[1] See for earlier history NETHERLANDS, FLANDERS, BRABANT, LIEGE, &c.
BELGRADE (Servian, _Biograd_ or _Beograd_, i.e. "White Castle"), the
capital of Servia. Pop. (1900) 69,097. Belgrade occupies a triangular
ridge or foreland, washed on the north-west by the Save, and on the
north-east by the Danube; these rivers flowing respectively from the
south-west and north-west. The sides of the triangle slope down abruptly
towards the west, more gradually towards the east; at the base stands
the cone of Avala Hill, the last outpost of the Rudnik Mountains, which
extend far away to the south; and, at the apex, a cliff of Tertiary
chalk, 200 ft. high, overlooks the confluence of the two rivers, the
large, flat island of Veliki Voyn and several smaller islets. This cliff
is crowned by the walls and towers of the citadel, once white, but now
maroon with age, and, though useful as a prison and barracks, no longer
of any military value. Behind the citadel, and along its _glacis_ on the
southern side, are the gardens of Kalemegdan, commanding a famous view
across the river; behind Kalemegdan comes Belgrade itself, a city of
white houses, among which a few great public buildings, like the high
school, national bank, national theatre and the so-called New Palace,
stand forth prominently. The town was formerly divided into three parts,
namely, the Old town, the Russian town (_Sava-Makhala_ or Save
district), and the Turkish town (_Dorcol_, or Cross-road). A great
change, however, took place in the course of the 19th century, and the
old divisions are only partially applicable, while there has to be added
the Tirazia, an important suburban extension along the line of the
aqueduct or _Tirazi_. A few old Turkish houses, built of plaster, with
red-tiled roofs, are left among the ill-paved and insanitary districts
bordering upon the rivers, but as the royal residence, the seat of
government, and the centre of the import trade, Belgrade was, after
1869, rapidly transformed into a modern European town, with wide
streets, electric tramways and electric lighting. Only the multitude of
small gardens, planted with limes, acacias and lilacs, and the bright
costumes of the Servian or Hungarian peasants, remain to distinguish it
from a western capital. For a town of such importance, which is also the
seat of the metropolitan of Servia, Belgrade has very few churches, and
these are of a somewhat modest type. There were, in 1900, four Servian
Orthodox churches, including the cathedral, one Roman Catholic chapel,
one Evangelical chapel (German), two synagogues and one mosque. This
last is kept up entirely at the expense of the Servian government.
The highest educational establishments are to be found in Belgrade: the
_Velika Shkola_ (a small university with three faculties), the military
academy, the theological seminary, the high school for girls, a
commercial academy, and several schools for secondary education on
German models. A commercial tribunal, a court of appeal and the court of
cassation are also in Belgrade. There is a fine monument to Prince
Michael (1860-1868) who succeeded in removing the Turkish garrison from
the Belgrade citadel and obtaining other Turkish fortresses in Servia by
skilful diplomacy. There are also an interesting national museum, with
Roman antiquities and numismatic collections, a national library with a
wealth of old Servian MSS. among its 40,000 volumes, and a botanical
garden, rich in specimens of the Balkan flora. To promote commerce there
are a stock and produce exchange (_Berza_), a national bank, privileged
to issue notes, and several other banking establishments. The insurance
work is done by foreign companies.
The bulk of the foreign trade of Servia passes through Belgrade, but the
industrial output of the city itself is not large, owing to the scarcity
both of labour and capital. The principal industries are brewing,
iron-founding and the manufacture of cloth, boots, leather, cigarettes,
matches, pottery, preserved meat and confectionery. The railway from
Budapest to Constantinople crosses the Save by a fine bridge on the
south-west, above the landing-place for steamers. Farther south is the
park of _Topchider_, with an old Turkish kiosk built for Prince Milosh
(1818-1839) in the beautifully laid-out grounds. In the adjoining forest
of lime-trees, called _Koshutnyak_ or the "deer-park," Prince Michael
was assassinated in 1868. Just opposite the citadel, in a north-westerly
direction, half-an-hour by steamer across the Danube, lies the Hungarian
town of Semlin. For administrative purposes, Belgrade forms a separate
department of the kingdom.
