THE OLD BELLS RUNG TO A NEW TUNE.
If the bell have any sides the clapper will find 'em.
BEN JONSON.
That same St. George's Church has a peal of eight tunable bells, in
the key of E. b. the first bell weighing seven hundred, one quarter
and fourteen pounds.
_Tra tutte quante le musiche humane,
O Signor mio gentil, tra le più care
Gioje del mondo, è 'l suon delle campane;
Don don don don don don, che ve ne pare?_[1]
[Footnote 1: AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA.]
They were not christened, because they were not Roman Catholic bells;
for in Roman Catholic countries church bells are christened with the
intention of causing them to be held in greater reverence,—
_—però ordinò n'un consistoro
Un certo di quei buon papi all' antica,
Che non ci lavoravan di straforo,
Che la campana si, si benedica,
Poi si battezzi, e se le ponga il nome,
Prima che' in campanil l' ufizio dica.
Gli organi, ch' anco lor san sì ben come
Si dica il vespro, e le messe cantate,
Non hanno questo honor sopra le chiome.
Che le lor canne non son battezzate,
Ne' nome ha l' una Pier, l' altra Maria
Come hanno le campane prelibate._[2]
[Footnote 2: AGNOLO FIRENZUOLA.]
The bells of St. George's, Doncaster, I say, were not christened,
because they were Protestant bells; for distinction's sake however we
will name them as the bells stand in the dirge of that unfortunate Cat
whom Johnny Green threw into the well.
But it will be better to exhibit their relative weights in figures, so
that they may be seen synoptically. Thus then;—
Cwt. qr. lb.
Bim the first 7 . . 1 . . 14
Bim the second 8 . . 0 . . 18
Bim the third 8 . . 2 . . 6
Bim the fourth 10 . . 3 . . 15
Bim the fifth 13 . . 1 . . 0
Bim the sixth 15 . . 2 . . 16
Bom 22 . . 1 . . 0
Bell 29 . . 1 . . 20
I cannot but admit that these appellations not so stately in
appearance as those of the peal which the Bishop of Chalons recently
baptized, and called a “happy and holy family” in the edifying
discourse that he delivered upon the occasion. The first of these was
called Marie, to which—or to whom,—the Duke and Duchess of Danderville
(so the newspapers give this name) stood sponsors. “It is you Marie,”
said the Bishop, “who will have the honor to announce the festivals,
and proclaim the glory of the Lord! You appear among us under the most
happy auspices, presented by those respectable and illustrious hands
to which the practices of piety have been so long familiar. And you
Anne,” he pursued, addressing the second bell,—“an object worthy of
the zeal and piety of our first magistrate (the Prefect) and of her
who so nobly shares his solicitude,—you shall be charged with the same
employment. Your voice shall be joined to Marie's upon important
occasions. Ah! what touching lessons will you not give in imitation of
her whose name you bear, and whom we reverence as the purest of
Virgins! You also Deodate, will take part in this concert, you whom an
angel, a new-born infant, has conjointly with me consecrated to the
Lord! Speak Deodate! and let us hear your marvellous accents.” This
Angel and Godmother in whose name the third bell was given was
Mademoiselle Deodate Boisset, then in the second month of her age,
daughter of Viscount Boisset. “And you Stephanie, crowned with glory,”
continued the orator, in learned allusion to the Greek word _σεφανος_,
“you are not less worthy to mingle your accents with the melody of
your sisters. And you lastly Seraphine and Pudentienne, you will raise
your voices in this touching concert, happy all of you in having been
presented to the benedictions of the Church, by these noble and
generous souls, so praiseworthy for the liveliness of their faith, and
the holiness of their example.” And then the Bishop concluded by
calling upon the congregation to join with him in prayer that the
Almighty would be pleased to preserve from all accidents this “happy
and holy family of the bells.”
We have no such sermons from our Bishops! The whole ceremony must have
been as useful to the bells as it was edifying to the people.
Were I called upon to act as sponsor upon such an occasion, I would
name my bell Peter Bell in honour of Mr. Wordsworth. There has been a
bull so called, and a bull it was of great merit. But if it were the
great bell, then it should be called Andrew, in honour of Dr. Bell;
and that bell should call the children to school.
There are, I believe, only two bells in England which are known by
their Christian names, and they are both called Tom; but Great Tom of
Oxford which happens to be much the smaller of the two was christened
in the feminine gender, being called Mary, in the spirit of catholic
and courtly adulation at the commencement of the bloody Queen's reign.
Tresham the Vicechancellor performed the ceremony, and his exclamation
when it first summoned him to mass has been recorded:—“O delicate and
sweet harmony! O beautiful Mary! how musically she sounds! how
strangely she pleaseth my ear!”
In spite of this christening, the object of Dr. Tresham's admiration
is as decidedly a Tom-Bell, as the Puss in Boots who appeared at a
Masquerade (Theodore Hook remembers when and where) was a Tom Cat.
Often as the said Tom-Bell has been mentioned, there is but one other
anecdote recorded of him; it occurred on Thursday the thirteenth day
of March 1806, and was thus described in a letter written two hours
after the event:—“An odd thing happened to-day about half past four,
Tom suddenly went mad; he began striking as fast as he could about
twenty times. Every body went out doubting whether there was an
earthquake, or whether the Dean was dead, or the College on fire.
