clay which could be shaped
to the desired form for the inside of the bell. This
entire core was made to revolve on a spindle, in
the same way a lump of clay revolves on a potter's
wheel, and a crook, shaped something like
the cut on the right and attached to the
spindle, scraped off the surface of the clay,
leaving it smooth and the exact shape de-
sired for the inside. (See clay core in Fig. 34.)

When the core was dry it was smeared with grease ;
then upon this greased core the "false bell" or
model was made of plastic clay. Another crook —
a larger one — was fastened into the top of the
spindle, which, as it whirled around, made the
outside of the clay bell smooth. Many metal bells

66

BELLS

show lines running around the bell. These lines

were caused by the revolving crook which shaped

the clay model.

The inscriptions and ornaments were then molded

in wax upon the clay bell. When the model was
quite dry it was smeared with
grease, to keep the next layer
from sticking to it. Then fine
clay was covered over this very
carefully, to fill up the tiny
holes in the design. Then
came coarse clay, until the
solid cope was formed.

A fire was made under the
core, and everything baked
hard. The layers of grease
and the wax inscriptions were
steamed out, leaving a little
space between the model and
the clay forms above and
beneath it. This made the
model loose enough to come

Meneely Bell Foundry QUt Casily, Icavln^ itS CXaCt

Fig. 35. Modern perforated . '' °

molding case shape m the now hollow space

between the core and the cope. The molten metal
was then poured into the cavity.

Figure 3 5 shows the form of a modem perforated
molding case made by the Meneely Bell Company,
in Troy, New York. They describe its use in the
quotation on the following page.

BELL MAKING

67

"Porous loam and other substances compose the
material which is put upon the cases in varying
thickness, to which the necessary form and finish
are given by the use of sweep patterns, shaped in
such a manner as to secure, by their revolution about
a common center, surfaces corresponding to the
outer and inner portions of the intended bell. As
bell metal shrinks in cooling, the inner case, before
the loam is placed upon it, is wrapped about
with straw rope, the charring of which, by the
heat of the metal in pouring, gives room for the
necessary contraction, and prevents the straining
of the metal.

''The molds are closed
upon each other in a man-
ner securing exact regu-
larity of thickness in the
space within. The metal
is poured in at the head.
The gases generated in
the metal, and which, if
allowed to remain in the
molds, would produce an
explosion, or at least
cause a porous casting,
find vent in the perfo-
rations.

''These cases, also, to the advantage of the
bell, allow it to cool, after casting, in such a manner
as to secure precise uniformity throughout."

Children's Magazine

Fig. 36. Section of bell mold.
Pouring metal into the mold

68 BELLS

The actual casting of a bell, or the pouring of the
metal, takes only a few minutes, but the preparation
for it often requires many weeks of careful labor.
In the casting of a small bell the bell metal may be
poured as is shown in figure 36, but large bells
are cast in deep pits. Turn to pages 171 and 175
for pictures of the casting and recasting of one of
England's famous bells, ''Big Ben."

If the mold is damp, or not of the proper temper-
ature, or if the metal is poured before it is hot
enough, or if gases collect and cannot escape, the
bell may be porous and easily cracked. In the
case of a very large bell, it may require a week or
more for it to cool before it can be removed from
the pit. A bell weighing a ton would be too hot
to touch for two or three days, but one weighing
only five hundred pounds could be dug out of the
pit the following day. When a bell cracks it may
be broken up and melted and cast again. Hundreds
of old bells now hanging in the bell towers have been
cast more than once, and many of them several times.

When an old bell is recast it is customary to take
a ''rubbing" of the inscription and reproduce it on
the new bell.

The typical church bell has a clapper of metal
which swings from the upper inside of the bell.
The clapper must be made with its weight properly
adjusted to the size of the bell. If it is too light, it
will not draw the proper tone of the bell ; if too heavy,
it will in time crack or otherwise injure the bell.

BELL MAKING 69

The different parts of a bell are shown in figure 37,
and are distinguished as follows: the bottom edge
is called the ''mouth" of the bell; just above this
is the thick rim, or ' ' sound bow, ' ' where the clapper
strikes; above that is the concave ''waist"; above
that is the "shoulder," where the inscription is

cannons

shoulder

waist

f""^ l)\ '""^'^'^^ sound how

N. U j) j^ mouth

FiG. 37. An ancient hell, showing names of parts

usually placed. The part above the angle of the
shoulder is known as the ' ' crown," and to the highest
part of the crown the loops or "cannons" are fixed.
The bell is suspended by means of the cannons.^

At first each church had only one bell. Later,
other bells were added to distinguish between the
different services, and each bell had a different tone
from the others. In some churches three different
bells sounded the first three notes of the scale; and
where -^yq bells were needed, they were tuned, as

iMany modern bells, however, are suspended by other means.

70 BELLS

nearly as was possible, to the first five notes of the
major scale.

Then began the art of tuning bells. This involved
problems, for, as one can imagine, it was no simple
matter to cast a bell and have it come out of the
mold with exactly the desired tone when it was
struck.

Bell makers very early discovered that of two
bells which appeared to be of the same size on the
outside, the thicker one had the higher tone. Also
that the larger the bell, the lower the tone, if the
thickness was the same. So they made large bells
for low tones, and smaller ones for high tones.

They found that a bell which sounded number 2
of the scale weighed about one-eighth less than
number i ; and that number 3 weighed about one-
eighth less than number 2. So by weighing the
amount of metal to go into each bell, they could
regulate the tones. When they used wax models
they weighed the wax, and made cores of different
sizes to correspond.

The making of a good bell, however, is not so
simple as it may seem. As the art of bell founding
developed, it was found that a bell of given weight
must also have a certain diameter and thickness in
order to produce the best tone. For example, a
bell which weighs two thousand pounds, according
to one authority^ should be four feet in diameter
at the mouth, and three and one-half inches thick

lA. A. Johnston, "Clocks, Carillons and Bells," in Journal of the
Society of Arts, London, 1901.

BELL MAKING

71

at the sound bow; while a hundred-pound bell

should be eighteen inches in diameter, and one and

one-fourth inches thick. The heavier the bell, the

thicker it must be; the

lighter, the thinner. It

should be thickest at the

sound bow where it is

struck, and taper upward

to one-third of that

thickness. If a bell were

of uniform thickness

throughout it would

sound dull, without the

desired tone quality or

resonance. Figure 38

shows a cross section of

the metal's thickness in

a well-shaped bell.

When a bell comes out
of the mold, if it does

Fig. 38. Cross section of hell
to show thickness of metal

not have exactly the required tone its pitch can be
changed a little by using a file or whetstone. If the
tone is too low, it can be raised a little by grinding
off the lower edge of the bell; if too high, it can be
made a little thinner with a file, and the tone lowered.
If a bell comes out of a mold exactly in tune, it is
said to have a ''maiden peal."

William G. Rice^ expresses the tuning of bells
thus: "In broad terms the pitch, or note, of bells

iln Carillons of Belgium and Holland, 19 14.
6

72

BELLS

is determined by diameter. Their timbre, or quality
of sound, is affected by their general shape, the
thickness of their various parts, together with the
alloy of which they are made. Their volume, or
possible loudness of tone, depends chiefly upon their
size and weight. The pitch can be lowered by

lengthening the bottom
diameter, and raised by
shortening such diam-
eter. Small changes of
diameter may be made
by filing or turning off
the inside at the bottom
swell, thus lengthening
the diameter or by cut-
ting off a slight portion
of the rim, thus shorten-
ing the diameter."

Bell makers have a
revolving cutter which
pares off very thin slices
of the metal at the required place. A modern
method of tuning bells is shown in figure 39.

A peculiarity of bells is that they give off more
than one sound when struck, and what we hear is
really a combination of sounds. So in order to
sound well, bells must not only be in tune with each
other, but each bell must be in tune with itself. A
perfect bell rings its main note when struck by the
clapper at the bottom or sound bow; when struck

Pig. 39.

John Taylor & Co.

Tuning a bell

BELL MAKING 73

at a point one-eighth of a bell's height above this,
the sound should be a third above the main tone;
three-quarters of the way up, the tone should be a
fifth above the main tone, and at the shoulder the
tone should be an octave above. Thus the bell,
when properly struck, gives a perfect chord. There
is also what is called the "hum tone," which is an
octave below the main tone.

The making of a good bell is a gratifying invest-
ment of time, and it gives good value for the money
it costs. There are very few articles which are as
good as new after being used for several centuries.
But even if the bell becomes cracked, it is still worth
two-thirds of its original value, for the chief cost is
the metal in it, and that can be broken up, melted
again, and recast.

When one considers all the problems involved in
producing a bell of good tone quality '4n tune with
itself," regardless of any special pitch, and when
to these problems are added the complications and
cross-complications which are involved in making
a series of bells to definite pitches in tune with each
other, one cannot fail to realize that bell making
is indeed a great and intricate art.

CHAPTER VIII

INSCRIPTIONS

As soon as bell makers learned to cast bells instead
of hammering them into shape or riveting pieces of
iron together, possibilities for decoration opened,
for it was not a difficult matter to cast letters and
ornamental designs on the bells. This was done
by making these designs on the wax or clay models
which gave the exact shape of the future bell, and
when the model was removed and the molten metal
poured into the cavity, it took the exact form of
the model — shape, letters, and all. It was most
natural that the maker of such an important thing
as a bell should wish to inscribe something upon it.

At first the inscriptions were in Latin, because
the first bell foundries were in the monasteries (or
closely connected with them) and were managed by
the priests or monks, who were very learned in Latin.
The church services at that time were in Latin, too.
Some of the bells with Latin inscriptions, and dates
of many centuries ago, have been preserved in the
old churches.

The people of the Middle Ages not only thought
their church bells had miraculous power, and gave
them Christian names, but they also personified them
by letting the inscriptions read as if the bells were
speaking. For instance, the Latin inscription on

74

INSCRIPTIONS 75

an old Belgian bell reads, when translated, "I was
cast in the year of our Lord 1523."

MovSt of the oldest bells which have been pre-
served bear only the names of the saints to whom
they are dedicated. Later a few praise expressions
were added, and by the late sixteenth century such
inscriptions appeared as Jubilate Deo Salvatori
nostro, and Cantabo laud.es tuas Domini.

Sometimes the inscription also states some of the
uses of the bell. One inscription on an old English
bell reads: Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, con-
jugo clerum; defunctos ploro, pestem fugo, festa
decoro; funera plango, fulgura frango, Sabbata pango;
excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos. When
translated it means: *'I praise the true God, I
summon the people, I assemble the clergy; I mourn
the dead, I put the plague to flight, I grace the
feast; I wail at the funeral, I abate the lightning,
I proclaim the Sabbath; I arouse the lazy, I scatter
the winds, I soften the cruel."

An old storm bell in Durham bears a Latin in-
scription meaning, ' ' Do thou, Peter, when rung, calm
the angry waves," suggesting something of the power
which was attributed to church bells in those days.

One of the bells in St. Mary's Church in Oxford
has a long inscription in musical notation. Around
the crown are the words :

+ BE . YT . KNOWNE . TO . ALL . THAT .
DOTH . ME . SEE . THAT . NEWCOMBE . OF .
LEISCESTER . MADE . ME . ^^^^

76 BELLS

Lower down on the bell are two lines of music, one
line going all the way around the bell, the other
line only part of the way. The notes are of lozenge
form, and are placed on a staff of five lines. The
music is in madrigal style, and is neither chime music
nor psalm tune. This inscription has long baffled
the efforts of those who have tried to interpret it.

A German bell of the Middle Ages bears the Latin
legend which means: ''I am the voice of life: I
call you: Come and pray."

It seems that by the early seventeenth century
bell makers began to use their own language for
inscriptions. There is a bell in Lincoln, England,
dated 1604, with these words: "I sweetly toiling
men do call to taste on meats that feed the soule."

From that time on, many inscriptions were in
English. Most of them were short, jsuch as ''God
save the Church." One which dates as far back
as 1595 advises: "Embrace true museck."

An old bell in Shropshire says: "lesvs bee ovr
speede 1618."^

Notice the spelling of this one: "My Sound the
Meane Yet doth aspire To sound men's Harts and
raise them Hire, 1622."

The inscription on this one in the York Minster
is almost like that of the Lincoln bell:

Sweetly tolling Men do call

To taste on food that feeds the soul. 1627.

iMany bells from different places, and of different dates, have this
inscription.

INSCRIPTIONS 77

Another: ''God Save the King 1639." There
are numberless bells to be found throughout England
with this inscription.

Here is a mixture of EngHsh and Latin, and a rime
as well:

God send us all the bliss of heaven
Anno Dni. 1627.

A ''passing bell" reads:

+ all men that hear my momfvll soonde
Repent before yov ly in ground. York 1645.

Cardinal Wolsey brought a bell from Touray
which was recast in 1670 with this inscription:

By Wolsey's gift I measure time for all;
To mirth, to grief, to church, I serve to call.

A bell at Coventry, dated 1675, reads:

I ring at 6 to let men know

When too and from thair worke to goe.

Another one of the seventeenth century :

I ring to sermon with a lusty home

That all may come and none may stop at home.

Here is a favorite legend, which may be found on
many old bells:

I to the church the living call
And to the grave do summon all.

As time passed, it seems that the bell founders
fell more generally into the custom of putting their

78 BELLS

own names on the bells, just as most instrument
makers do now. Here is one which rimes with the
date:

(g) Matthew ® Bagley 0 Made ® me

i6 93.
(Each ® represents the picture of a coin.)

At first the inscriptions were designed by the
priests, but later, when the bell maker or the church
warden who ordered the bell also decided on the
inscription, some of them became ridiculous and
undignified, such as these :

John Eyer gave twenty pound
To meek mee a losty sound.

At pra^^er times my voice I '11 raise
And sound to my subscribers' praise.

Samuel Knight made this ring

In Binstead steeple for to ding. 1695.

A bell dated 17 18 bears this inscription: "Pros-
perity to those who love bells," and one of 1720:
"When you me ring, I'll sweetly sing." This bell
was evidently one of a set of chimes:

When you us ring

We '11 sweetly sing 1737. (Shropshire)

A pleasing short one reads: "Peace and good
neighborhood — 17 16."

1770 — In tuneful peals your joys I'll tell
Your griefs I '11 publish in a knell.

INSCRIPTIONS 79

1772 -^Although I am both light and small
I will be heard above you all.

1773 — I mean to make it understood

That though I 'm little, yet I 'm good.

The maker of this one must have been sure of its
sound before it was cast : " If you have a judicious
ear you'll own my voice sweet and clear. London
1777."

In the church of St. Michael's, Coventry, a bell
proclaims: ''Music is medicine to the mind."

An ancient fire bell in Sherborne Abbey, which
has announced fires for many centuries, has this
quaint inscription:

Lord, quench this furious flame;
Arise ; run ; help ; put out the same.

Many people gave bells to the churches, either in
gratitude for having been guided home by them, or
for other reasons. In some cases they wished to
have their own names cast into the bell. On a bell
in Alderton which was donated to. the church by
Mary Neale, are these words:

I 'm given here to make a peal.

And sound the praise of Mary Neale.

No one knows, however, whether this was done at
Mary's order or as a compliment to her.

The inscription on a bell in Glasgow Cathedral,
which was recast in 1790, gives its own history:
"In the year of Grace 1583, Marcus Knox, a mer-
chant in Glasgow, zealous for the interest of the

8o BELLS

Reformed Religion, caused me to be fabricated in
Holland, for the use of his fellow citizens of Glasgow,
and placed me with solemnity in the tower of their
Cathedral. My function was announced by the
impress on my bosom: me audito, venias,
DOCTRiNAM SANCTAM UT DiscAS, and I was taught
to proclaim the hours of unheeded time. One hun-
dred and ninety-five years had I sounded these
awful warnings, when I was broken by the hands of
inconsiderate and unskilful men. In the year 1790,
I was cast into the furnace, refounded at London,
and returned to my sacred vocation. Reader! thou
also shalt know a resurrection ; may it be to eternal
life! Thomas Mears /^cf^, London, 1790."

Every bell maker had his own professional mark.
Some of these are shown in figure 40. Not only
the inscriptions and trade-marks, but the ornamen-
tation on many of the old bells is very interesting.
The best bell founders took great pride in their
work, and some of the ancient bells have ornamen-
tation that is exceedingly beautiful. Handsome
capitals of various forms were used, also vine and
fleur-de-lis borders, and royal arms and emblems.
The crosses, word stops, and lettering frequently
gave evidence of a high artistic taste, as may be
seen in the drawings on page 82 (Fig. 41).

A study of the inscriptions on old European
bells gives an interesting insight into the lives and
thoughts of the people of the olden times. These
words and decorations are written in metal which,

INSCRIPTIONS

8l

Ellacombe
Ellaeombe

Fig. 40. Trade-marks and figures on early English hells

82

BELLS

Fig. 41. Fifteenth-
century hell
decorations
and lettering

INSCRIPTIONS 83

unless melted by fire, will continue to bear their
records for the information of those who live a
thousand years from now. They should be pre-
served with every care, —

Those bells "that tell a thousand tales,
Sweet tales of olden times,
And ring a thousand memories. "

CHAPTER IX

THE BAPTISM OF BELLS

One of the strangest things in the history of bells
is the custom of baptizing and christening them,
after the manner of baptizing human beings. And
yet it is not so strange, either, when we think of
how bells were honored and cherished. The birth
of a new bell really was a thing of great importance.
Even yet, new church bells are often hung with some
kind of celebration; and there are few persons who
can listen for the first ringing of a new bell, and
hear it without a feeling of awe and wonder and
reverence, — the voice that has never been heard
in the world before !

The people of nearly all countries have ascribed
to bells, at some time, either human or divine
attributes. Long ago it was a common belief that
bells shivered and quaked at disasters, or when
crimes were committed. In this connection the
Celtic bell lore^ will be recalled. The sound of the
consecrated bells in the church of St. Stephen, in
the early seventh century, drove away the army of
Clotaire, as the walls of Jericho had fallen down
at the sound of trumpets. When St. Hilda died,
bells were heard to ring seven miles away, and
there are several stories of how bells in distant

iSee chap, vi, p. 47.

84

THE BAPTISM OP BELLS 85

churches tolled of their own accord upon the death
of certain bishops. It is therefore not so surprising
that the Europeans of the Middle Ages should wish
to baptize their bells with religious ceremonies, and
that they believed them to possess miraculous powers
after these ceremonies.

The service of baptism was held in order that the
bells might have power to "act as preservatives
against thunder and lightning, and hail and wind,
and. storms of every kind, and that they may
drive away evil spirits." In those days it was a
very common beHef that the air was filled with evil
spirits which could be frightened away by certain
sounds. Nearly all primitive people have believed
in evil spirits, because it was such an easy way to
explain things which they did not understand; and
it is not surprising that even civilized people held
for a long time to a belief which gave them an
excuse to put the blame of such things as bad tem-
pers and illness upon something other than them-
selves. Some of the evil spirit superstitions were
cherished by the Greeks. ^

In the minds of many the ringing sound of metal
had, naturally, a power over these evil spirits, and
when a bell was baptized and consecrated it imme-
diately became their most dreaded enemy. An
old English writer has given us an idea of how evil
spirits were supposed to dislike the sound of bells:
''It is said, the evil spirytes that ben in the region

iSee p. 26.

86 BELLS

of the ayre, doubte moche when they here the bells
rongen; and this is the cause why the bells ringen
when it thondreth, and whan grote tempeste and
to rages of wether happen, to the end that the
fiends and wyched spirytes should ben abashed
and flee and cease of the movynge of tempests."

In the year 789 Charlemagne forbade the baptism
of bells ; but it was a custom so revered by the people
that it was later revived, and baptized bells were
sacred to the people and for hundreds of years fol-
lowing were believed to have miraculous power.

In medieval days, when the new bell was finished
the date for its baptism was set, some important
person in the community was chosen as the god-
father or godmother of the bell, and usually a white
christening robe was made for it, as for an infant.
The form of the ceremony which took place is some-
what as follows:

The new bell is brought into the church and
hung at a height convenient for the priest to reach.
On a table near by are placed the sacred vessels
containing oil, salt, and incense; also water and
napkins. Linen cloths are placed underneath the
bell to receive the water used in washing it. The
church dignitaries in their formal robes stand near
the bell, and the choir is ready. First, psalms are
sung; the officiating priest or bishop (as the case
may be) blesses the water and salt, and the bell is
washed and wiped with a napkin (see Fig. 42).
This bathing with the salt water is to make the bell

THE BAPTISM OF BELLS

87

Fig. 42. Bell baptism in the Middle Ages: washing the hell

demon proof. More psalms are recited; then the
priest dips his right thumb into the vessel of sacred
oil and makes the sign of the cross on the bell with
his thumb, at the same time saying a prayer. This
oil is wiped off and the choir sings the 28th Psalm.
During this psalm the priest repeats some Latin
words : Sancti ficetur et consecretur, Domine, signum
istud in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti,
etc. (which means that he is consecrating the bell
in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy vSpirit),
calling the name of the bell and of the saint to

88

BELLS

Pig. 43. Bell baptism in the Middle Ages: blessing the bell

whom it is dedicated. While reciting these Latin
words the priest anoints the bell eleven times
with more oil. Then, after a prayer invoking bless-
ings on the bell, it is solemnly ''censed" (incense
burned under it), and the choir sings Psalm 76.
Then there is another prayer, more chanting, and
the priest in grave silence makes the sign of the
cross on the bell, covers it with a white garment,
and the ceremony is over. Figures 42, 43, and 44,
taken from a very old book, show the three stages
in a bell-blessing ceremony of the Middle Ages.

THE BAPTISM OF BELLS

89

l^^f

P^^^^^J ' ^S

^^^^^S ^'f' ^H

^^fe35:^SS5==^fc ^^^^^^

If S!

iflf

i

^^s^^H

^^ ^^^^M' 1

'AM

HHMP-A^ i^'' '- ' ^^1^ ' ' 1

IH^ni^^n.'^'^^H^^

M

■HI E^-^'h^mi'^ 1

hJ|mMw

^

i^KI

HM

2^2

Fig. 44. 5g^/ baptism in the Middle Ages: censing the hell

Nothing in those days could exceed the pomp
and solemnity of a bell-christening service. Great
sums of money were expended, even in poor villages,
and costly feasts were given. In the accounts of
the church wardens of St. Laurence, Reading, we
find the following memorandum, dated 1499:
' ' Payed for halowing of the bell named Harry vj s.
viij d. And over that, Sir William Symes, Richard
Clech, and Mistress Smyth being godfaders and
godmoder at the consecracyon of the same bell,
and beryng all other costs of the suffragan."

go BELLS

Indulgences were sometimes granted at the con-
secration of a bell. In 1490 the bishop of Ely
granted "40 days' indulgence to all who would say
5 Paternosters and 5 Aves at the sound of the Great
bell, and 5 Aves at the sound of the small one."^

One of the prayers in the medieval ceremony of
bell blessing is as follows : ' ' Grant that wheresoever
this holy bell, thus washed, baptized and blessed,
shall sound, all deceits of Satan, all danger of whirl-
wind, thunder and lightning, and tempests may be
driven away .... and the fiery darts of the
devil made to fly backward at the sound thereof."

In Longfellow's Golden Legend we have an account
of storm fiends being commanded by their master
to destroy the Strasburg Cathedral bells. They
fail, and the storm fiends attribute their failure to
the fact that the bells have been baptized^ :

All thy thunders here are harmless !
For these bells have been anointed
And baptized with holy water.
They defy our utmost power.

Consecrated bells were also supposed to have
the power, merely by their ringing, to put out fire
as well as to abate storms and protect the com-
munity from lightning and pestilence. Many a bell
of the Middle Ages bore the Latin inscription
Frango fulgura! which means "I break the hght-
ning." The records of Old St. Paul's Church in

iH. B. Walters, in The Church Bells of England, Oxford, 1912.
^See poem on p. 421.

THE BAPTISM OF BELLS 91

London show that the sacristan was bidden to
"ringe the hallowed belle in great tempests and
lightnings." In many places the ringers hurried
to the church belfry as soon as threatening clouds
appeared, so that the storm might be broken up
before it became severe.

During the last century a traveler in the Tyrolese
Alps wrote: ''Bell ringing as the companion of
thunderstorms is a permanent institution here.
The man in charge of the chapel is on the lookout
for thunderstorms, begins the bell ringing and
continues to ring until the storm passes."^ It is
recorded that as late as 1852 the bishop of Malta
gave orders for the church bells to be rung for an
hour to allay a gale of wind ; and it is said that even
at the present day in France it is not uncommon
for church bells to be rung to ward off the effects
of lightning.

The Swiss have a curious tradition that all the
baptized bells in Switzerland take a trip to Rome
every year during Passion Week, and get back in
time to be rung on Easter morning. In other coun-
tries, too, this story is cherished, and in some vil-
lages the return of the bells on Easter morning is
celebrated with great festivity and merrymaking.

The uneducated man in Lithuania believes that
a newly made church bell emits no sound until it
has been consecrated and baptized. The Lithua-
nians also have the poetical belief that the souls

iRev. H. T. Ellacombe, in Church Bells of Devon.

92

BELLS

of the deceased are floated into heaven on the sounds
of baptized bells. ^

Many bells have had pet names by which the
common people called them, such as Great Tom
(Oxford), Big Ben (London), Old Kate (Lincoln),
but in the early days of England every church bell

Fig. 45. Baptism of four hells for Notre Dame Cathedral {Paris, 1856)

was supposed to be christened with a religious name.
There is an account, however, of the great bell of
the Lateran Church (Rome) being named in the
year 968 by the pope, John XIII, only for himself,
John. Comparatively few of the great number of
baptized bells in medieval days are still hanging in
their ancient belfries, and on some of these it is
difficult to trace the characters which spell their
names.

1 Carl Engel, in Musical Myths and Facts.

THE BAPTISM OF BELLS

93

Illustrated London New^. Nov. 9, 1878

Fig. 46. Blessing of the hells of St. Paul's Cathedral

The ceremonies of bell baptism were discontinued
in Protestant countries after the Reformation. It
was impossible, however, for the people to be

94

BELLS

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' J

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1

f^^^^^lWM

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,l

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;■. Jm

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./ ir^ r- ^^^

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Wide World Photograph

Fig. 47, Dedication of the great hell for Cologne Cathedral,
November, 1924

indifferent to the arrival in their midst of a new
bell or of a peal of bells. The day was observed as
a holiday, with great merrymaking. Sometimes
the donor of a peal of bells gave orders that the

THE BAPTISM OF BELLS 95

largest bell was to be set upside down on the ground
and filled with punch, of which the entire village
was permitted to partake; and the occasion was
often one of revelry and indecorous excess.

In Catholic countries, however, the baptism of
church bells has been continued to the present day.
The bells thus consecrated become vSpiritual things,
and cannot be rung without the consent of the
church authorities. Figure 45 (p. 92) pictures a
baptism ceremony in Paris in 1856.

Although Protestant bells are no longer baptized,
they still undergo some form of dedication. In
England it is customary for new bells to be dedi-
cated by the bishop of the diocese. Figure 46 (p. 93)
shows the blessing of one of England's best known
chimes, those of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, in
1878. At present in nearly all Christian countries
church bells are dedicated with reverent ceremonies
and suitable hymns; not, however, for any super-
natural power which the bells may derive from it, but
for the effect which such dignified ceremonial has on
the attitude of the people. Figure 47 is a photo-
graph of the dedication of the great bell for Cologne
Cathedral in November, 1924.

CHAPTER X

DIFFERENT USES OF CHURCH BELLS

The important part which the church bell played
in the lives of the people of Old England is perhaps
best shown by the number of ways in which church
bells were used. A quaint old writer thus briefly
states their uses:

To call the fold to church in time,

We chime.
When joy and mirth are on the wing,

We ring.
When we lament a departed soul,

We toll.

Church bells not only called the people to the various
services of the church, but also rang for different
parts of the service, reminded the people of the
different days in the church year and the anni-
versaries that were to be remembered, announced
the hours of the day, and told of the important
things that happened in the community.^

lA rich parish took pride in having separate bells, distinct in tone,
for the different uses. These bells were put in different places about
the church and were called by different Latin names, according to their
uses. Here are some of the names given to distinguish the different
bells:

The campana was the big bell that hung in the steeple and called
the people to church. It was called campana from the name of the
city in Italy where lived the bishop who first used a big church bell.
The squilla was a small bell in the choir, rung at various parts_ of the
service as a guide to the singers, and also to announce the different
parts of the service to the congregation. Later this bell was called the

96

DIFFERENT USES OF CHURCH BELLS 97

The big tower bell served many purposes, and rang
so often during the day that it must have been
bewildering to one who did not follow the meaning
of all the signals. In many places it rang early in
the morning to waken the people of the parish.
This was called the Gabriel bell.

All the church services during the day were
announced by the church bell. The Sermon bell
indicated that there would be a sermon ; the Pardon
bell was tolled just before and after the service, at
which time the worshipers prayed for pardon of
their sins; the Pudding bell was rung immediately
after the service was over, and was supposed to give
notice to the cook to prepare the dinner.

The Sacring or Holy bell (the same as the Sanctus
bell) was rung to call attention to the more solemn
parts of the mass. It is still used in Catholic
churches. At a very important point in the service
called the ''elevation of the Host" it is rung and
everyone in the church kneels at the signal. For-
merly this little sacring bell was sometimes hung in
a small turret outside the church, where it still may

sanctus bell, or holy bell, and it is still known by that name. Dupla
was the name of the clock bell that told the hours of the day. (This
was used as early as the days of Edward the Confessor.) The cymbalium
was the bell in the cloister to give signals to the monks. Nola was
another bell named for the man who first used church bells, for he was
bishop of Nola. The nola seems to have been hung in the refectory,
or monks' dining hall, and was probably the ancestor of our modern
dinner bell. The corrigiunculum was rung when some one had to receive
the punishment of flagellation, or whipping.

Parishes which could afford two big bells used one of them as the
campana, or regular church bell, and the other one, called the signum,
was rung at least eight times a day for various announcements to the
people of the parish.

98 BELLS

be seen in some of the old churches. Often it was
hung inside the church. Sometimes the sacring
bell developed into a whole chime of bells. At

From James, In and Out of the Old Missions of California

Fig. 48. A wheel of sacring bells

one place in England it was remembered that "in
the tyme of the old law, eighteen little bells hung in
the middle of the church which the pulling of one
bell made them all ring, which was done at the
elevation of the Host." Wheels of sacring bells
are said to be very common in Spain. Figure 48
shows one brought from Spain to America, which
was used in a California mission.

In some places the bells rang to announce that
someone was being baptized. There are still par-
ishes where it has been usual, from time unknown,
to ring the Christening peal.

The Angelus is a Roman Catholic devotion in
memory of the visit of the angel who told Mary

DIFFERENT USES OP CHURCH BELLS

99

she was to be the mother of Jesus. Angelus is the
Latin word for angel. The text of the Latin verses
is recited three times a day in the Catholic church.
A bell called the Angelus hell is rung at the same
time, and all who hear it are supposed to stop their
work and repeat these verses in devotion to Mary.
The hours for this devotion are (since Louis XI
so ordered in 1472) 6:00 a.m., noon, and 6:00 p.m.

Fig. 49.

Gramstorff Bros., Inc.. Maiden, Mass.

" The Angelus,'' from the painting by Millet

The signal is three strokes, thrice repeated, followed
by nine in succession.

100 BELLS

This was the ''bidding to the people, to the sick
in bed, and to the healthy, to those at home, and
to those abroad, that they should, as the sound
floated through the villages — the maiden in her
cottage and the laborer in the field — reverently
kneel and recite the allotted prayers, beginning
Angelus Domini nuntiavit Marie;^ hence it was
called the Angelus bell. It was also called the
"Ave bell," and sometimes the name "Gabriel
bell" was applied to all three services. In Millet's
famous picture of the Angelus (see Fig. 49, p. 99)
a man and a woman working in the fields in France
have just heard the Angelus bell from the little
church in the distant village. Being good Catholics,
with bowed heads they are repeating the Latin
verses. This picture vividly illustrates the power of
bells in the daily lives of these people. The custom
is a beautiful one, and it seems a pity that other
churches have not some similar signal for a moment
of daily reverence.

In some parts of England the bells rang a muffled
peal on Holy Innocents Day, in memory of the
massacre of the early Christian martyrs. It was
called the Holy Innocents bell.

The believers in evil spirits thought that these
beings wandered around in the air waiting for an
ill person to die so they could pounce on his soul
while it was passing from the body to its resting
place. If, however, the baptized bells rang while

iRev. H. T, Ellacombe, in Church Bells of Devon.

DIFFERENT USES OF CHURCH BELLS lOl

the person was dying, the evil spirits were frightened
away and the soul could pass on in peace. The
ringing of the bell at this time was called the Pass-
ing bell. This was much like the custom in ancient
Greece of beating on brazen kettles while a person
was dying, to scare away the furies.

The belief in this power of bells to help the depart-
ing soul led many people to give large sums of
money for the support of bells. This was also one
of the factors which encouraged the making of bells
of monstrous size; for if bell tones could frighten
away evil spirits, how much more effectual they
would be if the bell were large and its tone far-
reaching ! It was ordered that all within hearing of
the passing bell should pray for the soul of the dying.

The Death knell was rung when the person was
really dead, and this custom lasted much longer than
the custom of ringing the passing bell. The practice
of tolling church bells at deaths and during funeral
services is still very common even in this country,
as a way of showing respect to the person who has
died. It was the custom for the death knell to
indicate, by a certain number of rings, whether it
was a man, woman, or child who had died. The
most common signal was three rings for a child,
two times three for a woman, and three times three
for a man, but the rule was not the same in all.
places.

Often a large bell was rung for adults and a small
one for children : three strokes for a male, two for a

102 BELLS

female, then it was tolled for one hour. Sometimes
the age of the person who had died was also rung at
the end of the death knell.

There is a story that a wicked squire died, and
no death knell was rung because his spirit came and
sat upon the bell so that all the ringers together
could not toll it!

In most cathedrals a ' ' muffled peal ' ' is rung when
a church dignitary dies. This is produced by
wrapping one side of the clapper in a thick pad so
as to form an echo to the clear stroke of the other
half, and this is considered the most magnificent
effect which can be produced by bells. ^

In a Wiltshire village in England it is still the
custom to have the church bell ring out a joyous
wedding peal, instead of the doleful tolling of the
muffled knell, at the burial of a young maiden.

At one time in England it was the custom to ring
the bells throughout the night on Hallowe'en, or
*' All-hallow- tide" as it was called, ''for all Christian
souls." It proved to be very annoying. Henry VIII
wrote a letter to Archbishop Cranmer ''against
superstitious practices wherein the vigil and ringing
of bells all the night on All-hallows-day at night are
directed to be abolished, and the said vigil to have
no watching or ringing." The people must have
been slow to give up this custom, which they evi-
dently liked, for we read that later Queen Elizabeth
ordered "that the superstitious ringing of bells at

iMary J. Taber, in Bells, an Anthology, Boston, 1912.

DIFFERENT USES OF CHURCH BELLS 103

All-hallow-tide, and on All-souls day, with the two
nights next, before and after, be prohibited."

The Curfew bell for hundreds of years was a most
important time teller, and is well known both in
history and literature. The ringing of this bell
dates as far back as the ninth century, when Alfred
the Great ordered the inhabitants of Oxford to put
out their fires every night at eight o'clock when the
bell at Carfax rang. About two hundred years
after this William the Conqueror enforced, all over
England, this same custom which Alfred had started
at Oxford, though some writers give William the
credit of being the originator of the custom.

In those olden days the houses were heated by
open fires. As matches had not been invented, it
was difficult to start a new fire; so it became the
custom to cover the red-hot coals with ashes in
the evening before going to bed, and these coals
would keep * 'alive" until morning. The new fire
for the day could then be started merely by raking
away the ashes and putting kindling wood on the
coals. Finally it was found that if all the burning
wood was pushed close against the back of the
fireplace and carefully covered up with a kind of
metal cap which kept out most of the air, the fire
would be preserved as well as when the red coals
were covered with ashes. The metal cap which
was made for this purpose was called a fire cover,
or in the French couvre-feu, which finally came to
be pronounced ''curfew." Figure 50 is a drawing
8

I04 BELLS

of an old decorated copper curfew. The one pic-
tured here is about ten inches high and sixteen
inches wide.

If fires were allowed to burn late at night there
was great danger of the houses burning, for at that
time most of the houses were built of wood and
covered with thatch (or straw) which became dry
and burned very easily. But if all fires were put
out early there was less danger of houses burning

Myres

Fig. 50. A copper curfew

Sit night. As the eight o'clock bell was the signal
to cover the fire with the curfew, it was naturally
called the curfew bell.

William the Conqueror found the curfew custom
also very helpful in checking nightly meetings where
his enemies might form plots against him; also in
helping to prevent surprise attacks from an enemy.

In London, about the fourteenth century, it was
unlawful for any armed person to wander about
the city after the curfew rang, and at Tamworth a
law was passed in 1390 which provided that "no
man, woman or servant should go out after the
ringing of the curfew, from one place to another,

DIFFERENT USES OF CHURCH BELLS 105

unless they carried a light in their hands, under
pain of imprisonment."

The curfew law was more or less enforced for
many centuries, but it has gradually died out
except in a few places. The custom was brought
to America by the Pilgrim Fathers, and there are
said to be a few towns in the New England States
where it is still in use, the people being unwilling
to give up this custom of their old homeland. In
Charleston, South Carolina, as late as 185 1, two
bells rang every night, at eight and ten o'clock in
summer and at seven and nine during the winter.
The first bell was the signal for the young children
to go to bed; at the second bell, the "watch" for the
night was set, and after that no servant might step
outside his master's house without a special permit.

At Oxford, England, the big bell in Christ Church,
called ''Great Tom," is given one hundred and one
strokes every night at nine o'clock, which is probably
a survival of Alfred's law of more than a thousand
years ago.^

A regulation somewhat like the curfew law was
made for a short time during the late World War.
London and other cities had no street lights at night,
lest they prove helpful to the enemy in their air raids.

Many poets have written about the curfew bell.
A very famous poem, Gray's "Elegy in a Country
Churchyard," begins

''The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,"

iSee p. 103.

io6 BELLS

which suggests to the mind a definite picture, even
before anything more is said. Thirty or forty years
ago almost every school child heard recited a poem
which related a tragic story of a woman whose lover
was to be unjustly killed when the curfew rang.
The refrain of ''Curfew shall not ring tonight"
became a familiar expression.

The Pancake hell is associated with the curfew
bell, for on Shrove Tuesday the curfew bell was the
signal which stopped the eating of pancakes. Shrove
Tuesday (the Tuesday which comes forty days
before Easter Sunday) was the day for eating pan-
cakes; in much the same way we eat turkey and
pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, or hot-cross buns
on Good Friday. On Shrove Tuesday the church
bell rang at four o'clock in the morning as a signal
for the people to prepare for the feast of Lent.
*'As a part of this preparation, they collected all the
suet, lard and drippings in the house, and made
it into pancakes, for this was the last day they
might eat butter for forty days," and they wished
to take full advantage of it. In some places the
bell rang at midday as a signal to put the pancakes
on the fire.

Shakespeare refers to "a pancake for Shrove

Tuesday," and in Poor Robin's Almanac for 1684

we find the rime:

Hark, I hear the Pancake Bell,
And fritters make a gallant smell.

DIFFERENT UvSES OF CHURCH BELLS 107

Sometimes this signal was called the "Fritters bell."
Another familiar rime will be recalled from an old
Mother Goose song:

Pancakes and fritters

Say the bells of St. Peters.

The apprentices were invited to join the family
in eating the pancakes for supper. When the cur-
few rang at eight o'clock (on this day it was called
the pancake bell), not another pancake could be
eaten for forty days. It is said that this custom
was observed so closely that in many places not
a pancake was left in town after eight o'clock.

The church bells were very useful in directing
people home on dark winter evenings in the days
when the lands were not inclosed, the forests were
dark, and the moors were wild and pathless.

Lomax^ wrote: *'In an EngHsh village a bride
had stolen forth upon her wedding day to hide in
the furze. Becoming frightened, she left the place
of concealment, and taking the wrong path, lost
herself on the common. Darkness came on with
heavy snow, and visions of robbers made the night
more dreadful to the bewildered girl. But hark!
Through the darkness comes the sound — never so
sweet as now — of the old church bell ringing for
curfew. Guided homeward by the welcome tone,
she fell on her knees in gratitude which lasted to
her dying hour; for her finst act was to present a
chime of bells to the church that had so befriended

^Benjamin Lomax, in Bells and Bell Ringers,

lo8 BELLS

her, her last to bequeath a sum of money to keep
up the good old custom forever."

In various parts of the country there are records
of people who lost their way and only found it, or
were saved from danger or drowning, by hearing
the evening bell. In gratitude many of them gave
large sums of money to be used in paying the sexton
to ring the bells at times when their sounds might
be of service to some belated traveler, to give him
the time of the night and some guidance in the right
direction.

The evening bell is still rung in some parishes
during the winter months when darkness comes
so early and travelers are likely to lose their way.
A bell at Kirton-in-Lindsay is still rung at seven
o'clock in winter "on Tuesday to guide travelers
from Gainsborough Market, on Thursday from
Brigg Market, and on Saturday from Kirton
market."

The Fire hell has been in use for ages. In these
days the fire alarm is often a gong, and sometimes
a shrieking whistle, but formerly the church bell
was used to give notice of a fire. At Strasburg a
large bell of eight tons' weight, known as the ''Holy
Ghost bell," is rung only when two fires are seen
in the town at once.

A Storm hell warned travelers in the plains of
storms approaching from the mountains; a Gate
hell gave the signal for opening and closing the
city gates.

DIFFERENT USES OF CHURCH BELLS 109

Before clocks and watches came into general use,
the workers in the fields were summoned to their
labors by a bell which was rung at five o'clock each
morning and seven in the evening, the latter indi-
cating that the labors of the day were to cease.
The bell which called laborers to their work was
called the Harvest hell or the Seeding hell, according
to the kind of labor to be done.

The ringing of the Gleaning hell is almost an
obsolete custom. It was rung at nine o'clock in
the morning and in the evening at frve to mark
the time when the gleaners could go over the fields
to get what the harvesters had left. Women were
often to be seen standing in the fields before nine
o'clock, patiently waiting to hear the first stroke
of the bell.

There seemed to be no stated time when workmen
were supposed to quit work, and this had to be
regulated by each community. Formerly the curfew
bell rang at eight o'clock in all English towns. In
1469 an order was given by the London Council for
the bells of Bow Church to be rung every night at
nine o'clock, allowing the shops and taverns to
remain open for an hour later than formerly. This
was the signal for all tradesmen to shut their shops
and let their apprentices go home. Of course the
apprentices of London were offended if there was
any delay in the ringing of the Bow bells, and there
is an old print that represents them as saying to the
clerk who is supposed to ring the bells :

no BELLS

"Clerk of the Bow bells
With thy yellow locks,
For thy late ringing,
Thy head shall have knocks."

And the clerk is recorded as replying:

"Children of Cheap
Hold you all still;
For you shall have Bow bells
Ring at your will."

When other cities were given the privilege of keeping
their shops open until nine o'clock, the ringing of
the bell at that hour was called the Bow hell from
the name of the bell used when this privilege was
first granted. It was the Bow bells that, according
to the story (see p. 260), Dick Whittington heard
when he was a boy just reaching London. When
he became a great merchant he gave a large sum
of money to insure that the ''tenor bell" of Bow
Church should be rung every morning at six o'clock
and every evening promptly at eight for the benefit
of the working boys. The records and the payments
to the sexton show that this was kept up as late as
the beginning of the nineteenth century.^

It was a general custom in bygone days to ring
the church bell on market day, first as a signal for
the selling to begin, and afterwards as a signal for
it to stop. There were laws against ''forestalling,"
or buying before the bell rang, and heavy penalties

iThe term "Cockney" refers to the people born within the sound
of Bow bells.

DIFFERENT USES OF CHURCH BELLS III

were imposed upon those who were too impatient
and those who persisted too long. It was unlawful,
says one writer, even to handle a goose before the
bell said, ''You may bargain!" The Fair hell was
rung at the beginning and end of a fair.

In some places in England, according to one
writer, the church bells rang to announce the
arrival of the London coach. The coach often
brought fresh fish for those housewives who had
ordered it, and the church bells rang that they might
hasten to the coach to secure the fish while it was
fresh.

The Oven hell gave notice when the lord of the
manor's oven was ready for his tenants to use in
baking their bread.

In some country districts a church bell is still
rung at the dinner hour.

In times of great national danger church bells
were used as signals from parish to parish to warn
the people or to call them together when other
means of quick communication were unknown.
Macaulay, in his lay of "The Armada: a Fragment,"^
tells how

Right sharp and quick the bells all night rang out

from Bristol town,
And ere the day three hundred horse had met on

Clifton Down.

The ordinary way of ringing a series of bells was
to begin with the highest note and ring a descending

'See also "Brides of Enderby," by Jean Ingelow.

112 BELLS

scale. When such a series of bells was used to give
an alarm they were rung backward, — that is,
beginning with the lowest note and ringing an
ascending scale. Bells tolled backward was the
signal first used as an alarm of fire, and afterwards
for any uprising of the people.

The Tocsin or Alarm hell has, in days gone by,
sounded for dreadful doings. Church bells have
rung for uprisings, revolts, and even for horrid human
massacres, as for example, "the Sicilian Vespers,"
which occurred in the year 1282, when eight thousand
French settlers in the island of Sicily were massa-
cred. The signal for the massacre was the ringing
of the church bells for Vespers, or evening prayer.

Another famous instance is the ''massacre of
St. Bartholemew." In the early morning hours of
St. Bartholemew's Day, August 24, 1572, King
Charles IX of France (under the influence of his
wicked mother, Catherine de Medici) fired a pistol
as the signal for tolling the bells backward, and
a hundred thousand men, women, and children
were massacred as the bells rang.

During the French Revolution the backward
ringing of the bells was the call of the people for
some united attack against the royalists. Indeed,
many bloody deeds and many national crimes in
the past have been heralded by church bells.

In cases of rebellion, also, the bells are rung
backward, or sometimes muffled. Recall the lines
in Scott's ''Bonnie Dundee," quoted on page 113.

DIFFERENT USES OF CHURCH BELLS 113

Dundee he is mounted, he rides up the street,

The bells are rung backward, the drums they are beat.

We often see the term "bell, book and candle" in
the literature of the earlier days. This was the
name given to an ancient form of excommunication
practiced in the Catholic church which originated
in the eighth century. The formula of excommuni-
cation is read, the bell is rung, the book is closed,
the candle is extinguished, and the person is no
longer connected with the church or under its
guardianship.

There is perhaps no use of church bells which is
so widely known in Christian countries as the ringing
of bells to herald the advent of the holy day, and
no other season of the year is so closely associated
with bells as Christmas. The custom of ringing
a joyous peal of bells on Christmas morning has
been for ages a beloved feature of the Christmas
celebration, and we may be thankful that at least
this one of the older ways has lived on. Among
people of all languages and of all climates, — not
only those who live where Christmas comes in win-
ter, but also where Christmas comes in the warm
summer time, — in every part of the globe where
there are Christians, the church bells ring on
Christmas morning.

In many places, however, the bells ring on Christ-
mas Eve at sunset, for according to the old church
usage the real beginning of Christmas was at sunset
on the day we call Christmas Eve.

114 BELLS

Numberless Christmas songs glorify the bell, and
for weeks before Christmas, children everywhere
sing about the merry bells heralding the glad tidings
of the birth of Christ. All churches that have bells
tuned to the different notes of the scale, send the
old familiar Christmas hymns floating out on the
air, either on Christmas morning or on the eve-
ning before. Perhaps the hymn most often heard
from the belfry at that season is ''O Come, iVll Ye
Faithful."

What Christmas chimes meant to the people of
Old England is shown very clearly in the books of
Charles Dickens. For us, the Christmas bell has
come to have a symbolic meaning. Bells are printed
on Christmas cards, on all kinds of Christmas litera-
ture, paper bells are sold for decoration, and enor-
mous bell forms hang in the stores along with the
other festive decorations of holly and mistletoe ; they
are also used in home decorations, and tiny bells
hang as symbolic ornaments on Christmas trees.

There was an old belief in England that when
Christ was born the devil died, and for an hour before
midnight on Christmas Eve the church bell was rung,
just as it would have been rung for some dying
person, and this was called "the Old Lad's passing
bell" ("Old Lad" being a nickname for Satan),
the tolling changing to a joyful peal exactly at mid-
night. Later the tolling was called the "devil's
death knell." In some places of England this bell
is still rung at midnight on Christmas Eve.

DIFFERENT USES OF CHURCH BELLS 115

On December 31, at midnight, for centuries the
Old Year has died to the tolHng of bells, and the
New Year heralded with joyful ringing. This cus-
tom has also remained with us, and wherever there
are church bells they are rung for the coming of the
New Year. Tennyson's ''Ring Out, Wild Bells,"i
commemorates this custom in beautiful poetic lines.

Perhaps the earliest wedding bells were pieces of
metal clashed together in the market place of some
ancient peoples, when all the marriageable girls of
the village were placed on view, and the young men
assembled to choose their wives. Centuries after-
ward, when church bells announced so many other
important occasions, it was most fitting that they
should ring to announce to the public that a new
union had taken place in the church.

