H. B. Walters

An old monkish rhyme sums up the ancient uses of bells as follows:—

“Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum;
Defunctos ploro, pestem fugo, festa decoro;
Funera plango, fulgura frango, sabbata pango;
Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos”:

which may be rendered in English:—

“I praise the true God, I call the people, I assemble the clergy;
I mourn the departed, I put to flight pestilence, I honour festivals;
I knoll for burials, I break the power of the lightning, I mark the sabbaths;
I rouse the sluggard, I disperse the winds, I calm the bloodthirsty.”

These lines will be familiar to readers of Longfellow’s Golden Legend; but some of the uses mentioned belong to a time when bells were thought to have a magic power over the forces of nature, and a category of modern uses embraces many others here ignored.

The modern uses of bells naturally fall into two main divisions—religious and secular, or quasi-religious uses. By the former I mean the ringing of bells for divine service, and, in particular, for the festivals of the Church, and their use at weddings, funerals, and other events of life with which the Church is naturally concerned. Other uses, again, though now purely secular, had once a religious meaning, such as the Curfew and Pancake bells. More secular uses are those of the Gleaning bell and the Fire bell, of bells rung for local meetings or festivities, or in commemoration of national events.

Plate 20.

The great bell of Tong Church, Shropshire.

Recast by Taylor, 1892. (See page 49.)

The only allusion to bells in our Prayer Book is in the Preface, which directs that the minister “shall cause a bell to be tolled thereunto a convenient time before he begin, that the people may come to hear God’s Word, and to pray with him.” This was, of course, the original purpose for which bells were applied to an ecclesiastical use, and by virtue of which they are reckoned among the “Ornaments of the Church.” It is, therefore, the rule that every place of worship within the realm of the Church should have at least one bell, and in England at any rate there are not more than half a dozen parishes where the rule is ignored. The fifteenth Canon similarly enjoins the ringing of a bell on Wednesdays and Fridays for the Litany.

Methods of ringing the bells for service depend largely on the number of bells available and the possibility of collecting ringers together; and the ringing of peals at these times is comparatively rare. Ordinarily, where there are more than two, the bells are chimed for periods varying from ten minutes to half an hour on Sundays, while on week-days a single bell perforce suffices, tolled haply by the parson himself. In many places it is the custom to toll the largest bell for the last few minutes before service begins; this is known as the “Sermon Bell,” and was originally meant to indicate that a sermon would be preached. Or the smallest bell is rung hurriedly, as if to warn laggards, and this is called the “ting-tang,” “priest’s,” or “parson’s” bell. Some of these little bells bear the appropriate inscription, “Come away make no delay.” The use of a sermon bell is said to date from before the Reformation.

In many parishes it used to be an invariable custom to ring a single bell, or chime several, at eight o’clock on Sunday morning; this, however, has lost its original significance since the general introduction of early Celebrations. In former times the regular hour for Mattins was at eight, followed by Mass at the canonical hour of nine, and though such an arrangement of services soon came to an end after the Reformation, the bells which used to announce them were continued even down to the present day. There are still not a few parishes where a bell is rung at nine as well as at eight, even when there are no early services.

Plate 21.

“Great Paul.”

Cast by Taylor, 1881. Now hanging in the south-west tower of S. Paul’s Cathedral. (See page 52.)

In pre-Reformation days most churches possessed, besides the regular “ring,” several smaller bells, which are described in inventories as “saunce” or “sanctus” bells, “sacring bells,” and so on. Their uses are sometimes confused nowadays, but were clearly defined. The sanctus bell, or saunce, usually hung in a turret or cot on the gable over the chancel arch, and was intended to announce the progress of the service to those outside who could not come to church. It was rung at that point in the Sarum or English rites of the Eucharist when the singing of the Sanctus or “Holy, Holy, Holy,” just before the Canon of the Mass, was reached; whence its name. The sacring-bell, on the other hand, was much smaller, and hung inside the church, usually on the rood-screen. It was rung at the end of the Consecration Prayer, or “prayer of sacring” (Plate 30), and announced the completion of the act of sacrifice. The Reformers made a dead set against these practices, but it is difficult to see that much superstition was involved therein, and the revival in modern days of the “sacring bell” in the form of a few strokes at the time of the consecration has more to recommend than to condemn it.