The first fortification of the rock, at the confluence of the Save and
the Danube, was made by the Celts in the 3rd century B.C. They gave it
the name of _Singidunum_, by which Belgrade was known until the 7th
century A.D. The Romans took it from the Celts, and replaced their fort
by a regular Roman _castrum_, placing in it a strong garrison. Roman
bricks, dug up in the fortress, bear the inscription, _Legio IV. Flavia
Felix_. From the 4th to the beginning of the 6th century A.D. it often
changed its masters (Huns, Sarmatians, Goths, Gepids); then the emperor
Justinian brought it once more under Roman rule and fortified and
embellished it. Towards the end of the 8th century it was taken by the
Franks of Charlemagne. In the 9th century it was captured by the
Bulgarians, and held by them until the beginning of the 11th century,
when the Byzantine emperor Basil II. reconquered it for the Greek
empire. The Hungarians, under king Stephen, took it from the Greeks in
1124. From that time it was constantly changing hands--Greeks,
Bulgarians, Hungarians, replacing each other in turn. The city was
considered to be the key of Hungary, and its possession was believed to
secure possession of Servia, besides giving command of the traffic
between the Upper and the Lower Danube. It has, in consequence, seen
more battles under its walls than most fortresses in Europe. The Turks
used to call it _Darol-i-Jehad_, "the home of wars for faith." During
the 14th century it was in the hands of the Servian kings. The Servian
prince George Brankovich ceded it to the Hungarians in 1427. The Turkish
forces unsuccessfully besieged the city in 1444 and 1456, on which last
occasion a glorious victory was obtained by the Christian garrison, led
by the famous John Hunyady and the enthusiastic monk John Capistran. In
1521 Sultan Suleiman took it from the Hungarians, and from that year it
remained in Turkish possession until 1688, when the Austrians captured
it, only to lose it again in 1690. In 1717 Prince Eugene of Savoy
conquered it for Austria, which kept it until 1739, improving the
fortifications and giving great impulse to the commercial development of
the town. From 1739 to 1789 the Turks were again its masters, when, in
that last year, the Austrians under General Laudon carried it by
assault, only to lose it again in 1792. In 1807 the Servians, having
risen for their independence, forced the Turkish garrison to capitulate,
and became masters of Belgrade, which they kept until the end of
September 1813, when they abandoned it to the Turks. Up to the year 1862
not only was the fortress of Belgrade garrisoned by Turkish troops, but
the Danubian slope of the town was inhabited by Turks, living under a
special Turkish administration, while the modern part of the town (the
plateau of the ridge and the western slope) was inhabited by Servians
living under their own authorities. This dual government was a constant
cause of friction between the Servians and the Turks, and on the
occasion of one conflict between the two parties the Turkish commander
of the fortress bombarded the Servian part of the town (June 1862). The
indirect consequence of this incident was that in 1866, on the categoric
demand of Prince Michael of Servia, and under the diplomatic pressure of
the great powers, the sultan withdrew the Turkish garrison from the
citadel and delivered it to the Servians. (C. Mi.)
BELHAVEN AND STENTON, JOHN HAMILTON, 2ND BARON (1656-1708), was the
eldest son of Robert Hamilton, Lord Presmennan (d. 1696), and was born
on the 5th of July 1656. Having married Margaret, granddaughter of John
Hamilton, 1st Baron Belhaven and Stenton, who had been made a peer by
Charles I. in 1647, he succeeded to this title in 1679. In 1681 he was
imprisoned for opposing the government and for speaking slightingly of
James, duke of York, afterwards James II., in parliament, and in 1689 he
was among those who asked William of Orange to undertake the government
of Scotland. Belhaven was at the battle of Killiecrankie; he was a
member of the Scottish privy council, and he was a director of the
Scottish Trading Company, which was formed in 1695 and was responsible
for the Darien expedition. He favoured the agitation for securing
greater liberty for his country, an agitation which culminated in the
passing of the Act of Security in 1705, and he greatly disliked the
union of the parliaments, a speech which he delivered against this
proposal in November 1706 attracting much notice and a certain amount of
ridicule. Later he was imprisoned, ostensibly for favouring a projected
French invasion, and he died in London on the 21st of June 1708.