One seldom hears the sound of wedding bells now,
especially in the noisy cities. The wedding march
played on the church organ has almost usurped the
place of the more poetic marriage bells. But the
symbol remains with us in decoration and story.

iSee page 412.

CHAPTER XI

BELL HANGING

We are accustomed to bells which are hung in
a belfry or tower of some kind. But the early
churches had no such towers. Many of the first
Christian church bells were fastened in tall trees
that stood near the church. Even today, in some
villages of Russia and other countries, the bell hangs
on the branches of a tall tree in the churchyard.
In Iceland the bell is usually placed in the "lych
gate," a covered entrance to the graveyard. The
tree belfry was once very common in Scotland and
Ireland.

Sometimes a tall frame for the bell was made in
the churchyard; and in other cases the bell was
swung in a frame on the roof of the church, like the
bell in Figure 5 1 . Soon the idea of protecting the
bell from the weather led to the building of a frame
with a cover over it — the early form of the bell
tower. Two kinds of bell tower were developed, —
one added to the roof of the church, and the other
built entirely separate from the church. ^

In Servia the church bells are often hung in a
framework of timber built near the west end of the
church, while the bell towers of Russia and Italy
are frequently separated from the main building.

'See pictures of bell towers in the chapter on "Bells and Architec-
ture," pp. 359-76.

116

BELL HANGING

117

In some of the islands of Greece, also, the belfry
is apart from the church, and the reason given for
this is that in case of earthquake the bells are likely
to fall, and if they were placed in the church tower
they would destroy the roof of the church, and
might cause the destruction
of the whole building.

It has often been observed
that the vibrations of a large
bell ringing in a tower can
be felt in the masonry near
it, and serious accidents
have been caused by such
vibrations. In 1810 the
spire of a church in Eng-
land fell while the bells were
being rung for morning
service, and twenty-three
people were killed. In most
church towers the bells are
hung in a framework which,
as far as possible, is kept
clear of the walls.

The vibrations in the air around ringing bells
have been observed even in the case of small hand
bells. This the Swiss muleteers have noticed, and
are said to tie up their little bells at certain places
on the road, lest the vibration from them should
shake the delicately poised snow on the mountain
side and bring down an avalanche.

Fig. 51
church

York Museum

, Early Christian
hell in standing
frame

Il8 BELLS

The hanging of bells depends in large measure on
the way they are to be rung, whether by hand, by
a lever, by machinery, or by swinging against the
clappers.

There are four ways of ringing
a bell: (i) striking by a clapper
on the inside while the bell swings
to and fro; (2) striking by a
clapper on the inside, by some
mechanical means, while the bell
is stationary; (3) striking on the
outside by hand while the bell is

Fig. 52. " Liberty Bell," ^ .. / \ ^ m • ^i

showing cannons bolted Stationary; (4) strikmg on the
to wooden stock outsidc with a hammer controlled
by mechanical means.

Until quite recent times some of the larger bells
suspended in church towers in various European
countries were rung by being struck like a gong, by
hand, while in parts of Ireland gongs were used
as church bells as late as the seventeenth century.
The bells in most of the old churches swung to
and fro in their belfries, pulled over by ropes that
hung down far below them. A bell that swings
must have some means whereby it is turned on an
axis, and its movements regulated by a rope. Until
recently, this was managed by fastening the bell,
with the bolts run through its ''cannons," very
securely to a short, solid beam of wood called the
"stock," so that when this beam turned over, the
bell turned with it (see Fig. 52). This stock turns

BELL HANGING

119

over by means of pivots called ''gudgeons," which
rest in brass sockets set into the timbers of the
bell frame. As the stock and bell turn over, the
gudgeons turn in these brass sockets, usually called
the /'brasses." The brasses must be perfectly
level, and must also be kept well oiled and free from
grit or dirt of any kind. One end of the stock is
fastened to the spoke of a wheel, and one of the
gudgeons forms the axis of the wheel. A rope
fastened to another spoke passes around the grooved
rim of the wheel, and falls through the floor of the
bell chamber (Fig. 53). In Figure 54 (p. 120) is
shown an ornate stock
of the eighteenth century.
A pull of the rope turns
the wheel, revolves the
stock upon the pivots of
the axle, and lifts the
mouth of the bell. The
clapper rests against its
lower side. When the
rope is loosened and al-
lowed to coil around the
wheel again, the bell
swings downward and the
clapper strikes it on the
other side. An upright
bar called the "stay"
strikes the "slider" underneath the bell, keeping the
bell from turning completely over.
9

Fig. 53. Showing method of hang-
ing a church hell, with stock, stay,
slider, wheel, pulley, and rope

I20

BELLvS

Before wheels were used, an upright post was fixed
in the stock, and a rope tied to the top of the post.
When the rope was pulled, the bell turned over.

./^

-":'-%

^

__ 'M

^STTT-

-> ' y^/'TT^

?

~ — - :"S

Fig. 54. An ornate stock of the eighteenth century

The next development was to attach the rope to a
half -wheel, with a deep groove in the rim to hold
the rope. Later a three-quarter wheel gave better
service, while now a complete wheel is used as a
guider for the rope.

In the case of very heavy bells, two wheels are
necessary for steady swinging. Figure 55 shows a
bell which was made to be rung with four ropes,
two ropes attached to each wheel. This bell, which
hangs in the Montreal Cathedral, weighs over
fifteen thousand pounds.

BELL HANGING

121

It is a common impression that a bell may be rung
by pulling a rope which is tied above the ball of the
clapper. But this does not produce a good tone
and is dangerous to the bell. ''Clappering," as this
practice is called, has been the cause of the breaking
of many church bells, and must be severely con-
demned. A ringing bell is very sensitive. Lomax,
an English writer on bells, says that *'a touch, a
scratch, may break the largest bell. A finger

i^PMMIB^j^jHAjg^ ,,j

m

'\m

MMiMB^^^^^^ -rh^ 1

Wm

] , j^^n

m

LJHl

^K Oh If '' ^ni^^^Hn

^i

1 mmt

p|^._!§

m

[A . Ill

l.f

Fig. 55. Large bell in Montreal, hung with two wheels

122

BELLS

pressed upon the surface, a thread tied around the
barrel during its vibration, will break the bell as
surely as a sledge hammer."

A group of bells, with their supporting beams,

stocks and gudgeons,
wheels, stays, and ropes,
looks very complicated;
and indeed there is much
to be kept in order. Even
in the case of bells rung by
machinery, much careful
adjustment is required,
and the wires which con-
nect the striking hammers
with the mechanism which
operates them must be
kept in perfect order, and
very carefully regulated.
Instead of cannons and
wooden stocks, most bells
of modern make are bolted
into metal stocks which
turn with the bell as it
swings. One of these is
shown in Figure 56. All
bells which swing are
provided with wheels and
ropes.

Meneely Bell Foundry FlgUrC 57 shOWS hOW E

Fig. 57. Showing two ways ...

of ringing the same bell bell may be struck on the

John Taylor & Co.

Fig. 56. Modern hell bolted
into metal stock

BELL HANGING

123

M.Ti.M.ly Bell Foundry

Fig. 58, Bell hung with both
wheel and hammer

outside with a lever, and Figure ^^^ illustrates the
lever attached to the top of the clapper which
strikes the bell on the inside. If a double lever is
used, with a rope for each
hand, the bell may be
rung as fast as the clapper
can move from one side
to the other. A double
clapper^ also makes rapid
striking easy. In Figure
5 7 the bell may be struck
either by machinery on
the outside or by the clap-
per pulled by a rope on
the inside.

The bells which ring clock chimes are examples
of those struck by machinery. The levers are
attached to the mechanism of the clock and at cer-
tain times they are set free to fall upon the bell.

Nowadays the bells of many city churches *'go
by machinery," that is, they have clock-like machines
which are wound up to strike the bells at certain
hours, just as clocks are struck.

In each of the above cases the bell is stationary,
and the problem of hanging it is more simple than
in those cases where the bells are rung by swinging
them.

Some modem bells are made with rotary yokes,
as shown in Figure 58. By this method of hanging

iChap. VII, p. 71. 2See Fig. 8i, p. i8o.

124 BELLS

the bell it may be turned around while still mounted,
to allow the clapper to strike in a different place.
When a bell is struck in one place for generations,
it becomes worn in that spot and may crack unless
it is turned. Many modern bells are hung so that
they may either swing or be rung by a lever, as
shown in this illustration.

It is not practicable to arrange for the swinging
of the heaviest bells. Sometimes even the lifting
of a very large bell to a great height is a complicated
process.

Bells that are not to swing are hung in a fixed
position, bolted to the bell frame, as shown in
Figure 57 (p. 122). The English people are still
partial to swinging bells, but most of the modem
bells in America are stationary.

CHAPTER XII

PEALS AND CHANGE RINGING

When bells of different sizes were made, it did
not take our European forefathers long to dis-
cover the musical possibilities in them. Efforts
were' then bent toward making a series of bells which
could be played in a musical way, and it was soon
discovered how they could be made to sound the
different notes of the diatonic scale. ^ A set of bells
thus tuned was called a "peal" of bells.

The first tunable peal used in England was in 945.
The ancient peal consisted of three bells, as the
''ding-dong-bell" of the nursery rime reminds us.
Such were the peals which the Dublin Cathedral
used to the middle of the seventeenth century. In
1456 Pope Calixtus III sent a peal of five bells to
Kings College, Cambridge, and for some time this
was considered to be the largest peal in the kingdom.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century eight
bells, tuned to the complete diatonic scale, were
hung in a few of the principal churches. Long after,
sets of ten or twelve bells were made, but eight was
the most popular number for a peal of bells.

The bells were rung by ropes fastened to a wheel,
as shown in Figure 53 on page 119, and a separate
rope was necessary for each bell. When a bell is

iSee p. 70.

125

126 BELLS

properly rung by a rope, it mUvSt be inverted and
swung, first in one direction and then in the reverse,
right around above the frame, so that at the end of
each swing it is mouth upwards and has performed
nearly a whole revolution each time the rope is
pulled. In careful peal ringing, a man to each bell
is necessary.

The earliest method of peal ringing was to ring
all the bells in succession, beginning with the highest
tone and repeating this series, over and over. This
was called ''round ringing." Thus a peal of three
bells would be (in number notation) 3-2-1, 3-2-1,
etc. If the peal consisted of five bells, the tones
would be 5-4-3-2-1, 5-4-3-2-1, etc. In a peal of
eight bells the tones would be 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1,
8-7-6-5, etc., the 8 always following immediately
after the i. The effect of this was pleasing, and it
was not difficult to accomplish, for it meant merely
taking each note in succession.

In the early days round ringing was a fashionable
pastime, especially in England, where gentlemen of
leisure found it an interesting and fascinating art.
A traveler who visited England in the year 1598
writes in his journal: "The people are vastly fond
of great noises that fill the air, such as 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."

PEALS AND CHANGE RINGING 127

But in time a new way of ringing came into use.
Instead of playing the bells in succession, it was per-
missible to change the order and ring the series in
some other succession rather than straight down
the scale. This was called ''change ringing." It
gave much variety to the sound of the scale, having
the notes follow in a different order each time. And
there were so many ways ! Even in a peal of three
bells there were six ways of change ringing: 3-2-1,
2-1-3, 1-2-3. 3-1-2, 2-3-1, 1-3-2.

There were 120 ways of playing on five bells,
using all five of them each time, and each bell only
once! In a peal of eight bells there were 40,320
changes, and upon a peal of twelve bells, no less
than 479,091,600 changes! The rule for fi.nding
out the number of changes possible on any number
of bells is n(n — i) (n — 2). . . .3X2X1. For example,
the changes on ^ve bells are 5X4X3X2X1, or 120.

Up to the seventeenth century change ringing was
confined to peals on five bells. Since swinging bells
require so much space for their swinging, in order
that they may not interfere with each other, it is
not practicable to use many bells, and eight consti-
tute the average peal. However, ten or twelve
bells have often been used for change ringing.

When more than three or four bells are used for
change ringing, a leader is required to call out the
succession of bells. Sometimes the leader also takes
charge of one of the ropes. Figure 59 (p. 128) is
from an old drawing from the Illustrated London

12;

BELLS

News of 1856, which represents a group of six ringers,
and evidently one of the ringers is also conductor.
Round ringing had been very popular; but when
change ringing came into vogue it took the ringing
world by storm. By the end of the seventeenth
century changes were rung on eight bells. The next

From an old drawing by Keene

Fig. 59. Bell ringers

century was the golden age of bell ringing, and then,
indeed, England deserved the name of the "land of
bells." Ringing became one of the most popular
forms of sport, ranking with hunting and football.
The ''country squire, the professional man, the
tradesman in the town, and the craftsman in the
village," all found entertainment and exercise in
change ringing. The custom was encouraged, and

PEALS AND CHANGE RINGING 129

books were written with rules and directions for the
changes clearly set forth.

A writer who published a book in London about
1796 on The Art of Ringing states: ''As an athletic
exercise or amusement, there are few of so noble
a nature, so conducive to health, and employing
so many faculties, both mental and corporal, as
that of the Art of Ringing." Some of the directions
were very intricate, quite like mathematical prob-
lems, and challenged the mental concentration of
the ringers (or at least that of the leaders) as well
as muscular control in the use of the ropes.

In 1880 a book was published in London called
Change-Ringing Disentangled, by the Reverend
Woolmore Wigram, in which the directions were so
clearly stated that it seems worth while to quote
a few paragraphs from that book:

" The bell in motion. Watch the bell while it is being
rung. You will see in the first place, that the clapper,
which rests on one side of the bell when she is set mouth
uppermost [bells are always feminine], moves with her
as she is swung round ; and at the moment when the bell
slackens her motion as she turns mouth uppermost,
being about to balance, the clapper flies across, and,
striking the opposite side, lies still once more on the
place which it struck.

" (2) You will observe that as the bell is set, the stay
rests against the slider on one side and on the other
alternately; and that the rope at the one position crosses
the wheel, merely touching it, but at the other position,

130 BELLS

the rope is wound round the wheel for the greater part
of its circumference. The former position is that of the
* hand stroke ' ; the ringer then has the tuffing of the rope
in his hand, and the slack part lies before him on the
floor in a large loop, the extreme end being held in his
left hand. The latter position is that of the 'back
stroke'; and the ringer then has only the extreme end
of the rope within reach, a large portion being gathered
round the wheel. [See Fig. 60, p. 133.]

*' (3) If the bell be swung too hard, the stay will rebound
from the slider, and the bell will return, swinging down
again, instead of coming to rest. If the bell be checked
too soon, she will fail to balance, not rising sufficiently
high ; and again she will swing down before she is wanted.
But that which is required is knack, not strength — the
weight of the bell does the work; the hand of the ringer
interferes only at what a mechanic would call 'the
dead point'; i.e., the moment at which the bell is on the
balance and when a very slight force is required to send
her either way.

"The exact position in which a bell is brought to rest
admits of some variety. She may be allowed to go right
up, and back, until the stay rests against the slider; in
which case she has passed the balance; and if the stay
broke would swing down on the other side. She may be
just balanced, so that the touch of a finger will bring her
back again ; or she may be held by the rope in some posi-
tion between these two. In the first case, the bell is
said to be 'rung high'; in the second, to be 'rung low.'
It obviously will require more time and labor to bring
her back from the first position than from the second;
hence the former is used in slow ringing, the latter in
quick ringing; and the expressions 'high compass' and

PEALS AND CHANGE RINGING 13 1

'low compass' mean, in the language of ringing, exactly
the same as ' slow time ' and ' quick time' in the language
of music.

** (4) It is thus seen that the bell is a large pendulum,
swung through the entire circle; and that in the hands
of a good ringer she will be balanced exactly each time
she is set, without resting any weight against the stay

and slider From the time when the bell is

pulled off the balance until she goes up and balances
again, she is beyond all control, and during that interval
the rope must be left entirely free.

"The smallest bell is called the treble, and the largest
the tenor, whatever the number of the ring or keynote.
The others are called second, third, and so on, counting
from treble to tenor.

''Hand stroke and hack stroke. The bells having been
rung up and set mouth uppermost, each is struck twice
before it returns to the same position. The first of these
blows is called the hand stroke, and the second the
back stroke. And when the bell, having been struck
twice, has been brought back to the position from
which she started, a whole pull has been made with her
[see Fig. 60].

"A 'peal' means the full number of changes which can
be produced upon the ring, or set, of bells," [In the case
of more than seven bells, 5,000 changes constitute a peal.
It would take nearly thirty-eight years to ring all the
changes on twelve bells — 479,001,600!]

"The changes on four bells are called 'singles'; on
five, 'doubles'; on six, 'minor'; on seven, 'triples'; on
eight, ' major ' ; on nine, ' caters, ' etc. The rule or method
by which the changes are produced is called 'the method.'
Thus the expression 'a peal of grandsire doubles' means

132 BELLS

1 20 changes in the method called 'grandsire,' and rung
upon five bells. *A peal of grandsire triples' means
5,040 changes in the same method upon seven bells.
*A peal of treble bob minor' means 720 changes in the
method called 'treble bob' upon six bells. *A peal of
treble bob major' means 5,000 or more changes in the
treble-bob method rung upon eight bells.

"A bell 'hunts' when she leads a whole pull, strikes
once in the place of each bell in succession, lies behind
a whole pull, and then returns in the same manner step
by step to the lead.

''The changes on three bells are all produced by
hunting alone. But in the case of four bells, it is neces-
sary to employ in addition, place making and dodging.
It is called the 'bob method,' and the rule is as follows:
All the bells hunt until the treble leads; the bell which
she turns from the lead makes second's place, and leads
again; those above second's place making at the same
time a single dodge. The whole peal is here given:
1234

4213
2 I 4 3 4 I 2 3

2413 1432 "The learner will observe that
4231 1423 the treble, and she alone, has a
4321 4132 plain hunting course throughout.
3412 4312 All the other bells have to vary,
3142 3421 each taking her turn in making
1324 3241 second's place, and in dodging in
1342 three-four."

3124 2314
3214 2134
2341 1243
2431 1234

PEALS AND CHANGE RINGING

133

Figure 60, taken from another book published
about the same time, shows the position of the bell
when it is set at hand stroke and back stroke.

Fig. 60. A bell set at hand stroke and at back stroke. The hands (a)
and (b) correspond to the ringers' positions (a) and (b)

The Reverend H. T. Ellacombe, an EngHsh bell
authority, writing in 1872 says: "Of all arts and
pastimes, change ringing is preeminently one which
exercises the mind and body at the same time;
. . . usually a strong, steady pull repeated every
four or five seconds. ... In ringing a peal,
each ringer must so balance his bell, not once in

134 BELLS

half a dozen times, but at every pull throughout
the whole performance, be its duration measured
by minutes or hours. Besides this mere physical
dexterity, the ringing of changes requires a mental
effort to be made and kept up, conjointly with the
physical exertion and adjustment.

" 'Set' or 'call' changes are very common; but
in change ringing proper, the bells are never sounded
twice in the same order; and this is continued to
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, now after this and that other 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 bodily effort. Its popularity in England is not
to be wondered at."

In Southey's Life of John Bunyan an interesting
account is given of Bunyan 's attitude toward ring-
ing: "He had taken great delight in bell ringing,
an exercise in which it is now difficult to see any
harm, but which he began to think a vain and sinful
practice, probably from its being connected with
the externals of the Established Church; still he so
hankered after his old amusement, that though he

PEALS AND CHANGE RINGING 135

did not pull a rope himself, he would go and look
at the ringers, not without a secret feeling that to
do so was unbecoming the religious character he
professed. A fear came upon him that one of the
bells might fall; to secure himself against such an
accident, he stood under a beam that lay athwart
the steeple from side to side; but his apprehensions
being once awakened, he then considered that the
bell might fall with a swing, hit the wall first,
rebound, and so strike him in its descent. Upon
this he retired to the steeple door, thinking himself
safe enough there, for if the bell should fall, he
might slip out. Further than the door, he did not
venture, nor did he long continue to think himself
safe enough there ; for the next fancy that possessed
him was that the steeple itself might fall, and this
so much disturbed him that he dared not stand at
the door any longer, but fled for fear the tower
should come down upon him."

Southey himself looks with more charity upon
the practice. He says: ''Great are the mysteries
of bell ringing. And this may be said in its praise,
that of all devices which men have sought out for
obtaining distinction by making a noise in the world,
it is the most harmless."

England has long been called ''the Ringing Isle,"
and Handel, who lived for a long time in England,
called the bell the English national instrument.
Nothing which can be done with bells (says an
English writer) "is to be compared with our old
10

136 BELLS

English mode of ringing peals and musical changes.
One of the greatest charms is in the effect of the
wind carrying the sound, now near, now far, and
near again." Although many consider the bells of
the continent finer than those of England, yet
nowhere in the world have bells been used with such
effect as in England.

Mr. E. B. Osborn, an English writer on bells, says
in the London Morning Post, July 25, 1913 : ''Why
change ringing should be the Englishman's favorite
form of bell music is, I think, easily explained. It
involves much physical exertion, which tires, but
need not overtax, as many muscles as are used in
rowing, and is unquestionably one of the finest
exercises known. . . . Strictly speaking, change
ringing is not music at all ; though when the voices of
the bells used are mellow and melodious, it decorates
the passing time with simple, subtly-varied sound-
patterns, and forms an acceptable obligato to the
elemental emotions of an individual or the nation."

Various devices have been used for striking bells
in a more convenient way than by swinging them,
but lovers of bell ringing still cling to the old prac-
tice, and claim that the full value of bell ringing is
obtained only when the bells are swung with their
mouths uppermost, and in peals of six or eight bells
managed by as many ringers acting in harmony
under a leader.

If bells do not swing when they are rung, they are
not properly called "peals," according to one of

PEALS AND CHANGE RINGING 137

the bevSt English bell authorities. It is said that
only in England are bells rung in peal (with swinging
bells), excepting one or two rings in America and
in the English colonies. There is a set of genuine
peals in St. Matthew's Church, Quebec, Canada.
One of the largest and finest peals in England is
at Exeter Cathedral; another celebrated one is that
of St. Margaret's, Leicester, which convSists of ten
bells. If bells are struck by iron or wooden ham-
mers while the bells are not in motion, they produce
a mournful effect, Starmer says, "but the sound of
swinging bells is totally different, and a well rung
peal is never mournful, but is always joyful and
exhilarating."

Swinging bells, such as are used in change ringing,
have not been manufactured in America because
there has been no demand for them.

CHAPTER XIII

RINGING SOCIETIES

In the seventeenth century change ringing was
so popular that ringing clubs were organized, with
special conditions for membership, regular meeting
times, and strict rules of order. There still exists
in England an organization called the Society of
College Youths which is said to have been founded
on November 5, 1637, and is probably the oldest
existing company of change ringers. Sir Richard
Whittington, the famous lord mayor, founded a
College of the Holy vSpirit and St. Mary on College
Hill, London. That church contained a ring of six
bells, and the neighboring gentry used to amuse
themselves by chiming them in rounds. This was
said to be the origin of the name ''college youths. "^
The society was founded by members of the ' 'nobility
and gentry for the purpose of practicing and pro-
moting the art of ringing." At first they rang only
rounds and "set" changes; but afterward accom-
plished a complete peal of 120 changes on five bells.
This society can boast, among its founders and
members, men in all ranks of life from the peerage
downward.

Changes proper were supposed to have been first
rung about 1642, but little progress was made until

iH. B. Walters, in The Church Bells of England.

138

RINGING SOCIETIES 139

a book called Campanologia was published in 1677
and dedicated to the Society of College Youths.
Thus provided with a guide and textbook, the art
of bell ringing developed rapidly. Other books
were written, and during the next century ringing
societies were organized all over the country.
Many a town added to its bells in order to keep up
with its neighbors in this fashionable amusement,
and then, if ever, England justified the name of
''the Ringing Isle."

Some of these ringing clubs would travel about
the country, ringing peals in different belfries. The
College Youths rang in all parts of the country, and
even crossed the Channel into the continent to ring
in foreign belfries. All the ringing societies took
great pride in performing feats of great endurance
and precision. One astonishing feat is recorded
wherein eight members of the College Youths were
locked in the belfry of St. Matthew's Church,
Bethnal Green, in 1868, and rang 15,840 changes
without stopping. They began at 8:45 in the
morning and accomplished this feat in nine hours
and twelve minutes.

Other bell-ringing societies were the Cumberland
Society of Change Ringers, the Society of Union
Scholars, the Society of Eastern Scholars, the
Society of London Youths, Westminster Youths, and
Prince of Wales Youths.

In former days the College Youths attended
the divine service at Bow Church in a body on

I40 BELLS

November 5 (the anniversary of its foundation) and
other occasions. At such times the beadle of the
society carried a staff surmounted by a massive
silver bell. This bell is now in the possession of
the Junior Society of College Youths.

Each ringing society had its own set of rules and
by-laws necessary for the orderly and instructive
use of the bells. Copies of the old rules may still
be seen hanging on the walls in many belfries.
Some of them are still read at the annual meetings
of the societies. They are often in verse, but the
oldest ones are in prose.

The oldest rules known are those from the Society
of St. Stephen Ringers at Bristol, and date back to
the time of Queen Elizabeth. There are thirty of
these rules, in prose, from which the following are
taken '}

1 . None shall be of the said Society save those who shall

be of honest, peaceable, and good conversation.

2. They shall at all times be ready to defend the said

Society against all charges that may be brought
against it.

3. They must endeavor to gain credit by the musical

exercise, etc.
12. If anyone of the said Company, after the time that
he shall come into the church to ring, shall curse
or swear, or make any noise or disturbance, either
in scoffing or unseemly jesting, that the party so
offending shall pay for his offense threepence (to
be divided among the Company).

iH. B. Walters, in The Church Bells of England.

RINGING SOCIETIES 1 41

15. If anyone of the said Company shall speak, or make
any manner of noise, when the Bells do ring, so
that the ringers or any of them by that means may
make a fault, the party so offending shall pay for
his offense threepence, to be divided among the
Company.

17. If any of the said Company do or shall, after they are
come together, quarrel or misuse any of the said
Company, before they do depart, the party so
offending shall pay for his offense sixpence, to the
use of the said Company.

22. If anyone of the said Society shall be so rude as to
run into the belfry before he do kneel down and
pray, as every Christian ought to do, he shall pay
for the first offense, sixpence, and for the second,
he shall be cast out of the Company.

At Shillingstone, Dorset, Dr. Raven copied a set
of rules headed by the prose injunction: *' Praise
the Lord with Lowd Symbols : if you curse or sware
during the time of ringing you shall pay threepence."
Below are the lines:

There is no musick played or sung
Is like good Bells if well Rung
Put off your hat, coat and spurs
And see you make no brawls or iares
Or if you chance to curse or sware
Be sure you shall pay sixpence here
Or if you chance to break a stay
Eighteenpence you shall pay
Or if you ring with gurse or belt
We will have sixpence or your pelt.

1767.

142 BELLS

In a belfry in Homsey, Middlesex, is a set of rules
which may be called the normal type :

If that to ring you do come here

You must ring well with hand and ear;

If that you ring in spur or hat

A quart of ale must pay for that.

And if a bell you overthrow

Sixpence is due before you go.

And if you curse or swear, I say,

A shilling's due without delay.

And if you quarrill in this place

You shall not ring in any case.

The sexton must have been very watchful for his
fee, which seemed to be derived from the fines of
these gentlemen members of the ringing club.

Here are some of the "Orders" of the Ringers
Regulations at Holy Trinity in Hull:

(i) 6d. for ringing any bell with hat or spurs on.

(2) IS. for pulling bell off her stay and not set it right

again.

(3) 6d. for throwing bell over, and cost of any breakage

caused by it.

(4) 6d. for not hanging up the rope when he is finished

ringing.

(5) 6d. for cutting on the lead or marking it up in any way.

(6) 6d. for having read the above orders with his hat on.

In some cases the last order includes spurs, ''with
hat or spurs on."

From a belfry in the Welsh border country were
taken the following rules in verse:

RINGING SOCIETIES 143

Ringer's Rules

If for to ring you. do come here

You must ring well with hands and ear;

And if 3^ou ring with spur or hat,

A quart of beer is due for that.

And if the bell you overthrow

A shilling pay before you go :

The law is old, well known to you

Therefore the clerk must have his due.

The ''jugg of beer" played only too prominent part
in the ringers' doings in the Stuart and Georgian
eras. In Warwickshire one of the bells, dated 1702,
has the words: "Harken do ye heare our claperes
want beere," a gentle hint as to how the ringers
wished to be refreshed after their efforts.

Briscoe, in his Curiosities of the Belfry, gives many
of the old ringers' rules that may still be seen in the
old belfries. The general ideas seem to be the same
throughout the country, though the rules vary as
to details. Some of them forbid cursing, telling lies
in the steeple, or coming into the belfry intoxicated.

In all cases the fines went to the regular church
bell ringer, who had to keep the bells and ropes in
good order.

On a board affixed to the wall of a church in Corn-
wall is this :

We ring the quick to church, the dead to grave,
Good is our use, such useage let us have.
Who swear, or curse, or in a furious mood
Quarrels, or strikes, although he draws no blood

144 BELLS

Who wears a hat, or spurs, or turns a bell
Or by unskilful handling mars a peall
Let him pay sixpence for each single crime
Twil make him cautious gainst another time.

At Dundee, one of the regulations reads: ''There
shall be one regular practice night every week, on
such a day and at such an hour as the steeple keeper,
with the consent of the authorities of his church or
tower, may appoint. If in his judgment more prac-
tice be desirable, he must exercise a wise discretion,
inasmuch as every residenter is not a lover of bell
ringing, and the tongues of the bells should be tied
if there be more than one night's practice each week.
In fixing practice nights, due regard must be had
to the church services and choir practice; at those
times the belfry should be closed to all. Also the
feelings and wishes of any sick person in the neigh-
borhood must be tenderly considered."
In All Saints Church in Hastings :

I. H. S.

This is a belfry that is free

For all those that civil be;

And if you please to chime or ring,

It is a very pleasant thing.

There is no music played or sung

Like unto bells when they 're well rung ;

Then ring your bells well if you can

Silence is best for every man.

RINGING SOCIETIES 14S

But if you ring in spur or hat
Sixpence you pay, be sure of that ;
And if a bell you overthrow
Pray pay a groat before you go. — 1756.

At the end of one of the ringers' rules :

These eight Bells rung with care and art
With joy will transport every heart.

In the belfry of Redbourne Church:

All that intend to take these ropes in hand

To ring, mark well these lines and understand,

Which if with care you read will plainly see

What fines and forfeits are the sexton's fee: —

He that doth break a stay or turn a bell,

The forfeit is a groat, it's known full well;

And carelessly to ring with spur or hat,

The forfeit is a groat, beware of that.

And they that fight or quarrel, swear or curse,

Must pay two pots, turn out, or else do worse;

And for unlocking the steeple door.

And for sweeping of the belfry floor,

And to buy oil you know is very dear,

And for my own attendance given here.

If you will well observe such rules as these

You 're welcome for to ring here when you please.

Pray remember the sexton, Jos. Brown.

May 1764.

It seems that the bell ringers' societies must have
cultivated the art of poetry along with their music.

146 BELLS

to the extent of having poet laureates. The follow-
ing lines were written by the poet laureate of a
bell ringers' guild which was established by charter
in 1620:

Then the folks every Sunday went twice at least to church,

Sir,
And never left the parson, nor his sermon, in the lurch.

Sir.

And in regard to security of property:

Then our streets were unpaved, and our houses were

all thatched, Sir,
Our windows were all latticed, and our doors were only

latched, Sir;
Yet so few were the folks that would plunder or would

rob, Sir,
That the hangman was starving for want of a job, Sir.

There is in Suffolk an epitaph of a ringer who died
in 1825 at the age of eighty:

To ringing from his youth he always took delight ;
Now his bell has rung, and his soul has took its flight.
We hope, to join the choir of heavenly singing,
That far excels the harmony of ringing.

Figure 6 1 pictures the members of a ringing society
in 1856 ringing the bells in their rejoicing over the
close of the Crimean War. Figure 46/ drawn for
the Illustrated London News in November, 1878,
shows a group of ringers who were members of the

^See chap, ix, p. 93.

RINGING SOCIETIES

147

From Illustrated London News

Fig. 61. The peace rejoicings in 1856

148 BELLS

Ancient Society of College Youths in the dedica-
tion of the new bells for St. Paul's Cathedral.
According to the News the service concluded at
5 :3o, when the bells burst into a joyous peal. Two
ringers had to ring the tenor bell, weighing 6,200
pounds and five feet in diameter. The ringing lasted
until 7 130, about a thousand changes being executed.

CHAPTER XIV

BELLS AS MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
PLAYED BY HAND

The tune-playing possibilities of bells have been
known since the earliest civilizations. There are
records of the Chinese having used bells tuned to
certain scale notes nearly five thousand years ago.
It is claimed that once on a time the Chinese could
play the entire scale on one bell — a kind of bell
that was cast with knobs on the surface, ^ each knob
giving a different note of the scale when it was
struck. This method, however, was probably unsat-
isfactory, as it was given up later and separate
bells were used for the different notes. The bells
found in the tombs of the ancient Assyrians show
that they must have been used for melody playing.
Numerous bells, varying in size and tone, have been
found in the tombs of the Etruscans; and one of
their ancient instruments has been found which
consists of a row of bronze vessels placed on a metal
rod in the same manner in which we place our
musical bells today. It is also known that the
Romans used bells that were attuned to different
pitches.

Nearly all primitive peoples employ the jangling
sound of metal for musical effect. As the musical

iSe.e p. 302.

149

I50

BELLS

sense becomes more and more developed, they
contrive more intelligent uses of metal, until, as in
the case of the Japanese gongs, music is produced
that is melodious and pleasing, even to European
ears.

Old illuminated manuscripts show that the
Christians used bells for tune playing at a very early
date. Figure 62 is copied from an ancient manu-
script which is said to date from the time of Charle-
magne (768-814), and shows King David sitting
on a throne, striking a lyre with his left hand and
holding a scepter in his right. He is probably
engaged in singing psalms, accompanied by four
musical instruments — the pneumatic organ, a sort
of violin, a trumpet, and a set of bells.

From an eighth-century MS.

Fig. 62. King David and other musicia?is

A ninth-century manuscript gives an interesting
drawing (see Fig. 63) of rote and bell music combined.

BELLS PLAYED BY HAND

151

The rote — an early Irish instrument — has five
strings, and we presume they were tuned to accord

From a ninth-century MS.

Fig. 63. Rote and hells

with the tones of the bells. The bells were sus-
pended on a rod fastened across an arch in the
church.

By the tenth century bell ringing for melody seems
to have been practiced extensively in Europe, the sets
consisting of four or five bells. The old manuscripts
11

152

BELLS

which give the pictures indicate that this playing
was connected with the reHgious services in the
church, and probably accompanied the singing.

Figure 64, from a manu-
script in the Brussels
Library, represents a woman
sitting on a fantastic chair
playing on four bells which
are suspended on a rod
under an arch in the church.
On the capital of a column
in the ancient church of St.
George de Bocherville, Nor-
mandy, founded by William
the Conqueror, may be seen
the figure of a king playing
upon a set of five bells. The
figure sitting in front of him
probably played a rote or harp of some kind, but
it has been broken away (see Fig. 65).

As the church organ developed, bells were attached
to that instrument, and the combination of organ
and bell tones in the church services became very
common.

Aelred, an abbot of Rievaulx,i who lived in the
twelfth century, cries in pious horror: ''Why such
organs and so many cymbals [small bells] in the
church? What with the sound of the bellows, the
noise of the cymbals and the united strains of

iRev. Francis William Galpin, in Old English Instruments of Music.

From a tenth-century MS.

Fig. 64. A bell ringer

BELLS PLAYED BY HAND 153

the organ pipes, the common folk stand with won-
dering faces, trembhng and amazed!"

A monk who hved toward the end of the eleventh
century described the making of these bell cymbals.
They were little hemispherical bells cast in molds
that were carefully prepared and proportioned, the

FiG. 65. A bell ringer on the capital of an eleventh-century church

metal being a mixture of tin and copper, with fiYe
or six times as much copper as tin. If the tone
was not right, it was rectified by filing.

Sets of bells suspended in wooden frames are
frequently found in the representations of musical
performances dating from the Middle Ages. In the
British Museum is an ancient psalter in manuscript,
of the fourteenth century, which shows King David
(see Frontispiece) holding in each hand a hammer

154 BELLS

with which he strikes upon bells of different sizes
suspended on a wooden stand.

In Figure 66 is seen a complete orchestra of the
early fifteenth century, consisting of harp, psal-
tery, triangle, clarion, and chime bells.

The method of playing tunes by swinging bells in
the hand is also of ancient date. The Lancashire
bell ringers have long been famous in England for
this kind of music. Each ringer of the Lancashire
ensemble manages two bells, holding one in each
hand, so that a group of four ringers may eavsily play
melodies within the range of an octave of the dia-
tonic scale. It is their custom for each ringer to
have two other bells which he may substitute when-
ever required; so that, if they are skillful in the
management of their bells, both as to ringing and
making the exchanges of bells, seven ringers with
twenty-eight bells may produce rather intricate
music.

The Swiss bell ringers have a device by which
each ringer plays four bells in each hand, one ringer
giving the complete diatonic scale. The bells are
fastened four on one handle, and the clappers are
so fixed that when the cluster is turned in one direc-
tion, one bell sounds, and it is turned in a different
direction for each of the three other bells to sound.
It requires a strong wrist to manage skillfully the
weight of four metal bells in each hand.

When the player has only to regulate the stroke
of a hammer, it is easier to give the stroke at the

BELLS PLAYED BY HAND

155

precise moment than when he swings a bell. It is
difficult to play melodies with varied rhythm on
swinging bells.

Orchestral bells are merely flat bars of metal
tuned to scale notes and arranged on a frame so

Fig, 66. An orchestra of the early fifteenth century

that when they are tapped they have the sound of
ringing bells. They are properly called gongs, but
the bell effects which they produce have caused
them to be erroneously called bells. They may be
made of bell metal, steel or aluminum, and tuned to
several octaves, including all the half-steps, and

156 BELLS

arranged in the same manner as the piano keyboard.
They are played with rubber-tipped mallets.

Metal bars tuned to the chromatic scale are built
in modern pipe organs, and arranged to be played
mechanically. When properly tuned and adjusted,
they are capable of wonderful harp-like effects.

Tubular bells, consisting of cylindrical tubes of
bell metal, have come into use in recent years as
chimes, to be used both in and out of doors. They
are usually suspended from a frame, vertically, by
loops of leather or silk cords, and allowed to swing
freely. They are struck with hammers, either by
hand or by some mechanism connected with a clock
or other movement. They are sometimes made
nine or ten feet long, with a weight of two hundred
pounds or more.

The tubaphone is a smaller form of tubular bells,
cut in different lengths for the tones of the chro-
matic scale, and arranged to lie on a padded frame
instead of being suspended. Like the orchestral
bells, they may be arranged in piano keyboard form.
They are played with a rubber hammer.

Sleigh bells are sometimes tuned to the notes of
a chord and allowed to jingle for the harmonious
effect. They maoy be tuned also to the notes of the
complete scale, and suspended for melody playing.
Sleigh bells should be shaken, one bell at a time,
and should not be struck.

The greatest disadvantage of the bell as a musical
instrument is the continued vibration of the metal

BELLS PLAYED BY HAND 157

after the bell is struck. Without "dampers" to
stop the vibrations that are no longer desired, the
sounds become discordant when a rapid succession
of notes is played. But in spite of this handicap,
bell music can be made most impressive and agree-
able to the ear.

The foregoing discussion refers to bells played
by hand. Change ringing (by means of ropes) is
described in a former chapter; chimes (played by
mechanism) and carillons (played by mechanism or
keyboard) will be discussed in later chapters.

CHAPTER XV

CLOCK BELLS

There was a time when the sun and moon were
the only guides which man employed for the measure-
ment of the divisions of the day and night. The
sundial was invented to make more exact use of the
sun's light for this purpose; and later, burning
candles, burning rope, and, in the hourglass, grains
of sand were employed to measure definite units
of time.

Water was also brought into the service of time
measurement, and the clepsydra was invented.
This consisted of vessels which allowed water to
drip slowly from one to the other. The amount of
water which dripped from sunrise to sunrise was
taken as a guide, and this was divided into equal
parts for the divisions of the day. The clepsydra
was used by the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks,
and Romans.

In the early years of the Christian church the day
was divided into eight equal parts or "canonical
hours," and bells were rung in the monasteries on
these hours to call the monks to prayer. The large
church bells were also made to serve this purpose,
so that the entire community might be notified of the
canonical hours. This is, perhaps, the earliest use
of the bell as a time marker in Christian countries;

158

CLOCK BELLS 159

and these bells were, of course, rung by hand, either
with or without ropes.

In nearly all European countries there have been
town criers and night watchmen who went about
the streets ringing a bell and informing the inhab-
itants of the passage of time. This custom con-
tinued, even in some parts of America, until the last
century.

Clocks driven by weight were invented in Verona
in the ninth century. As bells had been used before
this to announce the canonical hours, it was only
natural that the inventive mind would turn to con-
necting the weight-driven machinery with a metallic
ring to announce the hours, and striking clocks
were developed.

The oldest tower clock mentioned in England was
in the former Westminster tower in 1288. Per-
haps the earliest tower clock with bell-ringing
mechanism was one made by Peter Lightfoot, a
monk of Glastonbury, about 1325.1 Connected
with this clock were automatic figures which struck
a bell on the hours. These performing figures
pleased the public, and during the Middle Ages
many of the town clocks of Europe were provided
with such figures to ring the hours on bells. They
were used for proclaiming time long before the intro-
duction of clock dials.

The famous clock at Strasburg Cathedral, made
in the fourteenth century, has (besides a host of

iW. W. Starmer, in The Clock Jacks of England.

i6o

BELLS

other mechanical figures) a skeleton-like form of
Death which strikes the hours on a bell, using a
human bone for that purpose! And the traveler

C. Jacobi Eliot

Fig. 67. Automatic hell-striking figures
in St. Mark's Piazza, Venice

in Venice may see, high above the great clock in
St. Mark's Piazza, two automatic figures ready to
strike the ponderous bell between them (see Fig. 67).
In England, the figures which strike bells are
called ''Jacks." Formerly they were usually repre-
sented as being clothed in a suit of mail — an idea
probably borrowed from the sentries in armor who,
in the Middle Ages, were placed in watch towers to

CLOCK BELLS

i6i

give bell alarms when occasion arose. ^ Two such
figures, striking their bells with swords, are shown
in Figure 68.

In time it became the custom to have the Jacks
strike the quarter hours as well as the hours. ^ This
made it necessary to have some way of distinguish-
ing between the hour and the quarter-hour signals;
so a second bell of different tone was added, their
tones being, in pitch, either a fourth or a fifth apart.
Two Jacks also were required, and their combined
action played a simple ''ding-dong." One "ding-

r jM

^^1

I' ^ "M

' ^m

113

i W

' i'^M:

f}.-: 'W^

itf

W"*' 'iK, '

L-^H

rH

^! iK

iH

^^'^'^'^B

m_

Fig. 68.

Tivo old English Jacks of the Clock,
Blythhurgh and Southwold

dong" was played at the first quarter, two at the
second, and three at the third quarter; but on the

iW. W. Starmer, in The Clock Jacks of England.
2They are now frequently called "Quarter Boys."

l62

BELLS

hour only one bell announcing that hour was struck.
Figure 69 represents two armored knights who,
with their battle axes, used to strike the hours at
Wells Cathedral.

The largest and perhaps the best known Jacks
in England are *'Gog and Magog" at St. Dunstan's
Lodge in London. Figure 70 shows a group of three

Fig.

69. Knights ivho used to strike
the hours at Wells Cathedral

figures at Russell's Observatory in Liverpool. The
large one strikes the hours, and the other two play
the "ding-dong" at the quarter hours.

In the seventeenth century a bell called Great
Tom of Westminster hung in a campanile opposite
Westminster Hall, London, rang for the hours, A

CLOCK BELLS

163

Story connected with this bell runs thus: During
the reign of William and Mary a sentinel at Windsor
Castle, named James Hadfield, was accused of
sleeping at his post, a crime which incurred the

Fig. 70. Clock-striking figures at Russell's
Observatory, Liverpool

death penalty. The sentinel insisted that he had
not slept, and, to prove his wakefulness, asserted that
he heard the Westminster bell strike for midnight,
and that it struck thirteen instead of twelve times.

164 BELLS

Investigation was made, and his story was verified
by Londoners. Thus the bell saved the life of the
sentinel. This story is often given as an instance
of a bell being heard at a great distance, Windsor
Castle and Westminster Hall being several miles
apart.

After a time the ' ' ding-dong " quarter bells became
old-fashioned, and three bells were used to chime
the quarter hours. These were tuned to the first,
third, and fifth intervals of the scale. Four is now
considered the most desirable number of bells for
clock ringing, for with four bells a definite and
pleasing tune may be played.

Clock bells are rung by hammers to which wires
are attached, these wires being connected with the
works of the clock. The wires are so arranged that
they hold the hammer up until, at a certain time,
the wire is loosened and lets the hammer fall.

In the case of a large modern tower clock, the
machinery which operates the clock and its bells is
very complicated. Figure 71 shows the mechanism
of a large clock made by Gillett & Johnston of
Croydon, England. This machinery is in three
parts. The center section, called the ''going train,"
drives the hands of four ten-foot dials; the section
on the left side, called the "striking train," strikes
the hours on a bell weighing one and a half tons;
the section on the right, called the "quarter train,"
chimes the Westminster Quarters (see music on
p. 166) on four bells.

CLOCK BELLS

165

Gillett & Johnston

Fig. 71. Striking train, going train, and quarter train machinery

Gillett & Johnston

Fig. 72. Electric mechanism for striking quarters

i66

BELLS

CAMBRIDGE CHIMES

i^^

m

^ #

^

First quarter

^

I^

# — ^

i^i%^,_iL =j= 1^3=^ ^.:|?H«_^=^ :

Second
quarter

Third
quarter

^

#-•

i

I

-t^-

Fourth
quarter

Many modern clock bells are rung by electrical
apparatus. Figure 72 (p. 165) shows an electrical
mechanism by Gillett & Johnston which chimes the
Westminster Quarters on four bells.

Sometimes clock bells are arranged so that they
may be either swung by ropes and thus rung by
hand, or rung by the clock mechanism, as one may
choose.

The most famous clock music for four bells is the
arrangement known as the Cambridge Chimes, so
called because this melody, with bells tuned to suit

CLOCK BELLS

167

it, was first used at the University Church of
vSt. Mary at Cambridge, in 1793. The author of
the melody was Dr. Crotch, who used a measure
of the opening symphony of Handel's ''I Know
that My Redeemer Liveth" as a pattern, and from

Meneely Bell Foundry

Fig. 73. A Westminster peal, showing ropes and pulleys

it evolved the series given on the preceding page.
For this music the four bells must be tuned to
numbers one, two, three, and low five of the scale.
Any set of bells tuned in this order, to play this
music, is often called a "set of Cambridge chimes"
or a "Cambridge peal." After their introduction
in Cambridge they were not duplicated until sixty
years later, when Sir Edmund Beckett chose to
12

l68 BELLS

have this melody played by the quarter bells of
the great clock which he was having made for the
Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London.
Here they took on the name of the Westminster
Chimes, and are known by both names. Being
considerably larger than the Cambridge bells, the
Westminster bells are tuned to play the melody in
a much lower key. Since that time bells tuned to
play this music have been used in clock towers of
different countries, a notable peal being that of
the Metropolitan Tower in New York.^ Figure 73
(p. 167) shows a Westminster peal made by the
Meneely Bell Company of Troy, New York.

In a Cambridge (or Westminster) peal, the hour
is often struck on the largest of the four bells, just
after the four phrases of melody have been played.
This is true in the case of the Metropolitan bells of
New York. In some cases, however, an extra bell
is provided to strike the hours, as in the case of the
Westminster clock. . The large bell*" which strikes
the hours for this great clock is Big Ben, to whose
history the next chapter is devoted.

iSee p. 285.

CHAPTER XVI

THE STORY OF BIG BEN^
Big Ben — the large hour bell which hangs in the
clock tower of the Houses of Parliament (Fig. 74) —
is perhaps the most universally known bell of
modem make. It was first cast on August 6, 1856,
at the Warner foundry in the village of Norton.
A report of this event in the London News states :

"The preparation of the mold had occupied six
weeks, and two reverberatory furnaces, capable of

Courtesy of Mentor

Fig. 74. The Houses of Parliament, showing clock tower
iThe illustrations. Figs. 75-79, in this chapter are from the London
News of 1856-58.

169

1 70 BELLS

melting six tons of metal each, had been built
expressly for the purpose of casting this monster
bell. . . . The whole of the night previous was a
scene of busy industry; and early in the morning
the furnaces [seen to the right in the background
of Figure 75], having attained the requisite heat,
their doors were opened, and the operation of charg-
ing, or putting in the metal, commenced, occupying
about one hour. In less than two hours and a half,
the whole of the metal (eighteen tons) was in a state
of perfect fusion. On the signal being given, the
furnaces were tapped, and the metal flowed from
them in two channels into a pool prepared to hold
it, before being admitted into the bell mold. The
shutter, or gate, was then lifted, and the metal
allowed to flow. In five minutes the casting of
the bell was complete, the successful termination
of which delighted all present, who cordially joined
the workmen in three hearty cheers."

