Curious Church Customs and Cognate Subjects Part 2

In some parishes the bells are rung at the close of the morning service upon Sunday, and at Harpswell it was, until very lately, the custom to ring a bell at noon if by any chance there should be no morning service.

It is popularly said, but on what authority we know not, that this bell was meant to warn those who were preparing dinner that the time for that important meal had nearly arrived. The custom of ringing a bell at the conclusion of the morning service still obtains at Kirkleatham.

Inscriptions upon bells are very common, sometimes they are in English, but on the older bells it is more usual to find them in Latin. There is a bell at Alkborough which is believed to be of the early part of the fourteenth century, with the following inscription upon it:--

"Jesu For Yi Moder Sake Save All Ye Sauls That Me Gart Make Amen."

At Semperingham, on an early sixteenth bell, there is to be found a very useful piece of advice:--

"Be Not Ouer Busie;"

and a bell at Benniworth merely puts on record the year in which it was made:--"Anno Domini 1577;" is by no means an uncommon thing to find only a date upon bells. Many of them have the names of the churchwardens for the time being, or the name of the giver of the bell or bells; at Burgh we find:--

"William Pavlin chimed so well He payd for casting of this bell. 1589."

Most likely he was one of the ringers, but whether he gave the bell, or only paid for its recasting, we do not know. In certain parishes the bells are tolled before midnight on the thirty-first of December for the dying year; then comes a few minutes pause, and a joyous peal heralds the advent of the new year. This is done, amongst other places, at Kirton-in-Lindsey; the writer heard 1893 tolled out and 1894 ushered in with a peal on those beautiful bells; and we know that it was the custom there in 1632, for we find under that date in the churchwardens' accounts:--"Item to the ringers of new yeare day morninge xijd." The church of this parish is dedicated to S. Andrew, and in 1658, there is an entry as follows:--"It' to the ringers on St. Andrewes day 0 1 0." The patron saint of Scotland seems in some parts of England to be held in high esteem; in Lincolnshire alone there are no less than sixty-eight churches dedicated to him. There is a curious tradition about the most widely known bell in Lincolnshire; it is to the effect that, when at the recasting of "Great Tom of Lincoln" in the Minster Yard, sometime during the January of 1610-11, that certain of the pious citizens determined to do all that lay in their power to make the tone of the bell as pure as possible, and therefore threw into the molten ma.s.s of metal much treasure in the form of silver tankards, spoons, and sundry other objects formed of that precious metal. That there is not the slightest truth in the story was clearly proved when the bell was once more recast in 1834, for upon a piece of the metal of which it was composed being a.s.sayed, it was found to contain a very small proportion of silver. It is strange that this belief in the power of silver to add sweetness to the tone of bells should be such a general one; we find it existing in almost all the countries of Europe, in spite of the fact that the experiment of mixing an undue proportion of this metal has always been found to impair their sound. The writer was once informed that the reason the bells of S. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London, are so wonderfully sweet and clear in tone is owing to the fact that Nell Gwynn, who gave them to the church, insisted upon having a quant.i.ty of silver thrown into the metal when it was fusing. Poor pretty, sinning Nell, she was religious after a manner, and she has lain in S. Martin's Church upwards of two hundred years, whilst the bells she gave have sounded, and still sound, above her grave. She left a bequest to the ringers, the interest of which was to be devoted to purchasing a leg of mutton for them to sup upon every Monday evening.

Sacring bells were, it is believed, to be found in all churches before the Reformation; they were rung to inform the congregation that the Elevation of the Host was about to take place. There is some difficulty in distinguishing between this bell and the Sanctus Bell, they seem in many cases to be the same, and in others separate. A small sacring bell was discovered in Bottesford Church (Lincolnshire) during its restoration in 1870. When the plaster was removed from the west end of the southern aisle it was seen that one of the stones in the wall was merely loosely placed in position, not built firmly in like the rest of the masonry; it was removed, and behind it, in a hole evidently made on purpose to receive it, was the bell. This bell is now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, and a full description of it is given in _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries_, 2nd series, vol. 5, p. 24.

