MORE CONCERNING BELLS.
Lord, ringing changes all our bells hath marr'd;
Jangled they have and jarr'd
So long, they're out of tune, and out of frame;
They seem not now the same.
Put them in frame anew, and once begin
To tune them so, that they may chime all in!
HERBERT.
There are more mysteries in a peal of bells than were touched upon by
the Bishop of Chalons in his sermon. There are plain bob-triples,
bob-majors, bob-majors reversed, double bob-majors, and
grandsire-bob-cators, and there is a Bob-maximus. Who Bob was, and
whether he were Bob Major, or Major Bob, that is whether Major were
his name or his rank, and if his rank, to what service he belonged,
are questions which inexorable Oblivion will not answer, however
earnestly adjured. And there is no Witch of Endor who will call up Bob
from the grave to answer them himself. But there are facts in the
history of bell-ringing which Oblivion has not yet made her own, and
one of them is that the greatest performance ever completed by one
person in the world, was that of Mr. Samuel Thurston at the New
Theatre Public House in the City of Norwich, on Saturday evening, July
1, 1809, when he struck all these intricate short peals, the first
four upon a set of eight musical hand bells, the last on a peal of
ten.
But a performance upon hand-bells when compared to bell-ringing is
even less than a review in comparison with a battle. Strength of arm
as well as skill is required for managing a bell-rope. Samuel
Thurston's peal of plain bob-triples was “nobly brought round” in two
minutes and three quarters, and his grandsire-bob-cators were as nobly
finished in five minutes and fourteen seconds. The reader shall now
see what real bell-ringing is.
The year 1796 was remarkable for the performance of great exploits in
this manly and English art,—for to England the art is said to be
peculiar, the cheerful carrillons of the continent being played by
keys. In that year, and in the month of August the Westmorland youths
rang a complete peal of 5040 grandsire triples, in St. Mary's Church
Kendal, being the whole number of changes on seven bells. The peal was
divided into ten parts, or courses of 504 each; the bobs were called
by the sixth, a lead single was made in the middle of the peal, and
another at the conclusion which brought the bells home. Distinct leads
and exact divisions were observed throughout the whole, and the
performance was completed in three hours and twenty minutes. A like
performance took place in the same month at Kidderminster in three
hours and fourteen minutes. Stephen Hill composed and called the peal,
it was conducted through with one single, which was brought to the
4984th change, viz. 1267453. This was allowed by those who were
conversant in the art to exceed any peal ever yet rung in this kingdom
by that method.
_Paulo majora canamus_. The Society of Cambridge youths that same year
rang in the Church of St. Mary the Great, a true and complete peal of
Bob maximus, in five hours and five minutes. This consisted of 6600
changes, and for regularity of striking and harmony throughout the
peal was allowed by competent judges to be a very masterly
performance. In point of time the striking was to such a nicety that
in each thousand changes the time did not vary one sixteenth of a
minute, and the compass of the last thousand was exactly equal to the
first.
Eight Birmingham youths (some of them were under twenty years of age)
attempted a greater exploit, they ventured upon a complete peal of
15120 bob major. They failed indeed, _magnis tamen ausis_. For after
they had rang upwards of eight hours and a half, they found themselves
so much fatigued that they desired the caller would take the first
opportunity to bring the bells home. This he soon did by omitting a
bob and so brought them round thus making a peal of 14224 changes in
eight hours and forty-five minutes, the longest which was ever rung in
that part of the country, or perhaps any where else.
In that same year died Mr. Patrick the celebrated composer of
church-bell-music, and senior of the Society of Cumberland Youths,—an
Hibernian sort of distinction for one in middle or later life. He is
the same person whose name was well known in the scientific world as a
maker of barometers; and he it was who composed the whole peal of
Stedman's triples, 5040 changes, (which his obituarist says had till
then been deemed impracticable, and for the discovery of which he
received a premium of 50_l._ offered for that purpose by the Norwich
amateurs of the art) “his productions of real double and treble bob
royal being a standing monument of his unparalleled and superlative
merits.” This Mr. Patrick was interred on the afternoon of Sunday,
June 26, in the church-yard of St. Leonard, Shoreditch; the corpse was
followed to the grave by all the Ringing Societies in London and its
environs, each sounding hand bells with muffled clappers, the church
bells at the same time ringing a dead peal;
̔Ως οἵγ̕ ἀμφἰεπον τάφον Πατρἰκος βοϐϐοδάμοιο.
James Ogden was interred with honours of the same kind at Ashton under
Line, in the year of this present writing, 1827. His remains were
borne to the grave by the ringers of St. Michael's Tower in that town,
with whom he had rung the tenor bell for more than fifty years, and
with whom he performed “the unprecedented feat” of ringing five
thousand on that bell (which weighed 28 cwt.) in his sixty-seventh
year. After the funeral his old companions rang a dead peal for him of
828 changes, that being the number of the months of his life. Such in
England are the funeral honors of the Βελτιϛοι.
It would take 91 years to ring the changes upon twelve bells, at the
rate of two strokes to a second; the changes upon fourteen could not
be rung through at the same rate in less than 16575 years; and upon
four and twenty they would require more than 117,000 billions of
years.
Great then 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.