About two weeks later the bell had cooled suffl-
ciently to be raised from the pit. The following
inscription appeared on its surface: "Cast in the
20th year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Vic-
toria, and in the year of our Lord 1856, from the
design of Edmund Beckett Denison, Q. C. ; Sir
Benjamin Hall, Baronet, M. P., Chief Commissioner
of Works." The bell was named Big Ben in honor
of Sir Benjamin Hall.

It was necessary that the bell should be sent by
train from the foundry to West Hartlepool, where

THE STORY OF BIG BEN

171

Fig. 75. The casting of Big Ben, August 2j, 1856

Fig. 76. Big Ben being brought from the foundry to the
Houses of Parliament

172

BELLS

Fig. "]"] . Experiment ivith the hammer upon the great hell

the boat for London could be employed for its
further transportation. The bell was so wide that
it would not admit of other trains passing the car
which carried it; hence it made the journey by
special train on a Sunday, when other trains were
not running and both tracks were free for its passage.

When the bell reached London it was conveyed
on a low truck drawn by sixteen horses over West-
minster Bridge (see Fig. 76, p. 171), and was
deposited in the Palace Yard, where the crowd was
so great that the police had great difficulty in
making a passage for it.

Figure 77 shows the experiment with a trial ham-
mer to find out how heavy the striking hammer

THE STORY OF BIG BEN

173

Fig. 78. Breaking up Big Be?i, March 6, 1858

should be in order to bring the best tone from the
bell. For some time Big Ben remained in the
Palace Yard, and important visitors were allowed to
hear the wondrous sound of its deep voice.

One day Big Ben suffered an accident. It was
not able, apparently, to bear up under all the
strokes of the ponderous hammer, and it cracked,
even before it was hung ! Some have laid the blame
on the heaviness of the hammer, some say it was a
fault in the casting, but it is the more general opinion
that the metal contained too much tin, and was,
therefore, too brittle. The crack was located some-
what as a bicyclist locates a puncture. ''Eight men
were placed round the bell and carefully watched

174 BELLS

its circumference. The sound bow was wetted all
around, and then the rim of the bell was struck.
A minute row of tiny bubbles came out, and at once
indicated the location of the crack. "^

Poor Ben then had to be broken up into pieces
so it could be carted away, and the metal melted
and cast again. Figure 78 (p. 173) appeared in
the Illustrated London News with the following
explanation :

* 'The process by which the enormous mass of metal
was reduced to fragments may be told in a few words.
Ben was simply lowered from the massive frame-
work which supported him in the corner of the
Palace Yard, and laid upon his side on the ground.
In this position the great weight of the head of the
bell caused it to sink into the earth, so as to leave its
mouth, instead of being completely vertical, slightly
inclined upwards, yawning like an enormous cavern.
From the framework above, an ordinary rope and
block were fastened, and with them, by the aid of
a windlass, a ball of iron weighing 24 cwt. was
hoisted to a height of about 30 feet, and when the
proper moment arrived, suffered to fall with all its
weight upon Ben.

' * The instant the heavy ball reached its appointed
height, the string was pulled, and down came the
mass in the inside of Ben's sound bow, and, with a
crazy bellow, two pieces, one of about a ton and

lA. A. Johnston, "Clocks, Carillons and Bells," in Journal of the
Society of Arts, London, 1901.

THE STORY OF BIG BEN

175

Fig. 79. The recasting of Big Ben, April 17, 1858

one of some thousand pounds, were knocked out of
his side. After the first blow, the work of destruc-
tion went on rapidly, piece after piece was broken
out, till scarcely anything but fragments remained
of poor Ben, and even these were carted away as
fast as possible to Messrs. Mears' foundry in White-
chapel."

Then began the long process of making another
mold (for a different foundry undertook the second
casting), melting the old metal, and recasting it.
Figure 79 appeared in the London News in April,
1858.

Another journey over Westminster Bridge again
brought the new bell in great state, drawn by sixteen

1 76 BELLS

horses, to the Palace Yard. The problem of lifting
it to its place in the tower was solved by means of
a monster windlass and chains forged especially for
the purpose. The dimensions of the bell are:
seven and one-half feet in height and nine feet in
diameter at the mouth; weight, thirteen tons, ten
hundred weight, three quarters, and fifteen pounds,
or thirteen tons and 1,765 pounds.

At the time of the second casting an attempt
was made to call the bell "Victoria," and later
''St. Stephen," but the public would have nothing
but "Big Ben," so the old name prevailed.

But an ill fate seems to have kept Big Ben from
being perfect. After the clock had struck on Ben
for a few months, some small cracks appeared on
the outside of the sound bow, opposite the place
where the hammer struck. A bit of metal was cut
from the crack and analyzed, and the casting was
pronounced defective, as it was porous and unhomo-
geneous. The Board of Works stopped the use of
it for two or three years ; but so much confusion was
caused by striking the hours on one of the quarter
bells, that the striking of Big Ben was allowed to be
resumed with a lighter hammer (in November, 1863),
and the bell was turned a quarter round on the but-
ton, or mushroom head, by which it was hung, so the
striking hammer would fall in a different place. The
cracks do not seem to get deeper, and many consider
that they do not seriously affect the tone of the
bell. However, its "ring" is not perfect, and its

THE STORY OF BIG BEN 177

tone seems harsh to those whose ears are accus-
tomed to the ringing of more deHcately tuned bells.
It is a pity that the bell is not as fine as it is
famous.

In the spring of 1925 the sound of Big Ben was
heard in New York for the first time, by radio, as
it struck the midnight hour.

CHAPTER XVII

CHIMES

When the enterprising burglar's not a-burgHng,
When the cutthroat isn't occupied in crime,

He loves to hear the little brook a-gurgling,
And listen to the merry village chime.

— W. S. Gilbert

Any set of bells tuned in definite relation to each
other is called a ''ring." A ring of bells may be
a swinging peal sounded by their own clappers when
swung, or a set of stationary bells rung either by
hammers or by clappers. In a swinging peal a
separate ringer is usually employed for each bell,
as in change ringing. ^ Some hymns and slow melo-
dies may be played by a band of ringers under the
direction of a leader, but this is very unsatisfactory
unless the rhythm is steady. Varied rhythms are
not attempted in change ringing. When definite
melodies are played, stationary bells are usually
employed. Bells are often hung so that they may
be either swung or tapped, and have both inside
clappers and outside hammers.

The word ''chimes" has been used indiscrimi-
nately to denote any kind of tune-playing bells. In
its proper sense, however, it is understood to mean a
set of stationary bells, three to twelve or fifteen in number,

iSee p. 127.

178

CHIMES

179

tuned to major scale intervals. A ring which consists
of more bells, and those tuned to chromatic inter-
vals, or half-steps, is properly called a ''carillon"^
Playing on bells for musical effects, as contrasted
with the practical uses of bells, is called the "art

80.

Meneely Bell Foundry

Chime-ringings levers

Fig.

of campanology" — whether the bells are struck by
hand, struck by machinery, or pulled over by ropes.

Chimes may be played by means of levers or some
kind of apparatus for hand chiming ; or they may be
operated automatically, as in the case of clock bells.

Figure 80 shows a set of levers for ringing chimes
by hand. These levers are attached to wires which

iSee next chapter.

i8o

BELLS

extend to the belfry, pass over pulleys, and control
the hammers of the bells. Figure 8i shows a set
of chimes^ to be rung by pressing levers as shown
in Figure 80. These bells have double clappers, to

Fig.

Meneely Bell Foundry

Bells rung by the levers shown in Figure 80

which the wires are attached. The pulleys guiding the
wires may be plainly seen. The largest bell, mounted
also with a wheel and rope, can be swung whenever
it is required for the ordinary uses of a church bell.
The clock bell which first struck the hours was
the ancestor of our present automatic chimes. The

iMade by Meneely Bell Company of Troy, N.Y.

CHIMES

i«l

invention, which at first served only a useful purpose
in announcing the hours, was gradually developed
into a musical as well as a practical instrument.
The ''ding-dong" of two bells was increased to
three tones of the major chord, and was played with
pleasing effect on three bells. Or perhaps the bells
were tuned to the first three or four tones of the
scale. A simple tune, such as ''Hot-Cross Buns,"
may be played on three bells. Below is an old
Canterbury tune called "The Voice of the Bells,"
taken from an ancient psalmody; it is to be played
on four bells:

THE VOICE OF THE BELLS

i

-^~

^

j^-

-^3-

When will ye to the tern - pie come,

-S^-

-i^

o

f\ 'n I

bless - ed

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chil -

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dren

dear,

V ft

/_

^ rz>

f^ \

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L^IP

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To give the lyord His hon - or due,

i

4

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-^L

With rev - er - ence and fear?

l82

BELLS

An old Scotch Psalter of 1 6 1 5 contains the follow-
ing tune to be played on five bells:

E^fe^

i

^3

^

-j^zii:

The great - er sort crave world-ly goods,

-^^

-^

And rich - es

do

em - brace;

i

*

i

But, Lord, grant us Thy coun - te - nance.

-^

7±

Thy

fa - vor and Thy grace.

It will be seen that in three places a little harmony
is permitted. The famous ''Turn Again Whit-
tington"^ was played on six bells.

Chimes with set tunes may be played by the
machinery connected with a clock in the same way
that ''quarters" are rung. When a tune requiring
a considerable number of bells is played, an extra
piece of mechanism is usually used, consisting of
an extra train of wheels, and a "chime barrel" with

iSee p. 261.

CHIMES 183

pegs. A chime barrel is a cylinder with rows of
holes running lengthwise of the cylinder. Each
row consists of as many holes as there are wires con-
nected with bells. Pegs are placed in these holes,
and as the barrel turns, these pegs strike wires which

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Fig. 82. Pegs set for the first phrase of " Suwanee River"

cause certain hammers to fall upon the bells. The
tune is ''set" beforehand by arranging the pegs in
a certain order; and when the time (which has also
been set in the clock machinery) arrives, the barrel
begins to turn, the pegs begin to touch wire con-
nections, and the bells begin to ring. Suppose one

13

I 84 BELLS

wanted to set the barrel to play "Suwanee River"
on eight bells when the clock reached a certain time.
For the first two measures the pegs would be ar-
ranged in the holes somewhat as shown on page 183.
As the barrel turns in the direction indicated by the
arrows, bell number 3 will be the first one struck,
the hammer being released by the peg marked %.
As the melody requires that this shall be a long note,
three rows of holes are passed before another peg
is reached; then come five in quick succession,
ringing bells number 2 , i , 3 , 2 , i ; one row of holes
passes, and then bell number 8 is rung; and so on.

Thus it is easily seen how one may set as many
tunes as the barrel can accommodate ; and the tunes
may be changed as often as one wishes to change
the pegs.

The chiming apparatus as described above is said
to have been invented in the Netherlands in the
fifteenth century, and Belgium claims to have had
melody-ringing chimes even earlier. Some kind
of chiming machinery was also used in England
during that century, for an Englishman, John Baret,
who died in 1463, left in his will a provision that the
sexton of St. Mary's Church was to be paid ''xij d.
per annum so he will ring and find bread and ale
to his fellowship . . . and so he do the chimes
smite Requiem Eternam; also viij s. to keep the
clock, take heed to the chimes, wind up the pegs
and the plummets as often as need be."^

iH. B. Walters, in The Church Bells, of England.

CHIMES 185

Various European countries adopted automatic
chimes during the centuries that followed, and their
use has been most marked in the Netherlands and
in Belgium, where the more elaborate carillon was
developed.^

The most modern method of automatic chiming.

hP^ ^

r , . . . „y \.*^- ,£y^viMi

Kmmm

r;:.vii|

mm

John Taylor & Co.

Fig. 83. Chime of twelve hells at the University of California

both in melody playing and in ringing the clock
quarters, is by electricity.

Chimes of six, eight, ten, and twelve bells may be
found in various parts of the world, especially in
Europe and America; and even so far away as
Australia. Some are rung automatically, but many
are rung by hand levers. Eight is the most popular
number of bells in a chime, and these are tuned to
the tones of the major scale. Figure d>2^ shows a
ring of twelve bells made by an English foundry

iSee next chapter.

I 86 BELLS

(Taylor of Loughborough) for the University of
California.

Some of the finest chimes in the world hang in
English cathedrals. Exeter Cathedral has a very
fine ring of ten bells. The ring of twelve bells in
Worcester is said to be the grandest peal in England.
Peals of twelve are also found at York Minster,
St. Mary-le-Bow, St. Paul's Cathedral, and other
churches.

Year by year chimes are becoming more numerous
in America also,' being supplied not only by the
English foundries at Croydon and Loughborough,
but also made in this country by the Meneely Bell
Company of Troy, New York, the Cincinnati Bell
Foundry, and other foundries.

CHAPTER XVIII

CARILLONS IN GENERAL

A fine carillon is the highest point yet reached in
the evolution of bell instruments. The single bell,
the clock chime, the swinging peal, musical hand
bells, and the stationary chime — each class has its
appeal and its definite use. Almost any musical
person, with a little training, can ^o justice to any
of the above instruments; but the carillon, to be
properly heard, must be played by an artist.

''Carillon" is a French word meaning a series of
bells played by mechanism. In reality the carillon
is a highly developed and elaborated chime. The
underlying principles are the same, and both chime
and carillon may be pla3^ed either automatically
or by hand-directed mechanism. The_difference
between a carillon and a chime is in the number
of bells, the tuning of them, and the arrangement
of the keyboard. For simple melody playing, the
chime has, usually, eight to twelve bells tuned to
the major scale; the carillon has at least two octaves
(often four octaves), with all the sharps and flats,
suited for complicated harmonies as well as for
melodies. Chiming levers are arranged in a row;
the carillon keyboard in four rows, two rows for
the hands and two for the feet. Carillon bells must
be tuned with greater care and scientific accuracy

187

1 88

BELLS

'"BM?

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If

: ^B ^^^^^H

1^1^^^^ HP^WSiBP^^^^

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illl

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i H'Blal

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81

^f'

W. G. Rice

Fig. 84. The drum of the Bruges carillon, showmg
pegs for automatic playing

than is demanded of chime bells, for imperfect
overtones destroy the harmony when several bells
are struck at once. A bell may sound in tune when
played in a chime, but when combined with other
bells in a carillon it would cause jangling discord if
its own overtones were imperfect and the bell not
completely ''in tune with itself" as well as with
the other bells. So the chime and the carillon,
although so closely akin, are vastly different.

The automatic carillon plays music which is set
on a barrel in the same manner as the tunes are set
on the chime barrel described on page 184. It is
called the tambour (barrel) carillon. Formerly the
barrel was made of wood, but in modern times it

CARILLONS IN GENERAL 189

is made of metal, and, like the simpler chime barrel,
is punctured with rows of holes. Little spikes are
fitted into these holes (according to the music to be
played) which make the barrel resemble the cylinder
of a mammoth music box (see Fig. 84). In a music
box the spikes flip little tongues of metal which
make musical sounds. In the tambour carillon each
spike lifts a tongue which pulls a wire connected
with a hammer, raises the hammer, and lets it fall
on a bell. Some bells have as many as half a dozen
hammers, each hammer supplied with a separate
wire, to be used when one bell is to be struck several
times in rapid succession. The spikes, or pegs, are
set to play as complicated music as desired, and the
barrel is connected with the clock, so that, at certain
fixed times, the music plays automatically. A
carillon machine is shown in Figure 85 (p. 190) . This
mechanism is usually set to play just before the stroke
of the hour, and at the half and quarter hours.

The other kind of mechanism allows the bells to
be played by means of a keyboard. A series of large
wooden keys is arranged in the order of a piano
keyboard. Each key is connected with a bell by
means of a wire which raises a hammer and makes
it strike the bell from the inside, when the key is
pressed down. By this mechanism nothing is
"set," and the performer plays whatever he chooses.
This kind is called the clavier (keyboard) carillon.
It has been called a ''piano which plays bells instead
of strings." The largest bells are usually connected

I go

BELLS

with a pedal keyboard, and the performer who
uses both feet and both hands skillfully may play
very intricate music. The keys, too large and
heavy to be pressed down with one finger, are
usually played by blows with the gloved fists. Some-

Gillett & Johnston

Fig. 85. A carillon machine

times, however, the thumb and middle finger can
press down two keys at once. Figure 86 shows a
front view of the keyboard of a carillon in Morris-
town, New Jersey. The pedal keys show clearly
the arrangement like piano keys. The musician
who plays a clavier carillon is called a carillonneur.

CARILLONS IN GENERAL

191

Photograph by Curtiss

Fig. 86. The keyboard of the Morristown, New Jersey, carillon

192 BELLS

Many carillons are provided with both kinds of
mechanism, one connected with the clock and the
other for artists' concerts. They do not interfere,
as one is arranged to strike from the inside of the
bells and the other from the outside.

In a carillon of the first order — one having three
or four octaves of bells — the sizes of the bells vary
all the way from huge ones weighing several tons
down to small ones weighing not over ten or fifteen
pounds. In Belgium the bells are always hung in
tiers, while in Holland they are often arranged in cir-
cles. See Figure Sj, showing the arrangement of the
bells in tiers in Notre Dame Cathedral in Antwerp.

The carillon is developed to the greatest degree of
perfection in Belgium and Holland. Very fine
ones are found, however, in Germany and France,
and to some extent in a few other countries. ' ' When
John V of Portugal visited the Netherlands, about
1730, he was so delighted with the bell music
that he determined to have a carillon for his sump-
tuous palace then being built. The price having been
ascertained (it appears to have been something like
$43,000 for the completed carillon put in place),
the suggestion was guardedly made by his treasurer
that, in view of the financial burdens upon the
king's purse, this was a large expenditure. The
implied criticism is said to have so offended the
self-esteem of the monarch that he replied: *I
did not think it would be so cheap; I wish two.'
And these he got, for two carillons of forty-eight

CARILLONS IN GENERAL

193

bells each, played by clavier and clockwork, existed
a few years ago, and, so far as I know," says
Mr. Rice,^ "still exist in the twin towers of the con-
vent, formerly the palace chapel, at Mafra."

For some reason carillons have not been heard in
England to any great extent until quite recently,

Fig. 87. The arrangement of the carillon of Notre Dame
Cathedral, Antwerp

even though England has long been called ''the
Ringing Isle." This may be because the English

iW. G. Rice, in the Musical Quarterly for April, 191 5.

194 BELLS

have found their change ringing so satisfying.
Starmer, the foremost EngHsh bell authority, is
still loyal to the swinging peal. The music from
a peal of bells is louder than the music of the carillon.
In the former there is an intense blow as the bell
swings against the clapper; but in the carillon the
hammer strikes the bell from a very short distance —
one-quarter of an inch — and consequently there
is less volume of sound at any time.

The carillon is particularly suited to fiat countries
such as Holland and Belgium, where the bell sounds
travel with more effect and at far greater distances
than in hilly countries, where the sound is closed in,
interrupted, and echoed back. Mr. Rice gives the
following as the probable course of the carillon's
development in those countries i^ "In Holland and
Belgium in the distant years when clocks and watches
were more rare than now, and the people were much
more dependent upon the town clock for knowledge
of the time of day or night, it became the custom
to precede the striking of the hour by a short, auto-
matic chiming on three or four small bells in the
clock tower, as a premonitory signal. As this and
that town sought to surpass its neighbors, the bells
were increased in number, and the musical scale of
tones and half-tones became complete. Brief melo-
dies began to be heard at the hour and half-hour,
and with still more bells, came, at these divisions,
whole tunes. All this playing was automatic.

iThe standard authority on carillons is W. G. Rice's Carillons of
Belgium and Holland, from which a large part of the material in this
and the following chapter has been obtained.

CARILLONS IN GENERAL 195

"Then came the point of greatest advance. The
keyboard was just beginning to be used with stringed
instruments. What was more natural than that
bells should have their keyboard, or clavier, and so
be made ready to respond to the art of the aspiring
musician? Soon pedals were employed with the
heavier bells. By these improvements, rapid and
quite complicated playing was possible, and almost
any composition could be fairly interpreted by a
skillful executant, and so regular carillon recitals
or concerts came into being.

"Thus in the course of two or three centuries
was developed a carillon, a musical instrument of
distinct characteristics, and possessing wide possi-
bilities for community service. Not only did the
carillon have, by automatic play, constant com-
panionship with time, but beyond this, the master
of its clavier could make the town council meeting
hour enjoyable, and the market (ever a feature of
the life of the Low Countries) additionally gay for
old and young.

' ' Carillon recitals which the traveler often hears in
Belgium and Holland take place at a fixed time on the
market day, and on each Sunday, and in the greater
cities on some regular weekday evening in summer.
The latter are called 'program concerts.' The
carillon recitals of this kind are announced by widely
distributed posters; and the music to be given and
the carillonneurs who are to play are announced
months in advance by means of elaborately printed
and illustrated booklets.

196 BELLS

''The carillon is indeed a very beautiful and
majestic musical instrument. Only those who have
heard Chopin's Funeral March on this instrument
can conceive how impressive that music can be.
The carillon can reach, instruct, and give joy to
thousands assembled out of doors, and in this it
surpasses any other instrument."

A Belgian writer of the nineteenth century (Van
der Straeton) says: "A good bell is not made by
chance, but is the result of a wise combination of
qualities and thought, and a fine carillon is as pre-
cious as a violin by Stradivarius."

Starmer^ also agrees that ''the carillon with its
clavier is the finest musical instrument in existence
for educating the people and cultivating their love
for folk songs, and in teaching them the great
melodies of their fatherland; for the music best
suited to the carillon — excepting music specially
written for that instrument — includes the folk
music which has successfully stood the test of time."

The most famous makers of carillons in the olden
days were Franz Hemony (159 7- 1667) and Pieter
Hemony (16 19-1680) of Lorraine; Pieter van den
Gheyn of Holland and others of his family, dating
back to the middle of the sixteenth century and
covering several generations. The Dumery family
of Antwerp is also famous as makers of carillons,
besides many others. The founders of the present
day who make carillons are Felix van Aerschodt of

iW. W. Starmer, in The Musical Standard for Feb. i6, 1918.

CARILLONS IN GENERAL

197

Fig. 88. A carillon of former days

I 98 BELLS

Louvain (the representative of tne van den Gheyns) ,
John Taylor of Loughborough, England, and Gillett
& Johnston of Croydon, England. According to
Rice, "the Hemonys, the van den Gheyns and the
Dumerys were the great founders of former times.
Hemony's bells, generally speaking, are the best;
they are bright, clear, and true — epic in character.
Van den Gheyn's bells are similar. Dumery's are
velvety, soft, and true — elegiac in character. . . .
Carillons today by makers such as van Aerschodt at
Louvain and Taylor at Loughborough are even more
perfect than those of former times."

Every prosperous community of Belgium in the
early days had a belfry crowned with a carillon.
The community felt, and still feels, such a deep
interest in its carillon that no matter where it is
placed the bells belong to the town, and the bell
master is a municipal officer. ^ Perhaps one reason
the carillon is so beloved by the town is because it
is so democratic, and can be enjoyed by the whole
town at once, the rich and the poor, and with no
one having to take the trouble to go to any particular
spot to hear it. For this reason bell music has been
often called "the poor man's music."

The carillon seems especially fitting as an instru-
ment for the celebration of national feelings, both
as reminders on anniversaries or as giving expression
to national emotion; but, better still, "it sends out
from its aerial heights an influence which lightens

iW. G. Rice, in Carillons of Belgium and Holland.

CARILLONS IN GENERAL 199

routine, and to happy occupation adds enchanting
accompaniment. ' '

An Englishman^ who was cruising in a fishing
boat off the coast of Holland heard a carillon for
the first time. He writes: ''I guessed that a living
artist, not a mechanical contrivance, was making
music — music as magical as it was majestical — in
his far-off unseen tower across the moonlit levels of
the still sea, and the low-lying shore hidden by
fog-drifts. I think now (but am not sure) that it
came from the belfry of Gouda. At the time, I
thought it was music from the moon which the
moonlight made audible, so strange and other-
worldly were its fugal cadences, flight after flight
of prismatic sounds."

Musical melodies floating down through the air
from a high tower, with an invisible performer, can
hardly help lifting the thoughts of men above sordid
things, and must play a definite part in the molding
of character. A graduate of Delft wrote from a
foreign land, says Mr. Rice, of his ''many memories
of enchanting music heard unexpectedly in the
stillness of a winter night. Many a night my friend
and I, on our walks through the quiet snow-covered
city, have stood still and listened, and had our whole
trend of thought changed and lifted by this wonderful
music."

2E. B. Osborn.

14

CHAPTER XIX

IMPORTANT CARILLONS

Belgium is the home of the most celebrated caril-
lons in the world, there being at least thirty impor-
tant ones in that small country. Holland has about
twenty. All together, there are more than a hun-
dred carillons in Belgium and Holland, and until
recently there were perhaps not that many in all
the rest of the world combined.

The Bruges carillon is, of all bells, the most cele-
brated in verse. The bell tower is shown in Fig-
ure 89. In 1842 Longfellow visited Bruges, and his
diary at that time foreshadows his now well-known
poems, "Carillon" and "The Belfry of Bruges."
These poems are given on pages 416 and 419. The
diary states:

''May JO. In the evening took the railway from
Ghent to Bruges. ... It was not yet night; and
I strolled through the fine old streets and felt myself
a hundred years old. The chimes seemed to be
ringing incessantly; and the air of repose and
antiquity was delightful. . . . Oh, those chimes,
those chimes! how deliciously they lull one to
sleep! The little bells, with their clear, liquid
notes, like the voices of boys in a choir, and the
solemn bass of the great bell tolling in, like the
voice of a friar!

200

IMPORTANT CARILLONS

201

m~

m-

Fig. 89. TJie bell toiver of Bruges, Belgium

202

BELLS

Fig. 90. St. Romhold's Tower, Alalines {Mechlin), Belgium

IMPORTANT CARILLONS 203

''May ji. Rose before five and climbed the high
belfry which was once crowned by the gilded copper
dragon now at Ghent. The carillon of forty-eight
bells ; the little chamber in the tower ; the machinery,
like a huge barrel-organ, with keys like a musical
instrument for the carillonneur ; the view from the
tower; the singing of swallows with the chimes; the
fresh morning air; the mist in the horizon; the red
roofs far below; the canal, like a silver clasp, linking
the city with the sea, — how much to remember!"

The first Bruges carillon, consisting of thirty-eight
bells, was made in 1662 by Franz Hemony. This
was destroyed in 1741. Two years later the present
carillon of forty-seven bells was made by Joris
Dumery of Antwerp. The drum for automatic
playing is seen in Figure 84.^

The Mechlin carillon in St. Rombold's Tower
(see Fig. 90) has had the reputation for many years
past of being the finest in the world. It consists of
forty-five bells, made at various times, the oldest
one dating back to 1480. There are several Hemony
bells of the seventeenth century, some of the
eighteenth century made by A. van den Gheyn, and
others by makers of less renown. The largest bell
is ' ' Salvator, ' ' weighing nearly nine tons, and until
recently the heaviest bell in any carillon. The bells
hang two hundred feet from the ground.

During the French Revolution this carillon was
saved from destruction by the diplomacy of Gerard

^See p. 188.

204 BELLS

Gommaire Haverals, the carillonneur at the time.
''The revokitionary council had decreed that the
MechHn bells should be melted and made into
cannon, when Haverals by his eloquence and clever-
ness persuaded the French authorities that one
carillon should be preserved. Otherwise, he asked,
how properly could be celebrated 'la gloire de la
republique'? A few years later the reaction came,
and he was given a sharp reprimand by the town
council because of the republican songs he had
played. His beloved bells, though, were safe, and
so again he changed his tunes to suit changed times
and endured patiently the municipal castigation.
Happily his devotion and skill were so compelling
that even political passions were subdued and he
continued as carillonneur imtil he died in 1841,
being on the verge of fourscore years, and having
played bells in St. Rombold's Tower continuously
since he was seventeen."^

The drum for mechanical playing (see Fig. 84),
made nearly two hundred years ago, is of gun metal,
five feet three inches in diameter, and has one hun-
dred and eighty longitudinal rows of holes. It is
wound twice a day, and about sixty thousand notes
are played by this drum every twenty-four hours.

But the daily mechanical playing of the Mechlin
bells is not their chief glory. The concerts of the
renowned carillonneur, Joseph Denyn, are without
equal in the world. At Mechlin, under the direction

iW. G. Rice.

IMPORTANT CARILLONS 205

of Mr. Denyn, is the only existing school for carillon
playing, founded in 1922. One of Denyn's concerts
has been thus described by Mr. Rice:

''After the bell ceased striking (the hour), and the
vibration of its deep and solemn tone had died away,
there was silence. So long a silence it seemed, so
absolute, that we wondered if it was to be broken.
Then pianissimo, from the highest, Hghtest bells,
as if not to startle us, and from far, far above the
to^ver, it seemed — indeed as if very gently shaken
from the sky itself — came trills and runs that were
angelic ! Rapidly they grew in volume and majesty
as they descended the scale until the entire heaven
seemed full of music. Seated in the garden we
watched the little light in the tower, where we knew
the unseen carillonneur sat at his clavier and drew
the music from his keys, and yet as we watched and
listened, we somehow felt that the music came from
somewhere far beyond the tower, far higher than
that dim light, and was produced by superhuman
hands. Sometimes in winter after icicles have
formed, there comes a thaw, and one by one they
tinkle down, gently and timidly at first ; then bolder
in a mass they come till, like an avalanche, they
crash down with a mighty roar. All of this the
music suggested. It was low, it was loud; it was
from one bell, it was from chords of many bells;
it was majestic, it was simple. And every note
seemed to fall from above, from such heights that
the whole land heard its beauty. It was as if a

2o6 BELLS

great master had said: *I am no longer content
to sit at my cathedral organ and give pleasure to a
few hundreds only; I must give joy to thousands/
So he mounts the cathedral tower, and plays his
sonata, or his prelude, or his songs upon the great
clavier, so that all the world may hear. With
this feeling we listened that evening to van den
Gheyn's Prelude and to the Andante and Allegro
from Rossini's 'Barbier de Seville,' and to old Bel-
gian and French folk songs. Here was no pretty
cleverness, but a splendid masterhand ringing out
from his mighty instrument not alone grand, sub-
lime effects, but also the tenderest shades of feeling
that awaken both memory and aspiration. Indeed,
the tower seemed a living being, opening its lips in
the mysterious night to pour out a great and noble
message of song to all mankind.

*'As the hour passed, daylight died, but the tower
grew more distinct in the light of the full moon rising
over the trees. We had programs which we passed
in silence to one another, and if there was occasion
to speak, we spoke in whispers. It seemed that if
we moved or spoke aloud, the tower, the far-away
light, and the music might all vanish. Nothing we
had ever experienced had been like this. Sometimes
the sounds were so low that we found ourselves bend-
ing forward to hear them. They seemed to come
from an infinite distance, so faint and delicate were
they. Then at other times, great chords, in the
volume of many organs, burst forth rapturously!

IMPORTANT CARILLONS 207

"The concert ended promptly at nine with the
national air of Belgium. Directly after this the
great bell slowly, solemnly struck the hour."

In spealdng of Mr. Denyn's concerts, an English
gentleman^ writes: *'It was surprising to see how
attentively the audience followed this concert in
the sky. The vast majority had to stand the entire
time, and they stood motionless, speaking not a
word, and not even clicking their wooden shoes
until the tower had ceased singing. The people of
Mechlin and its trim countryside take so great a
pride in their vast singing tower that one can easily
understand why they ran to put out a fire when the
red harvest moon shone through the great open
windows of the bell loft.

''If that tower had been finished according to the
original plan, it would have been the loftiest in the
world. But the stone for completing it was carted
off into Holland between 1582 and 1584 to build
the fortress town of Willemstad. The theft has
never been forgotten nor forgiven. Yet the tower
is well enough as it is ; Vauban calls it the eighth
wonder of the world. And to the people of Belgium
it is more than that, for they see in it a fixed fore-
finger of their elder faith, an upright scroll of
national history, and a leaping fountain of many-
colored music."

The Antwerp Cathedral is famous for its beauty
of form and line (see Fig. 91). Napoleon compared

lE. B. Osbom, in The Nineteenth Century and After.

208 BELLS

the tower to Mechlin lace. The cathedral carillon
consists of forty-seven bells, thirty-six made by
Hemony in the seventeenth century, and others by
Dumery and Aerschodt. The largest bell was cast
in 1459, and it is said that Emperor Charles V stood
sponsor at its baptism. Mr. Brees is the well-known
carillonneur. In the cathedral tower is another
carillon of twenty-six bells, made in the seventeenth
century, but these bells are not now used.

In the Ghent carillon are fifty-two bells, four and
a half octaves. The largest of these is Roland,
one of Europe's most famous bells, dating back to
13 14 (see p. 239). The smallest bell of the Ghent
carillon is only eight inches high.

Many of the injured carillons of Belgium and
French Flanders are being restored and others are
to be built. A fine carillon, housed in a magnificent
tower, is planned for the new library at Louvain.

The carillon of Middelburg, Holland, consists of
forty-three bells, made in the eighteenth century.
William G. Rice designates this carillon as "among
the best and much the busiest of carillons. It
plays for nearly two minutes before the hour, a
minute before the half, a few measures at the quar-
ters, and some notes every seven and a half minutes,
besides a warning ripple before each quarter hour.
The butter and egg market place, crowded with
peasants in costume at the market hour (Thursday
noon), is perhaps the most interesting place to hear
the bells. They blend with the activity of the

IMPORTANT CARILLONS

209

Pig. 91. The spire of Antwerp Cathedral

W. G. Rice

2IO

BELLS

^^^ ■ "^F* ' 1 '^ " ■ 'USB

■f^

William Thompson

Fig. 92. "Boston Stump," St. BotolpWs Cathedral,
Boston, England

IMPORTANT CARILLONS 21 1

marketing most agreeably." A graceful compli-
ment was paid to these busy bells when Lucas said:
*'One cannot say more for persistent chimes than
this, — at Middelburg it is no misfortune to wake
in the night!"

Amsterdam has five Hemony carillons, all hung
in circles in as many towers, and the bells may be
seen from the street.

Delft has a Hemony carillon of forty bells in the
tower of Nieuwe Kerk, 375 feet high. Utrecht has
forty-two bells, most of them of Hemony's make.

In the Rotterdam Town Hall is a fine carillon of
forty-nine bells recently cast by Taylor, the English
founder. They are said to be perfectly in tune,
accurate to a single vibration per second. The
Taylor foundry has also made carillons for several
other towns in Holland.

Germany has several carillons, those of north
Germany being especially fine. Belgium's neighbor,
France, also has had good carillons for a long time.

The first carillon in England was hung in the
celebrated ''Boston Stump" in 1868. This is a
picturesque church tower 365 feet high on the
Lincolnshire shore, facing the North Sea (see Fig. 92) .
The carillon consisted of forty-four bells, founded
by Gillett & Johnston of Croydon.

In the War Memorial Campanile in Loughbor-
ough, England (see Fig. 93, p. 212), a carillon of
forty-seven bells, cast at the Taylor foundry, was
installed in 1923 in memory of those who fell in the

212

BELLS

World War. There is also a carillon of forty-two
small and perfectly tuned bells in the tower of the
Taylor foundry (see Fig. 94). This foundry has also

John Taylor & Co,

Fig. 93. War Memorial carillon tower,
Loughborough, England

made carillons for Cobh (Queenstown) , Ireland
(forty-two bells, shown in Fig. 95, p. 214); Armagh,
Ireland (thirty-nine bells) ; Flushing, Holland (thirty-
three bells) ; Parkgate, Cheshire (thirty-seven bells) ;
Boumville, Birmingham (thirty-seven bells), and
Capetown, South Africa (thirty-seven bells).

IMPORTANT CARILLONS

213

A carillon recently made by Gillett & Johnston
for Toronto, Canada, consists of twenty-three bells.
A weight-driven tower-clock movement chimes the
Cambridge Quarters and strikes the hours, and,
after the last stroke of each hour, releases the start-
ing switch of an automatic electro-pneumatic

Fig. 94. Carillon tower, John Taylor &" Company
hell foundry at Loughborough, England

machine, which then plays some well-known air;
and in addition there is the hand clavier for the
carillonneur.

214

BELLS

John Taylor & Co.

Fig. 95. Carillon at Cobh {Queen stown) , Ireland
The largest hell weighs 6,772 pounds

Not until recently have carillons been known in
America. In the past few years several have been
installed in various parts of the country, and a
remarkably fine carillon was made for New York
by the Croydon founders in 1925 (see p. 289).

The popularity of this instrument is growing so
rapidly, in all parts of the world, that any complete
list of important carillons would in a few years be
out of date.

CHAPTER XX

DOCTOR BURNEY ON CARILLONS

(i77S)

More than a hundred and fifty years ago
Dr. Charles Bumey, a learned English authority on
music, made a tour through the Netherlands and
other countries to collect material for a general his-
tory of music. This History of Music was, by the
way, the first ever written by an Englishman, was
very complete up to that time, and is still considered
a work of great value. In 1775 Dr. Burney pub-
lished in London a book called The Present State of
Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United
Provinces, and his impressions of the carillon, as
given in this book, are so interesting and amusing
that they seem worth quoting in their entirety :

''When I came to Ghent, I determined to inform
m^^self in a particular manner concerning the carillon
science. For this purpose I mounted the town bel-
fry, from whence I had a full view of the city of
Ghent, which is reckoned one of the largest in
Europe; and here I had not only an opportunity
of examining the mechanism of the chimes, as far
as they are played by clock-work, but could likewise
see the carillonneur perform with a kind of keys
communicating with bells, as those of the harpsi-
chord and organ do with strings and pipes.

215

2i6 BELLS

*'I soon saw that the chimes in these countries
had a greater number of bells than those of the
largest peals in England; but when I mounted the
belfry I was astonished at the great quantity of
bells I saw; in short, there is a complete series or
scale of tones and semi-tones like those on the
harpsichord and organ. The carillonneur was liter-
ally at work, and hard work indeed it must be. He
was in his shirt with his collar unbuttoned, and in
a violent sweat. There are pedals communicating
with the great bells, upon which, with his feet, he
played the bass to ^several sprightly and rather
difficult airs performed with his two hands upon the
upper species of keys.

''These keys are projecting sticks, wide enough
asunder to be struck with violence and velocity by
either of the two hands edgeways, without the
danger of hitting the neighboring keys. The player
has a thick leather covering for the little finger of
each hand, otherwise it would be impossible for him
to support the pain which the violence of the stroke
necessary to be given to each key, in order to its
being distinctly heard throughout a very large town,
requires.

* ' The carillons are said to be originally from Alost,
in this country, and are still here and in Holland,
in their greatest perfection. It is certainly a Gothic
invention, and perhaps a barbarous taste which
neither the French, the English nor the Italians
have imitated or encouraged. The carillonneur at

DOCTOR BURNEY ON CARILLONS 217

my request played several pieces very dexterously
in three parts, the first and second treble with the
two hands on the upper set of keys, and the bass
with the feet on the pedals.

" . . . As to the clock-work chimes, or those
worked by a barrel, nothing, to my thinking, can
be more tiresome; for night and day, to hear the
same tune played every hour during six months,
in such a stiff and unalterable manner, requires that
kind of patience which nothing but a total absence
of taste can produce. . . ,

''In Amsterdam. At noon I attended M. Pothoff
(organist), who is not young, and totally blind, to
the tower of the Stad-huys or town-house, of which
he is carillonneur; it is a drudgery unworthy of such
a genius; he has had this employment, however,
many years, having been elected to it at thirteen.
He had very much astonished me on the organ,
after all that I had heard in the rest of Europe;
but in playing those bells, his amazing dexterity
raised my wonder much higher ; for he executed with
his two hands, passages that would be very difficult
to play with the ten fingers; shakes, beats, swift
divisions, triplets, and even arpeggios he has con-
trived to vanquish.

"He began with a psalm tune, with which their
High Mightinesses are chiefly delighted, and which
they require at his hands whenever he performs,
which is on Tuesdays and Fridays. He next played
variations upon a psalm tune, with great fancy and

2l8 BELLS

even taste. When he had performed this task he
was so obhging as to play a quarter of an hour
extempore in such a manner as he thought would be
more agreeable to me than psalmody; and in this
he succeeded so well, that I sometimes forgot both
the difficulty and defects of the instrument. He
never played in less than three parts, marking the
bass and the measure constantly with the pedals.
I never heard a greater variety of passages in so
short a time; he produced effects by the pianos and
fortes, and the crescendo and the shake, both as to
loudness and velocity, which I did not think possible
upon an instrument that seemed to require little
other merit than force in the performer.

''But surely this was a barbarous invention, and
there is barbarity in the continuance of it. If
M. Pothoff had been put into Dr. Dominicetti's
hottest human caldron for an hour, he could not
have perspired more violently than he did after a
quarter of an hour of this furious exercise; he
stripped to his shirt, put on his nightcap, and trussed
up his sleeves for this execution ; and he said he was
forced to go to bed the instant it is over, in order
to prevent his catching cold, as well as to recover
himself; he being usually so much exhausted as to
be utterly unable to speak.

"By the little attention that is paid to this per-
former, extraordinary as he is, it should seem as if
some hewer of wood, and drawer of water, whose
coarse constitution, and gross habits of body,

DOCTOR BURNEY ON CARILLONS 219

required frequent sudorifics, would do the business,
equally to the satisfaction of such unskillful and
unfeeling hearers.

'' . . . Besides these carillons a clavier, the
chimes here, played by clock-work, are much cele-
brated. The brass cylinder, on which the tunes are
set, weighs 4,474 pounds, and has 7,200 iron studs
fixed in it, which, in the rotation of the cylinder,
give motion to the clappers of the bells. If their
High Mightinesses' judgment, as well as taste,
had not failed them, for half the prime cost of this
expensive machine, and its real charge for repairs,
new setting and constant attendance, they might
have had one of the best bands in Europe. But
those who can be charmed with barrel music cer-
tainly neither want, nor deserve better. There is
scarce a church belonging to the Calvinists in
Amsterdam, without its chimes, which not only play
the same tunes every quarter of an hour for three
months together, without their being changed; but
by the difference of clocks, one has scarce five minutes
quiet in the four and twenty hours, from these
carols for grown gentlemen. In a few days' time I
had so thorough a surfeit of them, that in as many
months, I really believe, if they had not deprived
me of hearing, I should have hated music in general."

CHAPTER XXI

THE BELLS OF RUSSIA

There were no bell foundries in Russia until the
1 6th century. Before that time the bells used in
the churches were brought from Italy. But when
the bell-founding art once ^ started in Russia, it
spread very rapidly, and before the end of the i6th
century there were said to be more than five thousand
bells in Moscow and its suburbs. On fete days,
when they all rang at the same time, it was said that
people could not hear each other speak in the streets.
Whenever the czar left the city, the largest bell an-
nounced his departure and also heralded his return.

It came to be regarded as a deed of great merit
for any citizen or royal personage to donate a bell
to a church, and the larger the bell, the greater the
merit.

Ivan Veliki had a great bell tower built near the
Cathedral of St. Nicholas for the proper hanging of
the bells that were donated to that church. This
tower still stands, serving its original purpose (see
Fig. 96). Each story is a belfry. In the first
story, hanging in solitary grandeur, is a huge bell
given to the cathedral by the Czar Boris Godunov
in the early seventeenth century. Its weight is
given by most writers as one hundred and twenty-
eight tons, though some say it is one hundred and

220

THE BELLS OF RUSSIA

221

-f-

i.

Ml'

T'cifiyriirliT, T"n I.tt^co,! & Underwood

Fig. 96. Tower of Ivan the Great, Moscow, Russia

222

BELLS

ten, and others less. A writer of 1850 refers to this
bell sending out its mighty voice three times a year,
''which produces a tremulous effect through the
city, and a noise like the rolling of distant thunder."

Gramstorff Bros., Inc., Maiden, Ma

Fig. 97. The "Great Bell of Moscow''

The clapper of this bell is so heavy that it requires
several men to sway it from side to side by pulling
on ropes. It is the largest ringing bell in the world.
The second story of the Ivan Tower contains two
huge bells, and each story contains bells arranged

THE BELLS OF RUSSIA 223

according to their size. There is one which weighs
seventy- two tons, another fifty-nine tons, another
seventeen tons, and many others of exceptional size
and weight. As one cHmbs the steps of the tower,
one passes thirty- three bells of various sizes placed
at different heights in the tower.

The tower of Ivan Veliki stands inside the walls
of the Kremlin — a fortified inclosure in the heart
of Moscow — and contains the famous Cathedral of
the Assumption, where all the sovereigns of Russia
for severa,l hundred years have been crowned, and
many other revered and ancient buildings besides
the Ivan Tower.

Within the Kremlin and near the Ivan Tower
stands the largest and perhaps the most univer-
sally known bell in the world, — the Czar Kolokol,
or king of bells, usually called the ''Great Bell of
Moscow." It is sometimes called Czarina Kolokol,
or queen of bells. It weighs about two hundred
tons, and still rests over the spot where it was cast
nearly two hundred years ago (see Fig. 97). It is
also seen in Figure 96.

In 1 701 a very large bell of Moscow was destroyed
by fire; and in 1733 the Empress Anna Ivanovna
ordered a great bell to be cast to replace the old one.
Usually the bell tower is made first, and the bell
hung in it afterwards. But according to the
empress' plan, the great bell was to be cast in the
ground immediately beneath the place where it
would be hung, and after it was completed the tower

2 24 BELLS

should be built around and above it, and thus the
only moving it would require would be to lift it.
In this way an enormous bell could be managed.
The tower which was planned would be a mate
to the great tower of Ivan Veliki, and the two
buildings were to be connected with, passageways
at various heights, and thus both towers would be
strengthened-

All Moscow was deeply interested in the new bell,,
and when it was being cast the nobles and other
devout Russians, both rich and poor, threw into the
molten metal all kinds of jewels, and plates of gold
and silver. At last the bell was cast.

Then a terrible accident occurred. Writers dis-
agree as to just how it came about that the great
bell cracked; but they all agree that the great fire
of 1737, which demolished so much of the city of
Moscow, was the occasion of the break. Some
say that the bell was still in the casting pit in the
earth, and not yet cool, when the fire came, and
that the water which was poured on the burning
wood above the pit found its way down to the bell,
which, still being hot, was cracked by the cold water.
Others say that the bell was suspended from beams
which, being destroyed by the fire, permitted the
bell to fall and break and sink into the ground of its
own weight. Still others say that the blazing
wooden rafters which had been put up around, the
bell, fell upon it and heated the metal, and when
water was poured on the burning timber above, it

THE BELLS OF RUSSIA 225

reached the bell and cracked it. In any case, in
spite of the fact that the metal of the bell was
nearly two feet thick, a great piece was broken out
of it which made the bell dumb even before anyone
had ever heard its voice I The severed piece weighs
eleven tons (see Fig. 97).

For over a hundred years the mighty bell remained
in the ground. In 1797, says Starmer, *'a mecha-
nician named Guirt made an attempt to raise this
colossus ; but his plans, though well conceived, were
never carried out, as it w^as thought that in raising
it, the bell would break into pieces." Again, in 18 19,
the raising of the bell was considered, but nothing
was done until 1836. By order of Czar Nicholas
the First, Aug. de Montf errand, an engineer of
repute, was given instructions to raise the bell from
its pit. The manipulation of such an enormous
weight at that period was a problem of great diffi-
culty. It was successfully done by means of twenty
capstans, manned by a large number of soldiers,
on July 23, 1836.

Montferrand gives the following description of
the ornamentation on the bell: "Considered as a
work of art this bell is remarkable for the beauty
of its form and for its bas-reliefs. These represent
portraits at full length and of natural size, although
not finished, of the Czar Alexis Michaelovitch and
the Empress Anna Ivanovna. . . . The upper
part is ornamented by figures representing Our
Lord, the Virgin, and the Holy Evangelists. The

2 26 BELLS

Upper and lower friezes are composed of psalms,

treated in a broad style and with a great deal of

art."

On top of the bell is a ball upon which rests a

Greek cross of gilded bronze, the total height being

thirty -four feet. On one side of the pedestal is an

inscription cut in a marble slab. Translated, it

reads :

This Bell

CAST IN 1733, UNDER THE REIGN OF THE EmPRESS

Anna Ivanovna

after having been buried in the earth for more than a

century was raised to this place

August 4, 1836

by the will and under the glorious reign of

THE Emperor Nicholas the First

Montferrand gives the particulars of the bell as
follows; height, 20 feet, 7 inches; diameter, 22 feet,
8 inches; and weight, 193 tons. Other writers have
computed its weight as 185, 200, and 220 tons.
Its circumference has been given variously as
66 feet, 67 feet and 4 inches, 63 feet and 11 inches.
Within the bell, it is said, forty people can assemble
at one time, and the cavity beneath it has been used
as a chapel.

One of the large bells in the Ivan Tower was cast
in 181 7, and called the ''New Bell." It is twenty-
one feet high, eighteen feet in diameter, and its
tongue weighs 4,200 pounds. Like the Great Bell,
the New Bell was also made to replace another large
bell. In 1 7 10 a bell called Bolshoi (the big) was cast

THE BELLS OF RUSSIA 227

weighing sixty-two tons, and was hung with thirty-
two smaller ones in the Ivan Tower. During the
French invasion of 181 2 the belfry was almost
destroyed, and the Bolshoi thrown down and broken.
Five years later the bell was broken up and addi-
tional metal was given by the emperor to found a
new bell, which should weigh seventy-two tons.
The new bell was cast with great ceremony in the
presence of great throngs of people and of the arch-
bishop, who gave his benediction. Nearly all the
inhabitants of Moscow assembled and proved their
devotion by throwing gold, jewelry, and silver plate
into the molten metal.