Belhaven is chiefly famous as an orator, and two of his speeches, one of
them the famous one of November 1706, were printed by D. Defoe in an
appendix to his _History of the Union_ (1786).
Belhaven's son, John, who fought on the English side at Sheriffmuir,
became the 3rd baron on his father's death. He was drowned in November
1721, whilst proceeding to take up his duties as governor of Barbados,
and was succeeded by his son John (d. 1764). After the death of John's
brother James in 1777 the title was for a time dormant; then in 1799 the
House of Lords declared that William Hamilton (1765-1814), a descendant
of John Hamilton, the paternal great-grandfather of the 2nd baron, was
entitled to the dignity. William, who became the 7th baron, was
succeeded by his son Robert (1793-1868), who was created a peer of the
United Kingdom as Baron Hamilton of Wishaw in 1831. He died without
issue in December 1868, when the barony of Hamilton became extinct; in
1875 the House of Lords declared that his cousin, James Hamilton
(1822-1893) was rightfully Baron Belhaven and Stenton, and the title
descended to his kinsman, Alexander Charles (b. 1840), the 10th baron.
BELISARIUS (c. 505-565), one of the most famous generals of the later
Roman empire, was born about A.D. 505, in "Germania," a district on the
borders of Thrace and Macedonia. His name is supposed to be Slavonic. As
a youth he served in the bodyguard of Justinian, who appointed him
commander of the Eastern army. He won a signal victory over the Persians
in 530, and successfully conducted a campaign against them, until
forced, by the rashness of his soldiers, to join battle and suffer
defeat in the following year. Recalled to Constantinople, he married
Antonina, a clever, intriguing woman, and a favourite of the empress
Theodora. During the sedition of the "green" and "blue" parties of the
circus (known as the Nika sedition, 532) he did Justinian good service,
effectually crushing the rebels who had proclaimed Hypatius emperor. In
533 the command of the expedition against the Vandal kingdom in Africa,
a perilous office, which the rest of the imperial generals shunned, was
conferred on Belisarius. With 15,000 mercenaries, whom he had to train
into Roman discipline, he took Carthage, defeated Gelimer the Vandal
king, and carried him captive, in 534, to grace the first triumph
witnessed in Constantinople. In reward for these services Belisarius was
invested with the consular dignity, and medals were struck in his
honour. At this time the Ostrogothic kingdom, founded in Italy by
Theodoric the Great, was shaken by internal dissensions, of which
Justinian resolved to avail himself. Accordingly, Belisarius invaded
Sicily; and, after storming Naples and defending Rome for a year against
almost the entire strength of the Goths in Italy, he concluded the war
by the capture of Ravenna, and with it of the Gothic king Vitiges. So
conspicuous were Belisarius's heroism and military skill that the
Ostrogoths offered to acknowledge him emperor of the West. But his
loyalty did not waver; he rejected the proposal and returned to
Constantinople in 540. Next year he was sent to check the Persian king
Chosroes (Anushirvan); but, thwarted by the turbulence of his troops, he
achieved no decisive result. On his return to Constantinople he lived
under a cloud for some time, but was pardoned through the influence Of
Antonina with the empress. The Goths having meanwhile reconquered Italy,
Belisarius was despatched with utterly inadequate forces to oppose them.