A few sacring bells still exist, hanging on rood-screens, in East Anglian churches, as at Salhouse and Scarning (Plate 31), and one at Yelverton, in Norfolk, has just been restored to its old position. Ancient sanctus bells are more numerous, and a few still hang in their original cots, as at Wrington, in Somerset, and Idbury, in Oxfordshire (Plate 32). They have mostly been fixed in the towers and used as “ting-tangs.” The majority have no inscription on them, but there are notable exceptions in some of the Midland counties.

The only other “Sunday use” to which I have to draw attention is the ringing of a bell after services. This is, or was, sometimes done with the object of notifying a service in the afternoon; but it is known in some places, as at Mistley, in Essex, as the “Pudding Bell,” it being supposed that it was intended to warn housewives to get ready the Sunday dinner! Some writers have thought that this midday bell is really a survival of the midday Angelus, or Ave bell; but it is more likely to date from the bad times of non-residence and irregular services.

The ringing of bells on festivals is more particularly associated with Christmas and the New Year, though the latter is a secular rather than a religious occasion. The Christmas bells have been a favourite theme with poets, great and small, and the best-known lines on the subject are in Tennyson’s In Memoriam, said to have been composed by him on hearing the bells of Waltham Abbey, in Essex (Plate 33).

And again:

The more famous stanzas, beginning:

refer rather to New Year’s Eve.

On New Year’s Eve the old year is rung out and the new year in, in many parishes. Sometimes one bell only is tolled until the clock strikes twelve, in other cases the bells are rung muffled, i.e., with the clappers wrapped round to deaden the sound, these being uncovered at midnight, when a merry “open” peal bursts forth. Either practice is to be preferred to that of ringing consecutively before and after the hour, which obscures the significance of the performance.

A muffled peal is sometimes rung on the Holy Innocents’ Day, a custom said to be kept up still in Herefordshire; and in addition to the Greater Festivals, the Epiphany, All Saints’ Day, S. Andrew’s Day, and S. Thomas’s Day, have been or are still specially honoured. Ringing on the last-named occasion, which is kept up in several Warwickshire parishes, appears to be associated with the distribution of local charities. But ringing on “superstitious” occasions, not mentioned in the Book of Common Prayer, is forbidden by the 88th Canon.

Another day of the Church’s year with which bell-ringing is associated is Shrove Tuesday, on which day the Pancake bell is rung in some places at eleven o’clock. Two bells are generally used, the sound of which is supposed to resemble the word “pancake.” The origin of the custom is to be found in the calling of the faithful to confess their sins and be “shriven” at the beginning of the Lenten fast. That pancakes were associated with this day is due to the fact that butter was forbidden during the whole of Lent. It was always the Church’s rule that the bells should be silent during that season—at least that there should be no peal-ringing in Lent, and no bells used at all during Holy Week; and this is now generally observed.

Except in the case of royalty we seldom now hear of bells being rung to usher mankind into the world; but they have always been associated with the rejoicings of a wedding ceremony, and in some parts, as in Lincolnshire, are even rung at the putting up of Banns. But their use at the time of death is even more universal.

The passing bell originally sounded as a summons to the faithful to pray for a soul just passing out of the world; but it has now degenerated into a mere notice that death has taken place, and as it is rung (to suit the sexton’s convenience) some hours after death, or even on the following day, the name has ceased to be appropriate. It appears to be one of the oldest of all uses of bells, and is said to have been rung for S. Hilda, of Whitby, in 680. Unlike most other customs it received the strong approval of the most ardent reformers, and in the churchwardens’ accounts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there are often long lists given every year of money received from parishioners “for the Knell.” The sum paid was usually fourpence. The 67th Canon directs that the passing bell shall be tolled, “and the minister shall not then slack to do his last duty.”

When the Knell is rung, it is a frequent practice to indicate the age or sex of the deceased. The former is done by tolling a number of strokes answering to the years of his or her life, or more vaguely by using the largest bell for an adult and a smaller for a child. Sex is sometimes similarly indicated, but more usually by what are known as “tellers,” a varying number of strokes for male or female, and sometimes also for a child. The commonest form is three times three for male, three times two for female; and sometimes three times singly for a child; but some parishes keep up curious variations of this rule. The old saying “nine tailors make a man” is really “nine tellers,” or three times three.