However nothing was the matter but that Tom was taken ill in his
bowels: in other words something had happened to the works, but it was
not of any serious consequence, for he has struck six as well as ever,
and bids fair to toll 101 to-night as well as he did before the
attack.”
This was written by a youth of great natural endowments, rare
acquirements, playful temper, and affectionate heart. If his days had
been prolonged, his happy industry, his inoffensive wit, his sound
judgement and his moral worth, favoured as they were by all favourable
circumstances, must have raised him to distinction, and the name of
Barrè Roberts which is now known only in the little circle of his own
and his father's friends, would have had its place with those who have
deserved well of their kind and reflected honor upon their country.
But I return to a subject, which would have interested him in his
antiquarian pursuits,—for he loved to wander among the Ruins of Time.
We will return therefore to that ceremony of christening Church Bells,
which with other practices of the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic
Church, has been revived in France.
Bells, say those Theologians in _issimi_ who have gravely written upon
this grave matter, Bells, say they, are not actually baptized with
that baptism which is administered for the remission of sins; but they
are said to be christened because the same ceremonies which are
observed in christening children, are also observed in consecrating
them, such as the washing, the anointing and the imposing a name; all
which however may more strictly be said to represent the signs and
symbols of baptism, than they may be called baptism itself.—
Nothing can be more candid! Bells are not baptized for the remission
of sins, because the original sin of a bell would be a flaw in the
metal, or a defect in the tone, neither of which the Priest undertakes
to remove. There was however a previous ceremony of blessing the
furnace when the bells were cast within the precincts of a monastery,
as they most frequently were in former times, and this may have been
intended for the prevention of such defects. The Brethren stood round
the furnace ranged in processional order, sang the 150th Psalm, and
then after certain prayers blessed the molten metal, and called upon
the Lord 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.
When the time of christening came, the officiating Priest and his
assistant named every bell five times, as a sort of prelude, for some
unexplained reason which may perhaps be as significant and mystical as
the other parts of the ceremony. He then blessed the water in two
vessels which were prepared for the service. Dipping a clean linen
cloth in one of these vessels he washed the bell within and without,
the bell being suspended over a vessel wider in circumference than the
bell's mouth, in order that no drop of the water employed in this
washing might fall to the ground; for the water was holy. Certain
psalms were said or sung (they were the 96th and the four last in the
psalter;) during this part of the ceremony and while the officiating
Priest prepared the water in the second vessel: this he did by
sprinkling salt in it, and putting holy oil upon it, either with his
thumb, or with a stick; if the thumb were used, it was to be cleaned
immediately by rubbing it well with salt over the same water. Then he
dipt another clean cloth in this oiled and salted water, and again
washed the bell, within and without: after the service the cloths were
burnt lest they should be profaned by other uses. The bell was then
authentically named. Then it was anointed with chrism in the form of a
cross four times on the broadest part of the outside, thrice on the
smaller part, and four times on the inside, those parts being anointed
with most care against which the clapper was to strike. After this the
name was again given. Myrrh and frankincense were then brought, the
bell was incensed while part of a psalm was recited and the bell was
authentically named a third time; after which the priest carefully
wiped the chrism from the bell with tow, and the tow was immediately
burnt in the censer. Next the Priest struck each bell thrice with its
clapper, and named it again at every stroke; every one of the
assistants in like manner struck it and named it once. The bells were
then carefully covered each with a cloth and immediately hoisted that
they might not be contaminated by any irreverent touch. The Priest
concluded by explaining to the congregation, if he thought proper, the
reason for this ceremony of christening the bells, which was that they
might act as preservatives against thunder and lightning, and hail and
wind, and storms of every kind, and moreover that they might drive
away evil Spirits. To these and their other virtues the Bishop of
Chalons alluded in his late truly Gallican and Roman Catholic
discourse. “The Bells,” said he, “placed like centinels on the towers,
watch over us and turn away from us the temptations of the enemy of
our salvation, as well as storms and tempests. They speak and pray for
us in our troubles; they inform heaven of the necessities of the
earth.”
Now were this edifying part of the Roman Catholic ritual to be
re-introduced in the British dominions,—as it very possibly may be now
that Lord Peter has appeared in his robes before the King, and been
introduced by his title,—the opportunity would no doubt be taken by
the Bishop or Jesuit who might direct the proceedings, of
complimenting the friends of their cause by naming the first “holy and
happy family” after them. And to commemorate the extraordinary union
of sentiment which that cause has brought about between persons not
otherwise remarkable for any similitude of feelings or opinions, they
might unite two or more names in one bell, (as is frequently done in
the human subject,) and thus with a peculiar felicity of compliment,
shew who and who upon this great and memorable occasion have _pulled
together_. In such a case the names selected for a peal of eight
tunable bells might run thus
Bim 1st. — Canning O'Connel.
Bim 2d. — Plunkett Shiel.
Bim 3d. — Augustus Frederick Cobbett.
Bim 4th. — Williams Wynn Burdett Waithman.
Bim 5th. — Grenville Wood.
Bim 6th. — Palmerston Hume.
Bom — Lawless Brougham.
Bell — Lord King, _per se_;—
—alone _par excellence_, as the thickest and thinnest friend of the
cause, and moreover because
None but himself can be his parallel;
and last in order because the base note accords best with him; and
because for the decorum and dignity with which he has at all times
treated the Bishops, the clergy and the subject of religion, he must
be allowed to bear the bell not from his compeers alone but from all
his contemporaries.