Nevertheless, during five campaigns he held his enemies at bay, until he
was removed from the command, and the conclusion of the war was
entrusted to the eunuch Narses. Belisarius remained at Constantinople in
tranquil retirement until 559, when an incursion of Bulgarian savages
spread a panic through the metropolis, and men's eyes were once more
turned towards the neglected veteran, who placed himself at the head of
a mixed multitude of peasants and soldiers, and repelled the barbarians
with his wonted courage and adroitness. But this, like his former
victories, stimulated Justinian's envy. The saviour of his country was
coldly received and left unrewarded by his suspicious sovereign. Shortly
afterwards Belisarius was accused of complicity in a conspiracy against
the emperor (562); his fortune was confiscated, and he was confined as a
prisoner in his palace. He was liberated and restored to favour in 563,
and died in 565.
The fiction of Belisarius wandering as a blind beggar through the
streets of Constantinople, which has been adopted by Marmontel in his
_Belisaire_, and by various painters and poets, is first heard of in the
10th century. Gibbon justly calls Belisarius the Africanus of New Rome.
He was merciful as a conqueror, stern as a disciplinarian, enterprising
and wary as a general; while his courage, loyalty and forbearance seem
to have been almost unsullied. He was the idol of his soldiers, a good
tactician, but not a great strategist.
AUTHORITIES.--Procopius, _De Bellis_ and _Historia Arcana_ (best
edition by J. Haury, 1905, 1907); see Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_ (ed.
Bury, vol. 4); T. Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_ (vol. 4); J.B.
Bury, _Later Roman Empire_, vol. i.; Diehl, _Justinien_ (Paris, 1901).
(J. B. B.)
BELIT (signifying the "lady," _par excellence_), in the Babylonian
religion, the designation of the consort of Bel (q.v.). Her real name
was Nin-lil, i.e. the "lady of power," if the explanation suggested in
BEL for the second element is correct. She is also designated as
Nin-Khar-sag, "Lady of the mountain," which name stands in some
relationship to Im-Khar-sag, "storm mountain"--the name of the staged
tower or sacred edifice to Bel at Nippur. As the consort of En-lil, the
goddess Nin-lil or Belit belongs to Nippur and her titles as "ruler of
heaven and earth," and "mother of the gods" are all due to her position
as the wife of Bel. While recognized by a temple of her own in Nippur
and honoured by rulers at various times by having votive offerings made
in her honour and fortresses dedicated in her name, she, as all other
goddesses in Babylonia and Assyria with the single exception of Ishtar,
is overshadowed by her male consort. The title Belit was naturally
transferred to the great mother-goddess Ishtar after the decline of the
cult at Nippur, and we also find the consort of Marduk, known as
Sarpanit, designated as Belit, for the sufficient reason that Marduk,
after the rise of the city of Babylon as the seat of his cult, becomes
the Bel or "lord" of later days. (M. Ja.)
BELIZE, or BALIZE, the capital and principal seaport of British
Honduras, on the Caribbean Sea, in 17 deg. 29' N. and 88 deg. 11' W.
Pop. (1904) 9969. Belize occupies both banks of the river Belize, at its
mouth. Its houses are generally built of wood, with high roofs and wide
verandahs shaded by cocoanut or cabbage palms. The principal buildings
are the court house, in the centre of the town, government house, at the
southern end, Fort George, towards the north, the British bank of
Honduras, the hospital, the Roman Catholic convent, and the Wesleyan
church, which is the largest and handsomest of all. Mangrove swamps
surround the town and epidemics of cholera, yellow fever and other
tropical diseases have been frequent; but the unhealthiness of the
climate is mitigated to some extent by the high tides which cover the
marshes, and the invigorating breezes which blow in from the sea. Belize
is connected by telegraph and telephone with the other chief towns of
British Honduras, but there is no railway, and communication even by
road is defective. The exports are mahogany, rosewood, cedar, logwood
and other cabinet-woods and dye-woods, with cocoanuts, sugar,
sarsaparilla, tortoiseshell, deerskins, turtles and fruit, especially
bananas. Breadstuffs, cotton fabrics and hardware are imported.