Later the New Bell was moved on a large wooden
sledge from the foundry to the tower. A Te Deum
was sung, and the labor of dragging the sledge was
given over to the multitude, who disputed the honor
of touching a rope. ''The movements were regu-
lated by little bells managed by Mr. Bogdanof, the
founder, who stood on a platform attached to the
bell. Part of the wall was taken down to admit its
passage, and, as soon as it reached its destination,
the people leaped upon Mr. Bogdanof, kissing his
hands, cheeks and clothes, and showing by every
means in their power the gratitude they felt at the
restoration of their old favorite. Some days after
this, the New Bell was slowly raised to the place of
its predecessor and properly suspended." It is said
that this bell sounds during the entire time that the
words of the Nicene Creed are chanted.

22i

BELLS

Figure 98 shows a bell belonging to the cathe-
dral at Leningrad which is made of worn-out and
reclaimed coins. The diameter is about eight feet.

Fig. 98. The great hell of the Cathedral of
St. Isaac, Leningrad, Russia

It is richly ornamented with four large medallions,
one of Catherine II, one of Peter the Great, and
two of other emperors.

There are many other large bells in Russia, partic-
ularly at Trotzk and Novgorod. A most interesting
peal of ancient bells still hangs in the campanile near
the cathedral at Rostov

The bells of Russia are never rung by swinging,
as is the case with English bells. They are fixed
immovably to their beams, and the clappers alone
are movable. The clapper is swung by means of
leather bands which are pulled by ropes in such a
manner as to cause it to strike the bell in different

THE BELLS OF RUSSIA

229

places. An old writer (of 1698) states that when
the first Czar Kolokol was rung, forty or fifty men
were employed, half on each side of the bell, who,
by means of ropes, pulled the clapper to and fro.

Russia is second to no other country in its
appreciation of bells. In spite of the sameness of
Russian ringing, an accustomed ear easily learns the
meanings of the various sounds that issue from the
belfry. The different sized bells used, the number
of rings, the length of time between the rings, the

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Fig. 99. Bell market at Moscow, Russia

grouping, etc., all have definite meanings to the
inhabitants, just as the clicks in the telegraph office

230 BELLS

are understood by those who know the code. How
much the Russians love bells is shown by the dis-
play of bells for sale at their fairs. At the great
fair in Nijni-Novgorod there were bells for sale
which weighed a number of tons. Figure 99 (p. 229)
is from a photograph of a bell market in Moscow.
The impressive bell tones which occur at the close
of Tschaikovsky's 181 2 Overture afford an instance
of the soul-stirring effect of bells even in art. It
was the awe-inspiring sounds of the great bells of
Moscow which were uppermost in Tschaikovsky's
mind when he composed that magnificent finale.

CHAPTER XXII

OTHER EUROPEAN BELLS

Italy is the birthplace of Christian church bells,
and, as one would suppose, there are numerous old
bells in that country. Figure loo shows one in the
cathedral at Siena, made in 1159,
one of the oldest cast and dated
bells in existence. This old bell
is still in use. It has only two
cannons (or loops) , is about three
feet high, and is shaped like a
barrel. There are bells in Pisa
dated 1106, 11 54, and 11 73; one
in the Leaning Tower dated 1262,
and one in Verona cast in 1149.
Figure loi (p. 232) shows an
Italian bell dated 11 84, now in a
museum in Florence.

The famous artist Benvenuto
Cellini made for Pope Clement VII, in the sixteenth
century, a silver bell covered with designs of ser-
pents, flies, grasshoppers, and other insects. This
bell was used by the pope to give a papal cursing
of the creatures represented whenever they became
too numerous in the land. The curse, aided by the
ringing of this bell, was supposed to have a power-
ful effect in checking the depredations of those

Fig. 100. Italian

hell, cast in 1159,

now in Siena

16

23]

232

BELLS

creatures which sometimes "covered the earth Hke

a crawling blanket."

The great bell in St. Peter's Church at Rome,

made in 1786 and
weighing over nine
tons, has been con-
sidered the most
beautiful bell in the
world.

There are several
very old bells still
existing in France.
Figure 19 ^ shows an
old bell of the seventh
century from a church
in Noyon. It is not
cast, and the rivets
may be plainly seen.
Bells were hung in
the various cathedrals
of France as early as
the tenth century,
probably the oldest

cast bell now existing in France being an old bell of

Normandy, cast in 1202, and now in the Museum

of Bayeux (see Fig. 102).

By the thirteenth century large bells were being

made. Figure 103^ shows a thirteenth-century

bell and Figure 104^ a fourteenth-century bell of

iChap. IV, p. 37. 2See p. 235.

Fig. ioi. Italian hell, cast in 1184,

now in Florence

OTHER EUROPEAN BELLS 233

France. The "Jacquelin" of Paris, cast in 1400,
weighed twelve and a half tons, and the celebrated
''Ambroise Bell" at Rouen, cast in 1 501, weighed
over eighteen tons! In 1786, when Louis XVI
visited Rouen, amid the public rejoicings this bell
cracked, which incident was afterward considered
an omen of the fate of that unfortunate king.
In 1793 the bell was converted into cannon.

The famous city of Avignon in the south of France
in its palmy days had three hundred bells, and was
called the "Ringing City." In the cathedral was a

Fig. 102. French hell from Fontenailles, dated 1202

silver bell which was especially famous for its sup-
posed ability to ring of its own accord.^

iSee chap, xxiii, p. 250.

234 BELLS

In 1547 Francis the First, king of France, imposed
a tax on salt. This caused a rebellion, and at
Bordeaux the rebels murdered the king's lieutenant,
Tristram de Moneins, and filled his body with salt.
Henry II sent the constable, Anne de Montmo-
rency, who with the help of the Duke de Guise
caused one hundred and fifty persons to be executed,
and he obliged the nobles of the city to exhume,
with their own nails, the buried body of De Moneins;
then the man who first sounded the tocsin was con-
demned to be hanged from the clapper of the bell.
All the bells which had been used to rouse the
people to rebellion were destroyed, and the others
were carried to different towns. This deprivation
of its bells was a punishment very humiliating to
the city. Two years later, however, Henry II par-
doned the people of Bordeaux, and one of the happy
results of the pardon was the restoration of bells
in the churches. ^

The large clock bell at Notre Dame in Paris was
cast in 1682, and is eleven feet in diameter. There
is also a fine Bourbon bell in Notre Dame called
"Emanuel." This bell was cast in 1685, weighs
more than eight tons, and is eight feet and seven
inches in diameter.

In former days the bell ringers of France and
Spain often rang the bells by jumping ape-like from
one bell rope to another, to the great uneasiness of
all onlookers.

iRev. H. T. Ellacombe, in Church Bells of Devon, Exeter, 1872.

OTHER EUROPEAN BELLS

235

Fig. 103. A French
bell dated i2yj

Fig. 104. A French bell of
the fourteenth century

Germany is not lacking in bells, both old and new.
Figure 20 (chap, iv) shows one which was made in
Cologne in the seventh century. There is one in
Bavaria dated 1144, and one at Freiburg dated 1258.

:-»#-•!

236

OTHER EUROPEAN BELLS 237

In the fourteenth century bell foundries were set
up in most of the principal towns, and the art spread
over the country.

One of the most famous bells of Germany is in
Erfurt, Saxony. In 145 1 a large bell was cast for
the Erfurt Cathedral, but in 1472 a fire in the
cathedral melted the bell. In 1497 another great
bell was cast, which bears the name of ''Maria
Gloriosa." It is supposed to weigh fifteen tons,
and has a diameter of eight feet, seven and one-half
inches. Its tone is fine and pure, and in clear
weather it may be heard at a distance of three miles.
It is considered a very fine example of bell founding.

In the Church of St. Stephen at Vienna is a large
bell weighing over seventeen tons, with a diameter
of nearly ten feet. It was cast in 171 1 by order of
Emperor Joseph from the cannon left by the Turks
when they raised the siege of that city. Figure 105
is from an old drawing which represents this bell
being carried through the streets of Vienna on the
way from the foundry to the church. The following
news concerning this bell appeared in a New York
paper of March 5, 1925, with the heading: "Vienna's
17-Ton Bell is Rung, 200 Years Old, Silent for 50."

''The big bell of famous St. Stephen's Cathedral,
weighing seventeen tons, that has been silent for
fifty years, was rung again today.

"The bell was made two hundred years ago. It
has not been rung for the last five decades because
of the tower being thought unsafe."

238

BELLS

Figure io6 is a very ornate bell cast in Saxony
about i860.

Two famous bells, the ''Maria Gloriosa" and the
"Emperor," hung for many years in the twin towers

Pig. 106. Bell at Stargard, cast about i860

of the Cologne Cathedral.^ They were cast from
the metal of forty-two French cannon captured by
the Germans in the War of 1870. In the late
World War they were again made into cannon. A
massive new bell was made for this cathedral in
1924. Figure 107 shows this bell as it was being
moved from the foundry. The same bell is also
pictured in Figure 4 7 2.

The oldest dated bell in Denmark is at Odense,
cast in 1300. In Norway many large bells were
destroyed at the time of the Reformation, , and

See Fig. 156 on p. 360.

-See p. 94.

OTHER EUROPEAN BELLS

239

others were, from time to time, melted down and
turned into money for the wars. However, there
are several bells in Scandinavia with Runic inscrip-
tions. Figure 108 on page 240 is a drawing of the
"Dref Bell" in Sweden. The Runic inscription
is read from right to left. Translated, it means:
" Brother Sbialbuthi made me. Jesus Christus. Ave
Maria Gracia."

One of the most famous bells of Europe is the
great alarm bell ''Roland," which hangs in the belfry
of Ghent in Belgium. It was cast in 1343, recast
in 1659, and bears the following inscription: ''Mees-
ter Jan van Roosbeke, clock-meester. Ick heete
Roelandt: Ah men my slaet, dan isH hrandt; Als

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Fig. 107. Moving the big bell for the Cologne Cathedral

24* BELLS

men my luyd, isH zegen of storm in Vlaenderland^
Translated, this means (following the name of the
maker) : ' ' My name is Roland ; when I toll, there
is fire; and when I ring, there is victory in the land."
It was badly cracked again in July, 19 14. For
many generations Roland has called the citizens of

Fig. 108. The '' Dref BelV of Sweden

Ghent together to defend their town, and there are
few bells in the world that have been so beloved.

Above the belfry is a gilded copper dragon which
was made at Ghent at the close of the fourteenth
century. For a time the people of Bruges pos-
sessed this dragon, but it later came back into the
possession of the Ghent burghers, who placed it
above the belfry tower. There is a legend that the
Crusaders brought this dragon from Constantinople
to Bruges, but this is probably only a myth.

OTHER EUROPEAN BELLS 241

The bell fame of Belgium and Holland lies in
their carillons. ^

There is a bell in the cathedral of Toledo, Spain,
which is said to weigh seventeen tons, and has long
been celebrated for its size and for the stories
connected with it. One writer says that fifteen
shoemakers could sit under it and draw out their
cobbler's thread without touching. Another story
about this bell runs thus : ^ A rich count of Toledo
had a son who, having killed a man in a duel, sought
refuge in the cathedral while his father went to
Madrid to petition the king for his pardon. "No,"
said the king; "he who has killed a man mUvSt die!"
The count continued to petition and the king to
refuse, until at length the king, wishing to get rid
of him, said: "When you can make a bell at Toledo
that I can hear at Madrid, I'll pardon the young
man." Now Toledo is nearly sixty miles from
Madrid. The count went home, and some time
after, as the king was sitting in his palace at the
open window, he heard a distant roll. "Volgame
Dias," "God help me!" he cried. "That's the
bell of Toledo!" and the young man obtained his
pardon.

Many bells of Spanish make were brought to
America during the time of the Spanish missions,
and some of them are still in existence in this country.
vSome of these are shown in Figures 117 and 118.^

^See chap. xix.

2Rev. H. T. EUacombe, in Church Bells of Devon.

■See pp. 281 and 282.

242

BELLS

With the possible exception of Russia, no country
of Europe has attached more importance to church
bells than has Great Britain. Ireland claims the
oldest 'Christian bells in existence. ^ Figure 109
shows three modem bells of Ireland, cast by an
English founder. They are the largest and the
smallest bells of the carillon of the Armagh Cathedral.

John Taylor & Co.

Fig. 109. Three hells of the carillon in
Armagh Cathedral, Ireland

The oldest dated bell in England is one at Claugh-
ton, Lancashire, bearing the date 1296, but with
no other inscription. There is one, however, in
Surrey which is said to date from 1250 or earlier.
''Great Peter" of Exeter has been traced back to
the middle of the fourteenth century, but, like most
of the old bells, it has been recast, — once in

^See chap. v.

OTHER • EUROPEAN BELLS 243

1484, and again in 1676. It is used now as a
clock bell, for curfew and matins.

St. Dunstan's bell at Canterbury Cathedral was
cast in 1430.

''Great Peter" of Gloucester has the distinction
of being the only medieval signum, or great bell,
now remaining in England. It was probably cast
about the middle of the fifteenth century. Every
evening at nine o'clock it is struck with a hammer
forty-nine times.

Sir Henry Vernon of Tong, in Shropshire, once
lost his wa}^ in a forest and was guided home by
the sound of the bells of the village. In gratitude
he gave a bell in 1 5 1 8 to the parish church of Tong,
and ordered that it should be tolled ''when any
Vernon came to Tong." It weighs two and one-half
tons, and is called the "Great Bell of Tong." In
1720, and again in 1892, it had to be recast.

In the reign of Henry VIII there stood in St.
Paul's churchyard a lofty bell tower containing four
bells called "Jesus Bells," the largest in London.
In a gambling game with one of his courtiers. Sir
Miles Partridge, King Henry staked the bell tower
and its bells. Sir Miles won, and had the tower
pulled down and the bells broken up. A few years
afterward this gentleman was hanged; and some of
the old writers have said that it was a judgment
sent upon him for gambling for bells.

"Great Tom" of Lincoln is a very old and well
known bell. It was probably made during the

244 BELLS

reign of Queen Elizabeth, and recast in 1610. It
suffered a severe crack some two hundred years
later, and was again melted and recast, with an
additional ton of metal, in 1835, ^-^^ i^ow weighs
five tons. It is used as a sermon bell on great
festivals, and tolls for the funerals of church dig-
nitaries and members of the royal family. It is
also used as a clock bell, and is sometimes rung on
Good Friday.

''Great Tom" of Oxford hangs in a belfry called
Tom's Tower over the gateway to Christ Church
College. The bell has a long inscription beginning
"Magnus Thomas Oxoniensis." It is the descend-
ant of one of the bells of Osney Abbey given to
the college. This old bell was christened Mary at
the beginning of Bloody Mary's reign. It was
damaged and recast in 1 6 1 2 ; was again broken and
recast in 1680, and is now called Tom. It still
tolls one hundred and one strokes every night at
nine o'clock, as a signal that all the undergraduates
must return to their colleges. The one hundred
and one strokes is a time-honored custom, that
being the number of students enrolled the first year
of the college. It is claimed that the two Toms
(of Oxford and of Lincoln) owe their names to the
fact that they give out a sound which resembles
that name

The hour bell of St. Paul's Cathedral in London
is one of England's famous bells, cast in 17 16, and
weighing over five tons. The ancestor of this bell

OTHER EUROPEAN BELLS

245

was old ''Great Tom" of Westminster/ which hung
in a campanile opposite Westminster Hall until
1698, when the campanile was pulled down and the
bell moved to St. Paul's. It cracked soon after,
and was recast in 17 16.
It is struck every hour
by machinery connected
with the clock, and the
clapper hangs idle ex-
cept when the bell is
tolled to announce the
death or funeral of a
bishop of London, a
dean of St. Paul's, a
member of the royal
family, or the Lord
Mayor of the year.

''Great Peter" of
York is one of England's
largest bells, being over
seven feet high and
weighing ten and three-
quarters tons. When
it was cast, in 1845, it
required fourteen days
to cool. Every day at
noon it is struck twelve
times, and it is tolled
occasionally for deaths or funerals. It is also given
twelve strokes at midnight on New Year's Eve.

iSee p. 162.

Fig. iio. "Great Paul" of St. Paul's

Cathedral, London, being lifted into

the tower

246 BELLS

The largest bell in England is ''Great Paul," in
St. Paul's Cathedral. It was cast in 1881 by
Taylor of Loughborough, and weighs seventeen and
one-half tons, is nearly nine feet high, and nine and
one-half feet in diameter. Its tone is low E flat.
Figure no (p. 245) shows the bell being lifted into
the tower of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Perhaps the most widely known of England's
bells is "Big Ben," a bell of thirteen and one-half
tons which hangs in the bell tower of the Houses of
Parliament in London. The complete story of this
bell is given in chapter xvi.

The third largest bell in England was made
recently by the Taylor bell foundry for Bristol
University, and weighs something over twelve tons.

England's carillons have been mentioned in
another chapter. The rapidly growing interest in
carillon music will probably result in more and finer
bells being made, not only for Great Britain and
the Continent, but for all other countries as well.

CHAPTER XXIII

EUROPEAN BELL LEGENDS

When Clot aire II, king of France (615 a.d.), was
at Sens in Burgundy, he heard a bell in the church
of St. Stephen which pleased him so much that he
ordered it to be taken to Paris. The bell was so
distressed at being carried away from home that it
turned dumb on the road and lost all its sound.
When the king heard of this, he was much con-
cerned. A few years before this the French army
had been frightened away by the ringing of the bells
in St. Stephen's Church, and now the king was
perhaps no less frightened by the silence of this one.
He commanded that the bell should be carried back
to Sens. No sooner did the bell approach the town
than it recovered its voice, and rang so loudly that
it was heard at Sens while it was yet seven miles
away!

Many stories are told of bells v/hich would not
allow themselves to be taken away from the churches
to which they belonged, or where they were bap-
tized. In some cases, bells which were removed
were thought to take nightly trips to their old homes
unless they were securely tied with chains and ropes.
In Wiltshire there is a legend of a tenor bell having
been conjured into the river; but when night came
the bell returned, having overcome the fiend that

17 "47

248 BELLS

conjured it. The ringer says, in relating the
incident in rime:

' ' In spite of all the devils in hell
Here comes our old and faithful bell."

Not only the Celts^ but other Europeans also
believed in the power of bells to work miraculous
punishments upon wrongdoers. The incident of
Charlemagne's bell which would not ring (probably
because the clapper was not rightly adjusted, or
the bell not properly hung) will be recalled. ^ This
bell was ever afterward looked upon with great
veneration as the discoverer and punisher of the
dishonest bell founder.

The bishop of Bangor offers another case of
miraculous bell punishment. This bishop sold his
cathedral bells, and became bhnd while they were
being shipped.

There is a story of a band of robbers who went
into a monastery, stole what they wished, and
then, out of mere bravado, went to the bell ropes and
began to ring a peal upon the bells. The priest
prayed, a miracle was wrought, and the robbers
were unable to let the ropes go. The story does
not state how long these robbers were forced to swing
in the air.

Cruikshank, one of the old English artists, has
made this legend famous by his drawing of the
robbers' uncomfortable plight (see Fig. iii).

iSee chap. vi. -See p. 38.

EUROPEAN BELL LEGENDS

249

Another thief who was brought to justice by a
church bell is well known. This thief broke into
a small church in Scotland where he hoped to reap
a rich harvest by stealing the communion plate. He
heard steps outside the building and, fearing that
he might be discovered, looked about for a place
to hide. In a corner of the church he espied a long

Fig. III. Cruikshank's drawmg of the robber band

rope hanging from the dark shadows above and
dangling to the floor. "Aha," he said to himself,

2 50 BELLS

"I'll just climb up there and be out of sight," and
laid hold of the rope. His weight rang the bell so
loudly that his pursuers came at once to the spot.
The thief, being caught, turned to the bell which
had brought him to justice, saying: "If it had not
been for thy long tongue and empty head, I should
not have been in my present predicament!"

According to many legends, bells have refused to
sound at times, and have also rung of their own
accord upon suitable occasions. A bell in the
monastery of Meinulph was said to ring unaided
whenever any of the nuns died. It is also recorded
that the church bells rang without human assistance
when Thomas a Becket was murdered. In 1062,
when a great famine raged in Flanders, a certain
man was found dead of hunger at Ardenburg, near
Bruges. It is recorded that while he was being
buried the parish priests forbade the tolling of the
bells, because he was unknown; and to the wonder
of all, the bells sounded forth of their own accord.

A silver bell in the cathedral at Avignon was
famous for its power to ring of its own volition.
It rang to announce the accession of a new pope,
and when a pope died it was said to toll without
stopping for- the space of twenty-four hours.

Saint Hilda died at Whitby in the year 680.
Bede, the historian, states that "one of the Sisters
named Bega, in the distant monastery of Hackness
(13 miles away), while she was in the dormitory,
on the night of Hilda's death, on a sudden heard

EUROPEAN BELL LEGENDS 251

in the air the well known sound of the bell which
used to call the Sisters to prayers when any one of
them was being taken from this world. Opening
her eyes, she saw, as she thought, the top of the
house open and a strong light pour in from above.
Looking earnestly into the light, she saw the soul
of the departed Abbess attended toward heaven by
angels. She told of her vision to the Sisters who
presided over the monastery, and they assembled
the Sisters in the church. They were engaged
in praying and singing songs for the soul of St. Hilda
when the messenger came to report her death."

There are many legends of buried churches from
which the bells may be heard to ring from the
interior of the earth and from under water. In
some of the mountainous districts of Europe the
peasants collect in the fields or valleys to hear
the bells which, as they believe, ''are sure to sound
out for joy on Christmas Eve from beneath their
feet." In Germany there is a legend of a church
lost in a thick forest. The German poet Uhland
refers to this in his lines which read, when translated :

Oft in the forest far one hears
A passing sound of distant bells ;
Nor legends old, nor human wit,
Can tell us whence the music swells.
From the lost church 'tis that soft though
Faint ringing cometh on the wind :
Once many pilgrims trod the path,
But no one now the way can find.

2 52 BELLS

Much poetry hangs about these legends, relating
how, ''through the silent night — whether to the
fisher or the sailor or the miner — they speak of a
city or a temple that is buried, or a life that has
passed away into darkness, yet lives, and with its
pure and tender sound calls from the deep." ''The
Sunken Bell" by Hauptmann is a well-known poem
which was inspired by these legends. Even musical
composers have made use of them, a notable example
of which is Debussy's "Disappearing Cathedral."

There is a valley in Nottinghamshire, England,
said to have been caused by an earthquake several
centuries ago which swallowed up an entire village
together with the church. Formerly the people
assembled in this valley regularly, every Christmas
Day, to listen to the ringing of the bells in the church
beneath them. It was positively asserted that these
sounds could be heard by putting the ear to the
ground and listening very attentively. Even now
on Christmas morning the old men and women tell
their children and young friends to go to the valley
and stoop down to listen to the Christmas bells
ringing merrily beneath them.

Two fine bells once hung in a church tower in the
town of Lochen, Holland. These bells, however,
had not been baptized; so one day the Evil One
appeared and suddenly carried them away from the
church tower and hid them in two ponds near the
town. This was many years ago, they say, but
the peasants still believe they hear the bells ringing

EUROPEAN BELL LEGENDS 253

from these ponds of stagnant water every year on
Christmas Eve, precisely at twelve o'clock.

A little chapel is said to have been submerged in
one of the lakes at Crose Mere, England; and the
villagers will tell of how the bells may be heard
ringing constantly beneath the still water.

Near the end of the seventeenth century Port
Royal, in the West Indies, was submerged. For many
years the sailors in those parts would tell wonderful
stories of how they anchored amongst the chimneys
and church steeples of the city beneath the sea.
They also declared that at times the sound of the
church bells, as they were agitated by the waves,
could be plainly heard.

The legend of the Jersey bells is well known among
the people of that island in the English Channel.
Many years ago the twelve parish churches in Jersey
each possessed a beautiful and valuable peal of bells ;
but during the long English civil war the states
determined on selling these bells to defray the
heavy expenses of their army. The bells were
accordingly collected and sent to Prance for that
purpose. But on the passage the ship foundered,
and everything was lost, to show the wrath of heaven
at the sacrilege. Ever since then, just before a
storm, these bells ring up from the deep ; and to this
day the fishermen of St. Ouen's Bay always go to
the edge of the water before embarking, to listen
for ''the bells upon the wind." If those warning
notes are heard, nothing will induce them to leave

2 54 BELLS

the shore; if all is quiet, they fearlessly set sail.
As a gentleman who has versified the legend says:

'Tis an omen of death to the mariner,

Who wearily fights with the sea,

For the foaming surge is his winding sheet,

And his funeral knell are we ; —

His funeral knell our passing bell.

And his winding sheet the sea.^

The bells of Bottreaux which were lost on the
Cornish coast have furnished a legend similar to
that of the Jersey bells. The Bottreaux bells had
arrived in a goodly ship to within sight of the town
in which they were to be hung. But before the ship
landed the captain used such blasphemous language
that, as a punishment (according to the legend),
the vessel was driven on shore, and foundered
amidst the rocks, with all its freight on board. The
bells, however, may still be heard ringing from the
bottom of the sea with a warning voice amidst
the breakers when a storm is about to rise.

Once Peter Gyldenstierne, of Jutland, in Den-
mark, in some war with the Swedes was so struck
with the tone of two bells that hung in a Swedish
church tower that he determined to obtain them and
take them to Jutland. He consulted all the vil-
lagers as to how he might get the bells down without
injuring the church tower, but no one could assist
him. Finally a man came to him and said: ''Pro-
vide for my wife and children, and I will show you

iRev. H. T. Ellacombe.

EUROPEAN BELL LEGENDS 255

how to obtain the bells." Peter agreed. The
peasant then had two lofty hillocks of sand erected
at the side of the tower; then cutting the chains
that held the bells, he let them roll down gently,
one after the other. They reached the ground
safely, the tower was not injured, and the peasant
forthwith claimed his reward. "Yes," answered
Gyldenstierne, "I will keep my promise, and pro-
vide handsomely for your wife and children. But
for yourself, a traitor to your country, you shall
take the place of the bells." And the peasant was
strung up to the church tower.

One of the bells arrived safely in Jutland and was
hung in the tower of Thim Church. The other one
was shipwrecked off the coast by "Missum Fiorde."
It fell tongue uppermost, however, and according to
the story, it still lies embedded in the sand. On a
summer's evening when the tide is low, ''the music
may still be heard by the fishermen who ply their
crafts in the water, music so beautiful, they say, the
like was never heard. As for the other bell, her
tones are sad and melancholy; no wonder — she
wants to come down to her sister."

Many of the peasants of Europe preserve the
tradition that the baptized church bells wander
every year to Rome for confession. They leave on
Thursday in Passion week, and return on Easter
morning. In some places the children gaze into
the sky and imagine they see in the clouds the figures
of angels bringing the bells home after they have

256 BELLS

received the pope's blessing. The fact that the bells
were not rung during the three days before Easter
probably gave rise to this belief. Figure 112 shows
a detail of the celebration in Spain on the occasion
of the bell's return from Rome, when the people
dance in the streets and the young men perform
gymnastic feats on the bell ropes.

In Florence and other places in Italy the oil that
dropped from the framework of church bells was
regarded as a valuable remedy for various ailments.
People who suffered with rheumatism and other
complaints were rubbed with this oil, and they fully
believed that it helped them.

In the Lay of the Last Minstrel, Walter vScott
relates an incident of the wondrous Michael Scott:
A wizard of such dreadful fame
That when in Salamanca's cave,
Him listed his magic wand to wave,
The bells would ring in Notre Dame !

According to the story, Michael Scott was sent upon
an embassy to the king of France, and for this trip
he called forth by magic a huge black horse that
flew through the air to France with Michael on his
back. When he arrived in Paris he tied his horse
at the royal gate, entered the palace, and stood before
the king. The king was about to refuse the request
when he was asked to postpone his answer until he
had seen Michael's horse stamp three times. The
first stamp shook every steeple in Paris and made all
the bells ring. The second stamp threw down three

EUROPEAN BELL LEGENDS

257

of the towers of the palace;
and before the horse had
stamped a third time the
king granted Michael's re-
quest and told him to begone.
Countless stories have been
told of bells which pro-
nounced words, and even
sentences, when they rang.
These stories take hold on
the imagination of simple
peoples, if, when they are
told, bell sounds are imitated
in repeating the words the
bells are supposed to pro-
nounce. Such a story is told
of a bell in the old church
at Krempe, in Holstein.
While this bell was being
cast the people from all the
country around brought
silver coins and trinkets to
be thrown into the fusing
metal, for it was thought
that the mixture of silver in
bell metal improved the
sound of the bell. The ava-
ricious founder decided to
keep these valuable offerings _ ^ , , . ,

Fig. 112. Celebrating the return
for himself, so he put them of the bells at Easter

258 BELLS

all aside; but during his temporary absence the
apprentice took all the silver and threw it into
the melting mass. When the master returned the
apprentice told him that he had applied the silver
to the purpose for which it was presented by the
donors; at this the master grew very angry, and
killed the lad.

When the bell was cast, and hung in the tower of
the church, its tone proved to be very fine, but also
mournful; and whenever it was rung it distinctl}^
sounded like "Schad' um den Jungen! Schad' um den
Jungenf' ("Pity for the lad! Pity for the lad!")

''The church bell of Keitum, on the Isle of Silt
in the North Sea, off the coast of Denmark, dis-
tinctly says 'Ing Dung!' which are the names of
two pious spinsters at whose expense the old bell
tower of the church was erected long ago. There
exists an old prophecy in the place that, after the
bell shall have fallen down and killed the finest
youth of the island, the tower will likewise fall,
and will kill the most beautiful girl of Silt. A fine
youth was actually killed by the fall of the bell in
the year 1739; and since that time the young girls
of Silt are generally very timid in approaching the
tower, for each one thinks that she may be the
destined victim. "^

The church at Dambeck, in northern Germany,
is so very old that the oldest inhabitants of the
place affirm that its outer walls, which only are now

^Carl Engel, in Musical Myths and Facts.

EUROPEAN BELL LEGENDS 259

remaining, were built before the deluge. The tower
with the bells is sunk in the Lake JMiiritz; and in
olden time the people have often seen the bells
rising to the surface of the water on St. John's Day.
One afternoon some children, who had carried the
dinner to their parents laboring in an adjacent field,
stopped by the lake to wash the napkins. These
little urchins saw the bells, which had risen above
the water. One of the children, a little girl, spread
her napkin over one for the purpose of drying it;
the consequence was that the bell could not descend
again. But though all the rich people of the town
of Robel came to secure the bell for themselves, they
were unable to remove it, notwithstanding that
they brought sixteen strong horses to draw it from
the place. They were still unsuccessfully urging
the horses when a poor man happened to pass that
way from the fields with a pair of oxen. The man,
seeing what the rich people were about, at once told
them to put their horses aside; he then yoked his
pair of oxen to the bell, and said: ''Nu met God
foer Arme un Rieke, all to geliekel!'' ("Now with
the help of God, alike for poor and rich.") Having
pronounced these words, he drove the bell without
the least difficulty to Robel, where it was soon hung
in the tower of the new church. Whenever a really
poor man dies in Robel, this bell is tolled for him
free of charge, and it distinctly says ''Dambeck!
Dambeck!"!

iCarl Engel, in Musical Myths and Facts.

26o BELLS

The prophetic words chimed by the bells of Bow
Church to Dick Whittington are known in all
English speaking countries. According to the story,
Dick was a poor orphan who found his way to London
and worked in the house of a rich merchant named
Fitz warren. Dick slept in a garret where the rats
were very troublesome until he acquired a cat to
keep him company. This cat was the only thing
he possessed in the world.

One day Mr. Fitzwarren prepared a ship to sail to
foreign countries, loading it with valuable things
to sell. All the servants in the house were allowed
to send something of their own to be sold, to try
their luck in the field of foreign trade. Dick, since
he owned nothing else, sent his beloved cat.

Some time after the ship had sailed, Dick was
treated so unkindly by the other servants in the
merchant's family that he decided he could stand
it no longer, and ran away. He walked as far as
Halloway, and there sat down on a stone to rest
and to think which road he should take. While he
was thinking, the bells of Bow Church in London
began to ring the tune given on the opposite page.
As he listened, it seemed to him that the bells were
saying, ''Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of
London! Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor
of London!"

''Lord Mayor of London!" he said to himself.
"Of course I will obey the bells and turn back if
that is what they promise me! I am willing to

EUROPEAN BELL LEGENDS

261

THE BELLS TO WHITTINGTON

__

^ ffr* N m

« p

L " 1 •

«

"•

T^ C HI J i

IJ *

j; n • ^ >

U'

Turn a - gain, Whit - ting - ton,

v^

Lord Mayor of

Lon

%

I:

don:

Turn

gam,

Whit - ting - ton,

i

4

V

Lord Mayor of

Lon

don.

endure anything if I may only be Lord Mayor when
I am a man ! " So Dick turned back and again took
up his work among the Fitzwarren servants.

Meanwhile, the ship landed on the shores of
Barbary at a time when the queen's residence was
overrun with rats. The cat was sold to the queen
of Barbary for enough gold to make Dick a rich
man. The story relates that he married the mer-
chant's daughter, became a great merchant himself,
was three times Lord Mayor of London, and was
made a knight by King Henry V.

262 BELLS

The latter part of this story is probably true, for
the Sir Richard Whittington of history was three
times Lord Mayor of London, was very wealthy, and
famous for his acts of charity and public helpfulness.
He died in 1423. In truth, however. Sir Richard
was never a poor boy, and the famous legend of
Dick and his cat is probably a myth. The story
has been associated with the bells of Bow Church
for hundreds of years, and the song on page 261 is
placed among the old English folk songs.

Many stories are told of great and lifelong affec-
tion for certain bells. Such a story is associated
with the bells of. St. Mary's Church in Limerick,
Ireland. These bells were made by an Italian
founder, who spent so much care and thought upon
them that by the time they were finished he had
come to love them almost as if they were human
beings. He sold them to a convent for enough money
to buy for himself a little home near by, where he
hoped to spend the rest of his days within sound of
their daily ringing. But his peaceful content did
not last long. The convent was destroyed, and
the bells were carried away to Ireland.

Various misfortunes sent the poor bell maker
wandering about the world, seeking some place of
quiet happiness. In his old age he found his way
to Ireland — to Limerick, where in the steeple of
St. Mary's Church hung the bells which he had
made. One day, as he sailed up the River Shannon,
he heard the bells ringing as he looked at the church

EUROPEAN BELL LEGENDS 263

steeple. After all these years he remembered their
tones, and knew they were his bells. His joy at
hearing them again was so great that his feeble
frame could not bear it, and he died while yet the
bells were ringing.

A peasant bell ringer of earlier days in Italy was
so devoted to the large bell which he rang every
day that when orders were given for this bell to
be kept silent for a time (as a punishment to the
city) his grief was unbearable. He cHmbed to the
belfry, threw his arms about the bell, and wept.
Leaning against the bell, he wailed so bitterly and
so loudly, and the sound jf his voice was so inten-
sified by the metal, that his wailing was heard like
the mournful ringing of a bell all over the city and
far out into the country beyond. There he died,
so the story goes, broken hearted, still clinging to
his beloved bell.

Another story of lifelong affection for a bell is
told in chapter i, pages 1-8.

Bells have been blamed for the disappearance of
the dwarfs and other mysterious inhabitants of
fairy-tale days. These curious traditions may still
be found among the country folk of northern
Europe — it being such an easy way to explain the
absence of those small beings who could not bear
the sound of bell ringing!

According to one of these legends, ^ a large number
of mountain dwarfs of Holstein were so troubled

iCarl Engel, in Musical Myths and Facts.
18

264 BELLS

by the sounds of the many new church bells intro-
duced there, that they made up their minds to leave
the country. So they arranged their affairs, set
out in a body, and traveled northward until they
came to the River Eider. There they found a
ferryboat, but, it being late at night, the ferryman
was asleep. They knocked at his door several
times, and finally he appeared with a bludgeon in
his hand ready to punish the disturber of his sleep.

As he walked in the direction of the river he saw
before him, to his great surprise, a multitude of
gray-looking dwarfs, who moved restlessly to and
fro, like ants when an anthill is opened. One of
them, a very old dwarf with a long white beard,
approached the ferryman and asked that he ferry
the company across the river.

''You will be paid for your services," said the
dwarf with the long beard. ''Just place your hat
upon the bank of the river for our people to throw
the money into as they enter the boat."

The ferryman did so, and the boat was soon
crowded with the little beings, who scrambled about
like insects. There were so many that he had to
make the trip several times before he had carried
all of them across the river. He noticed that each
of them threw what seemed to be a grain of sand
into the hat; but he did not mind that; his one
thought was to be finished with these strange people,
for he felt very uncomfortable among them. The
dwarf with the long beard had told him that they

EUROPEAN BELL LEGENDS 265

were compelled to migrate to some other part of
the world on account of the church bells and the
hymn singing, which they could no longer endure.
This, in the mind of the ferryman, seemed to prove
their connection, in some way, with evil spirits,
and he was greatly relieved when the last load was
on the other side. Then, looking across the river,
he saw the whole field glittering with lights which
flitted about in every direction. The little travelers
had lighted their lanterns. When he came to the
bank and took up his hat, how he opened his eyes!
The hat was full of gold!

Long ago, in Sweden, it was thought to be the
common practice with pagan giants to hurl stones
at the churches, though they never hit them. The
sound of the church bell was very hateful to these
giants. Near Laga^ is a mountain celebrated as the
former domicile of a giant, who lived there until
the time of the Reformation, when the church of
the place was provided with bells. One morning the
dejected giant addressed a peasant from Laga whose
name was Jacob and who happened to be at the
foot of the mountain. ''Jacob," said the giant in a
subdued tone of voice, "come in, Jacob, and eat of
my stew!"

But Jacob, alarmed at the kind invitation, rephed
rather hesitatingly: ''Sir, if you have more stew
than you can consume, you had better keep the
rest for tomorrow."

iCarl Engel, in Musical Myths and Facts.

266 BELLS

Upon this sensible advice the dejected giant com-
plained: '*I cannot stay here even till tomorrow!
I am compelled to leave this place because of the
constant bell ringing, which is quite insupportable!"

Whereupon Jacob, getting a little courage, asked
him: ''And when do you intend to come back
again?"

The dejected giant, hearing himself thus ques-
tioned, replied whiningly: "Come back again?
Oh, certainly not until the mount has become the
bottom of the sea, and the sea itself arable and fertile
land. If this should ever happen, then I may per-
haps come back again." So the church bells
banished paganism from Sweden!

The bells of justice which were used ages ago in
China^ and later in other countries have given rise
to several legends. One of these is called ''The
Stone of Gratitude," which runs as follows:

Once a Roman emperor became blind, but he
still wished to govern his people wisely, and not
allow them to suffer from his loss of eyesight. So
in his palace he had a bell hung with a long rope
fastened to it and extending to the outside of the
palace so that the rope could be pulled and the bell
rung by any sufferer from injustice. When this
bell was rung, one of the emperor's officers went
down to hear the complaint and right the wrong.

It happened that a serpent had her home in the
ground under the end of the bell rope. Here she

iSee p. 306.

EUROPEAN BELL LEGENDS 267

kept her little serpents safe from harm. One day
an ugly toad came into her home, frightened her
little ones, and refused to go out. Then the ser-
pent, in desperation, coiled her tail about the bell
rope and rang the bell. The judge came down,
and after he had finally discovered the serpent and
the toad, he reported the case to the emperor.

''The toad is in the wrong," said the emperor.
"Kill it, and let the serpent keep her home." The
judge did as he was told.

A few days later, as the emperor lay in his bed,
the serpent came into the room and crawled toward
him. The servants were afraid lest it do some harm
to the emperor, but he said, ' ' It will do me no harm.
I have been just to it. Let us see what it will do."

The serpent glided up the bed and laid upon the
emperor's eyes a precious stone which it carried in
its mouth. Then it slipped out of the room and
disappeared. But no sooner had the stone touched
the emperor's eyes than his sight was restored.^

"The Bell of Atri," another justice-bell story, from
Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn, is given in
the chapter on "The Poetry of Bells. '"^

iFrom Horace Scudder's The Book of Legends Told Over Again.
2Pp. 404-8.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE BELLS OF AMERICA

America's early colonists were too greatly occupied
with more serious problems to practice the bell-
founding art, and the first bells used by the colonies
were brought from Europe. Only a few of these
have been preserved. In the confusion and rapid
changes of those early days, they were lost, or broken
by bad handling, or destroyed by fire.

Records show that Harvard College had a bell in
a turret in 1643.^ Reference is made to it in 1650
in the rules and regulations of the ''tolling of the
bell." A second bell was acquired about 1658.
In 1667 the college had regular bell ringing, with
specially stated times for ringing, and instructions
as to the manner of ''ringing" and "tolling."

Probably the oldest English bell in this country
now is one in the courthouse at Barnstable, Massa-
chusetts, dated 1675. ^ In 1685 William Penn
imported a bell to Philadelphia, where it probably
hung in the crotch of a tree and summoned the
people to church and to other meetings. This bell
was hung in the town hall in 1705.

A bell now preserved in a church at Passaic,
New Jerse}^ was cast in Holland in 1700.^ The

lA. H. Nichols, in The Bells of Harvard College, Boston, 191 1.
2A. H. Nichols, in New England Genealogical Register for 1916.
^Passaic church tablet.

268

THE BELLS OF AMERICA 269

original bells of Trinity Church in New York were
cast in England about 1700, and were said to have
been the gift of Queen Anne to that church. ^ There
is now in Trinity Church of Newport, Rhode Island,
an English bell cast in 1702, bearing an inscription
which states that it was donated to the church by
Queen Anne in 1709. It has been recast, however,
and made much heavier than it was originally. The
chimes of Christ Church, Philadelphia, are also
claimed to have been a gift from Queen Anne.
During the Revolution they were removed from the
church and sunk in the Delaware River to prevent
their being destroyed by the British. These well-
known chimes are among Philadelphia's greatest
treasures. In the Dutch Reformed Church of New
York there is a bell cast at Amsterdam in 1731.

A ring of eight bells was ordered from England
for Christ Church, Boston, in 1744, and the cost
was met by subscribers. ^ They are said to be the
first set of bells cast for America. They were used
for change ringing, after the English custom, as is
shown by a circle of eight deeply worn depressions,
noticed many years ago in the floor boards of the
ringing chamber, where the circle of ringers stood.
For more than a century and a half these bells have
mingled their voices with every popular ovation in all
public rejoicing and sorrowing. *'In 1894 the bells
were overhauled^ and new supports, etc., provided.

lA. H. Nichols, in New England Genealogical Register for 1916.

2A. H. Nichols, in Christ Church Bells, Boston.

^Ibid.

270

BELLS

William H. Rau

Fig. 113. Liberty Bell, in Independence Hall, Philadelphia

THE BELLS OF AMERICA 271

The restoration was celebrated by a memorial service
held in the ancient church, when the pealing of the
bells by a trained band of English ringers revealed
to the present generation the prodigious volume and
sweetness of their sound. No more precious heir-
loom has been transmitted from, our forefathers,
and it is to be hoped that they may be preserved
for many centuries as examples of the superior handi-
craft and kindly feeling of our English ancestors."

By far the most famous bell in America is the
Liberty Bell, which hangs at the head of the stair-
way in Independence Hall, Philadelphia (Fig. 113).
It was the first bell cast in America. It was
dedicated to the cause of liberty, and later it actually
''proclaimed the liberty" of the thirteen colonies.
A writer in the New York Herald several years ago
gave its early history as follows :

"In 1 75 1 Mr. Speaker Joseph Parker Norris of
the Assembly of Pennsylvania wrote to Robert
Charles, then in London, to procure a good bell of
two thousand pounds' weight, at a cost of about
one hundred pounds sterling, to be cast by the best
workmen and to contain in well-shaped letters around
it: 'By order of the Assembly of the Province of
Pennsylvania, for the State House in the city of
Philadelphia, 1752,' and underneath, 'Proclaim
Liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants
thereof. Levt. xxv-io.'

"The bell arrived in August, 1752, but was
cracked while being tested, 'upon which,' writes

272 BELLS

Mr. Norris, 'two ingenious workmen undertook to
cast it here, and I am just now (March 10, 1753)
informed they have this day opened the mold, and
have a good bell, which I confess pleases me very
much that we should first venture upon and succeed
in the greatest bell cast, for aught I know, in English
America.'

''This bell was hung in 1753, but the metal was
too brittle (so said the judges), for it cracked.
Another was attempted, but with no better results.
On July 8th (not 4th), 1776, it announced to all the
world that a new republic had been born a few days
before." When the British approached Philadel-
phia in 1777 the bell was taken down and carried to
Bethlehem for safekeeping. After the British left
Philadelphia it was brought back, and it rang from
Independence Hall for many years.

One authority says the bell cracked when sounding
a fire alarm; another states that it cracked in 1835
while being tolled in memory of Chief Justice John
Marshall, and that on February 22, 1843, the crack
was so enlarged as to destroy the sound of the bell.
In any case, the crack renders it useless for all pur-
poses except as a highly treasured and nationally
revered emblem of our liberty.

It has been loaned to various exhibitions, and in
191 5 it was carried across the continent to an exhibi-
tion at San Francisco. The railway company built
a special car for it, with buffers to prevent severe
jolts. Greater honor could hardly have been given

THE BELLS OF AMERICA

273

to any person than was shown to this bell when it
arrived in San Francisco. A holiday, a great pro-
cession, flowers, fifty thousand children singing the
national anthem in the streets as it passed, and a
roar of salutes from the cannon on the fleet in the

GramstorfE Bros., Inc., Maiden, Mass.

Fig. 114. The old belfry in Lexington, Massachusetts

harbor! This was its last journey, for the fear of
further accident to this great national treasure
caused the enactment of a law to the effect that it
should never again leave Philadelphia.

Figure 114 shows the old belfry in Lexington,
Massachusetts, from which the village bell rang out

2 74 BELLS

the alarm on the morning of April 19, 1775, calling
the minutemen together.

The first bell foundry in the United States was
established by the Hanks family, ancestors of
Abraham Lincoln on his mother's side. The first
tower clock in New York was in the old Dutch
Church (at Nassau and Liberty streets), and was
built by Jonathan Hanks and operated by an
ingenious windmill attachment. The Hanks family
continued the making of bells through the genera-
tions, and the art is still pursued by the present
representatives of the family, the Meneely Bell
Company in Troy, New York.

The name of Paul Revere is known to all readers
of American history as the patriot who took a mem-
orable midnight ride to give his countrymen notice
of the coming of the British soldiers. A few years
after the Revolutionary War was over, Paul Revere
built a furnace in Boston (on what is now Com-
mercial Street) for the casting of bells. Here he
made not only small bells, but large church bells
also, and his business was successfully carried on
until he died, in 1818, at the age of eighty-nine years.
His foundry cast more than two hundred bells.
Several of them are still in existence, though many
have been lost, and at one time fifty of them were
destroyed by fire. One of Paul Revere 's bells hangs
in King's Chapel, Boston, and others in various
churches in the country are exhibited with great
pride.

THE BELLS OF AMERICA 275

In many of the early settlements there were no
bells to call the people together, and various other
signals were used. Often a drum or a horn was
employed for that purpose. ''In 1759^ South
Kadley, in Massachusetts, voted to have a sign for
meeting on the Sabbath, and a large conch shell was
procured, and for the faithful blowing thereof the
town meeting ordered that the sum of three pounds
should be paid yearly.

''The following lines were written in Dorchester
in 1 7 19:

Well, that night I slept till near prayer time,
Next morning I wondered to hear no bell chime,
At which I did ask, and the reason I found,
'Twas because they had ne'er a bell in the town.

Later, when a bell came, it was hung on a pine tree
until a place could be prepared to receive it. The
bell was placed in the center of the roof, and the
rope hung down in the broad aisle, where the ringer
stationed himself. He remonstrated when, besides
the nine o'clock bell every night, he was required to
toll the day of the month. One of the Dorchester
by-laws read : ' Constables are to take up loose people
who do not heed the ringing of the nine o'clock bell.'"

The antique chapel bell at Yale College was
described as about as good a bell as a fur cap with
a sheep's tail for a clapper!

The chimes in the tower of St. Michael's Church
in Charleston, South Carolina, have had a most

iFrom Bells, an Anthology, by Mary J. Taber.

276 BELLS

eventful career. Their story is quoted by per-
mission of the publishers of the Everyday Library,
Marvels of Industry,^ as follows: ''Cast in London,
installed in the steeple of St. Michael's Church
in 1764. When the British evacuated Charleston
in the Revolutionary War, they took possession
of the bells and carried them to England. A
merchant of Charleston bought them and sent
them home. When they were unloaded and hung
in the belfry, there was great rejoicing that the city
had its voice back again.

*'But the bells' adventures had only begun. In
1823 it was discovered that two of them were
cracked. After local workmen had made several
unsuccessful attempts to restore the tones, the two
damaged bells made a second trip to England, this
time to be recast in their original molds. In 1839
they were again hung in their place, and, to the great
joy of the people, rang until the time of civil strife
and discord came.

