(_To the Editor_.)
Observing in your No. 543, some remarks relating to the ancient custom
of ringing the Curfew Bell, and that _Reginald_, your correspondent, had
withheld the name of the village where he heard the Curfew rang, I am
led to suppose that it may not be uninteresting to your readers to be
informed, that at Saint Helen's Church, Abingdon, this custom is still
continued; the bell is rung at eight o'clock every night, and four
o'clock every morning, during the winter months; why it is rung in the
morning I do not know; perhaps some of your readers can inform me. There
are eight bells in Saint Helen's tower, but the fifth or sixth is
generally used as the Curfew, to distinguish it from the death-bell, for
which purpose the tenor is used, and is rung at the same time at night
if a death has happened in the course of the day, and for that night
supersedes the necessity of ringing the Curfew. The Curfew Bell is rung,
and not tolled, as _Reginald_ states: therefore, what he heard, I
suppose to have been the death bell. M.D.
(_From another Correspondent_.)
The custom of tolling the Curfew is still retained in the town of
Sandwich, to which place your correspondent, _Reginald_, no doubt
alludes, as the sea-shore is distant about two miles; hence is
distinctly visible the red glare of the Lighthouse on Ramsgate Pier, as
also the North Foreland. G.C.
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