There was formerly a small bell at Hemswell, named the Agnus Bell; it may perhaps have been so called by reason of its being rung at the Elevation, which was immediately followed by the singing of the _Agnus Dei_. The following alludes to it:--"Itm ... an agnus bell gone owtt of the fore sayd churche, no man knoweth how, ano dome a thowssand five hundreth three sch.o.r.e and fowre."[2]

In many churches, bells and other articles were returned in 1566 as lost or missing, and no reasonable explanation of the apparently gross carelessness given. There can be but little doubt that they were secretly taken away in order that they might escape destruction; in some cases it may be that they were hidden like the bell at Bottesford, but it is probable that more often they were taken to the houses of the people who saved them; and that in after years they were lost or destroyed. Under Glenthworth, there is an entry, which seems to point to the fact that the bell was thus disposed of "A hand bell--gone, we cannot tell how, the same year," (1566).[3]

It seems to have been by no means uncommon to turn these small hand bells into mortars; we find this was done at Hemswell in 1566: "ij. hande belles, sold to Robertt Aestroppe one of the sayd churchwardens to make a mortar off."[4]

Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne on November 17th, 1558, S. Hugh's Day, and there are many entries to be found in churchwardens' accounts for ringing the bells upon that day after this date. At Kirton-in-Lindsey there is the following statement in 1581:--"Item for mending the belles aganst Sant Hew day viij{d};" and then again in 1597:--"Item vpon Sante Hue daye viij." No doubt the first entry means that either the wooden framework, or else the cords of the bells needed some slight repairs; it could not have been the bells themselves. There is another entry in the Kirton-in-Lindsey accounts that is interesting, though of a somewhat later date. In 1630 we find:--"Item bestowed of the ringers in ayle for Joye of the younge Prince xij." This was for ringing the bells upon the birth of Charles II.

In reading of these loyal payments one is reminded of the inscription upon the first bell at Witham-on-the-Hill, which evinces a very different spirit:--

"'TWAS NOT TO PROSPER PRIDE OR HATE WILLIAM AUGUSTUS JOHNSON GAVE ME; BUT PEACE AND JOY TO CELEBRATE, AND CALL TO PRAYER TO HEAV'N TO SAVE YE: THEN KEEP THE TERMS AND E'ER REMEMBER MAY 29{TH} YE MUST NOT RING NOR YET THE FIFTH OF EACH NOVEMBER NOR ON THE CROWNING OF A KING."[5]

The Harvest Bell was rung in various parts of the country; at Barrow-on-Humber it was heard very early in the morning at daybreak in the eighteenth century, and then again late in the evening during the weeks of harvest. In some parishes it used to be the custom to ring a bell at eight o'clock in the morning as a signal that people might then begin to glean.

In the Louth churchwardens' accounts, in 1556, is the following:--"To william east for knylling the bell in harvest forgathering of the pescodes iiij{d}." The _Daily Telegraph_, of 1st September, 1893, says:--"The 'harvest bell' is rung at the Parish Church, Driffield, at five a.m. and eight p.m. every day during harvest, the custom is a very old one."

Advent was celebrated in some places by the ringing of the bells, usually, but not invariably, in the evening; the reason for this being that the ringers were at work during the day, and therefore it could only be done when the hours of labour were ended. On S. Thomas's Day the bells were often rung; and it was a very widely spread, though not a universal, custom to ring them very early on the morn of Christmas Day. In the Kirton-in-Lindsey churchwardens' account we see what the ringers obtained for so doing in 1630:--"It' given to the Ringers at Christenmaise day at morne xij{d}." The bells are, or were until lately, rung at five o'clock on Christmas morning at South Kelsey. In various parts of England they were rung in a great variety of ways during Lent and upon Good Friday; on Easter Sunday, too, there has always been great divergence as to the custom of bell-ringing. The Banns Peal is still to be heard in some places; this is a peal rung after the publication of banns of marriage, it is usually chimed after morning service on the first Sunday that the banns are "put up," but this is by no means the universal practice, in some parishes it is rung on the first and third Sundays, in others on the third alone, and it varies yet again at Elsham and Searby, where it is given upon all three Sundays. Peals at Baptism are much rarer, but still there are parishes where it has been from time unknown usual to ring them. The curfew is yet to be heard in many places, though the hour varies, it being often rung at nine, and in some instances at seven o'clock, instead of at eight.