''In 1862, during the bombardment of Charleston,
the chimes were taken down and moved to Colum-
bia, South Carolina, to escape injury, but this was
a most disastrous move, for during the occupation
of Columbia by Sherman's army the bells were
burned in the fire of February 17, 1865. They
were so loved by the people, however, that the
precious fragments were sacredly guarded, and when
the war was over they were sent to London to be

^Copyright, 1916.

THE BELLS OF AMERICA 277

recast. Strange as it may seem, the original molds
into which they had been poured a century before,
had still been preserved. In February, 1867, the
eight bells came back once more to their home in
the steeple of St. Michael. The entire set had
crossed the Atlantic five times, and two of the bells,
seven times. On March 21st, they rang out joy-
ously the tune: 'Home again, home again, from a
foreign land.'

''Since then, they have passed unharmed through
many dangers. In spite of a cyclone and an earth-
quake that nearly demolished the church, they still
swing, uninjured, high up in the steeple.

''At the close of the eighteenth century, the
church narrowly escaped destruction by fire. It
was saved only by the courage of a negro sailor
who climbed to the top of the tower and tore
off the blazing shingles. As a reward for his bravery,
the slave received his liberty, a sum of money,
and a fishing boat equipped with nets."

Among the most important of America's bells are
those which have hung in the missions of California
and the Southwest. When the Southwest was under
the rule of Spain, missions were built along the
California coast, and a line of them extended through
a part of Texas all the way to the Rio Grande.
No less than seventy of these missions were founded
by the monks of the Franciscan, Jesuit, and Domini-
can orders. The devout vSpanish monks who had
charge of the missions had one definite purpose —

278

BELLS

F'iG. 115. San Luis Rey Mission, founded in lygS

that of Christianizing the Indians and bringing them
under the wing of the CathoUc Church. The
patience and gentleness of the padres (as the monks
were called), their wisdom and fair treatment of the
Indians, and the success of their missions, furnish
an interesting page of American history, and one
which reflects credit upon Spain.

One of the first Spanish missions, San Francisco
de la Espada, founded in 1689, still stands in Texas.
The mission of San Jose de Aguayo, also in Texas,
was founded in 1720, and is, perhaps, the most
beautiful of all the missions. The mission archi-
tecture was on the Moorish style, with long arched
porches which afforded shade from the sun. Luxu-
rious fruit trees and shaded gardens surrounded
them. The bell tower was a very important part of

THE BELLS OF AMERICA 279

the mission, and it usually added much to the beauty
of the building.

Figure 115 shows the San Luis Rey Mission of
California (founded in 1798) as it is now. This
was one of the most prosperous of the old Spanish
missions; the building is a hundred and sixty feet
long, and its walls four to five feet thick. The
two-story belfry contained eight bells, one in each
archway.

The less wealthy missions were content with fewer
bells. ''The chime of bells^ was ever an important
feature with the padres in the founding and life of
a mission. These bells were brought from Spain,
and were of the best Castile metal and workman-
ship. Their tones called the Indians to assemble
at the mission, and marked the hours for labor.
By the melodies which they chimed, the padres
and their Indian followers chanted hymns of praise
and songs of thanksgiving. Serra (the pioneer of
the California mission founders) often said that he
would have their ringing sound from the mountains
to the sea, as it was God's invitation to the souls of
heathen men and women to flee to Him and escape
the wrath to come. These bells were of silver and
bronze and other metallic mixtures, to give variety
to their tones. They performed all kinds of service
in mission work and worship, and were indispensable
to the padres.''

iFrom The Missions of California and the Old Southwest, by Jesse
Hildrup. Published, 1907, by A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago.

19

2 So

BELLS

Fig. ii6.

Putnam Studios

The belfry of Pala Chapel, near San Diego, California

THE BELLS OF AMERICA

281

Figure 116 shows the picturesque belfry of Pala
Ghapel, which is, perhaps, the only one of its kind
in the world. It is separate from the main building.
Nature, assisted by birds, no doubt, has conspired to
make this belfry even more picturesque by the cactus
spire growing on its summit.

Courtesy of The Mentor

Fig. 117. The cross and bells of San Diego Mission, California

In Figure 117 are seen the cross and bells of the
first mission of California, that of San Diego,
founded in 1769. The bells were brought from
Spain, and hauled overland from Veracruz. They
were at first hung from the branch of a tree until
a permanent place was built for them. They hung
in the original San Diego Mission until it was
destroyed.

282

BELLS

Courtesy of The Mentor

Pig. 1 1 8. Bells of San Gabriel Mission, San Gabriel, California

The well-known belfry of the San Gabriel Mission
is pictured in Figure ii8. Here again is a belfry of
an unusual type. The open arches in the masonry
were made to suit the sizes of the bells.

When Spain lost her holdings in America, Mexico
assumed control of California and Texas; and in
1833 the Mexican government confiscated the prop-
erties of the missions. "The religion and morals
of the missions were swept away at this time, with
their material progress and the monuments thereof.
The better life of the Indian neophyte passed into
oblivion with the wreck of his mission home. The
padres could protect him no longer. The hand of
spoliation was laid upon the rich properties which

THE BELLS OF AMERICA

283

the Franciscans had created through toil, privation,
and danger. The old padres fled like the Indians. "^
In 1876, the hundredth anniversary of the birth
of the republic, a bell weighing thirteen thousand
pounds, to represent the thirteen original states,
was cast at the Meneely foundry for the tower of
the old State House in Philadelphia. It is called
the ''Independence Hall Bell." Like the original

Meneely Bell Foundry

Fig. 119. Independence Hall hell, cast iji 1876

State House Bell, it bears the inscription: ''Pro-
claim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the

^Jesse Hildrup, in The Missions of California and the Old Southwest.
Published, 1907, by A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago.

284 BELLS

inhabitants thereof." It is in constant use, sound-
ing the hours of the day (see Fig. 119, p. 283).

Another bell of national interest is the ''Colum-
bian Liberty Bell," cast in 1893 for the World's Fair
at Chicago, and made to be rung only on the liberty
anniversaries of the nation. It is estimated that
more than two hundred thousand people of America
contributed to the making of this bell by giving
either money or pieces of gold and other jewelry.
Some gave valuable relics, gold watches and even
wedding rings and thimbles, and hundreds gave
silver spoons. Over two hundred and fifty thou-
sand pennies were sent in. These were all melted in
the bell metal. The inscription runs: "Glory to
God" and "A new commandment I give unto you,
that ye love one another."

The four bells that ring the chimes from the
Metropolitan Clock Tower in New York are known
as the world's highest bells. They are mounted on
pedestals between the columns outside the forty-
sixth story of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower
(see Fig. 120), and were placed in position 650 feet
high, in 1909. They ring the famous Cambridge
Quarters,^ though in a much lower key than the
original. The largest one weighs three and one-half
tons and strikes the hours as well as its part in the
chime. The sound of the four bells is heard many
miles out at sea, and inland also. They were made
at the Meneely foundry.

iSee p. 166.

THE BELLS OF AMERICA

285

***^^i

i» tif fff

f« !* «^^

Fig. 120. r/^e Metropolitan Life Insurance Building^ New York.

The chime consists of four hells, weighing respectively seven thousand,

three thousand, two thousand, and fifteen hundred pounds, and timed

to D fiat, Eflat, F fiat, and G.

286

BELLS

Courtesy of Springfield Chamber of Commerce

Fig. 121. Bell tower of Springfield, Massachusetts, containing a
chime of 12 hells placed 247 feet above ground

THE BELLS OF AMERICA 287

There are many rings of excellent chimes in the
United States, some of them cast at the Meneely
Bell Foundry in this country, and others imported
from abroad. Not only the churches, but many
universities have been provided recently with chimes
for daily and weekly ringing. Cornell University
has a chime of fourteen bells; the University of

Meneely Bell Foundry

Fig. 122. The chimes in City Hall Tower, Minneapolis, Minnesota

California, twelve bells; the State College of Iowa,
ten bells; the University of Chicago, ten bells;
West Point Military Academy, twelve bells; and
doubtless many other colleges and universities
are supplied with chimes. Figure 122 shows a
chime of ten bells in the City Hall Tower of
Minneapolis, Minnesota.

No attempt will be made here to list all the church
chimes in the country; there are too many. The

BELLS

John Taylor & Co.

Fig. 123. First carillon made for the United States, cast
at the Taylor foundry for Gloucester, Massachusetts

Photograph by Curtiss

Fig. 124. Carillon of St. Peter's Church, in Morristown,
New Jersey

THE BELLS OF AMERICA 289

most famous chimes in the New York City churches
are those of St. Patrick's Cathedral (nineteen bells),
Trinity Church, and Grace Church, which has six-
teen bells.

America's carillons

The interest of the American people in bell music
has already led to the building of many "singing
towers," as Mr. Rice calls the carillon towers, and
the founding of many carillons. Unfortunately, the
bell makers of this country have not yet practiced
the art of carillon making, and all our carillons are
at present imported from one of the two English
foundries at Croydon and Loughborough.

The first city in America to obtain a fine modern
carillon was Toronto, Canada. The first carillon
in the United States was hung in the Church of Our
Lady of Good Fortune at Gloucester, Massachusetts,
and dedicated in 1922. A picture of the bells before
they left the Loughborough foundry may be seen in
Figure 123.

The same founders made a carillon of thirty-five
bells for St. Peter's Church in Morristown, New
Jersey, dedicated in 1924. Figure 124 shows these
bells as they hang in the church tower. The key-
board of this instrument is shown in Figure 86.^

The largest carillon in the world at present (fifty-
three bells), and said by many to be the most per-
fectly tuned, was made in 1925 at the Croydon

iSee p. 191.

290

BELLS

foundry for the Park Avenue Baptist Church in
New York City. It was given by John D. Rocke-
feller, Jr., in memory of his mother. Before the
carillon left the English foundry it was set up with
its keyboard and all the wire connections, and
was played by different carillonneurs of Europe.

Fig. 125. Chevalier JefDenyn, famous carillon player of St. Romhold's

Cathedral, Malines, Belgium, testing the set of 53 hells to he

sent to the Park Avenue Baptist Church, New York

THE BELLS OF AMERICA

291

Figure 125 is a photograph of Mr. Denyn, world-
renowned carillonneur of Mechhn, at the keyboard,
testing the bells before they were shipped to America.

w

1^

^;

I la^

^-i-i^it,

1k&

:;Vi|::i

i^MB

^0

I'ffl

fe"

S*.€

1* *'

^^M

K^-~-^- - JB

F^

i!

X^'

1^'

Fig. 126. Largest bell of New York's carillon of 53 hells
on its arrival at the dock in New York City

Figure 126 shows the largest bell of the carillon on
its arrival at the dock in New York Harbor. This
is the largest bell in the United States, and weighs
nine tons. Its tone is low E. The smallest bell

292 BELLS

of the carillon is high A, and weighs only fifteen
pounds.

The bells were hung in the summer of 1925 in
the tower of the Park Avenue Church where, for
several months, superb evening concerts were given
by Anton Brees of Antwerp. These concerts were
heard not only by great throngs in the streets, but
were broadcast by radio and enjoyed by the people
of distant cities in their own homes. This carillon
will later be removed to the tower of the new church
on Riverside Drive, with the bell chamber three
hundred feet from the ground. The bells will be
heard many miles away, and will probably be heard
at their best from boats on the Hudson River.

During the past few years carillons have been
acquired also by Plainfield, New Jersey (23 bells);
Andover, Massachusetts (3 7 bells) ; Cohasset, Massa-
chusetts (43 bells) ; Birmingham, Alabama (25 bells) ;
Detroit, Michigan (28 bells); Cranbrook, Michigan
(30 bells), and St. Chrysostom's Church, Chicago
(43 bells). There is also a carillon at Princeton
University, and other educational institutions are
planning to have them. Albany, New York, is to
have forty-two bells in the City Hall Tower. Two
other carillons are planned for New York City, and
Washington, D. C, is to have three. Mercersburg,
Pennsylvania, will soon have one of forty-three
bells, and Germantown, Pennsylvania, one of
thirty-five bells. In fact, according to William
Gorham Rice, America's foremost carillon authority,

THE BELLS OF AMERICA 293

'* there is every indication that in two years' time
this country will have twice as many carillons of
large compass and perfect tune as are to be found in
either Belgium or the Netherlands.

''Even before the New York carillon is moved to
its new home uptown, Ottawa, Canada, will have
equally noble bells in a tower already constructed,
at a height no less. The fifty-three bells of this
memorial crowning the Victory Tower of the new
Houses of Parliament will be slightly heavier than
those in the Park Avenue carillon. New York. The
commanding situation of this Canadian tower, set
on a picturesque bluff above the Ottawa River,
together with the surrounding open space, the
dignity of the belfry itself, and the beauty of the
whole group of buildings of which it is a part, com-
bine to place it in the very front rank of the singing
towers of the world."

CHAPTER XXV

CHINESE BELLS

From the earliest ages bells in China have been
the most esteemed of instruments. They were used
as standards for the tones of the Chinese scale, and
'$, is said that the bell was the first instrument to
be played at musical performances.

Supposedly in the year 2697 B.C., or thereabouts,
the Emperor Hoang-ti ordered Ling-lun to make
a standard by which the tones of the scale might
be fixed. These tones, the Chinese claim, had been
given to their ancestors by a phoenix bird which
was born in the heart of the Sacred Fire. There
are many legends told of how he acquired the various
pitches that were to form the pattern for the scale,
and no two of these legends seem to agree. After
he had established these tones, however, Ling-lun
went back to the emperor's court and there fixed
the pitch of each note in the Chinese scale. Musical
stones were tuned and bells were made according to
this official pitch, so that the scale might be easily
perpetuated.

Chao-hao came after Hoang-ti, and originated the
custom of marking the divisions of the night by
strokes of a drum. Chao-hao also had made a set
of twelve copper bells, to represent the twelve divi-
sions of the year.

294

CHINESE BELLS 295

In the year 2284 b.c. Emperor Chun estabhshed
uniformity of weight and measure, as well as uni-
formity of the musical scale throughout the empire,
and tried to have all the bells in the empire made
so that their tones were in correct relation to each
other.

Yu the Great, who reigned long before the time of
Confucius, made use of some of the musical instrur
ments of that day in a very wise and practical way.
Wishing to deal justly with his subjects, and to be
easily accessible to all of them, he had five instru-
ments of percussion placed outside the gate of his
palace. These instruments were to be struck by
anyone who wished to speak to the emperor, the
different ones to be used according to the nature of
the business with the sovereign. These instruments
were a large bell, a small bell, a gong, a drum, and
a tambourine. If the applicant wished to complain
of injustice, he rang the large bell; if he wished to
see the emperor on private or confidential business,
he rang the small bell. If he wished to report a
public or private misfortune, he struck the gong.
The drum was to signify a message concerning the
manners of the empire; and when the tambourine
was used, it meant that an accusation of crime was
appealed from some lower tribunal to the judgment
of the emperor.

In about 245 b.c. the emperor of that time com-
manded all ancient books to be burned, excepting

works on agriculture and medicine. New models
20

296 BELLS

were designed for musical instruments, and new
standards for the pitch of notes; and all musical
instruments were ordered to be destroyed and made
over after new models. The bells which had, up
to that time, given the standard pitch, were melted
down, and the metal in many of them was used to
make colossal statues to deck the entrance to the
imperial palace.

Some of the bells, however, were saved. It
seems that the emperor's decree was more rigor-
ously carried out with respect to books than to
musical instruments, and many of the bells and
musical stones escaped destruction by being buried
in the earth, whence they could later be exhumed,
uninjured.

Then came a long period in which music and the
other arts in China made little progress.

Under the Song dynasty (about a.d. 960 to 1279)
music took a new impetus. Many books were
written, but there was so much uncertainty about
the ancient music (which, in Chinese eyes, was the
only correct music) that there was much confusion,
and apparently no way in which the matter could
be adjusted so that the musicians could agree. Very
few considered the bells which gave the official
scale to be correct. So a new set was made, and
this new set pleased the emperor so much that he
ordered his own official bells to be melted and recast.
The musicians were not at all pleased with the new
system, and determined that all trace of the ancient

CHINESE BELLS 297

scale should not be lost. So they connived with
some of the officials, and when the bells were removed
from the tribunal of music and rites one complete
set, instead of being thrown into the furnace as the
emperor had ordered, was buried in the courtyard
of the palace, and long afterward exhumed.

The Chinese very early acquired great skill in the
making of bells, and it is quite possible that the art of
bell founding began with these people, and from
the East extended into Europe. There are now in
China perfect bells which were cast many centuries
before the Christian era. The bell and the caldron
were considered the most valuable treasures among
the bronze vessels in China.

It is a notable fact that many of the Chinese
bells, both ancient and modern, are made with a
hole in the top, and it has been claimed that this is
the reason that they never crack.

Their bell metal is six parts of copper and one of
tin. When melting,^ the alloy appears to be of an
impure dark color, soon changing into a yellowish
white, which gradually passes to a greenish white,
and when this last has become green the metal is
ready to be poured into the mold. Most of the bells
of China are ornamented, some with characters,
some with dCvSigns and symbols.

The Chinese foundries are not only prepared to
make bells of all sizes, but other bronze figures.
A French missionary who visited some of the

iVan Aalst, in Chinese Music.

298 BELLS

foundries in Tartary years ago, wrote: "The
magnificent statues in bronze and brass, which issue
from the great foundries of Tolon-noor, are cele-
brated not only throughout Tartary, but in the
remotest districts of Tibet. Its immense work-
shops supply all the countries subject to the worship
of Buddha, with idols, bells, and vases, employed
in that idolatry."

In ancient times the Chinese employed a bell for
the same purpose for which we use a tuning fork or
pitch pipe ; and this bell served also to give two other
standards besides that of tone. Being somewhat of
a cup shape, it was used as a measure for bulk (as
we use quart measures) ; and being heavy, it was
used as a standard for weight. One specimen of
this triple-standard bell (for tone, bulk, and weight)
appears to have been kept in a royal hall or temple,
to be referred to whenever desired as a standard for
others.

Although the original use of bells in China was
for tone and other standards, they very soon came
to be used, either singly or united into chimes, in
court and religious ceremonies, and their use gradu-
ally pervaded Chinese life in general.

The Chinese name for bell is tchung or chung.
There are two general classes, those with clappers
and those without. The name chung usually refers
to the kind requiring to be struck from the outside.
Most of the oldest Chinese bells had no clappers.
They had not the round form of our present bells,

CHINESE BELLS

299

many of them being nearly square in shape. Some
of the finest of the ancient bells are oblong, and
oval-shaped at the lip.

BELLS WITHOUT CLAPPERS

At an early period the Chinese had a somewhat
square-shaped bell called the te-ckung. It was also
known by the name of piao, and was principally

Fig. 127. Pien-chung, or chime of 16 bells

used to indicate the time, and divisions in musical
performances. It had a fixed pitch of sound.
When a single bell was used, it was suspended in
a frame.

The pien-chung (see Fig. 127) was an arrangement
of sixteen te-ckung or piao attuned to a certain order,
their tones corresponding exactly to the tones of
the pien-king, an instrument made of musical stones.
These two instruments are always found together in

300

BELLS

the Confucian temples. They are necessary one
to the other; the bell chime sounds, and the stone
chime replies.

The po-chung (see Fig. 128) is a single bell sus-
pended upon a frame, and corresponds to the

Fig. 128. Po-chung
tse-king, or single sonorous stone. When this bell
sounds, the tse-king must answer. There are twelve
of them, corresponding to the twelve lus, or standard
tones of the ancient Chinese, and are intended to
meet the changes of key which occur according to
the seasons. At the Confucian ceremonies the
po-chung is placed outside the temple on the right
of the "Moon Terrace." It has to give the note at
the beginning of each verse, in order to ''manifest

CHINESE BELLS

301

the sound" (or give the pitch), by being struck
with a wooden hammer. During the Middle Ages
it was called sung-chung.^ Figure 129 shows a
remarkable Chinese jade po-chung from the Field
Museum, Chicago.

A very ancient form of
bell is the hiuen-chiing, of
peculiar oval shape, with
crescent mouth (see Fig.
130, p. 302.) It was orna-
mented with symbolic
figures in four divisions,
each containing nine
raised knobs of metal.
Every figure had a deep
meaning referring to the
seasons and to the mys-
teries of the Buddhist re-
ligion. The largest hiuen-
chung was about twenty
inches long. This instru-
ment was sounded (as was
the te-chung) by means
of a small wooden mallet
with an oval knob. It is
said that the raised knobs
of metal on these bells
were made so that, bv

Fig. 129.

Courtesy of Field Museum

Po-chung made of jade

striking them successively with a wooden mallet, the

iVan Aalst, in Chinese Music.

302

BELLS

notes of the entire musical scale could be obtained.
According to tradition, the hiuen-chung was included
with the antique instruments at the time of
Confucius, and again came into popular use in the

Han dynasty (from 200 B.C.
until 200 a.d). This instru-
ment has long since passed
entirely out of use. Ten very
beautiful specimens of the
hiuen-chung are photographed
and described in a handsome
volume in the library of the
Metropolitan Museum, and
one who reads Chinese char-
acters may find out all about
them.

Fig. 130. Hiuen-chung The yung-chung is a large

bell in the temple of Confucius which, the Chinese
say, is made to correspond with the very big drum.
The one is not used without the other. The drum
gives the signal to begin, and the bell announces
the end of the hymn at the ceremonies. It is inter-
esting to note that the Chinese use, in so many
instances, their musical instruments in pairs, — bells
and stone instruments, or drums and bells, balanc-
ing each other.

None of the large metal bells in China at the
present day have clappers. They are meant to
be struck from the outside, usually by the ends of
long beams hung by chords or chains. When a

CHINESE BELLS

303

priest strikes a large bell with this battering-ram-
like hammer, there is given off a deep majestic boom
which may be heard for miles around. The sound
is made more solemn and impressive by the use of
the wooden beam instead of an iron clapper.

Figure 131 shows four different kinds of temple
bells with their stands; Figure 132 (p. 304), a
temple bell from an ancient temple, Chen-seng.
These Chinese temple bells may be seen in the
Crosby-Brown collection of musical instruments
in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

Fig.

Metropolitan Museum

131. Chinese temple hells in ornamental stands

BELLS WITH CLAPPERS

At an early period the Chinese had some kind of
bell with a wooden clapper or tongue. This bell,

304

BELLS

called to, was used for military purposes, and for
calling the people together to hear the commands
of the emperor as announced by his herald. It is
recorded that Confucius wished to be ''a wooden-
tongued bell of heaven," meaning a ''herald to pro-
claim the divine purposes to the multitude." One
would judge that the wooden tongue must have
brought out the best tone of the metal, since the
Chinese used it for such noble purposes. But at
present, it is said, the to is used only by ''bronzes
to mark the rhythm of their prayers." Not only

'iJ^'Jr i!^^^ 3B»tt

h

^^m

^•'ll' ■— ^

^^mMSMISM

m

Fig. 132. Lotus-shaped bell from an ancient ~
Chinese temple

the priests in the temple beat upon wooden bells
as they pray, but beggars also tap small wooden

CHINESE BELLS

305

bells as they go from house to house saying their
Buddhist prayers and asking alms.

The wei-shun (see Fig. 133) is a very ancient bell

Fig. 133. The wei-shun, ceremonial hell used
in the Temple of Ancestors

of the Chou dynasty. ^ Its shape was somewhat
like that of a balloon, and it was hung singly upon
a frame. The wei-shun was used mostly for the
ceremonies in the Temple of Ancestors, where it
corresponded to a kind of drum which is no longer
to be found. It has been said that this instrument

iVan Aalst, in Chinese Music.

3o6 BELLS

is simply a large bell with small round bells sus-
pended in it to act as a tongue, the sound produced
thereby being exceedingly shrill.

It must have been bells with clappers which were
used as justice bells by the Chinese. It is said that
during the ninth century these bells were used in all
parts of China (the custom having started with Yu
the Great, many centuries before), and two Arabs
who traveled through China in that century have
given us an account of them. In every town there
was a large bell fastened to the wall above the head
of the prince, or governor, and to the bell was
fastened a rope a mile or so in length. This rope
was laid so temptingly along the thoroughfare that
the humblest sufferer from injustice might pull it
without fear. When the bell rang, the governor
sent for the petitioner, and demanded just treat-
ment for him. Even above the head of the emperor
himself such a bell was hung, and he who rang it
without good cause was thoroughly switched. ^

This custom of using justice bells was probably
adopted by some European countries in later times,
as is indicated by such legends as "The Bell of
Atri"2 and ''The Stone of Gratitude. "^ This is
only one of the many ideas which are often accredited
to Europeans, but which were really original with
the Chinese.

Another tongued bell of China is the feng-ling,
or wind bell. Small wind bells are hung at the

iW. S. Sparrow, "A Dissertation on Foreign Bells," in the Magazine
of Art, 1894. 2 See p. 404. 3 See p. 266.

CHINESE BELLS

307

eaves of houses and pagodas, and made with Hght
silk streamers hanging to their clappers so that the
softest breeze swings the clappers and awakens the
musical sounds. For the sake of this pleasing
effect, wind bells are often hung in halls and cor-
ridors. The pagodas have them hanging from their

Fig. 134. A Chinese bell tower

roofs, and as there are many corners to the roofs
of most pagodas, there is an opportunity for great
variety in the tones which one little breeze may
evoke. On the famous Porcelain Tower in Nanking
(built b}^ Emperor Yung-lo in the fifteenth century;
destroyed in 1853), which was built of white bricks
and had the appearance of porcelain, a number of
bells with clappers were fastened to the projecting

308 BELLS

corners of its different stories. In the Chinese bell
tower shown in Figure 134 (p. 307), the wind bells
at the corners of the roof may be seen.

One writer describes a Chinese pagoda in the
vicinity of Shanghai, octagonal in shape, and con-
sisting of eight stories, each of which '4s provided
with a covered veranda having a projecting roof,
at the corners of which are hung small bells of
different tones, and as there are sixty-four of them,
which are kept in almost constant motion by the
wind, the sound they produce is exceedingly pleasing,
greatly resembling the wild melody of the Aeolian
harp." The bell is still the never-failing adjunct
of the pagoda; and bells, either real or imitated,
form a very common architectural ornament for
the shop or joss house.

Bells are found hanging in the temples and bell
towers in all parts of China, They are of all sizes,
ranging from a few inches in diameter to the enor-
mous bell in the temple at Peking. ^

Not only are bells used in the temples and shops,
but also at home, where even the baby wears little
jingling bells fastened to his garments. In the
streets bells are used in processions of all kinds.
Sometimes many bells are carried on one large
frame; or perhaps they hang by dozens round the
waists of the dancers, to increase the deafening noise
of drums and gongs and crackers.

iSee next chapter, p. 310.

CHAPTER XXVI

CHINA'S BIG BELLS AND
THEIR LEGENDS

The Chinese claim to have possessed bells even
before they had a knowledge of how to hang them.
This important secret (according to the legend) was
unfolded for them by a monkey with a forked tail
which enabled him to acquire the habit of hanging,
during the rainy seasons, upon a limb of a tree, with
a fork of his tail in each nostril, thus completing the
circle. Some of the very ancient bells, when hung,
somewhat resembled swinging animals, and this
resemblance probably gave rise to the legend.

The most popular legends, however, are formed
about the great bells. The two largest bells in
China (at Peking and Canton) are even yet believed
by the superstitious to have miraculous power.

A native account of Canton states that Canton's
"tabooed bell," as it is called, was cast about the
middle of the fifteenth century; but because of
a prophecy which foretold calamity to Canton when-
ever it should give forth sound, it was deprived of a
striker, and all means of access to it were removed.

Finally, one day, a rash official directed a man
to strike it. " No sooner had its reverberating boom
been heard, than upwards of a thousand male and
female infants died within the city." As the people

309

3IO BELLS

explained it, evidently some evil spirit had been
irritated by the bell being rung. So in order to
ward off his influence, or appease his wrath, infants
have ever since worn bells upon their clothing.

Another incident has been related of how the
prophecy held good at a much later period. When
the English forces were bombarding Canton, in
1857, it was suggested to the commander of one of
the English ships to aim a shot at the bell. The
result was that the unwonted boom was heard
again, a portion of the lower rim of the bell was
fractured, and calamity, indeed, befell the city.

During the reign of Yung-lo (1403-142 5) of the
Ming dynasty the capital of China was moved from
Nanking to Peking. In order to make Peking a
city worthy of the glorious presence of the emperor
and his court, stately buildings were erected, and
lookout towers were built on the outskirts of the
city. One of these was the Drum Tower, fur-
nished with an enormous drum of such size that
"the thunder of its tones might be heard all over
the city, the sound being almost enough to waken
the dead."

Another one of these lookout towers was the
Bell Tower which was to have a bell to correspond
with the monster drum. Yung-lo ordered five great
bells to be cast, and the bell which still hangs in
this tower is one of them. It weighs forty tons,
and hangs one hundred and thirty feet above the
street level. It is nmg every evening at 8:30,

china's big bells and their legends 311

when the watch is changed, and can be heard in all
parts of Peking (see Fig. 135, p. 313).

The most famous bell in China is the one which
hangs in a Buddhist temple called the Big Bell
Temple, west of the city of Peking (see Fig. 136,
p. 313). This also is one of the five bells which
Ytmg-lo ordered to be cast. Its weight is claimed
by some writers to be fifty-three tons; by others,
sixty tons. It is fourteen feet high, thirty-four
feet in circumference at the rim, and eight inches
thick. The bell has no clapper, but is struck with
a wooden hammer on the raised square which may
be seen in the picture, — and is struck only upon
imperial order. It was cast about 1420 where it
now stands. The ground was excavated from
beneath it, and later it was covered with a temple.

There are five volumes of the classics inscribed
upon the bell, covering it, inside and out, with
Chinese characters. It is said that this voluminous
inscription was not cut, but was cast with the bell.^
If so, it was indeed a remarkable casting. It is a
common belief in Peking that if any foreigner should
succeed in translating this inscription, the bell
would melt immediately.

There are many varian 01 the legend connected
with the Great Bell of Peking, but they are all
centered around the ever popular idea in China
that self-sacrifice is necessary to insure some public
good. It seems that Yung-lo ordered a mandarin

iCarl Crow, Handbook for China, Shanghai, 1921.
21

312 BELLS

named Kuan-yu to cast a bell which, upon the least
alarm, could be heard all over the city. Two
attempts were made to carry out the order, at inter-
vals of some months, but without success. In both
cases the casting was ''honeycombed." The en-
raged emperor declared that if the third attempt
failed he would behead the unfortunate Kuan-yu.

''Now Kuan-yu had a beautiful daughter, aged
sixteen, named Ko-ai, to whom he was tenderly
attached, and who did all she could to comfort her
distressed parent. One day it struck her that she
would go to a celebrated astrologer to ascertain the
cause of her father's failures, and what means could
be taken to prevent their recurrence. From him
she learned that the next casting would also be a
failure if the blood of a maiden were not mixed with
the ingredients. She returned home full of horror
at the information, but resolved to immolate herself
sooner than that her father should fail."

Ko-ai obtained leave from her father to be present
at the casting, and the catastrophe is thus described :

"A dead silence prevailed through the assemblage
as the melted metal once more rushed to its desti-
nation. This was broken by a shriek and a cry of
'For my father!' and Ko-ai was seen to throw her-
self headlong into the seething, hissing metal. One
of her followers attempted to seize her while in the
act of plunging into the boiling fluid, but succeeded
only in grasping one of her shoes, which came off
in his hand.

CHINAS BIG BELLS AND THEIR LEGENDS 313

Fig. 135. The hell which

hangs in the Bell Tower in

Peking, cast in the fifteenth

century. It weighs 40 tons

Fig. 136. The'' great bell ' ' of
Chi?ia, in the Big Bell Temple
west of Peking, cast about
1420. It weighs 5J tons, or
more

314 BELLS

"The father was frantic, and had to be kept by
force from following her example. He was taken
home a raving maniac. The prediction of the
astrologer was verified, for on uncovering the bell
after it had cooled, it was found to be perfect; but
not a vestige of Ko-ai was to be seen. The blood
of a maiden had indeed been fused with the ingre-
dients."

The sequel recounts how the sonorous boom of
the bell, when struck, was followed by a low, wailing
sound like the cry of a human female voice in great
agony, distinctly saying the word hsieh, the Chinese
word for shoe, a sound still heard after every stroke;
and to this day people, when they hear it, say,
''There's poor Ko-ai calling for her shoe."

The above legend is sometimes told in connection
with the Tower Bell. This is only a recent asso-
ciation, and the legend properly belongs to the great
Temple Bell.

The belief regarding the miraculous power of the
Peking bell is more mild than the uncanny power
attached to the Canton bell. It is believed that
if the great Temple Bell in Peking is struck by
an unauthorized hand it will at once bring down
unneeded rain. N. B. Dennys wrote, ^ in 1875,
that when he and some friends visited the great Bell
Temple outside the city, the priests refused to strike
the bell lest the rain god should be offended. A
small present from one of the party, however,

iln "Folk Lore of China," in China Review.

CHINAS BIG BELLS AND THEIR LEGENDS 315

induced them to let the visitors draw back the
heavy wooden ram which did duty as a clapper.
Strangely enough, as the first blow was struck a
heavy rainstorm came on, and the shaven-pated
attendants roared out in high glee, "We told you
so!" For once, says Mr. Dennys, superstition
carried the day.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE BELLS OF JAPAN

Travelers have written much about the "great
bell of Kyoto," a mass of green bronze that hangs in
the Jodo temple of Chion in Kyoto. It is the second
largest bell in Japan, and one of the great bells of the
world (see Fig. 137). The bell tower which houses
it was completed just before the bell was cast, in
1633, and was partl}^ restored in 191 1. The bell is
ten feet, ten inches high, nine feet in diameter,
eleven inches thick at the lip, and weighs seventy-
four tons. Near it hangs a long tree trunk, clamped
with bronze and iron, which is used to bring forth
the tone of the bell. The great beam is pulled back
and allowed to hurl itself against the bell on the
rebound. It is said to require seventy-five men to
ring it so that the full effect of this great mass of
metal is obtained.

The largest bell in Japan (and the second largest
in the world) was cast in 1902 for the ancient Bud-
dhist temple, Shi-tenno-ji. It hangs ten feet from
the belfry floor, is twenty-six feet high, thirty-four
feet in circumference, sixteen feet across the mouth,
eighteen inches thick at the rim, and weighs over
one hundred and fifty-five tons. It is inscribed with
extracts from the Buddhist classics and the names
of people who contributed to the expense of its

316

THE BELLS OF JAPAN

317

casting. Its voice shatters the air for miles around,
but the tone is not good. Some one has said that
it ''sounds hke the crack of doom accompanied by
a milhon angry bees heard through a megaphone."
Its only claim to fame is its colossal size.

One of the oldest and finest bells in existence is
at Nara, the ancient capital of Japan. Near the

Courtesy of Asia

Fig. 137. The "great bell of Kyoto"

3i8

BELLS

Second Moon Temple (dating from 750 a.d.) stands
a time-worn belfry which contains this monster bell,
cast in 732, when Shomu was on the throne. It

is thirteen and one-half
feet high, over nine feet
in diameter, ten inches
thick at the rim, and
weighs forty-eight tons.
It is a companion piece
to the great bronze Bud-
dha. Its tone is very
fine, and we still marvel
at the art which produced
it. Pilgrims who wish

Fig. 138. Ancient Japanese bells ^q J^gar the tone of the

bell have been allowed, upon payment of one sen,
to swing the great beam which strikes it.

Another large bell is that of Engakuji in Kama-
kura, made in 1301. It is about eight feet high,
six feet in diameter, and its metal is six inches thick.
This bell, like most Japanese bells, has almost the
same diameter from top to bottom. It hangs from
massive timbers in an open belfry on a hillside.
The metal is a lovely hue of green, with an inscrip-
tion in Chinese. This bell is also rung by a rope
which swings a beam, and the beam (when swung
with sufficient velocity) strikes a lotus molding on
the side of the bell, and "a great note quivers forth,
deep as thunder and rich as the bass of a mighty
organ." In former days this bell was supposed to

THE BELLS OF JAPAN 319

be the dwelling place of a spirit, and the bell was
considered sacred. When its thunder rolls into the
valleys, and throbs and quivers between the hills,
one can understand the spirit superstition.

The temple of Zozoji and its belfry were burned
in 1874 by a fanatic incendiary. For two hundred
years the great bell had summoned the people to
their devotions and sounded alarms. ''On the
night of the fire the old bell ringer leaped to his post,
and in place of the usual solemn monotone, gave
the double stroke of alarm, until the heat had
changed one side of the bell to white, the note
deepening in tone, until in red heat, the ponder-
ous link softened and bent, dropping its burden to
the earth."!

Long ago, bells came with Buddhism from China
to Japan. Many old bells have been dug out of
the ground in Japan which have the indications of
being very ancient, and may have been brought from
China. Figure 138 shows drawings of two ancient
hanging bells, and Figure 139 (p. 320) another
antique bronze bell.

It is said that the Koreans were Japan's teachers
in bell founding, though the Chinese also claim that
honor. Certainly some of the finest bronze gongs
and bells in the world are from old Korea, brought
to Japan by Japanese pirates who ravaged the
Korean shores. Figure 140 (p. 321) shows a very
ornate Korean bell in Japan.

1 William E. Griflfis, in The Mikado's Empire.

320

BELLS

Wherever the Japanese learned the art, in their
hands bells have become remarkable specimens
both in construction and decoration, and may easily

be classed among
the finest in the
world. The success
of their ancient cast-
ings (the Nara bell,
for instance) is one
of their unexplained
achievements. "In
Europe^ the method
of producing a really
fine toned bell was
evolved by ages of
empirical trials; but
in Japan, bells of
huge size and exqui-
site note were cast in
apparent defiance of
the rules elaborated
with so much difh-

Metropolitan Museun. ^^^ • ^ ^ „

An antique bronze hell -^

from Japan Such bclls are found

in the temples and swing in handsome belfries
throughout the countr}^.

During the Middle Ages "the casting of a belP
was ever the occasion of rejoicing and public festival.

Fig. 139.

iBrinkley's History of the Japanese People.
2From The Mikado's Empire, by Griffis.

THE BELLS OF JAPAN

321

When the chief priest of the city announced that one
was to be made, the people brought contributions
in money or offerings of bronze, gold, pure tin, or
copper vessels. Ladies gave, with their own hands,
the mirrors which had been the envy of lovers,
young girls laid their silver hairpins and bijouterie
on the heap. When
metal enough in due
proportion had been
amassed, crucibles
were made, earth fur-
naces dug, the molds
fashioned, and huge
bellows, worked by
standing men at each
end like a see-saw,
were mounted; and,
after due prayers and
consultation, the aus-
picious day was ap-
pointed. The place
selected was usually
a hill or commanding
place. The people,
in their gayest dress,
assembled in picnic
parties, and with song
and dance and feast,
waited; while the workmen, in festal uniform, toiled;
and the priests, in canonical robes, watched. The

Courtesy of Asia

Fig, 140. A Korean bell from the
island of Kyushu. Japanese
pirates who ravaged the shores of
Korea in the olden times brought
back bells to Kyushu as trophies

32 2 BELLS

fires were lighted, the bellows oscillated, the blast
roared, and the crucibles were brought to the proper
heat and the contents to fiery fluidity, — the joy
of the crowd increasing as each stage in the process
was announced. When the molten flood was
finally poured into the mold, the excitement of the
spectators reached a height of uncontrollable enthu-
siasm. Another pecuniary harvest was reaped by
the priests before the crowds dispersed, by the sale
of stamped kerchiefs or paper containing a holy
text, or certifying to the presence of the purchaser
at the ceremony, and the blessings of the gods upon
him therefor. Such a token became an heirloom;
and the child who ever afterward heard the solemn
boom of the bell at matin or evening, was constrained
by filial as well as holy motives, to obey and rever-
ence its admonitory call."

The belfry was usually a separate building, apart
from the temple, and often the roof and cornices
were very elaborate. The beam of wood, or tree
trunk, which struck the bell, swung loosely on two
ropes or chains. In nearly all bells of Japan there
was a raised spot upon which the blow was supposed
to fall. After each blow the bell man held the beam
on its rebound, until the bell almost ceased to vibrate
(see Fig. 141). The tones thus produced were (and
are) more impressive than the European bell tones,
though the variety in tempo and expression practiced
by European bell ringers is not possible with the
Japanese mode of ringing. The Japanese love the

THE BELLS OF JAPAN

323

solemnly sweet sound of their temple bells, and
regard them as dear and sympathetic friends.

H. W. Colby

Fig, 141. The Japanese metJwd of striking a large bell. A medallion
is cast in the hell at the spot where hell and striker meet

Another frequent adjunct to the Japanese bell is
the dragon which usually surmounts the bell, and
forms the hook by which the bell is hung. In fact
the hook is called riud-zu, or dragon's head.

The Japanese employ large bells in their Buddhist
worship. The priests also use small bells while

324

BELLS

officiating in the temple, as is also the case in China,
Tibet, and other Asiatic countries. Figure 142 is a
bronze temple bell in the Metropolitan Museum.

Not only in the tem-
ples have bells been used,
but also to serve purposes
of ordinary life. In the
seventh century laws
were enacted to keep the
upper classes from op-
pressing the lower classes.
The use of public horses
was not permitted except
by one who traveled on
state business. Every-
one who had a right to
use the public -service
horses w^as required to
show a token of his right
by carrying small bronze
bells, and the shape and
number of his bells
showed how many horses
he might rightfully use.
Jingle bells were also used as pennants for horse
trappings, even in those early days.

When temple bells came into existence^ "the
hours were struck on them for public information.
The method of counting the hours was influenced

iBrinkley's History of the Japanese People.

Metropolitan Museum

Fig. 142. A bronze temple hell
from JapafZ

THE BELLS OP JAPAN 325

by the manner of striking them. Whether bronze
bell or wooden clapper was used, three preliminary
strokes were given by way of warning, and it there-
fore became inexpedient to designate any of the
hours one, two, or three. Accordingly, the first
number was four, and the day being divided into
six hours instead of twelve, the highest number
became nine."

The Japanese pilgrim who climbs Fujisan rings
a long-handled bell as he climbs, and chants an
invocation which says: ''May our six senses be
pure, and the weather on the honorable mountain
be fair."

A string of bells is at all times worn about the
ankles of the dainty Japanese dancing girl. It is
a symbol of her profession, which she never lays
aside. This practice has suggested the proverb,
"You have tied on the bells," which means, ''The
die is cast."

Bells with fish pendants are very much in evidence
in Japan and Korea on May 5, the boys' Flag Feast,
and on other holidays. These bells have each a
swinging fish attached to the clapper, so that when
a breeze strikes the fish it makes the bell ring.

CHAPTER XXVIII

JAPANESE BELL LEGENDS

There are several legends connected with the
bell at Engakuji. Once a king's son named Sadotoki
became a priest and wanted very much to have a
large bell for the monastery. So he traveled in
great state to the shrine of Benten and implored
the goddess there to tell him how he could obtain
a bell.

''Go, Sadotoki," she said, ''and explore the lake
beyond the temple." Sadotoki did so, and found
at the bottom of the lake a great quantity of metal.
This was brought to land and used to make the
great bell of Engakuji.

Some two hundred years later the bell was mirac-
ulously given the power to toll of its own accord,
when no human being was near. Anyone who
doubted this power of the bell was doomed to be
attended by bad luck and evil fortune. But all
who believed this with proper faith and reverence
were sure to meet good fortune and prosperity.

In the village of Tamagawa lived a man whose
name was Ono. While he was still a young man
Ono fell ill and died, and descended to the under-
world, into the presence of Enma, Lord of Death.

"Why do you come here, Ono? You are still
young, and have not lived out the span of years

326

JAPANESE BELL LEGENDS 327

planned for you. Go back to the upperworld, and
finish your work." Ono repHed, "It is impossible,
Enma. Alas ! I know not the way, and I cannot find
the road in the shadows." Then Enma instructed
Ono, saying: ''Go from here to the south. There
you will hear the sound of a deep-toned bell. It
will be the great 'bell at Engakuji, whose sound-
waves penetrate even into the darkness of the
underworld. Follow that sound, Ono. It will lead
you safely to the upperworld of living men."

So it did; and Ono took up his life again with his
family. From that day to this, he and his descend-
ants have cherished a deep reverence and affection
for the bell of Engakuji, whose ringing had guided
homeward the lost soul of Ono.

One of the Japanese legends is very similar to
the Chinese story of the Great Bell of Peking. It
runs thus: "A Japanese bell founder was bidden to
cast a new set of bells which were to give forth the
sweetest tones ever rung from a bell, and to this
end they were to be cast of mingled metal, gold and
silver. The bell founder melted the metals together,
but for some reason they would not blend. Hotter
and hotter he made his furnace, but all in vain;
the metals, though molten, kept distinctly separate.
Then a sage told him that only when the metals
were fused within a maiden's glow, would they blend.
The bell founder's daughter, who had followed her
father, always watching in anxiety his weary disap-
pointment, heard the words of the sage, and flung

22

328 BELLS

herself into the melting pot. The gold mingled
with the silver, and the silver with the gold, and the
bells were cast. When taken from their molds they
were smooth, coherent, and well tempered; then
they flung out upon the air notes so sweet and
strong that all men paused at their work, and even
the children at their play, to listen to their entrancing
music."

Another legend seems to explain the presence of
the dragon on the top of nearly all Japanese bells.

It seems that a Buddhist priest left his temple
one day, and happened to see a beautiful tea-house
girl who lived across the river, and fell in love with
her. The priest conquered his love, but unfortu-
nately not until after he had won her affection in
return. The girl was grieved to lose her lover, and
tried in every way to win him back. But she failed.
So she went to a magician and implored him to
teach her how she might become a serpent in order
to work her revenge. After months of practice, she
finally learned how to convert her lovely body into
a great, scaly monster which shot fire from its nos-
trils. Now she was ready for her vengeance.

On some pretext she inveigled the priest to come
across the river, and tried her utmost to win his love
again. When this failed, presto! a great hissing
serpent writhed before him! In terror the priest
fled, swam across the river, and hid in the big temple
bell. But the serpent came right behind him, and
crawled up the bell. The weight of the monster

JAPANESE BELL LEGENDS 329

broke the bell down from its hangings; but, still
poised on the top of the bell, the serpent, with its
fiery breath, melted the metal until the poor priest
beneath it became a part of the molten mass. The
writhing form of the serpent seems to appear on
the top of almost every bell in Japan.

Several legends are told of the bell at Mii-dera.
Once there lived on the wooded heights of Hiei-zan
a giant called Benkei. A great fighting giant he
was, whose greatest ambition was to capture a thou-
sand knights and keep their swords. One day he
went down the hill to Mii-dera and stole the great
bell out of the temple there. He put it on his back
and started off toward Hiei-zan with it. As he
toiled wearily along over the hills he came to a
temple and, being very tired, he asked the priests
for refreshment and permission to rest for a while.
The priests offered their hospitality, and the giant
sat down at once and swallowed the contents of a
soup kettle five feet in diameter. After this he felt
somewhat friendly, and offered to let each one of
the priests strike the bell once. Cautiously the
first priest came near the great giant and gave a
tap to his bell. Instead of his usual boom, there
came from the bell the sound of a human voice
saying, "I want to go back to Mii-dera." Each of
the priests struck it in turn, and every time it said,
*'I want to go back to Mii-dera." The perplexed
giant tried it himself, and the only response to his
heavy blow was the shout, "I want to go back to

330 BELLS

Mii-dera!" and Benkei, in great wrath, kicked the
bell down the hill. Down it rolled, bumping over
great stones and roots and bushes, and knocking
against the sides of trees, all the time clanging out
its cry of ''I want to go back to Mii-dera! I want
to go back to Mii-dera!" so loud that people from
Mii-dera heard it and rushed out in time to see their
beloved bell come plunging down the hill!

The monks of the temple tried their best to lift
the bell, but it was too heavy. As they were dis-
cussing the ways and means of getting the bell hung
up in the temple again, Benkei appeared in the form
of a great knight eight feet tall, and offered to hang
the bell in its place if the monks would feed him
all the soup he could eat, cooked in a caldron the
size of the bell. The monks agreed, and Benkei
lifted the bell to its accustomed place. Then he
began his feast, and did not stop until he had eaten
all the food in the monastery. As he drained the
last drop of soup from the caldron he bit into the
iron rim, and the dent of his teeth may still be seen
in this great caldron, still preserved at the Mii-dera
monastery.

The bell, also, carries to this day the dents and
scratches in its surface which it acquired in the
plunge down the rough and wooded hillside.