The knell with the tellers is sometimes repeated at funerals, but more frequently the tenor bell is tolled at intervals of a minute, becoming more rapid when the corpse appears in sight. In some country districts the bells are or used to be chimed at this time, and in Shropshire this is known as the “joy-bells,” or “ringing the dead home.” In olden days a hand-bell or “lych-bell” was rung before the corpse on its way; this is still done at Oxford at the funeral of any University official.

Bells were largely used in mediaeval times to mark the hours of the day, even before the introduction of clocks. In the monastic establishments they were naturally rung at the canonical hours of twelve, three, six, and nine, for the services of Mattins, Lauds, Prime, Tierce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. It has been suggested that this is the reason why chimes are usually played at these hours, where there are carillons.

But one of the best known uses of bells for this purpose is the Curfew, which was often accompanied by a corresponding bell in the early morning. We have usually been taught that the Curfew or “cover-fire” was a tyrannical and unpopular enactment by William the Conqueror, and therefore a purely legal and secular institution. There is, however, evidence that it was in use long before at Oxford, where King Alfred directed that it should be rung every evening (as it is still); and William probably only made use of an existing custom for the beneficent purpose of guarding against fires.

But it has also been suggested that the Curfew was in its origin a bell with a religious as well as a secular significance, namely the Ave bell, or Angelus, which was rung in the early morning and the evening, usually at 9 a.m. and 5.30 p.m., and also at midday, and at the sound of which every one was expected to repeat the memorial of the Incarnation or “Hail Mary.” Some have thought that bells dedicated to the angel Gabriel were specially devoted to such a purpose; but this is doubtful, though the old Curfew bell at S. Albans still bears such a dedication. At Mexborough, in Yorkshire, a bell is rung morning, noon, and evening, obviously a survival of the Angelus bell.

The Curfew bell seems to have appealed especially to poets, even to the American Longfellow, and the puritan Milton, who in Il Penseroso says:

Compare the opening line of Gray’s Elegy:

“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.”

The morning bell, whether an Ave bell or not, is seldom now rung, but may be heard at 5 a.m. at Ludlow, and at Nuneaton and Coleshill in Warwickshire. One of the old bells of S. Michael’s, Coventry, now at S. John’s Church in that town, has the inscription:

The Curfew bell, though alas! growing rapidly rarer, may be heard at 9 p.m. all the year round in our two University towns; and is also rung at eight at Ludlow, Pershore, Shrewsbury, and in Warwickshire. But it is now usually confined to the winter months, from Michaelmas to Lady Day, or an even shorter period. In some places the day of the month is tolled afterwards, as at Cambridge; at Oxford 101 strokes are given, representing the number of persons on the foundation of Christ Church.

Of purely secular uses of bells space forbids me to say much. The Gleaning bell used to be rung in many parishes during harvest, morning and evening, to signify to the people when gleaning was allowed. With the decay of agriculture in England this use has almost died out, especially in the midlands, but it is still kept up in corn-growing parts, as in the north of Essex.

Ringing has always been customary—at least since the Reformation—on secular anniversaries, such as the birthday or Coronation Day of the Sovereign, or on the occasion of great victories. It was also very common at one time on Restoration Day (May 29th), and Gunpowder Plot Day (November 5th), but—perhaps since their removal from our Prayer Book—these occasions are becoming more and more ignored. Ringing on November 5th is, however, still common in Warwickshire. Another day on which ringing was often practised was that of the parish feast, usually corresponding with the patronal festival, or day on which the original dedication of the church was honoured.

It is or has been a tradition in some places that in cases of fire the church bells should be rung backwards; and elsewhere a bell was specially devoted to this purpose. At S. Mary’s, Warwick, there is a small fire bell dated 1670, which, however, is not now hung; and there is a well-known one at Sherborne, in Dorset, dated 1653, with the inscription:

The large and small bells of the Guild Chapel, Stratford-on-Avon, are also intended to be rung in cases of fire.

The ringing of daily bells, especially at night, is often accounted for by stories of people who found their way when lost, or were delivered from nocturnal dangers, by hearing the bell of some church. Instances of this are scattered all over the country, and there are the Ashburnham bell at Chelsea, the great bell of Tong in Shropshire, and others which were originally given in commemoration of such events, with the object of keeping up the ringing for the benefit of other wanderers.