In pre-Reformation times the Pa.s.sing Bell, instead of being rung as it now is after death, was then really and truly a "pa.s.sing-bell," for it was heard when a person was supposed to be at the point of death, in order that those in whose ears it sounded might of their charity pray for a soul so soon to be beyond human help. After the spirit had returned unto Him who gave it, the Soul Bell was rung, that the living might pray for the dead; this soul-bell, besides being rung a few hours after death, was sounded again at stated intervals, at the month's end, the three months'

end, and so on. Surtees, the northern antiquary, alludes to this custom in the ballad of _Sir John le Spring_:--

"Pray for the soul of Sir John le Spring, When the black monks sing and the chantry bells ring.

Pray for the sprite of the murdered knight, Pray for the rest of Sir John le Spring.

And aye the ma.s.s-priest sings his song, And patters many a prayer, And the chantry bell tolls loud and long, And aye the lamp burns there."

There are numerous ways of indicating the age and s.e.x of the departed by the manner in which the pa.s.sing-bell is tolled; we have been informed that in Lincolnshire alone there are between seventy and eighty different methods by which this is done.

Some few bells have upon them inscriptions showing they were meant to be rung as pa.s.sing-bells. The third bell at Brant Broughton has on it:--

"Beg ye of G.o.d your soul to save Before we call you to the grave."

It is possible that some of the customs here spoken of as now existing may recently have fallen into oblivion, but the term "existing" must only be taken to mean that it was in use at the place named when the note concerning it was made.

Inscriptions on Bells.

BY WILLIAM ANDREWS.

High up in the dusty belfry, whose grey shadows rarely see the face of man, the bells swing to and fro with unwearying zeal. But in addition to the lessons which pour from their eloquent mouths, should we scale the tall ladders of the bell tower and invade the regions of the owl and the bat, we shall find other teaching--that graven on the sides of the bells themselves--the inscriptions. Let us therefore glance over the wide field of interesting information thus presented to us. Allusions to the pitch of the bell are often the subject. A bell of Churchill, Somerset, has the following:--

Although my waiste is small I will be heard amainst you all, Sing on my jolly sisters.

While Berrow, Somerset, is more brief:--

My treble voice Makes hearts rejoice.

Bruton has a recast bell saying--

Once I'd a note that none could beare, But Bilbie made me sweet and clear.

And similarly Compton Martin--

My sound is good that once was bad, Lett's sing my sisters and be glad.

Badgworth, Gloucester, has a similar inscription--

Badgworth ringers they were mad Because Rigbe made me bad, But Abel Rudhall you may see Hath made me better than Rigbe.

At Blakesley, Northamptonshire, the tenor bears--

I ring to sermon with a l.u.s.ty bome, That all may come and none may stay at home.

More p.r.o.nounced is the self-congratulation of a bell of East Dean--

Me melior vere, Non est Campana sub aere,

and one of Hurstpierpoint, which says--

If you have a judicious ear You'll own my voice is sweet and clear.

Rye Church, in Suss.e.x, alludes in its bells to the marriage chimes induced by the liberality of the bridegroom--

In wedlock bands, all ye who join With hands your hearts unite.

So shall our tuneful tongues combine To bless the nuptial rite.

At other times it is the shape that is celebrated. At Combe, Somerset, a bell says--