This same bell at Mii-dera has, in its side, a dent
which, they say, appeared when the metal shrank
from the touch of a vain and presumptuous woman.
The bell was once a woman hater, and would allow

JAPANESE BELL LEGENDS 331

no woman to touch it. Women might admire it
from a distance, but none were bold enough to
incur the bell's displeasure by coming near enough
to touch the metal. Finally, one day, there came
a very beautiful woman to look at the bell, and also
to look at her own lovely face as it was reflected in
the shining surface of the bell. The bell looked so
warm and friendly, and her own image was so lovely,
that she thought surely the bell must be kindly
disposed to her, at any rate, even if not to other
women. She could not resist the impulse to touch
it, gently, with one finger. At once there was an
angry clang, and the bell quivered away from her
finger, that spot lost its brightness, and a dent was
left in the metal as a reminder to all Japanese dam-
sels who may wish to meddle with things too sacred
for them.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE BELLS OF INDIA

India also claims to have used bells long before the
Christian era. Small bells found in ancient burial
mounds in India indicate their great antiquity in
that country. Figure 143 shows a bell with a
clapper attached to it found in a very ancient cairn.
It had been cast, and was of good finish when found,
and the metal is even yet very resonant. Two
others (Figs. 144 and 145) found were of wrought
copper, and were evidently used as cattle neck bells.

According to Hindu history, Krishna, one of the
principal deified incarnations, was once a cowherd,
and for this reason the cowherds have been highly
privileged characters among the Hindus. The

Fig. 144. A wrought copper
bell found in a cairn in India

Fig. 143.^ A cast bronze bell
found in a cairn in India

iFigs. 143, 144, and 145 are from Transactions of Royal Irish Academy,
Dublin, 1874.

332

THE BELLS OF INDIA

333

Fig. 145. A
wrought copper
bell found in a
cairn in India

Hindus have their sacred herds of cattle, and each
herd has its queen cow, which is looked upon as a
sacred object by the people and is known from the
rest by a bell attached to its neck.
The milk from this cow is so revered
that the common people will not
touch it. These animals are generally
mottled black and white, the udder
being black. When an animal of this
color is born, the natives do not keep
it, but give it away to the Brahmin
priests, either when young or after
it has grown up. The animal itself
is also privileged, and petted by all,
and allowed to roam and browse
wherever it wishes without molestation. Every
morning before the temple doors are opened, this
sacred cow, with the bell suspended from its neck,
is led forth by the Brahmin priest to the front of
the sacred portals. No mortal dare peep into the
sanctum sanctorum of the temple before this highly
revered animal has first viewed the deity and the
interior of the temple; after which the doors are
thrown open, and the regular morning service begins.
Cows do not thrive in the trying climate of the
hills in southern India, so the hill tribes, or Todas,
keep buffaloes instead, and look upon the buffalo
with the same reverence that the northern Hindus
look upon the cow. With the Todas the buffalo
is the focus of all village life. Milk is the divine

334 BELLS

fluid, and the buffalo the chief gift of the gods and
the fountain of all milk. Hence the care and milk-
ing of these animals and the charge of the dairy are
among the highest and most respected of offices.
No Toda will eat buffalo flesh.

Among these people the bell which is (for a short
time only) hung around the neck of the sacred
buffalo is worshiped as a god. It is called Hiriadeva,
or "bell god."

Every village does not own a bell, but certain
bell cows of the sacred herds only, which are attached
to the holy Mands or tirieris (holy place). One to
three bell gods belong to each Mand having from
ten to sixty cows (buffaloes). The bell cows are
not selected, but are the descendants in direct
female line from certain originals whose history has
been lost. If a mother should leave no female
descendant, a bell cow would be procured from one
of the other Mands; or the holy Mand would be
broken up, and the entire herd joined to that of some
Mand still possessing a bell cow.

A new bell cow is installed or dedicated in the
following manner. Twice a day, morning and eve-
ning, for three successive days, the priest with his
right hand waves the bell round and round the head
of the bovine heiress, talking to it meanwhile after
this manner :

"What a fine cow your mother was!
How well she supported us with milk !
Won't you supply us in like manner?

THE BELLS OF INDIA 335

"You are a God amongst us!
Don't let the tirieri go to ruin !
Let one become a thousand !
Let all be well !
Let us have plenty of calves !
Let us have plenty of milk!"

During three days and nights the bell is kept fas-
tened around the cow's neck. On the morning of
the fourth day it is removed from her neck and
lodged in the priest's house, or in a niche in the
temple. It is never worn again during that cow's
lifetime.

No one but a priest is allowed to touch the bell
or even to see it. And though the common people
may not look upon it, they pour out libations of milk
to it and pay it great reverence. These bells origi-
nally came from Amnor, and are of great antiquity.
Their age adds to the veneration which they inspire
among the Todas.

Bells not only identify the sacred cattle, but also
hang in the Hindu temples where those who pray
may call the attention of the gods by beating upon
the bells which hang from the temple roofs. They
are used extensively in Hindu ritual, being employed
at intervals to attract the attention of the worshipers
and to emphasize certain parts of the ceremonies.

The little hand bells or ghuntas which the Brahmin
priests use have a counterpart in the sanctus bell
of the CathoHc Church. The ghuntas have been
used from time immemorial, and are often elegantly

336

BELLS

Fig.

146. A bell with a Hindu
deity for a hatidle

Metropolitan Museum

Fig.

147. A bell from India
formed of a cobra and
a lotus flower

Metropolitan Museum

THE BELLS OF INDIA

2>2>7

ornamented. The pre-
vSiding deity or his em-
blem is usually worked
into the ornamentation.
A Hindu deity forms the
handle of the bell in Fig-
ure 146. The snake (co-
bra) is frequently found
curled around the base,
the head forming a can-
opy (see Fig. 147).

Monkeys fill a most
important place in the
poetry, mythology, and
religion of India. Many
of the bells of India
embody representations
of the legendary monkey
god, Hanuman. Figure
148 shows a prayer bell
with an elaborate handle
full of symbols. The fig-
ure of Hanuman on the
handle is supposed to
add greatly to the power
and efficacy of the bell
when it is rung before
the image of this mon-
key god. Long before
they were known in

From a drawing by Mignon HofFner

Fig. 148. A prayer hell of India,
with a monkey god for a handle

338 BELLS

Europe, bells were used in Hindu temples to frighten
away evil spirits. So that idea was probably not
original with our Anglo-Saxon ancestors.

In India the elephants wear bells. They are often
made of very hard wood, and each bell has two hard-
wood clappers tied outside the bell. A cord runs
through the clappers and the bell, and is tied around
the elephant's neck. As he walks, the clappers
beat against the side of the bell. Metal bells are
also employed. Elephants are used in India for
service, as we use horses. They are turned loose
at night to forage for themselves, and if it were not
for the bell which each elephant wears, the native
would not be able to locate his elephant in the jungle
next morning. It is said that every elephant driver
knows the tone of his own elephant's bell, and that
he never makes the mistake of hunting down the
wrong animal. In Ceylon elephants are trained to
work in the lumber industry, and here, too, bells
are worn on their necks.

These elephant bells are also useful in keeping
away bears and other wild animals. A case is
reported^ ''where an isolated camp had been repeat-
edly attacked by bears, which were with some diffi-
culty driven off. The servants eventually adopted
the habit of carrying an elephant bell in their hands,
which so alarmed the bears by the supposed presence
of elephants, that they retired from the vicinity of
the camp altogether."

iR. T. Kelly, in Burma Painted and Described, London, 1905.

THE BELLS OP INDIA 339

All the cattle in the field also wear bells. These
are sometimes made of bronze, but usually of hard-
wood, "made in the form of an oblong box in which
hang four or more clappers. These serve the double
purpose of locating the cattle as well as frightening
away the snakes as they browse." Sometimes
bells are fastened to the horns of bullocks, and hang
between the animals' eyes.

Fig. 149. Wind bells of Burma

As in other countries, bells have a part to play
in the social life of the people of India. Like the
dancing girls of Japan, those of India also wear bells
as a symbol of their profession. A string of small
brass bells is tied around each leg immediately
beneath the ankle.

Small wind bells, resembling those of China, are
also popular in India. A group of these bells, with
their silken "sails," may be seen in Figure 149.

340 BELLS

The bull carts and peddlers' horses of India have
bells to announce their coming; and the "magic
show" on the street collects its audience, not by
signs or advertising, but by ringing a bell in front
of the tent.

CHAPTER XXX

BURMESE BELLS

Bells are dear to the heart of every Buddhist,
and the Burmans (people of Mongolian blood living
in the eastern part of India) are very fond of huge
ones. The casting of a large bell has been for a
long time a favorite way of "winning merit," for
which the Burmese hope to gain reward in a future
existence. It is a ceremony of religious importance,
and great preparations are made for it. Burmese
bells^ "are cast by the ancient and artistic method
known as cire -perdu. When some wealthy man has
decided to 'win merit' by presenting a bell to the
pagoda, the occasion is one that interests the whole
neighborhood. The great clay model is made,
coated with wax, and covered on the outside with
a layer of clay. The crucibles containing the bub-
bling amalgam of copper and tin are placed upon
the open furnaces around. Bands of musicians fill
the air with music, and songs are sung in chorus by
the crowd; the excitement and enthusiasm become
intense; women take off their golden bangles and
necklaces and throw them into the melting pots;
the hot metal hisses and splutters as it is poured
into the mold, the melted wax flows out, and the
bell is cast. The Pali inscription, in which the

^Picturesque Burma, by Mrs. Ernest Hart.

341

342 BELLS

donor's name, his works of charity, and his hopes
of reward are set forth, is then chiseled in the
surface."

In all Burmese pagodas bells figure largely, and
some of the temples have more than one large bell.
In the Shwe Dagon Pagoda at Rangoon, for instance,
there are bells in every corner of the temple. Some
of these bells are of enormous size, covered by a
handsome pyathat, which is a canopy of several roofs
one above the other, diminishing in size toward the
top, and finally ending in an elongated finial. Other
bells of smaller size hang out in the open, suspended
by handsome metal work between highly ornamented
posts. Beside each bell there usually hangs a deer's
antler with which to strike it. When Buddhists
pray, it is their custom to strike the ground and the
bell in alternate strokes, in order to call the attention
of the ' ' Nats ' ' of the under and upper worlds to their
act of piety.

In one of the corners near the Shwe Dagon
Pagoda is the shrine of the great bell, or Maha
Ganda, ''the great sweet voice," fourteen feet high,
over seven and a half feet in diameter, and with
metal fifteen inches thick. It is said to weigh over
forty-two tons. Pali inscriptions cover its surface.
In 1579 an Italian traveler wrote of having seen this
bell, saying that at that time no one remembered
where it came from, or how it came there; and that
"there was no nation that could understand its
inscription."

BURMESE BELLS 343

Near another comer of the platform of the Shwe
Dagon Pagoda hangs another large bell weighing
over eleven tons, which has had a very interest-
ing history. During the war of 1826 the British
conquerors seized this bell when they captured
Rangoon, and tried to transport it to Calcutta.
The boat upon which the English had placed it
capsized in the Rangoon River, and the bell fell to
the bottom. All their efforts to raise it were futile,
and it was finally abandoned.

Some years later the Burmese asked if they might
have the bell if they could get it out of the river.
The official reply was, "1/ you can raise it, you may
have it." After immense efforts, the huge mass of
metal was at last lifted and borne away in triumph
to their sacred pagoda, where it remains as a lasting
tribute to Burmese determination.

Conflicting reports have been given as to how the
bell was removed from the river. One writer* (in
1827) relates that the natives raised the bell *'by
attaching two cables to it, which at low water were
made fast to a brig moored over it. When the tide
rose, so did the bell, and it was hauled ashore."

A recent writer says: ''Now the Burmese had
no heavy tackle; but they had a small idea whose
application solved the problem. They made a
heavy disk of solid teak, the exact size of the bell's
greatest diameter at the lip, and fastened it firmly
to the other end, or ear of the bell, and in that man-
ner made a double wheel of it. They were then able,

23

344 BELLS

by passing ropes around the center, to roll the bell
out of the river and replace it on the temple plat-
form. "^

This story has been told of the great forty- two
ton bell, Maha Ganda, but it is a mistake. It was
the eleven-ton bell that was dropped in the river.

Even the Maha Ganda is small compared to the
Great Bell of Mandalay, or the Mingon Bell. It is
located on the bank of the Irrawaddy, almost oppo-
site the city of Mandalay. The bell is twelve feet
high to the crown, and twenty-one feet high to the
top of the monsters. Its diameter is sixteen and
one-quarter feet at the lip, and it weighs between
eighty and ninety tons. It is the third largest bell
in the world, and for a hundred years was second
only to the Great Bell of Moscow.

The Mingon Bell was cast toward the end of the
eighteenth century by order of King Bodoahpra, who
wished to be remembered as the king who had built
the largest pagoda and cast the largest bell in Burma.
King Bodoahpra 's reign is famous as having extended
over thirty-six years, and his memory is revered as
the sovereign during whose time Burma flourished
and extended its limits to distances never before
attained. It is said that in the masonry of the
enormous unfinished pagoda near the bell, lie
entombed a hundred images of solid gold, life size,
each image representing one of the members of King
Bodoahpra 's family. The story relates that the

^Walter Del Mar, in The Romantic East, London, 1906.

BURMESE BELLS

3'45

members of the royal family (sons and daughters)
amounted to ninety-nine, and that the king was

Fig. 150. The Great Bell at Mingon, Burma, before it was lifted
obliged to adopt one child into his household to
make up the round number of one hundred.

There was an old prophecy to the effect that the
completion of the Mingon Pagoda would bring dis-
aster to King Bodoahpra's dynasty. So it was

346 BELLS

never finished. In 1838 the shock of an earthquake
brought the edifice to a heap of ruins. At the same
time, the supports of the bell gave way and it sank
to the ground, and remained in that position for
half a century (see Fig. 150, p. 345). It was originally
suspended on three massive beams of teak, placed
horizontally, one over the other. At some time
during the last half century it was raised and stones
inserted below the lip. In recent years it has been
lifted so that it swings free, and an ornamental shed
has been erected over it.

In the temple at Moulmein low bronze bells stand
at each corner for the people to smite with staghorns
when they come to pray. Near the Moulmein
Pagoda a famous bell hangs from a beam supported
by four pillars. The Burmese, in order to protect
this bell from their European aggressors, have placed
a threat on the inscription. Besides an inscription
in Burmese characters, there is a sentence in poor
English, running thus: ''This bell is made by
KooNaLinnGahjah the priest, and weighs 600 viss
[about 1,100 pounds]. No one body design to
destroy this bell. Maulmain March 30, 1885. He
who destroyed this Bell, they must be in the Great
Heell, and unable to coming out."

Another bell in front of an adjacent shrine bears
this inscription: "Maulmain 6th March 1887 at
2 P.M. cast a bell by the name of Madoothara made
in the quiet reign of Queen Victoria. The dimen-
sions 3 ft. 6 in. in diameter 4 ft. in height 10 ft. 6 in.

BURMESE BELLS 347

in circumference 4 inches in thickness weight 1028
viss. . . . Do not destroy this tremendous bell."

In an obscure temple in the northwestern part of
India there is a large bell about three hundred years
old, made in Burma, and almost covered with an
inscription in Burmese characters. Figure 151
shows the bell, and Figure 152 shows a part of the
inscription which gives the story of why the bell
was cast.

It seems that early in the seventeenth century the
king of Pegu, invaded by his neighbor, the Burmese
ruler of Pugan, called upon his ally, the king of
Martaban, for help. After gaining his object and
driving out the invader, the king of Pegu then tried
to destroy his ally. But he became justly the vic-
tim of his own treachery, and was defeated by the
Martaban king, who took possession of Rangoon,
''the abode of royalty, learning, jewels and war-
riors." Later Martaban, having established peace
among the people whom he had conquered, had this
bell, weighing about 3,130 pounds, cast to serve as a
justice bell for the people, and a ''w^ork of merit " for
himself. The Burmese inscription, when translated,
thus describes the conflict and the events that follow :

"When the king of Martaban arrived in the
kingdom of Pegu, he mounted the elephant Airawon,
and attacked the armies of Pagahm with such firm-
ness and resolution that it was impossible for them
to withstand the shock. The king of Martaban,
with his nobles, generals and victorious army

BELLS

Fig. 152. Burmese inscription on
the above hell which relates the
story of why the hell was cast

Fig. 151. A Burmese hell,

found in India, cast ahout

three hundred years ago

cw^yoSwS: c«o£|M^iioo5lii 080511 -qooiioooiio
cc»D aiCoo5cooo(£:c§<Soocp: fc^j^oqiSoo^gSg^
5@@^co5goo3^o§(fi^oqia5i. c»«^o5g1joeoc«g
^@:ooScciS:9oqca)oco^?; cjpSoSooo cgoenococo
ccp6@^coo5occxoqai5j|Sg^q«»5<iccx3ocgc<X)S
ooo5cco5c§(3o85:o(S£ji;o:cp»i>DOcoc8ajcp: leg;

sdd: aDo5ca)oo^ooo:c^(S@3:c5;|[9l^:dlcSii "do^^ll

cp: @oq(^:«<S: Soqcp:a>D:cc3oSc§:coo5o§TOO:93s|
codi cjjea3^a6Ss5sx3cpoo«o:yo34sDoSo30^
§oq|(?co^?ca»cosj)oooogf5o1s3cdl(S: o^ssotssa

«3o5aooSci§§cooo(S : coooo:^ocfioooc§|col : oo^Q
*5^o§^oo5p: aooSdl: ogo^g^c^pdifoog^ca
osggoocp: »oSc51 : c^o^a^Scaoofcooocoooa^jOsg

?Ml^o1c§CCO0ll II^OTJOOC^dll qCJp<?g^(S02<?ll g^

f oo?ncooo(Sqgii? : d^cooo ng^o^fsssyc^ nj^sglf ooSii

BURMESE BELLS 349

returning, were met by the king of Pegu mounted
upon the elephant Vopantatha, surrounded by the
chiefs and armed divisions of his royal forces. The
king of Martaban, distrusting Pegu, and seeing
himself surrounded by his army, began to tremble
for his hfe, and he therefore vowed that should he
be delivered, he would give charitably to religion;
then having mounted his elephant Airawon, he
assembled his generals and set his troops in battle
order. The two armies being now engaged, the
king of Pegu riding upon his elephant Vopantatha,
was charged by the monarch of Martaban, seated
upon the elephant Airawon. The tusks of the
former elephant being broken in the encounter,
he (Pegu) was unable to sustain the fight, and turned
and fled, upon which the army of Pegu was defeated,
and his nobles and generals destroyed. . . .

''Having banished the evil doers, Martaban ruled
over the country in peace. . . . The inhabitants
of the whole earth enjoyed the light of his wise
administration of the laws. In like manner as the
stars are illuminated by the brightness of the full
moon, so the king desired to see his nobles and
warriors and his subjects, in number more than a
hundred thousand, increase their riches in propor-
tion to his own prosperity. The king by means of
his ten royal virtues increased in benevolence. . . .

' ' Sometime during the season Ganthayedda, when
the king reclined upon the royal couch and pleasure
filled his breast, he reflected upon the just laws of

3 so BELLS

the world, and thought it would be right to erect a
statue of the deity in the country of Pegu, and
establish for the people a true system of justice that
they may neither fear nor hate him, but bear him
in respectful remembrance, and for this purpose he
determined to cast a bell and place it beneath a
double roof [belfry or temple] that the people might
give notice of their wrongs by striking it, the sound
of which reaching his ears, he would be enabled to
redress their wrongs.

''He therefore expended a thousand vis of pure
silver in the construction of this bell.

''On Monday, the twelfth day of the waxing of
the moon of July, three hours and a half after the
rising of the ninth sign of the zodiac, in the year 984
[agreeing with a.d. 1622], the king caused this bell
to be cast, its weight being 8,254 vis, and it was
placed beneath a double roof. From the time of
its being so made and suspended, the people have
struck it upon the occurrence of any injustice, the
sound of which, having been heard by him, he has
directed justice to be properly administered. The
people of the countr^r perceiving, felt as if washed
with water [abuses abolished].

"If this bell be destroyed, let future monarchs
repair it; to this end I have made it, that the
people might obtain justice, and that I might obtain
Nibban, and all ages till that time the laws might
be duly administered. This work of merit I have
done."

CHAPTER XXXI

BELLS AND BUDDHISM

Bells have a religious significance in all countries,
and in most of them bells are particularly associated
with religious ceremonials. They were used in Asia
in religious worship long before the Christian era,
and travelers have been struck with the similarity
of the ceremonials in the oriental temples with those
of Catholic churches. The early Christians exorcised
devils with bells, and still find them indispensable.
The Russians are especially reverential to bells.
Brahmins, Buddhists, Confucianists, all use bells;
and even the Mohammedans who do not use bells
lest they disturb the peace of departed souls floating
in the air, give them at least some considera-
tion, for the Koran says that bells hang on the
trees of Paradise and are set in motion by wings
from the throne of God as often as the blessed wish
for music.

The superstitious beliefs among European Chris-
tians concerning bells have been mentioned in a
former chapter. Bells seem to be particularly fitted
to the nurturing of superstitions among all kinds of
people, both savage and civilized. To the present
day, the Chinese frighten av/ay, by the united aid
of bells, gongs, and kettles, the terrible dragon which
occasionally attempts to devour the moon.

351

352

BELLS

Fig. 153. Bronze prayer hells of the Chinese

Amulets and charms worn about the person are
of great importance to the Chinese, and the most
common of all are the little bells worn by Chinese
children, especially in the southern provinces. The
origin of the custom as regards Canton has been
given on page 310, but Dennys^ says: '*A belief in
the occult qualities of bells is so widespread that
considerable doubt may reasonably exist whether,
even if the legend be true, the Cantonese did not
merely amplify an existing practice by way of
appeasing the demon of the bell. It is, at all events,
strange that our own ancestors should have credited
bells with possessing occult powers to aid mankind
in their combat with the spirits of darkness, while
the Chinese propitiate the same enemies by wearing
models of bells upon their clothes. But a yet more
odd coincidence is found in the sixty-six bells attached
to the ephod of the Jewish High Priest when engaged
in sacerdotal ministrations."

In almost all Buddhist monasteries a bell is tolled
by the monks both morning and evening. These
regular tollings comprise a series of 108 strokes.

iln "Folk Lore of China," in China Review.

BELLS AND BUDDHISM 353

"This number^ represents the 12 months of the year,
the 24 divisions of the year as to sun position, and
the 72 divisions of the year into terms of five days,
making a total of 108. It is the whole year which
is thus entirely devoted to the honor of Buddha.

''The manner of ringing these 108 strokes varies
according to different places. The following are a
few ways : At Hang-chow the tolling is regulated by
the following, which has become a popular tune :

** At the beginning, strike 36 strokes;
At the end, still 36 again;
Hurry on with 36 in the middle;
You have in all but 108, then stop.

**At Shao-hsing another quartet has the following:

** Lively toll 18 strokes;
Slowly the 18 following;
Repeat this series 3 times,
And 108 you will reach.

**At T'ai-chow, we find the following ditty:

"At the beginning strike 7 strokes;
Let 8 others follow these ;
Slowly toll 1 8 in the middle ;
Add 3 more thereto;
Repeat this, series thrice;
The total will be 108.

"Although the manner of ringing differs according to
different places, it is fancied everywhere that the
sound of the bell procures relief and solace to the

^According to Henry Dore, in his Researches into Chinese Superstitions.

354 BELLS

souls tormented in the Buddhist hell. It is thought
that the undulating vibrations, caused by the ringing
of the bells, provoke to madness the king of the
demons, T'oh-wang, render him unconscious, blunt
the sharp edge of the torturing treadmill, and also
damp the ardor of the devouring flames of Hades.

''At the death of the first Empress Ma of the
Ming dynasty, every Buddhist monastery tolled
thirty thousand strokes for the relief of her soul,
because, according to Buddhist doctrine, the de-
parted, on hearing the ringing of a bell, revive. It
is for this reason that the tolling must be performed
slowly."

One Chinese writer, however, seems to have little
patience with this point of view, and in a work
entitled Buddhist Names he says: ''The bell is a
hollow instrument ; the larger it is, the deeper are its
sounds, but who could cast one large enough to make
its tollings heard in the infernal regions? Even
should that happen, such a sound is but a mere
empty noise, incapable of awing the ruler of Hades,
and powerless also to break the sharp-edged tread-
mill which tortures the damned. Wealthy families,
desirous of rescuing from hell the souls of their
ancestors, offer presents to the Buddhist monas-
teries in order that the monks would toll the bells
unceasingly day and night, and perform this service
even for several successive days. They may toll
them till they deafen the ears of the neighbors, who
curse and swear at them; and they may ring till the

BELLS AND BUDDHISM

355

bells burst, they will never thereby rescue a single
soul out of Hades. It matters little whether they
toll a brass bell or strike on a wooden one, the
result is practically useless in both cases."

The religion of Burma is
Buddhism in its purest form.
Its acme of human happiness
is found in Nirvana, a state of
passive existence free from all
passions and cares, "to attain
which the soul has to go
through an endless transmi-
gration of ever improving ex-
istence." To attain a better
position in the next stage of
life is possible only by doing
some work of merit. Such a
work of merit consists in erect-
ing a pagoda or a shrine, or
donating a bell to the temple,

or something else of public Metropolitan Museum

utility. Hence the generous F-,^^54jj7«-t;,,t

and gorgeous offerings the

Buddhists are always willing

religion. The numerous bells in the temples and

the monster bells outside the temples are evidences

of the Burmese belief that the donation of a bell is

a real public service and a ''work of merit."

An invocation to Buddha is a favorite inscription
for bells. At the door of each Buddhist temple is

India during prayer

to make for their

356 BELLS

a bell which the believers strike when they enter the
temple, in order to * ' call the attention of the sleeping
gods." Beside each bell in the temple is a deer's
horn to be used in striking the bell, and whenever
the worshipers pray they strike the bell, to make
sure that the gods notice their acts of piety.

''The bell^ is almost as characteristic a symbol of
Buddhism as is the seated figure of Buddha himself.
It varies, in the different Buddhist countries, with
the temperament and tastes of the people. In
Burma, where even Buddhism turns to sunshine and
to prettiness, and the towers of the temples evapo-
rate in lacework and jewelry, the bells, glittering
with precious stones, hang in clusters from an
umbrella-like top of the pagoda spire and ring
at their own sweet will. In the temple courts of
Rangoon and Mandalay there is a continuous
symphony of tinkling and chiming things — dainty,
casual, wayward.

"But the bells of China and Korea and those of
Japan are more grandiose and sober. To the
Japanese the temple bell is, in a sense, the voice of
Buddha. Like the stained-glass windows of Euro-
pean cathedrals, Japanese bells are storied records
of their temples and their times. They bear
inscriptions by famous poets and scholars; they are
molded into a wealth of symbolism. And around
them cling, like moss and flowers that have over-
grown the woodland Buddhas of Nikko, legends and

iMarjorie Barstow Greenbie, in an article on the "Bronze Voices of
Buddha," in Asia, January, 1921.

BELLS AND BUDDHISM 357

tales and history that Hve on the Hps of generations
who have dwelt in the shadow of some great bell
and whose lives have been unconsciously attuned
to its grave and sober harmony.

*'Yet, though the imagination of the people clings
around it, the temple bell seems to speak most
eloquently from lonely places, from the heart of
monastic woods, from heights to which the con-
templative may withdraw for meditation. It has
none of the familiar and sociable character of the
occidental church bell. Though Christianity, like
Buddhism, has tmderstood the value of the bell,
the difference between the bells of the East and
West is typical of a difference in the genius of the
two faiths. In the cities of England and northern
Europe the bell is first to speak out on any occasion
of special significance to the people. It announces
funerals, weddings, fires, and wars. It is at its best
in the expression of communal joy. The very
method of ringing — in carillons, chimes, and joyous
changes — makes it seem a representation of many
voices raised in a chorus of gladness.

"The Buddhist bell has none of these social char-
acteristics. It could hardly quicken its deep tone
to speak of joy. It seems a voice apart from tem-
poral things, cognizant only of eternity and Nirvana.
Yet on any occasion of general sorrow its accent —
tranquil, remote, unhurried — may be immeasurably
consoling. An American who lived in Kobe while
the epidemic of influenza was at its worst, often

358 BELLS

Speaks of the comfort he felt in the sound of the
temple bell from the hill. All day he saw the pro-
cession of the dead pass his house, and the smoke of
the crematories dimming the sky; but every night
at nine o'clock the great bell spoke out — serene and
gracious on the evening air — and its grave voice
seemed to be saying: 'Fret not; for all this passes.
It is well.'"

CHAPTER XXXII

BELLS AND ARCHITECTURE

The magnificent buildings of the ancients which
gave us so much of architectural beauty in other
respects, had no towers. Compare the Temple of
Karnak, the Parthenon, or the Temple of Theseus
with the Antwerp and Cologne cathedrals (see
Figs. 91, 15s, and 156).

After Christian church bells came into use, towers
(from which the bells could be more easily heard
by the people) began to develop, and Christian archi-
tecture took on a distinctive form. The bell rooms

Gramstorff Bros.. Inc. Maiden, Mass.

Fig. 155. The Temple of Theseus, Athens
24 359

36o

BELLS

Fig. 156. Cathedral at Cologne. Germany

BELLS AND ARCHITECTURE

361

on the church roof have gradually become higher
and higher, more and more perfect in form, graceful
spires and other ornamental features have been
added; and thus we owe to
bells most of the famous towers
of the world. All art is, in
some sense, the outgrowth of
practical usage, and ''bells
were not made for towers, but
towers for bells." The watch
tower and the church belfry
are the two useful objects
which have contributed most
to the development of architec-
ture in the cathedral form ; and
even if bells had given us no
more than this, we should hold
them in great honor for what they have done for the
architecture of the world.

It is said that belfries first came into use in the
ninth century, when Alfred erected a tower for the
bells at Athelney. The first churches were probably
low and unadorned, with a raised ''lantern" on the
roof to throw light into the center of the building.
Later on, the bell tower, "that unequaled source of
character" to the church, was perhaps seldom
omitted.

Figure 157 is a drawing from a tenth-century
manuscript showing one of these little bell
towers on the roof of a church. The bells are

From a tenth-century MS.

Fig. 157. A bell tower on
the roof of a church

362

BELLS

shown exposed to the open air, that their sounds
might be heard as far as possible. The Httle cock
is placed above for vigilance.

The use of the bell tower was recognized in the
ancient Saxon law which gave the title of thane to

Fig. 158. A thirteenth-century belfry over
chancel arch at Ahercorn

anyone who had on his estate a church with a bell
tower. Many of these early bell towers remain,
and several of them are picturesque and dignified
(see Figs. 158 and 159). Some of the towers were
attached to the church, and others were entirely
separate from it.

BELLS AND ARCHITECTURE

3^3

Pig. 159. A Saxon bell tower of the tenth century at EarVs
Barton, North Hants

364 BELLS

The round towers of Ireland (see Figs. 160 and
161) are especially interesting memorials of the
early days of Christian architecture, though these
towers were probably used for military as well as

^^^^^^&

^F'' r

^^HHHr

^^hI

Fig. 160. St. Kevin's Church, Glendalough, Ireland.
Oldest existing round belfry attached to church

for religious purposes. They were both watch
towers and belfries, and doubtless the inhabitants
found refuge in them when attacked by the North-
men. The sacred objects of the church were often
placed in the tower for safekeeping.

BELLS AND ARCHITECTURE

365

In the upper stories of these towers there have
been found bars of iron or of oak, upon which bells
were probably fastened and played with a metal
hammer. Lord Dunraven writes that he "carried

Fig.

161. Belfry of Antrim, County of Antrim,
Ireland. Built about the ninth century

an ordinary dinner bell to the top of Clondalkin
Round Tower, and observed that the sound seemed
greater when heard within the topmost chamber of
the tower than in an ordinary hall; and a friend
standing at a distance of a hundred feet from the

366 BELLS

building said the tone was quite as loud as when
rung beside her down on the level of the ground."
He thinks that the bells in these towers were proba-
bly tuned to the notes of the pentatonic scale, and
played, perhaps, for the entertainment of the inhab-
itants clustered about the base of the tower.

From the slant of the openings in the top of many
of these towers it is thought that heavy missiles and
stones were probably pushed from the belfry to
fall upon a besieging enemy below. Without doubt,
these bell towers served the inhabitants in several
capacities, municipal as well as religious.

The Irish bell towers are only typical of what
existed in other parts of the British Isles, and in
other European countries, during the Middle Ages.

MUNICIPAL BELL TOWERS

Sometimes the town united with the church in
building a tower that would be used as a tower of
defense and a watch tower as well as a belfry. In
many cases bell towers were built by the town,
near the town hall, and the bells used in calhng
citizens together in cases of disorder in the town,
fire, or other alarms.

In countries which were distracted by constant
war the bells of the town acquired great public
importance. If there was no special town bell,
the chief bell in the cathedral often belonged to the
town, not to the cathedral chapter. "He who
commanded the bell commanded the town; for by

BELLS AND ARCHITECTURE 367

that sound, at a moment's notice, he could rally
and concentrate his adherents. Hence a con-
queror commonly acknowledged the political impor-
tance of bells by melting them down ; and the cannon
of the conquered was in turn melted to supply
the garrison with bells to be used in the suppression
of revolts. Many a bloody chapter in history has
been rung in and out by bells. "^

Municipal bell towers existed in Europe as early
as the eleventh century .^ * ' The building of the town
hall was the earliest symbol of the growth of the
free community (independent of the feudal lords),
and the cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse had each
a building of the kind as far back as the twelfth cen-
tury. In the early days of enfranchisement, it was
customary to call together the citizens of the com-
munity by means of bells. These were, however,
at first confined to the towers of the churches, and
since they could not be rung without the consent
of the clergy, a good deal of friction must some-
times have arisen, especially in those places where
it happened that ecclesiastics were the feudal lords.
To obviate difiiculty of this kind, the municipalities
began to procure bells of their own, and these were
hung at first over the town gates, in the manner of
which a very interesting example may still be seen
at the gate known as *La Grosse Cloche' at Bor-
deaux. Toward the close of the twelfth century

iSee Encyclopedia Britannica, on "Bell."

2" Architecture in the War Area," in Architect and Contract Reporter,
August, 191 7, by Tyrrell-Green,

368 BELLS

and the early years of the thirteenth, we find separate
towers erected for town bells. These also served
the purpose of lookouts, being provided with lodg-
ing for the watchman, and a gallery commanding
a view on every side, so that the bell might sound
an alarm upon outbreak of fire, or onset of foe.
While in their origin the belfries were thus designed
to meet a need, and serve a utilitarian purpose, they
came to be regarded, as tim.e went on, as ends in
themselves, and were built on a great scale and
lavishly adorned. . . . Thus the town belfries
which form so regular a feature of old Flemish cities,
and which occur with like frequency in the north
of France, may be considered as material symbols
of the power and wealth of the communities that
erected them."

The Christians, in using bells according to the
requirements of their religion, says Russel Sturgis,
were ultimately led to the invention of new forms of
architecture. Below is given a list of definitions
quoted from Sturgis' Dictionary of Architecture and
Building, which gives an idea of the contribution
which bells have made to the terms and forms of
architecture.

Bell cage. A timber framework which supports the
bells in a steeple. Designed to absorb as much
vibration as possible so as to transmit a minimum
of jarring to the walls.
Bell canopy. Open structure with small roof intended
to shelter a bell. Stands either independently (as
at gate of churchyard) or resting upon wall of church.

BELLS AND ARCHITECTURE 369

Bell carriage. Structure which carries bells in a belfry.

Bell chamber. Portion of the interior of a belfry or cam-
panile in which bells are hung. Contains bell car-
riage and has large openings to permit the wide
diffusion of the sound.

Bell cot: cote. Small structure to carry and shelter one
or more bells, and carried upon brackets projecting
from a wall, or built upon a roof or spire.

Bell crank. An angular lever for changing direction of
a to-and-fro movement of the bells.

Bell gable. A gable having an opening in which a bell
is hung; in particular, an upward prolongation of
a portion of a wall above the roof, terminating in
a small gable, and having one or more openings
for bells.

Bell hanging. The trade or operation of putting in place,
in a building, the bells and their appurtenances.

Bell house. A building, usually tower-like, intended for
the housing and proper sounding of a bell or bells,
especially Round Towers, like those of Ireland.

Bell pull. A knob or handle and its appurtenances
connected with a bell by any mechanical contrivance
by which the bell is rung by pulling.

Bell tower. A tower fitted and prepared for containing
one or more large bells, and for allowing their sound
to be heard properly both near and far. Nothing
of this kind existed in antiquity.

Bell turret. A small tower, usually topped with a spire
or pinnacle, and containing one or more bells.

Belfry. In modern use, a structure arranged for carrying
large bells, and allowing for their proper service
in different applications: (i) a bell tower, (2) bell
chamber, (3) bell cage, (4) place occupied by the bell

370 BELLS

ringers; this is sometimes far below the bells, and
in some chiirches is on the floor of the tower, level
with the floor of the church itself.
Campanile (Italian plural campanili). In Italian, a bell
tower, generally separated from other buildings.

THE CAMPANILES OF ITALY

Nowhere in the world are there to be found more
beautiful bell towers than in Italy, the home of the
first church bells. At a very early date it became
customary in Italy to hang the bells in towers that
were separate from the churches, instead of hanging
them in steeples or belfries upon the church build-
ings, as is the case with most modern churches.
Some of these bell towers, or campaniles, are very
lofty and magnificent. The following are some of
the most famous ones. The Campanile of St. Mark
in Venice (see Fig. 162) belongs to the famous
church of St. Mark, and is built about two hundred
feet from the church. It was originally erected
about 900,^ rebuilt in 1329, and provided with a new
upper story after an earthquake in 15 12. The bell
chamber is at the top, and the ascent is made by
a continuous inclined plane, winding around the
tower, with a platform at each square angle. In
1902 it collapsed. The foundations were strength-
ened and the tower rebuilt in 1905-1911. It is
three hundred and twenty-five feet high.

The Round Campanile of Pisa, or the Leaning
Tower as it is most often called, was begun in 11 74

iSavs Baedeker.

BELLS AND ARCHITECTURE

371

Gramstorff Bros., Inc., Maiden, Ma

Fig. 162. St. Mark's Cathedral and bell tower (campanile)
in Venice, Italy

372

BELLS

Gramstorff Bros., Inc., Maiden, Mass.

Pig. 163. The leaning hell tower of Pisa, Italy

BELLS AND ARCHITECTURE 373

and finished in 1359 (see Fig. 163). It is believed
that when this tower was being built the foundations
of one side sank, and rather than begin it all over,
the builders adjusted the weight of the upper stories
so that it would be in a state of equilibrium, even
though leaning so far over. It rises to a height of
one hundred and seventy-nine feet, and a plumb
line lowered to the ground from the top story, which
forms the belfry, reaches the ground about thirteen
feet from the base of the building. Galileo tried
his experiments regarding the laws of gravitation
from the top of this tower, the slanting position
of which served his purpose well. The belfry is
reached by a flight of two hundred and ninety-six
steps. It is now thought to be less stable than
formerly.

The Campanile of Florence (see Fig. 164, p. 374) is
a square structure two hundred and seventy-six feet
high on a base forty-five feet square, and is richly
decorated with colored marble. It was begun by
the celebrated architect, Giotto, in 1334, but he did
not live to see it completed (in 1350). It is con-
sidered the most important piece of the late Italian
Gothic architecture which carried with it much
decoration in colored marbles combined with sculp-
ture. In his Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin
says: ''The characteristics of Power and Beauty
occur more or less in different buildings, some in
one and some in another. But all together, and
all in their highest possible relative degrees, they

374

BELLS

Fig. 164. Cathedral and campanile of Florence, Italy,
often called ^'Giotto's Tower ^^

BELLS AND ARCHITECTURE 375

exist, SO far as I know, only in one building in the
world — the Campanile of Giotto."

There are several interesting campaniles in Russia.
See St. Ivan's Tower in Figure 96.^

Since the days of the Irish round towers, the early
town bell towers, and the first Italian campaniles,
church towers and belfries have developed number-
less and exquisite forms which are more or less
familiar to everyone who lives in a Christian country.
The cathedrals of England have long been famous for
their beauty, and there are many on the Continent
and in America which are scarcely less interesting and
impressive. The field of church architecture is too
vast to allow here more than a suggestion of the part
that bells have played in its development.

In his History of Ecclesiastical Architecture, Poole
says: ''It is to the use of church bells that we are
indebted for the most prominent feature of almost
every ecclesiastical fabric, and that which serves
most to harmonize all the parts of a whole, sometimes
so vast and almost always so various, is a Gothic
church. From the low, central tower of a Norman
abbey, but just rising above the roof of the inter-
section of the cross, to the lofty towers or spires of
Boston, Gloucester, Coventry, in whatever part of the
church it may be placed, the steeple still gives an
inexpressible grace and dignity to the whole outline,
correcting immoderate lengths, reducing all minor
parts to proportion, giving variety to sameness,

iSee p. 221.
25

376 BELLS

and harmony to the most hcentious irregular-
ity. . . . What is it which gives such vastness
and importance to the cathedral, such grace and
beauty to the parish church at a distance, but the
tower or spire? Nay, what is it but the bell gable
which in mere outline often distinguishes the retired
chapel from some neighboring barn? And for all
this we are indebted to the introduction of bells;
or if not for the existence of these or the like addi-
tions to the beauty of outline in our churches, yet
at least for what is part of their beauty, their having
a use, and being exactly adapted to their use."

CHAPTER XXXIII

VARIOUS KINDS OF BELLS
AND THEIR USES

It is interesting to observe the great variety in
the kinds of bells exhibited in the Crosby-Brown
collection of musical instruments in the Metropolitan
Museum. The following is a list made casually,
with no claim to completeness: Mass bells, cos-
tume bells, cat bells, ring-rattle bells, bracelet bells,
cowbells, horse bells, sheep bells, donkey bells,
camel bells, ox bells, dog bells, elephant bells, buf-
falo bells, harness bells, sleigh bells, hand bells,
clay bells, wind bells, temple bells, centurian bells,
ankle bells, runner's bells, chanting bells, prayer
bells, church bells, a tree bell, double bells, bells on
stands, bells on pedestals, and swinging bells.

So far as could be ascertained, these bells are
made of the following materials : bronze, bell metal,
brass, iron, copper, silver, pottery, wood, horn,
white metal, and pewter. The shapes are of almost
every conceivable form which allows a hollow cavity
for ringing. There are long narrow ones, short shal-
low ones, round, square, and trumpet-shaped;
geometrical designs, and fantastic representations of
flowers, animals, and human beings.

In the city of New York the following kinds of
bells were heard by the writer within a few weeks:

377

378 BELLS

church bells, clock-tower bells, fire-wagon bells, rag-
man's bell, scissor grinder's bell, old newspaper col-
lector's bell, fruit vendor's bell, sleigh bells, door bells,
street bells (on election night), prompter's bell (or
curtain bell) at the theater, bells of Salvation Army
collectors for the poor, train bells, school-period
bells, boat bells, and chimes and other musical bells.

The town bellman and crier was once a familiar
character in every large town in England. Before
the days of plentiful house clocks, the citizens
depended on him for information of the time of
night. The streets were lighted by lanterns hung
outside the houses, "with a whole candle for the
accommodation of foot passengers, from Allhallow's
evening to Candlemas Day. The bellman went
his rounds all night with a bell in his hand, and at
every 'land's end and ward's end, gave warning of
fire and candle, and help the poor and pray for the
dead.' Almost down to the last century the watch-
man was a feeble old man who 'disturbed your rest
to tell you what's o'clock,' and showed his lantern
to warn thieves of his approach that they might
depart in peace, and like Dogberry, he might thank
God he was rid of a knave. "^

The bellman of Old England voices his duties in
the following rime •?

Time, Master, calls your bellman to his task.
To see your doors and windows are all fast,

iFrom Bells, an Anthology, by Mary S. Taber. ^

^Chambers' Book of Days.

BELLS AND THEIR USES 379

And that no villainy or foul crime be done

To you or yours in absence of the sun.

If any base lurker I do meet,

In private alley or in open street,

You shall have warning by my timely call,

And so God bless you and give rest to all.

Robert Herrick's "Bellman" runs thus:

From noise of scare fires rest ye free.
From murders benedicitie ;
From all mischances that may fright
Your pleasing slumbers in the night ;
Mercie secure ye all, and keep
The goblin from ye, while ye sleep.
Past one o'clock and almost two,
My masters all, ''good day to you."

The town crier was also an important person in
New England; and in some of the small New Eng-
land towns he has disappeared only within the past
half-century. He announced not only the time,
but all the important news as well, giving the same
kind of service that is done by the newspaper and
radio today.

In the past, bells have been used in many other
customs that have died out, or are fast disappearing.
The muffin bell announced that the muffin man was
within hearing, and that his muffins were fresh and
hot. The postman's bell was rung to attract the
attention of those who had letters to mail, as the
postman went about collecting letters, a custom
replaced by the present postal system. The dustman

380 BELLS

rang a bell as he collected rubbish from house
to house; and we may still hear the bell of the rag-
man and the old-clothes man.

In some places hand bells are still rung by those
who go from door to door on Christmas, seeking
gifts and bounty.

<:^ l(^

Fig. 165. A hand bell of the eleventh or
twelfth century

The table or hand bell in domestic life has a coun-
terpart in the whistle or horn of the outside world
of sport. Several centuries ago the use of table
bells was universal in Europe as the only means of
calling servants. Figure 165 shows a highly orna-
mented table bell of the eleventh or twelfth
century. The Italian table bells of the sixteenth
century have claimed the attention of art collec-
tors. Many of these have the armorial bearings
of the owners, and during the Renaissance period

BELLS AND THEIR USES 381

the designs on the bells were rich and elaborate.
The table bell used by Mary Queen of Scots is
still preserved as a relic and a work of art. Among
the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth - century
French table bells a fashion arose of having a full-
length figure of some historic personage. Bells of
this time include images of Marie Antoinette,
Napoleon, Empress Josephine, and of many others.
These developed later into a grotesque style. ^

The hand bell as a domestic signal developed into
a kind of house bell, hung somewhat after the man-
ner of a church bell rung with a rope. In the hall,
or in some other part of the residence, a bell was
hung, and from it a cord or wire passed through
a hole in the ceiling of the adjacent room, and hung
down within easy reach. In many of the old-
fashioned houses in England, even at present, the
maid is called by this means. A heavy cord with a
tassel at the end may still be seen hanging in many
bedrooms and drawing rooms of England. A pull
at this cord will bring a tinkle from the bell hanging
on the other side of the wall through which the cord
passes. ''Few persons," says a writer of 1850, "are
aware how modern is the present practice of domestic
bell hanging; for no trace of it has been discovered
in the old mansions of our nobility, even so late
as the reign of Queen Anne. Lord Brownlow, in
speaking of his residence, said, in 1810: 'It is get-
ting into fashion to have bells hung from the rooms

^Arthur Hay den's By-Paths in Curio Collecting.

382 BELLS

in houses. I must have them also.' Before that,
each room had its lackey instead of a bell. So long
did it take to conduct mankind to the simple inven-
tion of ringing a bell in a horizontal direction by
means of a crank and a piece of wire."^

Perhaps one of the saddest occasions on which
a hand bell was rung in England was during the
Great Plague of London, in the summer of 1665,
to announce the arrival of the cart to take the dead
bodies away, there being too many to be buried
separately. ''AH day and all night, the dead-cart
went its rounds, with the weird noise of the gloomy
bell, and the hoarse voices of the buriers calling,
'Bring out your dead!' "^

Another doleful- voiced hand bell was one which
was rung at the window of the condemned cell of
St. Sepulchre's Church in London. "On the night
before an execution, some person, armed with a large
hand bell, would get as near as possible to the window
of the condemned cell, and after sounding twelve
solemn double strokes with his bell, then recited
the following lines:

' All you that in the condemned hole do lie.
Prepare you, for tomorrow you shall die;
Watch all, and pray, the hour is drawing near
That you before the Almighty must appear ;
Examine well yourselves, in time repent.
That you may not to eternal flames be sent ;

^Miscellanea Critica.

^Meiklejohn, in A New History of England and Great Britain.

BELLS AND THEIR UvSES 383

And when St. Sepulchre's beh tomorrow tolls,
The Lord above have mercy on yotir souls.' "^

Then as a final reminder, he announced *'Past
twelve o'clock!" and left the doomed ones to their
own thoughts.

For centuries it was the custom to ring hand bells
at funerals, and this old custom has not entirely
disappeared. A hand bell is still rung before the
procession at Oxford funerals, not to scare away the
evil spirits, as was formerly the case, but merely for
the sake of the old English custom. In some places
of Ireland and Scotland the hand bell is rung in
the funeral procession all the way to the churchyard.

The sancUis bell which is rung at the elevation of
the Host (see p. 97) in the Catholic service is the
signal for all who hear it to kneel and offer a prayer
to the Virgin. ''Most persons have witnessed this
scene in the streets of Roman Catholic cities where
a hand bell is rung before the priest who carries the
sacred elements. Some years ago in Spain, the
sound penetrated to the interior of a theater, and
not only did all the spectators rise up and kneel,
but the dancers on the stage stopped in their per-
formance to drop upon their knees. "^

When men began to domesticate animals, and the
huntsman began to give way to the herdsman, a
need was felt for something which would enable the
owner of animals to keep in touch with them. Hence

'From Geo. S. Tyack's Book about Bells,
^Miscellanea Critica.

384 BELLS

began the use of crotal bells, or noise producers ; and
for ages men have used bells on the necks of animals.

Sheep bells are tied on the necks of the ringleaders,
and all the other sheep, who habitually follow the
leader, are more easily kept together. In Scotland
every flock of sheep has a bell to enable the herds-
man to find them when lost in the snow. Sometimes
the Indians of New Mexico make sheep bells of the
horns of the Rocky Mountain sheep, the clapper
being a stone tied inside the horn. A writer of the
sixteenth century states that ''the shepherds think
that the flocks are pleased with the sound of the
bell, as they are by the flute, and that they grow
fat in consequence."

It has long been thought that animals have some
kind of conscious pride in the bells which they wear
on their necks. Southey, writing of the Alpine
cattle, says: ''The}^ stalk forth proud and pleased
when wearing their bells. If the leading cow, who
hitherto bore the largest bell, be deprived of it, she
manifests a sense of disgrace by lowing incessantly,
abstaining from food, and growing lean; and the
happy rival on which the bell has been conferred is
singled out for her vengeance."

The cowbells of the Swiss are prized very highly.
Much care is spent in making them, and they
descend in families from generation to generation.
vSome of them which are made of hammered copper
have very pleasing tones. The traveler in the
mountains of Switzerland has every opportunity to

BELLS AND THEIR USES 385

hear many tones of cowbells, and there are few people
who are insensible to their charm.

Cowbells have been heard by every country child
in America. The slow, steady tinkle down in the
lane as the cows come home is probably a cherished
childhood memory of many a man and woman now
living in the city.

Horse bells, in ancient times, were probably used
for ornamental as well as for useful purposes. Bells
which were worn on the horses of the Canterbury
Pilgrims have been found in the Thames River.
These bells were inscribed with the words Campana
Thome. ^ Horse bells are common in Asia; also in
southern and wCvStern United States, where they are
used to enable the owners to locate the horses which
are often left free to roam about and graze at will.
The bell, when it is worn by the leader of the group,
also serves to keep a group of horses together.

In Italy, and elsewhere in Europe, bells are made
of baked earth; they have a very pleasing sound,
and are inexpensive, costing about a penny apiece.
If a sheep or horse breaks his bell, it is not a very
serious matter to replace it.

In the West, bells are fastened to the necks of
turkeys. These serve not only to help locate the
turkeys, but also as a protection against hawks and
wild animals. It will be recalled that the bells
worn by the domestic animals in India serve to
protect them against snakes.

^Chambers Encyclopedia.

386

BELLS

In the Orient, pack horses and camels are often
furnished with bells. Oriental caravans are noted
for the jingling of numerous bells suspended from

the necks of their ani-
mals. The object of
these bells is said to be
to enliven the animals,
to frighten off beasts
of prey, and, above all,
to keep the party to-
gether, enabling those
who might have lin-
gered or strayed to re-
join the caravan by
following the sound of
the bells. This is of
great importance in
countries where the
routes pass over track-
less plains and moun-
tain passes, with no
regular roadways. The
Fig. 1 66. Camel bells bells are generally at-

tached to the throat, or chest band, and are fastened
either singly or in a number together. Sets of camel
bells are sometimes fastened to a board which is
carried on the animal's back (see Figs. i66 and 167).
Falconry is the art of training hawks to catch other
birds. It was a popular pastime in Europe in former
days, and the sport is still practiced in some places.

^letropolitan Museum

Camel bells

BELLS AND THEIR USES

387

Small bells are fastened to the legs of the hawks to
aid in their recovery. Formerly, when several hawks
were used at one time, the bells used were of different
tones, and the combination of sounds was said to be
very pleasing.

Hunting dogs also wear bells when hunting in
thick cover, or where the dog cannot readily be seen.
The sound of the bell causes the birds to lie closer.

The reindeer of Nor-
way and other cold
countries wear bells.
We are reminded of
this custom by the bells
on Santa Claus's rein-
deer at Christmas time.

Sleigh bells fastened
upon the horses that
draw sleighs are still to
be heard in all cold cli-
mates. Traveling over
soft snow is so noiseless
that sleigh bells are a
necessary safeguard to
prevent collisions. The
jingle of sleigh bells is a
characteristic sound in
nearly all towns of Rus-
sia during the winter.

Figure 168 (next page) represents a set of Russian
saddle bells used by riders on horseback. Each bell

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Metropolitan Museum

Fig. 167. Camel bells

388

BELLS

has several outside clappers which hang close to the
bell, and every movement of the horse causes a
merry jingle of many tones.

In many countries wagon bells were in use up to
the last century. They were made in sets of several
bells fastened in a frame attached to the harness.
Sockets were made in the horses' collars to hold up
these iron frames. The purpose of the bells was

Bevin Bros., East Hampton, Conn.

Fig. i68. A set of Russian saddle chimes

to give warning on a narrow passage in a road,
so that another wagoner, coming from the opposite
direction, could wait in a wider part of the road.
Figure 169 shows a set of these bells in a frame.

Maberly Philips says^ that ''sixty or seventy
years ago every horse in the team of a large farm
wagon would be decorated with a set of bells as well
as many brass ornaments. They were frequently

iln "Latten or Waggon Bells," in The Connoisseur, 1916.

BELLS AND THEIR USES

389

the property of the wagoner, were highly prized,
and kept in splendid order. Each bell was attuned
to a different note, not simply to make jingle, but
to give a pleasant sound. . . . Many of the coun-
try lanes were so narrow that passing another team
was out of the question. Certain rules of the road
were instituted, which, if not complied with, often
led to the wagoners fighting out the question of

Fig. 169. A set of English wagon bells

which should give way. . . . Some sets have
three, five or six bells. Each set is fixed to a strong
piece of board, covered with stout leather, which is
brought down round the bells, so as to protect them
from the weather. I am told that it is some years
since a team of horses with a full set of bells has
been seen upon any of our country [England]
roads. . . .

''The shaped irons, that are in all cases attached
to the frame, are fitted into sockets provided for

3 go BELLS

them on the horse's collar. The frame of the largest
set I have seen is two feet long, and five inches across
the top, the leather curtain being three inches deep.
It weighs thirteen and one-half pounds, which must
have been a serious addition to the weight of the
horse's trappings."

The old English Morris dancers have always worn
small bells fastened around the leg, just under the
knee. The jingle of these bells heightens the effect
of the dance to a great degree, and also stimulates
the enthusiasm of the dancers themselves.

In Japan and India small ankle bells are regarded
as the symbol of the dancer's profession, and in
Egypt and other Eastern countries the girls of
past centuries wore strings of bells about their
ankles. Such bells may be seen in Cairo today.

Costume bells have been used for ages. We read
in the Bible that the Hebrew priest was instructed
to wear many small bells upon his robe while in the
synagogue, in order that ''his sound shall be heard
when he goeth into the holy place before the Lord,
and when he cometh out, that he die not."

In Shakespeare's day the ''fools" wore bells upon
their clothing, and their wands had bells fastened
to them. Some savages wear strings of small bells
as their only article of dress. ^ In the fifteenth
century silver bells were worn on the dress of both
men and women, and even today small bells are
seen on fancy ball costumes.

iSee p. 19.

BELLS AND THEIR USES 391

Arabian ladies wear little bells suspended from
their hair and garments, which, when they walk,
give notice that the mistress of the house is passing,
and so put the servants on their guard.

Bells have long been used for purposes of alarm.
The use of fire bells has been so systemized that
they indicate the exact location of the fire. Fire
bells in Japan are placed on poles which are tall
enough to overlook the houses in the crowded sec-
tions and are easily accessible from all the streets.

In many New England towns, and along public
highways, one often sees large, circular pieces of
metal fastened to trees or posts. These are used as
fire alarms, either for village or forest fires.

Factory bells, farm bells, and bells which ring on
the departure and arrival of boats and trains are so
commonplace that no reminder of them is needed.

The uses of the bell are not confined to land. For
a long time bells have been used to warn boatmen
of dangerous places near the shore. Southey's
poem, ''The Inchcape Rock, "^ gives the story of a
bell which, in the twelfth century, was placed on
Inchcape Rock in the North Sea to give warning
to mariners.

Even a short trip in a pleasure boat will usually
give one an opportunity to hear a bell ringing from
a rock or floating buoy, warning the pilots of rocks
under the surface of the water.

The lighthouse bell is also still in use.

iSee p. 402.
26

392 BELLS

A well-known use of bells is that of "bell time"
on shipboard. In order to give the time to all the
sailors at once, every half -hour during the day and
night, and also to reduce the number of strokes to
some extent, time is divided into sections of four
(instead of twelve) hours, and a bell is rung every
half-hour according to a plan which the sailors
understand. For instance, twelve o'clock is indi-
cated by eight strokes of the bell ; 1 2 :3o by one stroke ;
I :oo, by two strokes of the bell; 1 130, three strokes;
2:00 o'clock, four strokes; 2:30, five strokes; 3:00,
six strokes; 3:30, seven strokes; 4:00 o'clock, eight
strokes. Then the series is started again from the
beginning, 4:30 being one stroke of the bell, and so
on. Eight is the highest number ever rung for
giving shipboard time. If one hears the ship bell
ring five strokes, one knows that it is 2:30 or 6:30
or 10:30 by clock time.

Some ship bells are fine examples of the bell
founder's art. Figure 170 shows a bell cast several
years ago for the U.S.S. Cleveland.

The electric bell has replaced many of the old-
time uses of hand bells, and is now familiar to every-
one. The mechanism is thus described in the New
International Encyclopaedia :

''The arrangement required to ring a bell or sys-
tem of bells by electricity is simple. Some form of
galvanic battery requiring little attention, is placed
in any convenient corner, and from it an insulated
wire, with the necessary branches, is conducted to

BELLS AND THEIR USES

393

the various rooms; thence to, perhaps, as many
bells, and finally back to the battery to complete
the circuit. Each single bell is provided with a

Courtesy of Architectural Record

Fig, 170. The ship hell for U.S.S. " Cleveland''

designed by Adolph Weinman. Executed by the

Henry-Bonnard Co.

clapper to which is fixed a piece of soft iron. Near
this is an electro-magnet, wound with a quantity
of insulated wire, to which the main wire is con-
nected, so that, upon the passage of the signal cur-
rent, the magnet attracts the piece of iron fastened
to the clapper, and the clapper strikes the bell. In
this way any number of bells may be rung at once

394 BELLS

by sending a powerful current through the wire to
which they are all connected. . . .

' * Bells for continuous vibratory ringing are of the
same construction as above except that they are
provided with a device for continually vibrating
the clapper while the bell is being rung. The wire,
instead of being connected directly to the coil
around the magnet, is connected to a post against
which the clapper rests after striking the bell. The
coil is connected to the clapper, and the current
passes through the post and the clapper to the coil.
When a signal on the wire causes the magnet to
attract the clapper and strike the bell, the con-
nection is immediately severed by the clapper
leaving the post, and no more current can pass
until the clapper has returned after striking the bell.
Instantly when this occurs, the connection is rees-
tablished and the clapper reattracted, and the bell
again struck. Thus a continuous ringing is pro-
duced as long as the person presses the calling
button.

*'A push button is simply a cap covering the
terminals of the wires leading to the bells. A slight
pressure of the hand upon the button in the center
forces the spring-shaped terminals of the wires into
contact with each other, and allows the current to
pass from the battery to the bell."

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE MILLER BELL COLLECTION

The largest and most interesting collection of bells
in the world is in the Glenwood Mission Inn, at
Riverside, California. It is sometimes called the
' ' Inn of the Bells. ' ' There are 524 bells described in
the catalogue of 1926, and others are constantly being
added to the collection. The bells are not arranged
in "museum" order, but are hung about the different
parts of masonry built to receive them, and kept
distinctly representative of the Spanish mission archi-
tecture. Three of the early missions are reproduced
in part, the side wall of San Gabriel Mission, the
front of Santa Barbara Mission, and the dome of
Carmel Mission.

The Inn was built and the famous bell collection
was made by Mr. Frank A. Miller, a Californian,
whose interest in the early history of California and
in the bells and crosses of the missions gradually
extended to include a deep interest in all kinds of
bells. These interests have led him to make the
unique and beautiful combination of architecture,
history, and romance which gives pleasure to num-
berless travelers.

A recent visitor to the Inn writes i^ ''In Califor-
nia today there is a new kind of garden, a garden

^Christian Science Monitor for August i8, 1924.

395

396 BELLS

of bells. A student could easily trace the entire
history of bell founding by an examination of the
hundreds of bells. In a series of arches rising from
one side of this garden, hang wonderful bells from
many lands, all woven together in a charming way
by a morning-glory vine which springs from the
ground far below, and which sends out hundreds of
delicate blue bells, fresh every morning, to greet
the ancient bells of bronze and brass. The contrast
between the age-old, solemn-looking giants with
voice of thunder and the daint}^ silken-petaled blos-
soms forms a picture of garden beauty rare and
memorable.

"Along one end of this bell garden runs a pergola
of eucalyptus branches, draped with iron chains
from which bells of many sizes and from many lands
hang like fair blossoms (see Fig. 171). From India
and Persia, China, Switzerland, and the dark forests
of Africa came the bells. Some tinkled from the
feet of dancing girls from Assam, some hung from
the staff of Tibetan pilgrims. Some served in
garrisons, some in temples. Each has a history,
and the visitor who cares may read the life story
of each, printed upon a card beside it. Here rests
a bell from San Bias, which inspired the beautiful
poem by Longfellow. Over there is a ship's bell
which was raised from the bottom of the sea, where
it lay for nearly half a century; for it went down
with a transport sent out from Boston in 1775,
conveying from Nova Scotia hundreds of Acadians

THE MILLER BELL COLLECTION

397

Avery Edwin Field

Fig. 171. View of the porch of Glenwood Mission Inn, with hells
hanging from chains

who were seeking a new home in Maryland and the
Carolinas.

"In Mr. Miller's Garden of Bells the imagination
has full sway, for some of the bells have called to
war, some to the marriage feast. A camel bell from
Egypt conjures a desert caravan facing the rising
sun, another tells of pilgrims toiling across Hima-
layan snows. On one chain hangs a conjuror's
rattle from Salem and a devil chaser from China.
And there are bells of curious shapes — a pair of
hands, the mouth of a frog or crocodile, a rustic
maiden with full skirts whose feet form a clapper;
a lotus flower, a pagoda, or a dragon.

398

BELLS

Fig. 172. Oldest dated Christian hell so far known, save one (see
Fig. 100), in the Miller Garden of Bells

THE MILLER BELL COLLECTION

399

' ' In one corner stands a bell beloved by Father
Damien, for it went with him to far Molokai. Near
it is the railroad gong which sounded in Riverside
when the Santa Fe first came to carry back sweet
oranges. A huge bell shaped like a bowl claims an

Avery Edwin Field

Fig. 173. Chinese temple hell {weight, 2,800 lbs.) from
Nanking, in the Miller Garden of Bells

age of 1599 years, and for centuries was struck by
a heavy mallet swung from the hands of priests,
at midnight, in the temple of Zenko. If touched
ever so lightly, it will chant in low voice."

There hangs a brass cowbell from Rome, which,
according to its inscription, was made in the fifteenth

400

BELLS

Avery Edwin Field

Fig. 174. Bronze hell from Montserrat, Spain, dated 1704, in the
Miller Garden of Bells

THE MILLER BELL COLLECTION 401

or the early sixteenth century, and belonged to
Pope Paul III. Also a Russian church bell two
hundred years old, which was brought from the
Island of Attu. It was probably sent to Alaska
by Catherine the Great. On a very cold Christmas
morning in its northern home, it cracked while
being rung, and is now in three pieces.

One of the most interesting of the Inn's bells is
one which is claimed to be the oldest dated Christian
bell, save one, in the world (see Fig. 172, p. 398).
It is twenty-six inches high, forty-six inches in
circumference, and bears around its edge a Latin
inscription which, translated, reads: ''Quintana and
Salvador made me in the year of our Lord 1247."
Near the top of the bell is its name, Maria Jacobi.
It also has the Greek monogram LH.S.X.P.S.

Figure 173 shows an interesting Chinese temple
bell from Nanking, about seventy-five years old.
Its diameter is four feet, four inches ; height, six feet,
five inches, and it weighs twenty-eight hundred
pounds. Perhaps the most beautiful of the bells is
a bronze bell from Monserrat, Spain, dated 1704
(see Fig. 174). The design of its ornamentation,
which includes ten exquisite medallions of the saints,
is very interesting. It is "dedicated to the honor of
God and of the Virgin Mary and of all the Saints."

CHAPTER XXXV
THE POETRY OF BELLS

(Selected bell poems from Southey, Longfellow, Lowell, Cowper,
Tennyson, Moore, and Poe)

THE INCHCAPE ROCK

Robert Southey
No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,
The ship was still as she could be;
Her sails from Heaven received no motion ;
Her keel was steady in the ocean.

Without either sign or sound of their shock,
The waves flowed over the Inchcape Rock ;
So little they rose, so little they fell,
They did not move the Inchcape bell.

The holy Abbot of Aberbrothok
Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock ;
On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
And over the waves its warning rung.

When the rock was hid by the surges' swell,
The mariners heard the warning bell;
And then they knew the perilous rock,
And blessed the Abbot of Aberbrothok.

The Sun in heaven was shining gay,
All things were joyful on that day;
The sea birds screamed as they wheeled around.
And there was joyance in their sound.
402

THE POETRY OF BELLS 403

The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen,
A darker speck on the ocean green;
Sir Ralph, the Rover, walked his deck.
And he fixed his eye on the darker speck.

He felt the cheering power of spring,
It made him whistle, it made him sing ;
His heart was mirthful to excess ;
But the Rover's mirth was wickedness.

His eye was on the Inchcape float ;
Quoth he, " My men, put otit the boat;
And row me to the Inchcape Rock,
And I'll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothok."

The boat is lowered, the boatmen row,
And to the Inchcape Rock they go ;
Sir Ralph bent over from the boat.
And cut the Bell from the Inchcape float.

Down sank the Bell with a gurgling sound;
The bubbles rose, and burst around.
Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to the Rock
Will not bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok."

Sir Ralph, the Rover, sailed away.
He scoured the seas for many a day ;
And now, grown rich with plundered store,
He steers his course for Scotland's shore.

So thick a haze o'er spreads the sky
They cannot see the Sun on high ;
The wind hath blown a gale all day;
At evening it hath died away.

404 BELLS

On the deck the Rover takes his stand;
So dark it is they see no land.
Quoth Sir Ralph, "It will be lighter soon,
For there is the dawn of the rising Moon."

"Canst hear," said one, "the breakers roar?
For yonder, methinks, should be the shore."
"Now where we are I cannot tell,
But I wish we could hear the Inchcape Bell."

They hear no sound ; the swell is strong ;
Though the wind hath fallen, they drift along,
Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock, —
"O Christ! it is the Inchcape Rock!"

Sir Ralph, the Rover, tore his hair;
He cursed himself in his despair.
The waves rush in on every side;
The ship is sinking beneath the tide.

But, even in his dying fear,
One dreadful sound he seemed to hear, —
A sound as if, with the Inchcape Bell,
The Devil below was ringing his knell.

THE SICILIAN'S TALE

The Bell of Atri
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
At Atri in Abruzzo, a small town
Of ancient Roman date, but scant renown,
One of those little places that have run
Half up the hill, beneath a blazing sun,
And then sat down to rest, as if to say,

THE POETRY OF BELLS 405

" I climb no farther upward, come what may," —

The Re Giovanni, now unknown to fame,

vSo many monarchs since have borne the name,

Had a great bell hung in the market place,

Beneath a roof, projecting some small space

By way of shelter from the sun and rain.

Then rode he through the streets with all his train.

And, with the blast of trumpets loud and long.

Made proclamation, that whenever wrong

Was done to any man, he should but ring

The great bell in the square, and he, the King,

Would cause the Syndic to decide thereon.

Such was the proclamation of King John.

How swift the happy days in Atri sped.
What wrongs were righted, need not here be said.
Suffice it that, as all things must decay,
The hempen rope at length was worn away,
Unraveled at the end, and, strand by strand.
Loosened and wasted in the ringer's hand,
Till one, who noted this in passing by,
Mended the rope with braids of briony,
So that the leaves and tendrils of the vine
Hung like a votive garland at a shrine.

By chance it happened that in Atri dwelt
A knight, with spur on heel and sword in belt.
Who loved to hunt the wild boar in the woods,
Who loved his falcons with their crimson hoods,
Who loved his hounds and horses, and all sports
And prodigalities of camps and courts ; —
Loved, or had loved them; for at last, grown old.
His only passion was the love of gold.

4o6 BELLS

He sold his horses, sold his hawks and hounds,
Rented his vineyards and his garden grounds.
Kept but one steed, his favorite steed of all.
To starve and shiver in a naked stall,
And day by day sat brooding in his chair.
Devising plans how best to hoard and spare.

At length he said: "What is the use or need
To keep at my own cost this lazy steed.
Eating his head off in my stables here.
When rents are low and provender is dear ?
Let him go feed upon the public ways ;
I want him only for the holidays."
So the old steed was turned into the heat
Of the long, lonely, silent, shadeless street;
And wandered in suburban lanes forlorn,
Barked at by dogs, and torn by brier and thorn.

One afternoon, as in that sultry clime

It is the custom in the summer time.

With bolted doors and window-shutters closed.

The inhabitants of Atri slept or dozed;

When suddenly upon their senses fell

The loud alarm of the accusing bell !

The Syndic started from his deep repose.
Turned on his couch, and listened, and then rose
And donned his robes, and with reluctant pace
Went panting forth into the market place.
Where the great bell upon its cross-beams swung,
Reiterating with persistent tongue,
In half-articulate jargon, the old song:
' ' Some one hath done a wrong, hath done a wrong !

THE POETRY OF BELLS 40 7

But ere he reached the belfry's Hght arcade
He saw, or thought he saw, beneath its shade,
No shape of human form of woman bom.
But a poor steed dejected and forlorn.
Who with uplifted head and eager eye
Was tugging at the vines of briony.
''Domeneddio!" cried the Syndic straight,
"This is the Knight of Atri's steed of state!
He calls for justice, being sore distressed,
And pleads his cause as loudly as the best."

Meanwhile from street and lane a noisy crowd

Had rolled together like a summer cloud.

And told the story of the wretched beast

In five-and-twenty different ways at least.

With much gesticulation and appeal

To heathen gods, in their excessive zeal.

The Knight was called and questioned ; in reply

Did not confess the fact, did not deny;

Treated the matter as a pleasant jest.

And set at naught the Syndic and the rest,

Maintaining, in an angry undertone.

That he should do what pleased him with his own.

And thereupon the Syndic gravely read
The proclamation of the King ; then said :
** Pride goeth forth on horseback grand and gay,
But Cometh back on foot, and begs its way;
Fame is the fragrance of heroic deeds.
Of flowers of chivalry and not of weeds !
These are familiar proverbs ; but I fear
They never yet have reached your knightly ear.
27

4o8 BELLS

What fair renown, what honor, what repute
Can come to you from starving this poor brute ?
He who serves well and speaks not, merits more
Than they who clamor loudest at the door.
Therefore the law decrees that as this steed
Served you in youth, henceforth you shall take heed
To comfort his old age, and to provide
Shelter in stall, and food and field beside."

The Knight withdrew abashed ; the people all
Led home the steed in triimiph to his stall.
The King heard and approved, and laughed in glee.
And cried aloud: "Right well it pleaseth me!
Church bells at best but ring us to the door ;
But go not in to mass ; my bell doth more :
It Cometh into court and pleads the cause
Of creatures dumb and unknown to the laws ;
And this shall make, in every Christian clime,
The Bell of Atri famous for all time."

AN INCIDENT OF THE FIRE AT HAMBURG

James Russell Lowell
The tower of old Saint Nicholas soared upward to the skies.
Like some huge piece of Nature's make, the growth of

centuries ;
You could not deem its crowding spires a work of human

art,
They seemed to struggle lightward from a sturdy living

heart.

Not Nature's self more freely speaks in crystal or in oak.
Than, through the pious builder's hand, in that gray pile
she spoke;

THE POETRY OF BELLS 409

And as from acorn springs the oak, so, freely and alone.
Sprang from his heart this h^^mn to God, sung in obedient
stone.

It seemed a wondrous freak of chance, so perfect, yet so
rough,

A whim of Nature crystallized slowly in granite tough ;

The thick spires yearned towards the sky in quaint har-
monious lines,

And in broad sunlight basked and slept, like a grove
of blasted pines.

Never did rock or stream or tree lay claim with better

right
To all the adorning sympathies of shadow and of light;
And, in that forest petrified, as forester there dwells
Stout Herman, the old sacristan, sole lord of all its bells.

Surge leaping after surge, the fire roared onward red as

blood,
Till half of Hamburg lay engulfed beneath the eddying

flood;
For miles away the fiery spray poured down its deadly

rain.
And back and forth the billows sucked, and paused,

and burst again.

From square to square with tiger leaps panted the lustful

fire,
The air to leeward shuddered with the gasps of its desire ;
And church and palace, which even now stood whelmed

but to the knee,
Lift their black roofs like breakers lone amid the whirling

sea.

4IO BELLS

Up in his tower old Herman sat and watched with quiet

look;
His soul had trusted God too long to be at last forsook;
He could not fear, for surely God a pathway would unfold
Through this red sea for faithful hearts, as once he did

of old.

But scarcely can he cross himself, or on his good saint

call,
Before the sacrilegious flood o'erleaped the churchyard

wall;
And, ere a pater half was said, 'mid smoke and crackling

glare,
His island tower scarce juts its head above the wide

despair.

Upon the peril's desperate peak his heart stood up

sublime ;
His first thought was for God above, his next was for his

chime;
"Sing now and make your voices heard in hymns of

praise," cried he,
"As did the Israelites of old, safe walking through the

sea!

"Through this red sea our God hath made the pathway

safe to shore ;
Our promised land stands full in sight; shout now as

ne'er before!"
And as the tower came crushing down, the bells, in clear

accord,
Pealed forth the grand old German hymn, — "All good

souls, praise the Lord!"

THE POETRY OF BELLS 411

HOW SOFT THE MUSIC OF THOSE
VILLAGE BELLS

William Cowper
How soft the music of those village bells,
Falling at intervals upon the ear
In cadence sweet, now dying all away,
Now pealing loud again, and louder still,
Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on!
With easy force it opens all the cells
Where Memory slept. Wherever I have heard
A kindred melody, the scene recurs.
And with it all its pleasures and its pains.
Such comprehensive views the spirit takes.
That in a few short moments I retrace
(As in a map the voyager his course)
The windings of my way through many years.

IN MEMORIAM
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(From XXVIII)
The time draws near the birth of Christ :
The moon is hid ; the night is still ;
The Christmas bells from hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist.

Four voices of four hamlets round.

From far and near, on mead and moor,
Swell out and fail, as if a door

Were shut between me and the sound :

412 BELLS

Each voice four changes on the wind,
That now dilate, and now decrease,
Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,

Peace and goodwill to all mankind.

This year I slept and woke with pain,
I almost wish'd no more to wake.
And that my hold on life would break

Before I heard those bells again:

But they my troubled spirit rule.
For they controU'd me when a boy;
They bring me sorrow touch' d with joy,

The merry merry bells of Yule.

(From CVI)

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light :
The year is dying in the night ;

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new.
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go ;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind.
For those that here we see no more ;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,

Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;

THE POETRY OF BELLS 413

Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,

The faithless coldness of our times ;

Ring out, ring out my mournful rimes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood.

The civic slander and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;

Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free.

The larger heart, the kindlier hand;

Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

THOSE EVENING BELLS
Thomas Moore
Those evening bells ! those evening bells 1
How many a tale their music tells
Of youth, and home, and that sweet time
When last I heard their soothing chime !

Those joyous hours are passed away;
And many a heart that then was gay.
Within the tomb now darkly dwells.
And hears no more those evening bells.

414 BELLS

And so 'twill be when I am gone, —
That tuneful peal will still ring on ;
While other bards shall walk these dells,
And sing your praise, sweet evening bells.

THE BELLS OF SAN BLAS
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
What say the Bells of San Bias
To the ships that southward pass
From the harbor of Mazatlan ?
To them it is nothing more
Than the sound of surf on the shore, —
Nothing more to master or man.

But to me, a dreamer of dreams.
To whom what is and what seems

Are often one and the same, —
The Bells of San Bias to me
Have a strange, wild melody.

And are something more than a name.

For bells are the voice of the church ;
They have tones that touch and search

The hearts of young and old;
One sound to all, yet each
Lends a meaning to their speech.

And the meaning is manifold.

They are a voice of the Past,
Of an age that is fading fast,

Of a power austere and grand;
When the flag of Spain unfurled

THE POETRY OF BELLS 415

Its folds o'er this Western world,
And the Priest was lord of the land.

The chapel that once looked down
On the little seaport town

Has crumbled into the dust ;
And on oaken beams below
The bells swing to and fro,

And are green with mold and rust.

"Is, then, the old faith dead,"
They say, "and in its stead

Is some new faith proclaimed.
That we are forced to remain
Naked to sun and rain,

Unsheltered and ashamed?

"Once, in our tower aloof
We rang over wall and roof

Our warnings and our complaints ;
And round about us there
The white doves filled the air

Like the white souls of the saints.

"The saints! Ah, have they grown
Forgetful of their own ?

Are they asleep, or dead,
That open to the sky
Their ruined Missions lie,

No longer tenanted ?

"Oh, bring us back once more
The vanished days of yore,

When the world with faith was filled :

41 6 BELLS

Bring back the fervid zeal,
The hearts of fire and steel,

The hands that believe and build.

"Then from our tower again
We will send over land and main

Our voices of command,
Like exiled kings who return
To their thrones, and the people learn

That the Priest is lord of the land ! ' '

O Bells of San Bias, in vain
Ye call back the Past again !

The Past is deaf to your prayer;
Out of the shadows of night
The world rolls into light ;

It is daybreak everywhere.

CARILLON

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"More than any other literary utterance, its verses have drawn
English-speaking travelers to this unique music. How wonder-
fully his genius gives the scene at night, when silence perfects
the sound of the bells." — William G. Rice.

In the ancient town of Bruges,
In the quaint old Flemish city,
As the evening shades descended.
Low and loud and sweetly blended,
Low at times and loud at times.
And changing like a poet's rimes,
Rang the beautiful wild chimes
From the Belfry in the market
Of the ancient town of Bruges.

THE POETRY OF BELLS 417

Then, with deep sonorous clangor
Calmly answering their sweet anger,
When the wrangling bells had ended,
• Slowly struck the clock eleven,
And, from out the silent heaven,
Silence on the town descended.
Silence, silence everywhere.
On the earth and in the air.
Save that footsteps here and there
Of some burgher home returning,
By the street lamps faintly burning.
For a moment woke the echoes
Of the ancient town of Bruges.

But amid my broken slumbers
Still I heard those magic numbers,
As they loud proclaimed the flight
And stolen marches of the night ;
Till their chimes in sweet collision
Mingled with each wandering vision.
Mingled with the fortune-telling
Gypsy-bands of dreams and fancies.
Which amid the waste expanses
Of the silent land of trances
Have their solitary dwelling ;
All else seemed asleep in Bruges,
In the quaint old Flemish city.

And I thought how like these chimes

Are the poet's airy rimes,

All his rimes and roundelays,

His conceits, and songs, and ditties,

41 8 BELLS

From the belfry of his brain,
Scattered downward, though in vain,
On the roofs and stones of cities !
For by night the drowsy ear
Under its curtains cannot hear,
And by day men go their ways,
Hearing the music as they pass,
But deeming it no more, alas !
Than the hollow sound of brass.

Yet perchance a sleepless wight.

Lodging at some hiimble inn

In the narrow lanes of life.

When the dusk and hush of night

Shut out the incessant din

Of daylight and its toil and strife,

May listen with a calm delight

To the poet's melodies,

Till he hears, or dreams he hears.

Intermingled with the song,

Thoughts that he has cherished long ;

Hears amid the chime and singing

The bells of his own village ringing,

And wakes, and finds his slumberous eyes,

Wet with most delicious tears.

Thus dreamed I, as by night I lay
In Bruges, at the Fleur-de-Ble,
Listening with a wild delight
To the chimes that, through the night,
Rang their changes from the Belfry
Of that quaint old Flemish city.

THE POETRY OF BELLS 419

THE BELFRY OF BRUGES

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In the market place of Bruges stands the belfry old and

brown ;
Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches
o'er the town.

As the summer morn was breaking, on that lofty tower

I stood,
And the world threw off the darkness, like the weeds of

widowhood.

Thick with towns and hamlets studded, and with streams

and vapors gray,
Like a shield embossed with silver, round and vast the

landscape lay.

At my feet the city slumbered. From its chimneys,

here and there,
Wreaths of snow-white smoke, ascending, vanished,

ghost-like, into air.

Not a sound rose from the city at that early morning

hour,
But I heard a heart of iron beating in the ancient tower.

From their nests beneath the rafters sang the swallows
wild and high;

And the world, beneath me sleeping, seemed more dis-
tant than the sky.

Then most musical and solemn, bringing back the olden
times.

With their strange, unearthly changes rang the melan-
choly chimes,

42 O BELLvS

Like the psalms from some old cloister, when the nuns

sing in the choir;
And the great bell tolled among them, like the chanting

of a friar.

Visions of the days departed, shadowy phantoms filled

my brain ;
They who live in history only seemed to walk the earth

again

I beheld the Flemish weavers, with Namur and Juliers

bold,
Marching homeward from the bloody battle of the Spurs

of Gold;

Saw the fight at Minnewater, saw the White Hoods

moving west,
Saw great Artevelde victorious scale the Golden Dragon's

nest.

And again the whiskered Spaniard all the land with terror

smote ;
And again the wild alarum sounded from the tocsin's

throat ;

Till the bell of Ghent responded o'er lagoon and dike of

sand,
"I am Roland! I am Roland! There is victory in the

land!"

Then the sound of drums aroused me. The awakened

city's roar
Chased the phantoms I had summond back into their

graves once more.

THE POETRY OF BELLS 421

Hours had passed away like minutes; and before I was

aware,
Lo! the shadow of the belfry crossed the sun-illumined

square.

THE SPIRE OF STRASBURG CATHEDRAL

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

From the "Golden Legend"

(Night and storm. Lucifer, with the Powers of the Air, trying to

tear down the Cross.)

LUCIFER

Hasten! hasten!

O ye spirits !

From its station drag the ponderous

Cross of iron, that to mock us

Is uplifted high in air !

VOICES

Oh, we cannot !

For around it

All the Saints and Guardian Angels

Throng in legions to protect it ;

They defeat us everywhere !

THE BELLS

Laudo Deum verum !
Plebem voco !
Congrego clerum!

LUCIFER

Lower! lower!

Hover downward !

Seize the loud, vociferous bells, and

Clashing, clanging, to the pavement

Hurl them from their windy tower!

42 2 BELLS

VOICES

All thy thunders

Here are harmless !

For these bells have been anointed,

And baptized with holy water !

They defy our utmost power.

THE BELLS

Defunctos ploro !
Pestemfugo!
Festa decoro !

LUCIFER

Shake the casements !

Break the painted

Panes, that flame with gold and crimson ;

Scatter them like leaves of Autumn,

Swept away before the blast !

VOICES

Oh, we cannot !

The Archangel

Michael flames from every window,

With the sword of fire that drove us

Headlong, out of heaven, aghast !

THE BELLS

Funera plango !
Fulgura frango !
Sabbata pango !

LUCIFER

Aim your lightnings

At the oaken,

Massive, iron-studded portals !

THE POETRY OF BELLS 423

Sack the house of God, and scatter
Wide the ashes of the dead!

VOICES

Oh, we cannot !

The Apostles

And the Martyrs, wrapped in mantles.

Stand as warders at the entrance,

Stand as sentinels overhead !

THE BELLS

Excito lentos !
Dissipo ventos !
Paco cruentos!

LUCIFER

Baffled! baffled!

Inefficient,

Craven spirits ! leave this labor

Unto Time, the great Destroyer !

Come away, ere night is gone !

VOICES

Onward! onward!
With the night-wind.
Over field and farm and forest,
Lonely homestead, darksome hamlet.
Blighting all we breathe upon !
{They sweep away. Organ and Gregorian
Chant.)

CHOIR

Nocte surgentes
Vigilemus omnes !
28

424 BELLS

SONG OF THE BELL
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(From the German)

Bell! thou soundest merrily,
When the bridal party

To the church doth hie !
Bell! thou soundest solemnly,
When, on Sabbath morning,

Fields deserted lie !

Bell! thou soundest merrily;
Tellest thou at evening,

Bedtime draweth nigh !
Bell! thou soundest mournfully,
Tellest thou the bitter

Parting hath gone by !

Say! How canst thou mourn?
How canst thou rejoice?

Thou art but metal dull !
And yet all our sorrowings,
And all our rejoicings.

Thou dost feel them all'

God hath wonders many,
Which we cannot fathom,

Placed within thy form !
When the heart is sinking.
Thou alone canst raise it.

Trembling in the storm !

THE POETRY OF BELLS 425

THE BELLS

Edgar Allan Poe

(Inspired by the sound of church bells reaching him through his
open window)

I

Hear the sledges with the bells,
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells !
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,

In the icy air of night !
While the stars, that over sprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight ;
Keeping time, time, time;
In a sort of Runic rime.
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells —
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

II

Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells! -

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells !
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight !
From the molten-golden notes,

And all in tune.
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon !
Oh, from out the sounding cells.

426 BELLS

What a gush of euphony voluminously wells !
How it swells !
How it dwells
On the future ! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing

Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells.
Bells, bells, bells —
To the riming and the chiming of the bells !

in

Hear the loud alarum bells,
Brazen bells !
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright !
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek.
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire.
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher.
With a desperate desire.
And a resolute endeavor
Now — now to sit or never.
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air !

THE POETRY OF BELLS 427

Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging.
How the danger ebbs and flows ;
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling
And the wrangling
How the danger sinks and swells —
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells,
Of the bells—
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells —
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells !

IV
Hear the tolling of the bells,
Iron bells !
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone !
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats

Is a groan.
And the people — ah, the people.
They that dwell up in the steeple.

All alone,
And who tolling, tolling, tolling

In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling

On the human heart a stone —
They are neither man nor woman,
2Sa

428 BELLS

They are neither brute nor human,
They are ghouls ;
And their king it is who tolls ;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls.
Rolls
A paean from the bells,
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells ;
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rime.
To the paean of the bells.
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time.
In a sort of Runic rime,
To the throbbing of the bells.
Of the bells, bells, bells —

To the sobbing of the bells ;
Keeping time, time, time,

As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rime,
To the rolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells:
To the tolling of the bells.
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells.
Bells, bells, bells —
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

A NURSERY RIME

(Old English)
Gay go up and gay go down.
To ring the bells of London town.

THE POETRY OF BELLS 429

Halfpence and farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin's.

Oranges and lemons,

Say the bells of St. Clement's

Pancakes and fritters,
Say the bells of St. Peter's.

Two sticks and an apple,
Say the bells of Whitechapel.

Kettles and pans.

Say the bells of St. Anne's.

You owe me ten shillings.
Say the bells of St. Helen's.

When will you pay me ?
Say the bells of Old Bailey.

When I grow rich.

Say the bells of Shoreditch.

Pray when will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.

I am sure I don't know,
Says the great bell of Bow.

CHAPTER XXXVI

SCHOOL EXPERIMENTS IN BELL
MAKING AND PLAYING

It is surprising how many ordinary things will
produce bell music. Flower pots make very good
bells which sound pleasing when tapped on the
outside with a small wooden hammer. These pots
may be suspended by a string tied to a small
piece of wood placed inside the pot, the wood being
too large to slip through the hole in the bottom
of the pot.

The flower pots in Figure 175 were selected accord-
ing to their tones. The salesman in the store was
kind enough to allow all the pots on the shelf to
be tapped, and finally five were found that were

Fig. 175. Flower pots used as hells

in tune for playing a simple melody. One boy
collected several old ones in his mother's cellar,

430

SCHOOL EXPERIMENTS IN BELL MAKING 431

washed them, and found three that sounded exactly
right for the first three notes of the scale. One may
play ** Hot-Cross Buns" or other three-note tunes,

Yellow mixing howls used as hells

and one may also compose any number of tunes on
three flower pots, or other forms of bells that are
in tune.

Goblets and even ordinary drinking glasses will
produce clear, bell-like tones, though some glasses
produce tones that are more musical than others.

Experiment: Find a goblet that has a clear, bell-like
ring when it is tapped on the side. Fill it half full of
water and tap it again. What has happened to the tone ?
Put various amounts of water in it and test the tone each
time. What seems to be the rule about changing the
tone of glass ?

If glasses are selected with care and properly tuned with
water, very sweet music may be made by tapping these
glass bells with a soft hammer. A small wooden hammer
covered with felt is best. (A little block of pine, whit-
tled into a round form and fastened on the end of a
slender stick, makes an excellent hammer.) The glasses

432 BELLS

should rest on something soft. If bubbles form inside
the glass, stir them out, for they deaden the tone. Why
do they?

Teacups and bowls of all kinds may be used for
music making. Earthenware kitchen bowls may
be sorted according to their tones and tuned with
water as glasses are tuned. They should be tapped
on the outside, near the rim. Figure 176 shows a
collection of yellow kitchen bowls that were selected
in a department store for their tones, and suspended
on rods that had little wooden disks on the ends to
fit the bottoms of the bowls. In this position they
look more like bells, but the sound is no better than
when the bowls stand on a cloth-covered table.
The scheme shown in the picture requires that the
bowls be in tune naturally, and it is difficult to
find more than three or four bowls that sound the
desired scale notes without putting any water in
them.

Copper kettles, saucepans, and even bottles have
served as bells where nothing better could be
found.

Metal tubing may be cut into pieces of various
lengths, and with these many interesting experi-
ments in sound may be tried. If all the pieces are
cut from tubing of the same size, their tones may
be regulated merely by their length. ^ Brass tub-
ing one-half inch in diameter is a convenient size
to use.

'See paragraph about the tubaphone on p. 156.

SCHOOL EXPERIMENTS IN BELL MAKING 433

Wooden bells may be made by hollowing out two
pieces of wood and gluing them together. Or a
large block of wood may be converted into a bell by
hollowing it out with a lathe. If no lathe is to be
had, holes may be bored into the block with a large
bit to the depth of the opening desired, and the
remaining partitions between the holes may be
chiseled out. It is interesting to observe how the

Fig. 177. Wooden bells made by school children

tone of the block of wood, when struck with a
wooden mallet, changes as it becomes more and
more hollowed out. The greater the diameter of
the cavity, the lower the tone becomes.

From a collection of twenty wooden bells made
by a group of school children, without any attempt
to make definite tones, a complete scale of one
octave was obtained, and when these were selected
from the others, arranged in order, and suspended,
various tunes were played on them. Most of these

434

BELLS

bells were made of blocks of redwood or white pine.
Some of them are shown in Figure 177.

Pottery bells may be made at home or at school
if there is a convenient kiln for firing them. Figure
178 shows a few clay bells made by children in school.
They were built up from coils of clay and shaped
with the hands, both inside and out. Some have
holes in the top through which they are hung;
others have handles that are built on, with clay.
The thinner these built-up clay bells are, the clearer
the tone. They should dry for several days before
they are fired.

Two of the bells in Figure 179 are also built up
with coils of clay, and afterward cut down quite
thin. The others are molded in plaster molds made
from cast metal bells.

It is very difficult to make clay bells and have
them come out of the firing-kiln with any certain

Fig. 178. Clay hells made by school children

SCHOOL EXPERIMENTS IN BELL MAKING 435

tone because the baking of the clay changes the
pitch. This general rule, however, may be remem-
bered : All other things being equal, the thinner the

Fig. 179. Clay hells, the first three made in plaster molds,
the other two, coiled

bell, the lower the tone; and the greater the diam-
eter, the lower the tone.

After a clay bell has dried for several days, and
before it is fired, its tone may be tried and changed
a bit. Sandpapering the lower edge will raise the
tone, and sandpapering the inside will lower it. A
knife may be used instead of the sandpaper. After
the bell is fired it is so hard and brittle that tuning
is a very tedious process.

If a large group of people make bells of different
thickness and different diameters, it is probable
that several notes of the same scale may be found,
or perhaps several groups of notes. In a recent
school experiment a few bells were made and allowed
to dry for a week, and then tuned to scale notes
before they were fired. They were all put into the
kiln at the same time, and came out almost exactly

436 BELLS

in tune with each other, although the entire scale
had been raised several tones.

Plaster molds may be made as follows:
(i) Find a metal bell of the shape desired for the new
bell. Remove the handle and fill the hole with
clay. If no pattern bell is to be had, a jelly glass
with a round bottom may be used; or a bowl or
a bell-shaped vase (if it does not close in at the
top) will do.

(2) Roll out a thin layer of clay on a board and set the
pattern bell or glass on it, upside down.

(3) An inch or more from the bell, place a retaining wall

of some kind to hold the plaster. This wall may
be a round cylinder of linoleum, or a round box
with no bottom in it. If nothing round is to be
had, the retaining wall may be made of four
squares of glass supported and "chinked" together
with clay so the plaster will not run out at the
comers.

(4) Rub a little soapsuds over the bell so it will slip
out of the plaster when the time comes.

(5) Dissolve the plaster to the right consistency, and
then pour it over the bell, filling up the retaining
wall.

(6) In a few minutes the plaster will be " set " and firm
enough to remove the wall, turn the plaster over,
and take out the bell. This must be done very
carefully, lest the smooth surface of the bell
impression be broken.

(7) This mold should be allowed to dry in a warm
place for several days. It is not ready for use
until all the moisture is gone, and it feels dry to
the hand.

SCHOOL EXPERIMENTS IN BELL MAKING 437

To make the bell :

(i) The clay must be dissolved to a thick cream, and
strained, so that all the lumps are removed.
This liquid clay is called *'slip."

(2) Pour the slip into the mold, filling it to the top.

In a minute or two it will have to be filled again,
and even again perhaps, for as the plaster mold
absorbs the water the mass of slip sinks down.
A layer of clay may be seen forming around the
edge of the cavity, and becoming a little firmer
than the rest of the slip.

(3) As soon as this layer becomes as thick as the

desired bell (requiring probably from fifteen to
thirty minutes) , lift the mold and pour out all of the
slip that will flow out. Experiment will enable one
to regulate the thickness of the bell by the length
of time the slip is left in the mold.

(4) Set the mold aside and the plaster will absorb enough
moisture from the layer of clay to allow it to
become firm. As the moisture leaves it, the clay
shrinks a little. Sometimes the outside edge of
the clay sticks to the mold in one or two places,
causing the clay to crack as it shrinks. To pre-
vent this, run a thin knife blade under the edge of
the clay before it shrinks much.

(5) In several hours, or a day perhaps, the new bell may
be lifted from the mold and placed out in the air
to diy. It must be handled with exceeding care,
lest it break or lose its shape.

(6) Next day it may be trimmed with a knife, so that
the mouth of the bell is smooth and clean. It
is best if the bell is allowed to dry for a week or
more before it is fired.

438

BELLS

The mold should not be used until it has had time
to become thoroughly dry again.

If a group of children can make molds of different
sizes, and in them mold bells of different thick-
nesses, there is great likelihood of having enough
different toned bells to play tunes on them. (See
below the music for a simple tune to be played
upon three bells.) The experiments tried by the
writer indicated that clay bells sound best when
not glazed.

A SIMPLE TUNE FOR THREE BELLS

i

k

b±f|

T^

-^^

-i5^

Ding,

dong!

Ding, dong !

I

I

-i5f-

Hear the mer - ry bells ring - ing!

i

I:

-^

Ding,

dong!

Ding, dong!

I

fe

^i

^ S

Hear the mer - ry bells ring!

SCHOOL EXPERIMENTS IN BELL MAKING 439

Many people are interested in making clay bells
merely for the pleasure of molding with the hands
beautiful shapes and designs, with no thought of

'I / 1 J 'T J' } V iJJ I -I f I

. ^ . . : ^f^'

Fig. 180. A bell quartet

using the bells for musical purposes. Clay bells
may be inscribed, decorated, and painted in number-
less designs.

Figure 180 shows four children playing on a set
of metal bells cast in tune by a maker of Swiss hand
bells. They are playing the four parts of a slow
hymn. Since metal bells continue to vibrate so
long after they are struck, very slow music is best
suited to them.

440

BELLS

There are two and one-half octaves, low G to
high C, with C sharp and F sharp added, these
being fastened a little higher than the others.

The following chorale is a suitable quartet for
such a range of bells as those in Figure i8o and,
when well played, it is very effective.

A CHORALE

Very slowly

Soprano

A 1 J. A J

By Martin Luther

^ I^

J.

r^

^ «^ f^ 0

^—& ^

:^

Alto

To shep-herds as they watched by night

Tenor /C>

Bass

rr

^g^Ef^ijp^

TTfl?

mf

J.

I

Ap-peared a troop of an - gels bright.

/7N

^^^j

/^

(^

T f-r r u ^ r f

SCHOOL EXPERIMENTS IN BELL MAKING 441

I

-7^

-^' -^-

yU4:^ J

:^=F^

-^

jG-

-f5>-

p

'Be - hold the

i

ten - der Babe," they said,

1

?t=^-

^-

U

-^-

^Aj J J

I

0—j^

d

-^

j^-

fe

:^

:^

H h

cres. .....'/ ritard.

"In yon - der low - ly man - ger laid."

I

'^-

r

-^— j— j— i-gi-

*=±

r

f

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY

In the preparation of the present volume, material has been
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1855-

442

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 443

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444 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Mee and Thompson: Marvels of Industry. (Every Day

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Meneely Bell Company's Catalogue.

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 445

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Myres, T. Harrison: Bells and Bell Lore. London.

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446 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY

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THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 447

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29

448 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Catalogue of the Crosby-Brown Musical Instrument Collection.

Christian Science Monitor for August, 1924,

Church Tablet, The, Passaic, New Jersey. August and Sep-
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''Les cloches chez nos peres," Academic Royale d'archeologie de
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"Tower Music of Belgium and Holland," in Musical Quarterly
for April, 191 5.

THE INDEX

Abi^ssinia, sistrum in, 24

Accidents, caused by vibrations,
117

Aerschodt, bell founder, 208

Affection for bells, legends of, 1-4,
262-63

Africa, bells of: on Benin girls, 20;
in ceremonial rattle, 18; on ele-
phants, 12 ; music of, 21 ; used by-
royalty, 18-19; wooden, 11, 15,
16

Alarm bell, 112, 391

Alfred the Great: erects first bel-
fry, 361; originates curfew, 38,
103

Alost, carillons from, 216

Alps, Tyrolese, storm bells of, 91

"Ambroise Bell," Rouen, 233

America, bells of, 32, 268-93;
bronze, 32; carillons, 214, 289-
93; chimes, 275-77, 284-89;
colonial, 268-75; cowbells, 385;
curfew, 105; fovmdries, 186; of
national interest, 283-84; Span-
ish missions, 241, 277—83

Amnor, Hindu sacred bells from,
335

Amsterdam, carillons of, 211, 217-

19

Ancient civilization: bells of, 22-

33; Assyria, 22-23; Central and

South America, 32-33; China,

22; Egypt, 23—25; Greece and

Rome, 26-31; Judea, 25-26;

Turkey, 31-32
Angelus bell, 98-100
Animals, bells on. See Buffaloes;

Cattle; Dogs; Elephants;

Horses; Monkeys; Reindeer;

Sheep
Ankle bells: dancing symbol, 390;

(Egypt) 390; (India; 339, 390;

(Japan) 325, 390
Anne, Queen, bells given colonies

by, 269
Antler, used to strike bell (Burma) ,

342, 346. 356
Antwerp Cathedral, carillon of,

207-8
Arabia, bells of, 391

Architecture, bells and, 359-76;
campaniles, 370-75; Christian
church (early), 359-62 (later
development), 375-76; defini-
tion of terms, 368-70; municipal
bell towers, 366-68; round
towers, 364-66
"Armada: a Fragment, The,"

quoted, ill
Armagh, bells of: "Blessed Bell,"
52; modem, 242; St. Patrick's,
43-44
Armistice, bells announce, 5
Art of Ringing, The, quoted, 129
Asia, bells of, 12, 351. See also
Buddhism, bells and; Burma
bells of; China, bells of; India
bells of; Japan, bells of
Assyria, bells of, 22-23, 59. I49
Athelney, first belfry at, 361
" Atri, Bell of," Longfellow, 404-8

raentioned, 267, 306
Aughagower, bell of, legend, 54
Ave bell. See Angelus bell
Avignon: bell legend of, 250

"Ringing City," 233
Aztecs, clay bells of, 33

Backward ringing of bells, 1 12-13
Bahama, negroes of, dance to

bells, 20
Bamboo bells, 17
Banda Island, Javanese bells of, 21
Bangor, bishop of, bell legend, 248
Baptism of bells, 84-95; by Catho-
lics, 95; ceremony, 86-89; Char-
lemagne forbids, 86; names, 92;
in Middle Ages, 85; powers
derived from, 85-86, 90-91; by
Protestants, 93-95; traditions,
91-92
Barnstable, Mass., bell of, 268
Barrel carillon. See Tambour

carillon
Bavaria, bell of, 235
Becket, Thomas a, bells announce

murder of, 250
Beckett, Sir Edmund, chose West'

minster chimes, 167-68
Bade, quoted, 36

29

449

450

THE INDEX

Belfries: defined, 369-70; early
116, 361-62; in Grecian islands,
117; of Japan, 320, 322; tree,
116

"Belfry of Bruges, The," Long-
fellow, 419-21

Belgium: bell legend of, 250;
carillons of, 185, 192, 194, 198,
200, 208, 241; chimes of, 184;
Ghent bell, 239-40

Bell, Mr., quoted, 52-53

Bell: in architectural terms, 368-
70; defined, 11 n.; derivation,
12 n.; materials of, 60, 377;
names, 92; parts, 69; propor-
tions, 45-46, 70-71

Bell blessing. See Baptism of
bells

Bell-buffalo (India), 20

Bell Collection, Miller. See Mil-
ler Bell Collection

Bell cow, Hindu, dedication of,

334-35

Bell grove, 13-14

Bell hanging. See Hanging of
bells

Bell lore. See Legends, bell

Bellman, English, 378

"Bellman," Herrick, 379

"Bell oath," 47-48

"Bell of Atri, The," Longfellow,
404-8; mentioned, 267, 306

"Bell of Blood," 53-54

Bell ringers, 154, 234; legend of,
263. See also Change ringing;
Ringing societies

Bell towers, 97; Chinese, 308;
defined, 369; early, 362; Ivan,
220-27, 375; kinds of, 116;
legend ascribed to, 314; in
Peking, 310-11; in Saxon de-
crees, 39. See also Municipal
bell towers and Belfries

"Bells, The," Poe, 425-28

Bells, poetry of, 402-29

Bells, uses of, 4-8; 377-94; as
alarm, 112, 391; bell oath, 53-
54; by dancers, 325; to cure
illness, 256; at street shows, 340;
by watchmen, 159. See also
under countries; Animals;
Church bells; Domestic uses of
bells; Dress, bells on; Legends,
bell; Military; Religious uses
of bells; National uses of bells;
Signals

"Bells of San Bias, The," Long-
fellow, 414-16
Bible, quoted, 25, 60-61
"Big Bell Temple" (China), 311-

15
"Big Ben" (London), 168, 169-77,

246
"Black Bell of Drumragh," legend

of, 51-52
"Black Bell" of St. Patrick, 43
Blacksmith, early bell maker, 18
"Blood, Bell of," 53-54
Boat bells, 391
Bodoahpra, King, Mingon Bell

and, 344
"Bonnie Dundee," quoted, 112-13
Bordeaux, bell tower of, 367
Boris Godunov. See Godunov,

Boris
Boston, bells of, 269-71, 274
"Boston Stump" carillon, 211
Bottles as bells, 432
Bow bells, London, 109-10; legend,

260-62
Bowls as bells, 432
Brahmin priests, bells used by,

335-37
Brasses, bell part, 119
Brazil, wooden bell of, 15
Brees, Anton, carillonneur, 208,

292
Brick framework, in bell manufac-
ture, 65
"Brigid, The Broken Bell of,"

story, 42-43
Bristol University bell, 246
"Bronze Bell of Cumascach," 46
Bronze bells (Assyria), 59; (Cen-
tral America), 32; (Ireland), 46
Bronze foundries, Chinese, 297-98
Bruges, carillon of, 200, 203
"Bruges, The Bell of," Longfellow,

419-21
Buddha, bells used in worship of,
298,301,311; (Japan), 316, 323-
24, 351, 352-58. See also Budd-
hism, bells and
Buddhism, bells and, 342, 351-58;
in Japan, 319; in monasteries,
352-55; music of, 357-58. See
also Buddha, bells used in
worship of
Buffalo, sacred (India), 333-34;

bell worn by, 20, 334
Buildings, ancient, towerless, 359
Bull carts, bells on (India), 340

THE INDEX

451

Bunyan, John, and bell ringing,

134-35

Buoys, bells on, 391

Buried church bells, legends of,
251-52

Burma, bells of, 341-50; casting,
341-42; on Naga women, 19-20;
on pagodas, 342-46; story-in-
scription, 347-50. See also
Buddha, bells used in worship
of; Buddhism, bells and

Bumey, Dr. Charles, 215; on
carillons, 215-19

Calais, loses bell to Monmouth, 40
California: bell collection of, 395-

401; missions of, 279, 281, 282
Calixtus III, Pope, donor of Kings

College peal, 125
Cambridge, Kings College peal,

125

Cambridge Chimes, 166-68

Cambridge quarters, 213, 284

Camel bells, 386

Campana, 96 n., 97 n.

Campania, Italy, belfry of, 35

Campaniles, of Italy, 370-75; of
Russia, 375

Campanologia, 139

Campanology, art of, 179

Candles burning, as time measure,
158

Cannon, made from bells, 238

Canonical hours, bells announce,
158, 159

Canterbury Cathedral, St. Dun-
stan's bell of, 243

Canterbury Pilgrims, 385

Canton, tabooed bell of, 309, 352;
legend of, 309-10

Caravan bells, 386

"Carillon," Longfellow, 416-18

Carillonneur, 190

Carillons, 187-219; automatic,
188-89, 194; bells in, 192; Dr.
Bumey on, 215-19; compared to
chimes, 187-88; countries hav-
ing, 192-94; defined, 179; de-
scribed, 187; development of,
194-95; estimate, 196; a Gothic
invention, 216; makers of, 196-
98; methods of playing, 188-
90; music of (beauty), 199,
(education through), 196;
popularity, 214, 246; recitals,
195

Carillons, important, 200-14; in
America, 213-14, 289-93; Ant-
werp, 207-8; Bruges, 200-3; in
England, 211-12; in France,
211; in Germany, 211; Ghent,
208; in Holland, 211; Mechlin,
203-7; Middelburg, 208-11

Castanets, defined, ii n.

Cast bell, defined, 62-64

Casting of bells, early, 57, 59-66;
ceremony, 60-61, (Japan) 320-
22; early method, 62-65; in
Japan, 320-22; later method,
65-66; spread of art of, 62

Casting of bells, modern, 66-68;
Big Ben, 169-70; in Burma,
341-42; time taken in, 68

Catacombs, 34

Catholic churches, bells of, 351;
Angelus, 98-100; baptism of, 95;
sanctus bell, 97-98

Cattle bells: America, 385; Egypt,
23; Greece and Rome, 27, 28;
India, 333-35- 339; Switzerland,
384-85

Celebrations: for bell, 94-95;
bells used in (Chinese), 308,
(Japanese) 325. See also Reli-
gious uses of bells

Cellini, Benvenuto, silver bell of,

231

Celtic bell lore, 47-56, 262-63

Ceremonies, bells used in, 16;
(Chinese) 298. See also Reli-
gious uses of bells

Ceylon, bells on elephants of, 338

Change ringing, 127-37; in Amer-
ica, 269; Bunyan and, 134-35;
effect, 136, 137; in England,
135-37. 194; method, 127-28,
129-34, 136; popularity of,
128-29, 136; progress in, 138-39;
societies for, 138-48; terms, 131-
32

Change - Ringing Disentangled,
quoted, 129-32

Chao-hao, time measure of, 294

Charlemagne, magic bell of, 248;
forbids baptism of bells, 86; and
Tancho, 38-39

Charleston, S. C., chimes of, his-
tory, 275-77

Chime barrel, 182-84

Chimes, 178-86; in America, 186,
284-89; automatic, develop-
ment of, 180-81; number of

452

THE INDEX

bells, 185; Cambridge and West-
minster, 166-68; compared to
carillons, 187-88; Christmas,
114; clock, 123; defined, 178-79;
in England, 186; methods of
playing, 164-66, 178-80, 182-
86; of St. Michael's Church,
Charleston, 275-77; of St. Paul's
Cathedral, 95; tubular bells as,
156

China, bells of, 294-308; ancient,
22, 57, 294-97; as charms, 352;
worn by children, 352; clapper-
less, 299-303; composition, 297;
form, 298-99; foundries, 297-98;
in Japan, 319; as justice bells,
266, 306; legends, 309-15; pecu-
liarity, 297; as scale tone stand-
ard, 149, 294, 295, 298; as sig-
nals, 295; in temples, 298, 300,
302, 303, 304, 305, 308, 311,
314, 356; as time markers, 294;
varied uses of, 298, 308, 351;
wooden, 16, 304-5

Chorale for bell quartet, 439

Christ Church, Boston, bells of,
269-71

Christ Church, Philadelphia,
chimes of, 269

Christening of bells. See Bap-
tism of bells

Christening peal, 98

Christian architecture. See Church
architecture

Christianity, bells of: and of
Buddhism, compared, 357; early,
30, 34-40, 57. 150, 351; brought
to England, 36. See also Bap-
tism of bells; Church bells;
Religious uses of bells

Christmas, bells at, 1 13-14, 380,
387; legends of, 252-53

Chun, unifies bell tones, 295

Chung, Chinese name for bell, 298

Church architecture, early, 359-
68; development of, 375-76

Church bells, Christian: early, 34—
40; importance of, in England,
96; tower development due to,
359-61; uses of, 69-70, 96-115,
158. See also Baptism of bells;
Christianity, bells of; Religious
uses of bells

Church of England, bell legisla-
tion of, 39

Church organ. See Organs

Churchyard, bells in, 116

Cincinnati Bell Foundry, 186

Cire-perdu (Burmese method of
casting), 341

Civilizations, ancient. See An-
cient civilizations

"Clappering," 121

Clapperless bells (China): 298-
303; method of striking, 302-3

Clappers, 68, 118; double, 123; of
ancient Irish bells, 41; movable
(Russia), 228; wooden (China),

303-4
Claughton, Lancashire, bell of, 242
Clavier carillon, 189-90; develop-
ment of, 195
Clay, in bell manufacture, 64, 65,

66
Clay bells: of Aztecs and Incas, 33 ;
for Feast of St. Paulinus, 35;
making, 433-39
Clement VII, Pope, bell of, 231-32
Clepsydra, 158

Clock bells, 158-68; ancestors of
chimes, 180; development of,
158-59; figures on, 159-62;
mechanism of, 164-66; music of,
166-68; St. Mark's, 160; Stras-
burg, 159-60; Westminster, 159,
162-64
Clock chimes. See Chimes
Clocks: striking, 159; weight-
driven, 159
Clock tower, first in New York,
274; modem, mechanism of,
164-66; oldest in England, 159
"Clog-Oir," legend, 54-55
Clondalkin Round Tower, 365
Clotaire II, bell legend of, 84, 247
Coach, bells announce, iii
" Cockney," no n.
Coins, Leningrad bell made of, 228
College of the Holy Spirit and
St. Mary, London, bells of, 138
College Youths, Society of, 138,

139-40
Cologne, bells of, 95, 235, 238
Colonies, American, bells of, 268-

75; substitutes for, 275
"Columbian Liberty Bell," 284
"Conall Cael, Bell of," legend, 54
Confucius: bells used in worship

of, 300, 302; quoted, 304
Consecrated bells, power of, 85-

86, 90-91, 255-56
Constantino, Emperor, 34

THE INDEX

453

Cope (bell part), 64, 66

Copts, maraouth used by, 24

Core (bell part), 64, 65, 66

Corrigiiinculurn, 97

Costumes, bells on. See Dress,

bells on
Cowbells: in America, 385; in

India, 333-35. 339; in Switzer-
land, 384-85
Cowper, "How Soft the Music of

Those Village Bells," 411
Cows, Hindu sacred, 333, 334-35
Crimean War, bells rung at close

of, 146
Criminals, bells and, 27, 248-50
Crosby-Brown collection, bells in

Metropolitan Museum, 377
Crotal bells, 384

Crotch, Dr., composer of Cam-
bridge chimes, 167
Croydon foundry. See Gillett &

Johnston, bell founders
Croyland, abbot of, 36-37
Cruikshank, illustrator of bell

legend, 248
"Cumascach, Bronze Bell of," 46;

magic powers of, 52-53
Cumberland Society of Change

Ringers, 139
Cups as bells, 432
Curfew bell, 103-6; in America,

105; in London, 14th century,

104-5; in Middle Ages, 3-4;

origin, 38, 103-4; in Oxford, 105;

poems, 105-6; during World

War, 105
Curiosities of the Belfry, 143
Cuthbert, St., bells used by, 36
Cymbalium, 97 n.
Cymbals, defined, 11 n., 153

Dambeck, Germany, bell legend

of, 258-59
Dampers, to lessen vibration, 157
Dancers, bells of: China, 308;
Egypt, 390; India, 339; Japan,
325; Morris, 21
Dancing, bells used in, 20, 21
Danger signals, bells used as, iii
David, King, music of, 150, 153-

54
David, St., bell of, legend, 49
Death knell, 10 1-2. See also

Tolling
Debussy, "Disappearing Cathe-
dral," 252

Decoration, bells as. See Dress,

bells on
Decoration on bells, 64-65, 66,

74, 80, (Russia) 225-26, (Spain)

401
Delft, carillon of, 211
Denmark, bells of: legends, 254-

55, 258; Odense, 238
Dennys, N. B., quoted, 314-15,

352
Denyn, Joseph, carillonneur, 204;

carillon school, 205; concerts,

204, 205-7, 291
Devil's death knell, 114
Direction determined by bells, 17,

107
Dogs, hunting, bells on, 387
Domestic uses of bells (Egypt),

23-24; (Rome), 28; hand bells

in, 380-82; on the farm, 391;

electric, 392
Double clapper, 123
"Dref Bell," Sweden, 239
Dress, bells as, 19-20, 390
Dress, bells on, 390-91; in Arabia,

391; babies (China), 308, 310;

in Egypt, 23; fools, 390; high

priest, 25, 390
"Drumragh, Black Bell of," leg-
end, 51-52
Drums: in Africa, 21; in China,

294, 295, 302, 310; defined,

II n.; in Mechlin carillon, 204;

in New Hebrides, 12
Drum Tower, Peking, 310
Dublin Cathedral, peals of, 125
Dumery family, bell founders, 196,

198, 203, 208
Dunkeld, story of, 40
Dunraven, Lord, bell experiment

of, 365-66
Dupla, 97 n.
Dustman's bell, 379-80
Dutch church, N. Y., first tower

clock in N. Y., 274; Dutch Re-
formed Church, N. Y., 269
Dragon, bell adjunct (Japan), 323;

legend, 328-29
Dwarfs, bell legend of, 263-65

Earthquake, bells protected from
(Grecian islands), 117

East and West, bells of, com-
pared, 357

Easter bell legend, 91, 255-56

Eastern Scholars, Society of, 139

454

THE INDEX

East India, use of bells by Pegu

of, 21
Ecclesiastical Architecture, History

of, quoted, 375-76
Ecuador, Indians of, use of bells

by, 21
Edward VII, King, bells tolled at

death of, 5
Egbert, King, orders ringing of

bells, 38
Egypt, bells of, 23-25, 390
Electric bell, mechanism of, 392-

94
Electricity, chimes played b3^ 185
" Elegy in a Country Churchyard,"

quoted, 105
Elephants, bells used on, (Asia)

12, (Greece and Rome) 27,

(India) 338
Elizabeth, Queen, stops Hallow-
e'en bell ringing, 102-3
Ellacombe, Rev. H. T., quoted,

133-34
"Emanuel," bell of Notre Dame,

234
"Emperor," bell of Cologne, 238
Engakuji, Kamakura (Japan), bell

of, 318-19; legend, 326-27
England, bells of, 36, 56, 95, 159,

242-46; in American colonies,

268, 269; carillons, 193-94, 211-

12; chimes, 125, 126, 184, 186;

foundries, 186; legends, 260-62;

national instrument, 135-36;

the "Ringing Isle," 128, 135,

139. 193- See also "Big Ben"

and Change ringing
England, old: bellman, 378-79;

Christmas bell, 114; church

bell, 96; Morris dancers, 21, 390
English inscriptions on bells, 76
Erfurt, Saxony, bell of, 237
Etruscan bells: found in tombs,

30, 149; used for music, 149
Europe, bells of, 220-46; clocks,

159; inscriptions, 80-83; legends,

247-67. See also under names

of countries
Evening bell, 108
Evil spirits, power of bells over,

85-86, loo-i, (India) 338, 351
Excommunication, by "bell, book,

and candle," 113
Executions, bells used at, 382-83
Exeter Cathedral: chimes of, 137,

186; "Great Peter of," 242

Factory bells, 391

Fair bells, ill

Fairs, Russian, bells sold at, 230 .

Falconry, bells used in, 386-87

"False bell," in bell manufacture,
65

Farm bells, 391

Feng-ling, Chinese wind bell, 306-8

Fielding, Mr., quoted, 48

Figures, automatic, on clock bell,
159-62

Fiji Islands, Lali in, 14-15

Fire bells, 108, 391; inscription, 79

Fish pendants on bells (Japan,
Korea), 325

Flag Feast, Japan, bells used at,
325

Flemish town belfries, 368

Florence, campanile of, 373-75

Flower pots, as bells, 430-31

Fools' bells, 390

Founders, bell: early, 61, 62; leg-
ends of, (Ireland) 262-63,
(Japan) 327-28

Founding, bell. See Casting of
bells

Foundries, 59; America, 186, 274;
China, 297-98; early, 60; Eng-
land, 186

France, bells of, 232-34; belfries,
368; carillons, 192, 208, 211;
legends, 247, 250, 256-57; ring-
ers, 234; storm, 91; table, 381

Francis I of France, 234; deprived
towns of bells, 234

Freiburg, bell of, 235

French Revolution, bells rung for,
112

Fritters bell, 107

Funeral bells, 26, 51-52, 383; leg-
end of, 52

Gabriel bell, 97. See also Angelus
bell

Garden of Bells. See Miller Bell
Collection

Garments. See Dress, bells as;
Dress, bells on

Gate bell, 108

Germany, bells of, 234-37; caril-
lons, 192, 211; legends, 251-52,
257-58. 258-59, 263-65

Ghent: bell of, 239-40; carillon,
208, 215-16

Gheyn, Pieter. See Van den
Gtieyn, Pieter

THE INDEX

455

Ghuntas, Indian hand bells, 335-37
Giants, bell legend of, 265-66
Gilbert, W. S., quoted, 178
Gillett & Johnston, bell founders,

166, 198, 211, 213, 289-90
Giotto, architect, 373-75
Glass bells, 60
Glasses as bells, 431
Gleaning bell, 109
Glenwood Mission Inn, California,

Miller Bell Collection in, 395
Gloucester, "Great Peter" of, 243
Gloucester, Mass., carillon of, 289
Goblets as bells, 431
Godunov, Czar Boris, donor of

Cathedral of St. Nicholas bell,

220-222
Gog and Magog, 162
Gold, in bells, 60
Gold bells (Panama), 32
"Golden Bell of St. Senan," 47
Gongs: as church bells (Ireland),

118; defined, 11 n.; Japanese,

150; orchestral bells, 155-56; as

signal, 295; stone, 17
Graveyard, bells in, 116
Gray, "Elegy in a Country

Churchyard," quoted, 105
"Great Paul," St. Paul's Cathe-
dral, 246
"Great Peter," Exeter, 242
"Great Peter," Gloucester, 243
"Great Peter," York, 245
Great Plague of London, bell rung

during, 382
"Great Tom," Lincoln, 243-44
"Great Tom," Oxford, 244
"Great Tom," Westminster, 162,

245; story of, 163-64
Grecian islands, bells of, 117
Greece, ancient, bells of, 26-27,

29. 30-31
Greenbie, M. B., quoted, 356-58
Gudgeons (bell part), 119

Hallowe'en, bell ringing at, 102-3
Hammers, to ring bells, 118, 164
Hand bells: 378-83; of bellman,

378-80; for domestic uses, 380-

82; in India, 335-37; in Japan,

320
Handel, quoted, 135
Hang-chow, tolling rime of, 353
Hanging of bells, 116-24; early,

116; to avoid accidents, 117;

methods, 118-20, 124; "clap-

pering," 121; mechanism, 122-
23

Hanks family, first American bell
foundry, 274

Hanuman, monkey god (India),
337

Hart, Mrs. Ernest, quoted, 341-42

Harvard College, bells of, 268

Harvest bell, 109

Hauptmann, "The Sunken Bell,"
252

Haverals, Gerard Gommaire, caril-
lonneur, 203-4

Hawks, bells on, 387

Healing, bells with power of, 48-
50, 52-53

Hebrew priest, bells of, 25, 352,
390

Hebrews, bells of, 25-26

Hemony, Franz and Pieter, bell
founders, 196, 198, 203, 208, 211

Henry II, restores bells of Bor-
deaux, 234

Henry Ill's reign, bells of, 59

Henry V, gives bell of Calais to
Monmouth, 40

Henry VIII, and bells, 102, 243

Herrick, "Bellman," 379

Hilda, St., bell legend of, 84, 250-
51

Hindus, use of bells by, 332-38

Hiriadeva, Hindu bell god, 334

History of Ecclesiastical Architec-
ture, quoted, 375-76

Hiuen-chung, Chinese bell, 301-2

Hoang-ti, fixes scale tones, 294

Holland, bells of: carillons, 192,
194, 200, 216, 241; in colonies,
268, 269; legends, 252-53

Holstein, bell legends of, 257-58,
263-65

Holy bell, 97

"Holy Ghost bell," Strasburg, 108

Holy Innocents bell, 100

Horses, bells on, 387-90; in Amer-
ica, 385; in Asia, 385; in ancient
Assyria, 22; in Canterbury Pil-
grifns, 385; in Egypt, 23; in
Greece and Rome, 26, 27, 28;
in India, 340; in Japan, 324; in
Judea, 25

Hourglass, 158

House bell, 381-82

"How Soft the Music of Those
Village Bells," Cowper, 411

"Hum tone," 73

456

THE INDEX

Hunting dogs, bells on, 387

Iceland, bells of, 116

Incas of Peru, bells of, 32, 33

"Inchcape Rock, The," Southey,

402-4; mentioned, 391
"Incident of the Fire at Ham-
burg, An," Lowell, 408-10
Independence Hall Bell, 283
India, bells of, 332-40; to attract
attention, 340; cowbell of, 20; on
dancers, 339, 390; on elephants,
338;_on field cattle, 339, 385;
religious uses of, 333-37; wind,
339. See also Buddhism, bells
and
Indians, use of bells by, 20-21
Indulgences, at consecration of

bell, 90
"In Memoriam," Tennyson, 411-

13

"Inn of Bells." See Miller Bell
Collection

Inscriptions, bell: 66, 74-84; Big
Ben, 170; Buddhist, 355; Bur-
mese, 341-42, 342, 346-47, 347-
50; English, 76; Great Bell of
Moscow, 226; Japanese, 356;
Latin, 74-75, 76, 401; musical,
75-76; Runic, 239

Ireland, bells of, 30, 242; belfries,
116; church, gong for, 118; leg-
ends, 47-56, 262-63; round
towers, 364-66; sacred, 41-46

Isis, sistrum used in worship of, 24

Italy, bells of, 231-32; of baked
earth, 385; campaniles, 370-75;
legends, 255-56, 263, 266-67; for
Russia, 220; table, 380-81;
towers, 116

Ivanovna, Empress Anna, donor
of bell, 223

Ivan Tower, bells of, 220-27, 375

Jacks, in England, 160-62

"Jacquelin." Paris, 233

Japan, bells of, 316-25; belfries,
320, 322; casting, 320-22; danc-
ers, 390; fire, 391; legends, 326-
31; method of ringing, 322;
temple, 356-57; ^^ses, 323-25

Japanese gongs, 150

Javanese bells, Banda Island, 21

Jersey bells, legend of, 253-54

"Jesus Bells," St. Paul's church-
yard, 243

Jingle, defined, 11 n.

"Jingling" bells, 18, 324

John V of Portugal, carillons

bought by, 192-93
John XIII, Pope, names bell, 92
Josephus, quoted, 25-26
Judea, bells of, 25-26
Justice, bells of, 266-67; Chinese,

306
Jutland, bell legend of, 254-55

Kamakura, Engakuji, bell of, 318-

19
Keitum, Denmark, bell legend of,

258
Kenan's Convent, legend of bell of,

51
Kettles: African, 21; as bells, 432
Keyboard carillon. See Clavier

carillon
King. See Royalty
Kings Chapel, Boston, bell in, 274
Kings College, Cambridge, peal

of, 125
Kioto, great bell of, 316
Kolokol, Czar. See Moscow,

Great Bell of
Korea, bells of, 319, 325, 356
Kremlin, bells of, 223
Krempe, Holstein, bell legend of,

257-58

Laga, Sweden, bell legend of, 265-

66
Lali, wooden bell, 14-15
Lancashire bell ringers, 154
Lateran Church (Rome), bell of,

92
Laws on bells, 39, 362
Leaning Tower of Pisa, 370-73
Legends, bell: Celtic, 47-56, 262-

63; Chinese, 309-15; English,

260-62; European, 247, 250-52,

254-59, 263-67; Japanese, 326-

31
Leicester, St. Margaret's, peals of,

137
Leningrad, bell in, made of coins,

228
Levers, used with bells, 123, 124,

179-80
Lexington, Mass., bell of, 273-

74
Liberty Bell, story of, 271-73
Lightfoot, Peter, clockmaker, 159
Lighthouse bell, 391

THE INDEX

457

Limerick, Ireland, bell legend of,

262-63
Lincoln, bells tolled at death of, 5
Lincoln, "Great Tom" of, 243-44
Ling-lun, fixed Chinese scale tones,

294
Litholf, gift of, 37
Lithuania, bell tradition of, 91-92
Lochen, Holland, bell legend of,

252-53

Lomax, Benjamin, quoted, 30,

107-8, 121-22
London: Bow Bells of, 109-10;

curfew in, 104-5

London Youths, Society of, 139

Longfellow, "The Belfry of

Bruges," 419-21; "The Bell of

Atri," 404-8, (mentioned) 267,

306; "The Bells of San Bias,"

414-16; "Carillon," 416-18;

Golden Legend, quoted, 90; on

carillons, 200, 203; "Song of

the Bell," 424; "The Spire of

Strasburg Cathedral," 421-23

Lorenz, story of, 1-4

Loughborough, carillon of, 211-12

Louvain library, carillon of, 208

Lowell, "An Incident of the Fire

at Hamburg," 408-10
Lus, Chinese tones, 300
"Lych gate," bell hung in, 116

Macaulay, "The Armada: a Frag-
ment," quoted, iii

Madness, bells to cure, 49-50

Magic bells, 19, 231-32, 309. See
also Legends, bell; Sacred bells

Maha Ganda, Burmese bell, 342

Maiden peal, 71

Making of bells. See Manufac-
ture, bell

Malines. See Mechlin

Malta, bells of, 91

Mandalay, Great Bell of, 344;
story of, 344-46

Manufacture, bell, 57-73; rivet-
ing, 57-58; casting, early, 59-66;
modern, 67-73

Maoris, New Zealand, Pahic of, 20

Maraouth, used by Copts, 24

" Maria Gloriosa," bell of Cologne,
238

"Maria Gloriosa," bell of Saxony,
237

Mark, bell maker's, 61, 80

Market day, bells on, iio-ii

Mary Queen of Scots, table bell of,

381
Massacres, bells rung for, 112
Mechanism of bells, 57-73, 122-23
Mechlin, carillon of, 203-7; Denyn

concerts, 204-7
Medicine man, bell used by, 19
Meneely Bell Foundry, Troy,

N. Y., 168, 186, 274, 283, 287;

quoted, 66-67
Metal bells, first, 17-18; composi-
tion of, 59-60
Metal tubing, as bells, 432
Metropolitan Museum, bells in,

12, 377
Metropolitan Tower, bells of, 168,

284
Mexico: use of bells by Indians of,

20-21; Yotl bells of, 33
Middle Ages: baptism of bells, 85;

bells in, 1-4, 37-39- 56, 153-54;

bell towers of, 366, 367-68;

figures on town clocks of, 159;

personification of bells of, 74-75
Middelburg, carillon of, 208-11
Mii-dera bell (Japan), legends of,

329-31
Military uses of bells, 20, 26, 28,

29, 112, 366
Miller Bell Collection, 395-401
Mingon Bell, 344; story of, 344-46
Missions, Spanish, 277-79, 282-

83; bells of, 241, 279-82
Mohammedans and bells, 31, 351
Molding. See Casting of bells
Monasteries: bells made in, 38;

bells in, 158; (Buddhist) 352-55
Monkeys: bells used before god,

337; in India, used as symbols

on bells, 337
Monmouth, gets bell of Calais, 40
Montferrand, Aug. de, engineer

for Great Bell of Moscow, 225,

226
Montreal Cathedral, bell of, 120
Moore, Thomas, quoted, 31-32;

"Those Evening Bells," 413-14
Morris dancers. Old England, use

of bells by, 21; bells of, 390
Morristown, N. J., carillon of, 289
Moscow, bells of, 220-27; Great

Bell, 223-26
Moulmein Pagoda, bells of, 346-

47
Mourning, bells used for. See
Funeral bells

4S8

THE INDEX

Muezzin, Turkish, 31
Muffin bell, 379
Muffled bells, 102, 112
Mummy cases, bells in, 23
Municipal bell towers, early, 366-

68
Music, bell, 198; carillon, 196,

199; rote and, 150-51; school,

430-33. 438-41
Music, on bells, 75-76
Musical instruments, bells as, 149-

57

Naga women, Burma, bells of, 19-

20
Names, bell founders', taken from

occupation, 62
Names on bells: donors', 79-80;

founders', 77-78
Nanking, bells of, 307-8
Napoleon, charmed by bells, 6-7
Nara (Japan), bell of, 317-18
National uses of bells, 5, 198
Negro, Bahama, use of bells by, 20
Netherlands : carillons of , 185, 216;

chime barrel invented in, 184
New Bell, Ivan Tower, 226; story

of, 226-27
New England, bells of: 268, 269,

273-74, 275. 379. 391
New Guinea, use of bells in, 19
New Hebrides Islands, tree bells

in, 12-14
Newport, R. I., bell of, 269
New Year, bells at, 115
New York, bells of, 269, 274, 377-

78; carillons, 289-92; chimes,

284, 289
New Zealand Maoris, Pahu of, 20
Nimrud, bells of, 23
Nola, bishop of. See Paulinus
Nola, 97 n.

Normandy, ancient bell of, 232
Norway, bells of, 238-39, 387
Notre Dame, bells of, 234
Nottinghamshire, England, buried

church of, 252
Novgorod, bell of, 228
Noyon, France, bell of, 232
" Nursery Rime, A," 428-29

"Oath, Bell," 56
Odense, bell of, 238
Orchestra, bells in, 154, 155-56
Organs, bells attachments of, 152,
156

Ornaments, bells as. See Dress,
bells on

Ornaments on bells. See Decora-
tions on bells

Osbom, E. G., quoted, 136, 199,
207

Ottawa, Canada, carillon of, 293

Oudoceus, St., legend of bell of,
48-49

Oven bell, iii

Oxford, curfew at, 105

Oxford, "Great Tom" of, 244

Pacific Islands, bells in, 17

Pagodas, wind bells used on, 307,
308, 342, 344. 345. 346, 356

Pahu, war bell of Maoris, 20

Pala Chapel, California, belfry of,
281

Pali inscription, on Burmese bells,
341-42

Panama, gold bells from, 32

Pancake bell, 106-7

Pans as bells, 432

Pardon bell, 97

Park Avenue Baptist Church, New
York, carillon of, 290-92

Parliament clock. See West-

minster clock

Passaic, N. J., bell of, 268

Passing bell, 77, loo-i

Patrick, St.: bells used by, 36;
directs making of bells for mon-
asteries, 41; gift of, 53; sacred
bells of, preserved, 42—45; "St.
Patrick's Will, Bell of," 44-45

Paulinus, St., 35

Peal, 125, 136, 178; in England,
135-37; methods of ringing,
126-34, 136. See also Change
ringing

Pease, A. S., quoted, 28-29

Pegu, of East India, use of bells by,
21

Peking, Bell Tower of, 310-11;
Drum Tower of, 310; Great
Bell of, 311-14

Penn, William, imported bell, 268

Personification of bells, 74-75

Peru, bells of, 21, 32

Philadelphia, bells of, 268, 269,
271-73. 283-84

Philips, Maberly, quoted, 388-90

Piao. See Te-chung

Pien-king, Chinese musical in-
strument, 299

THE INDEX

459

Pilgrim, bells of, 46, 325
Pipe organs. See Organs
Pisa: ancient bells of, 231 ; Leaning

Tower of, 370-73
Pitch of bells, 70, 71, 72. See also

China, bells of
Plaster molds, for clay bells, 435-

36
Plates, substituted for bells, 31
Plutarch, quoted, 29
Po-chung, 300-1
Poe, "The Bells," 425-28
Poet laureates, among bell ringers,

145-46
Poetry of bells, 402-29
Poole, History of Ecclesiastical

Architecture, quoted, 375-76
Poor Robin's Almanac, quoted, 106
Porcelain Tower, Nanking, bells

on, 307-8
Portable bells, Celtic, 56; legends

of, 47-55
Portugal, carillons bought by

John V of, 192-93
Post, used to ring bell, 120
Postman's bell, 379
Pottery bells. See Clay bells
Priests, use of bell by, 19, 24, 25,

26, 30, 335. 352, 390
Primitive peoples, bells of, 9-21,

390; bamboo, 17; metal, 17-18;

uses of, 18-21; wooden, 10-16
Primitive peoples, music of, 149-

50
Prince of Wales Youths, 139
Prizes, bells used as, 27
Protestants, dedication of bells by,

93-95
Pudding bell, 97
Push button, 394
Pyatkal, bell canopy, 342

Quarter bells, 161, 164, 166, 182
Quartet, bell, school, 439; chorale

for, 440
Quebec, peals of, 137
Queen cow, bell of (Hindu), 333

Ragman's bell, 380

Rangoon, bells of Shwe Dagon
Pagoda of, 342-44

Rattle: African ceremonial, 18;
bell developed from, 10; de-
fined, II w.

Recasting of bells, 68

Recitals, carillon, 195

Reformation, ends bell baptism, 93
Reindeer bells, 387
Relics, bells as (Ireland), 42
Religious uses of bells: in Asia,
351-58; to attract attention,
335;. Brahmin priests, 335-37;
on buffalo, 20; call monks to
prayer, 158; in China, 298;
Christian, 34-40; in Egypt, 24-
25; in Greek rites, 26; in Hindu
rituals, 333-35; in India, 337,
338; in Japan, 25; for music,
150, 152; in New Hebrides, 13-
14; by priests, 390. See also
Temple bells
Revere, Paul, bell caster, 274
Reverence for bells, 42, 46
Rice, William G., quoted, 71-72,

194, 205-7, 208
Ring, defined, 178
Ringers. See Bell ringers
"Ringing City" (Avignon), 233
"Ringing Isle" (England), 128,

135. 139. 193
Ringing of bells, methods of, 118-

21, 123, 125-26
Ringing Societies, 138-48; per-
formances, 139; poetry of, 146;
rules of, 140-45
Riveted bells, 57-58, 232
"Roland," bell of Ghent, 208,

239-40
Rome, ancient: bells of, 26-30;
bell to announce bath, 34; bell
legend of, 266-67 ; bell in Miller
collection, 399; bells used for
rausic, 149; St. Peter's Church,
bell of, 232
Rope, burning, as time measure,

158
Ropes, bells rung by, 118, 119,

120, 121, 122, 125-26, 228
Rostov bell, 228
Rotary yokes, 123-24
Rote and bell music, 150-51
Rotterdam, carillon of, 211
Rouen, "Ambroise Bell," 233
Round ringing, 126
Round towers. See Towers, round
Royalty, bell used by, 18-19, 27
Runic inscription, 239
Ruskin, quoted, 373-75
Russia: bells of, 220-30; appre-
ciation of bells, 229-30; bell
towers, 116; bells on trees, 116;
campaniles of, 375; early bells

460

THE INDEX

imported, 220; fixed bells, 228;
reverence for bells, 351; ringing
of bells, 228; saddle bells of,
387-88; sleigh bells of, 387

Sabinianus, Pope, 35

Sacred uses of bells. See Religious
uses of bells

Sacring bells, 97-98; as chime, 98;
wheels of, in Spain, 98

Saddle bells, 387-88

St. Bartholomew massacre, bells
rung for, 112

St. Dunstan's bell, Canterbury
Cathedral, 243

St. Fillians, magic bells of, 49-50

St. George de Bocherville Church,
Normandy, musical decoration
in, 152

St. Mark, Venice: campanile, 370;
clock, 160

St. Mary-le-Bow, chimes of, 186

St. Michael's Church, S. C, his-
tory of chimes in, 275-77

St. Nicholas, Cathedral of, 220

St. Oudoceus. See Oudoceus, St.

St. Patrick. See Patrick, St.

St. Paul's Cathedral (London) :
chimes, 186; dedication of bells
of, 95, 146-48; "Great Paul" of,
246; hour bell of, 244-45

St. Paul's Churchyard, bells of,
243

St. Peter's Church, Rome, bell of,
232

St. Rombold's Tower, carillon of.
See Mechlin carillon

"St. Senan, Golden Bell of," 47

St. Sepulchre's bell, 382-83

St. Stephen, Burgundy, bells of,
84, 247

St. Stephen, Vienna, bell of, 237

St. Stephen Ringers, Society of,
rules of, 140-41

Saints, names of, on bells, 75

"Salvator," name of bell, 203

Sanctus bell. See Sacring bell

San Diego Mission, California, 281

San Francisco de la Espada Mis-
sion, Texas, 278

San Gabriel Mission Belfry, Cali-
fornia, 282

San Jose de Aguayo Mission,
Texas, 278

San Luis Ray Mission, California,
279

Savages, bells of. See Primitive

peoples, bells of
Saxon law, on bells, 362
Saxony, bell of, 237, 238
Scale, Chinese, bells fix tones of,

149, 294, 295, 298
School experiments in bell making

and playing, 430-41; with pots,

goblets, bowls, etc., 430-32;

wooden bells, 432-33; clay bells,

433-39; quartet, 439-40
Scotland, bell legend of, 49-50,

249-50; tree belfry in, 116
Scott, Michael, legend of, 256-57
Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 40,

112-13, 256
Seeding bell, 109
Series of bells: ringing, 111-12;

backward- ringing, 1 12-13
Sermon bell, 97
Servia, bell towers of, 116
Seven Lamps of Architecture,

quoted, 373-75
Shakespeare, quoted, 106
Shao-hsing, tolling rime of, 353
Sheep bells, 21, 23, 384
Ship bells, 392; time marked b^-.

392
Shrove Tuesday, pancake bell,

106-7
Shwe Dagon Pagoda, Burma, bells

on, 342-44
"SiciHan's Tale, The— The Bell of

Atri," Longfellow, 404-8
Sicilian Vespers, bells rung for,

112
Siena Cathedral, ancient bell of,

231
Signals, bells used as (China), 295;

danger, bells used as, 11 1; hand

bell used as domestic, 380-82;

musical instruments used as

(China), 294
Signum, 97 n.
Silver, in bells, 60
Silver bells, 60
Sistriim, in Egypt, 24, 25; in

Abyssinia, 24
Sleigh bells, 156, 387
Slider (bell part), 119
Snakes, bells a protection from,

385
Song Dynasty, China, music of,

296
"Song of the Bel^ " Longfellow,

424

THE INDEX

461

South America, bells of, 15, 32
Southey, quoted, 134-35; "The
Inchcape Rock," 402-4, (men-
tioned) 391
South Sea Islands, Lali in, 14-15
Spain, bells of, 241; bells from, in
America, 279; IdcU of, in Miller
collection, 401; bell ringers of,

234
Spanish missions, 277-79, 282-83;

bells of, 241, 279-82
"Spire of Strasburg Cathedral,

The," Longfellow, 421-23
Squilla, 96 n.
Staghorn. See Antler
Stationary bells, 118, 123-24; in
. America, 124; for chimes, 178
Stay (bell part), 119
Steel bells, 60

Stock (bell part), 1 18-19, 122
Stone gongs, 17
"Stone of Gratitude, The," bell

legend, 266-67, (mentioned) 306
Storm bell, 90-91, 108; inscrip-
tion on, 75
Strasburg: Cathedral clock, 159-

60; "Holy Ghost beU," 108
"Strasburg Cathedral, The Spire

of," Longfellow, 421-23
Strokes, bell, 131, 133
Submerged bells, legends of, 253-

54
Submerged churches. See Buried

churches
Sundial, 158

Sung-ching. See Po-chimg
Superstitions, bell, 351. See also

Legends, bell
Sweden, bells of, 239; legend, 265-

66
Swinging bells, 118-22, 124, 136-

37; for change ringing, 136-37;

method of ringing, 178; music

of, compared to carillon music,

194
Switzerland: cowbells of, 384-85;

bells of muleteers of, 117; bell

ringers of, 154-55; bell tradition

of, 91
Symbolism of bells, 47

Taber, Mary S., quoted, 378
Table bells, 380-81; Italian, 380-

81; French, 381
T'ai-chow, tolling rime of, 353

Tambour carillon, 188-89
Tambourine: defined, 11 n.; used

as signal, 295
Tancho, story of, 38-39
Tartary, foundries of, 298
Taylor bell foundry, 198, 211-12,

246
Tchung. See Chung
Teak, temple bells of, 16
Te-chiing, Chinese bell, 299, 301
Temple bells, 16; Buddhist, 355-

56, 357-58; Burmese, 342, 346,

347; Chinese, 300, 302, 303, 304,

305, 308, 311-15; Chinese, in

Miller Bell Collection, 401;

Hindu, 335; Japanese, 316, 319,

320, 322, 323, 324
Tennyson, "In Memoriam," 411-

13
Texas, missions of, 278-79
"Those Evening Bells," Moore,

413-14
Thucydides, quoted, 29
Time marker, bell used as, 158;

in Japan, 324-25. See also

Clock bells
To, Chinese bell, 304
Toledo, Spain, bell of, 241 ; stories,

241
Tolling of bells, 101-2; in Buddhist

monasteries, 352-55; for King

Edward VII, 5; for Lincoln, 5;

manner of, 352-53; of own

accord, 85; reason for, 353-55.

See also Funeral bells
Tolon-noor foundries, 298
Tombs, bells in: Assyrian, 149;

Etruscan, 30, 149; in Egypt, 23;

in Greece, 26; in India, 332
Tom's Tower, 244
Tone of bells, 70, 71. 72-73
"Tong, Great Bell of," 243
Tonga Islands, Lali in, 14-15
Toronto, Canada, carillon of, 213,

289
Toscin, 112

Toulouse, bell tower of, 367
Towers, church: development of,

375-76; made for bells, 359-61;

round, Irish, 364-66
Town criers, 159, 378, 379
Towns: English, use of bells by,

39-40; French, punished by

losing bells, 234. Bell towers of,

zee Municipal bell towers

462

THE INDEX

Train bells, 391

Travelers, directed by church

bells, 107-8
Tree bells, 12-14
Triangle, defined, 11 n.
Trinity Church, New York, bells

of, 269
Triple-standard bell (China), 298
Trotzk, bell of, 228
Tschaikovsky, "Overture of

1812," 230
Tubaphone, 156
Tubular bells, 156
Tuning of bells, 70-73
Tunnoc, Richard, bell founder, 61
Turketul, hangs peal, 36-37
Turkeys, bells on, 385
Turks, bells forbidden by, 31
' ' Turn Again Whittington , ' '

Chime music, 182
Tyrolese Alps, bells of, 91

Uhland (German poet), quoted,

251
Union Scholars, Society of, 139
Universities, American, chimes in,

287
Utrecht carillon, 211

Van Aerschodt, Felix, carillon

maker, 196-98
"Van den Gheyn, A., 203
Van den Gheyn, Pieter, carillon

maker, 196, 198, 203
Venice, St. Mark's: Campanile,

370; clock, 160
Verona, bell of, 231
Vibrations of bells, 117, 156-57
Victory Tower, Ottawa, Canada,

. carillon in, 293
Vienna, St. Stephen's, bell of, 237
"Voice of the Bells, The," 181

Wagon bells, 388-90

Wales, bells of, 46, 49

Warfare, bells in. See Military

uses of bells
Warner foundry, 169
Watchman, night, 159, 378

Wax model, in bell manufacture,

64, 66
Wedding bells, 115
Wedding peal, at maiden's death,

102
Wei-shun, Chinese bell, 305-6
West and East, bells of, compared,

357
Westminster, "Great Tom" of,

162, 245; story of, 163-64
Westminster Chimes, 168
Westminster Clock, 168. See also

Big Ben
Westminster Quarters, 164
Westminster Youths, 139
Wheel, used in ringing bell, 119,

120, 122, 125
Whittington legend, no, 138, 260-

62
Wigram, Rev. Woolmore, quoted,

129-32
William the Conqueror, and bells,

7; enforces curfew law, 103, 104
Wind bells: of China, 306-8; of

India, 339
Window, "bell founder's," 61-62
Wiltshire, bell legend of, 247-48
Wolsey, Cardinal, inscription on

bell of, 77
Wooden bells, 10-16; African, 11-

12, 16; Chinese, 16, 304-5; for

elephants, 12; Lali, 14-15; of

tree trunk, 12-14. •S'^^ also

Bamboo bells
Worcester chimes, 186
World War, curfew used during,

105

Yale College, bell at, 275

Yokes, rotary, 123-24

York: "Great Peter" of, 245;

minster chimes, 186
York Cathedral, bell founder's'

window in, 61-62
Yoll bells (Mexico), 33
Yu the Great, bell signals of, 295
Yung-chung, Chinese bell, 302

Zozoji, bell of, destroyed, 319

DATE DUE

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Coleman, Satis N.

Bells : their history, legends, making.

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Coleman. Satis Narron«
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Bells
MUSIC

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