Belize probably derives its name from the French _balise_, "a beacon,"
as no doubt some signal or light was raised here for the guidance of the
buccaneers who once infested this region. Local tradition connects the
name with that of Wallis or Wallace, a Scottish buccaneer, who, in 1638,
settled, with a party of logwood cutters, on St George's Cay, a small
island off the town. In the 18th century the names Wallis and Belize
were used interchangeably for the town, the river and the whole country.
The history of Belize is inextricably bound up with that of the rest of
British Honduras (q.v.).
BELJAME, ALEXANDRE (1842-1906), French writer, was born at
Villiers-le-Bel, Seine-et-Oise, on the 26th of November 1842. He spent
part of his childhood in England and was a frequent visitor in London.
His lectures on English literature at the Sorbonne, where a chair was
created expressly for him, did much to promote the study of English in
France. In 1905-1906 he was Clark lecturer on English literature at
Trinity College, Cambridge. He died at Domont (Seine-et-Oise) on the
19th of September 1906. His best known book was a masterly study of the
conditions of literary life in England in the 18th century illustrated
by the lives of Dryden, Addison and Pope. This book, _Le Public et les
hommes de lettres en Angleterre au XVIII^e siecle_ (1881), was crowned
by the French Academy on the appearance of the second edition in 1897.
He was a good Shakespearian scholar, and his editions of Macbeth,
Othello and Julius Caesar also received an academic prize in 1902.
BELKNAP, JEREMY (1744-1798), American author and clergyman, was born at
Boston on the 4th of June 1744, and was educated at Harvard College,
where he graduated in 1762. In 1767 he became minister of a
Congregational church at Dover, New Hampshire, remaining there until
1787, when he removed to Federal Street church, Boston. He is recognized
as the founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and in 1792
became an overseer of Harvard. He died at Boston on the 20th of June
1798. Belknap's chief works are: _History of New Hampshire_ (1784-1792);
_An Historical Account of those persons who have been distinguished in
America_, generally known as _American Biography_ (1792-1794); _The
Foresters_ (1792), &c.
BELKNAP, WILLIAM WORTH (1820-1890), American soldier and politician, was
born at Newburgh, N.Y., on the 22nd of September 1829. Entering the
Union army in 1861, he took part in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth and
Vicksburg, as major of the 15th Iowa volunteers. In the Atlanta campaign
under Sherman he gained considerable distinction, rising successively to
the rank of brigadier-general in 1864 and major-general in 1865. During
the four years that followed he was collector of internal revenue for
Iowa, leaving that post in 1869 to become secretary of war. In 1876, in
consequence of unproved accusations of corruption, he resigned. He died
at Washington, D.C., on the 13th of October 1890.
BELL, ALEXANDER GRAHAM (1847- ), American inventor and physicist, son
of Alexander Melville Bell, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 3rd
of March 1847. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh and the
university of London, and removed with his father to Canada in 1870. In
1872 he became professor of vocal physiology in Boston University. In
1876 he exhibited an apparatus embodying the results of his studies in
the transmission of sound by electricity, and this invention, with
improvements and modifications, constitutes the modern commercial
telephone. He was the inventor also of the photophone, an instrument for
transmitting sound by variations in a beam of light, and of phonographic
apparatus. Later, he interested himself in the problem of mechanical
flight. He published many scientific monographs, including a memoir on
the formation of a deaf variety in the human race.
BELL, ALEXANDER MELVILLE (1819-1905), American educationalist, was born
at Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 1st of March 1819. He studied under and
became the principal assistant of his father, Alexander Bell, an
authority on phonetics and defective speech. From 1843 to 1865 he
lectured on elocution at the university of Edinburgh, and from 1865 to
1870 at the university of London. In 1868, and again in 1870 and 1871,
he lectured in the Lowell Institute course in Boston. In 1870 he became
a lecturer on philology at Queen's College, Kingston, Ontario; and in
1881 he removed to Washington, D.C., where he devoted himself to the
education of deaf mutes by the "visible speech" method of orthoepy, in
which the alphabetical characters of his own invention were graphic
diagrams of positions and motions of the organs of speech. He held high
rank as an authority on physiological phonetics (q.v.) and was the
author of numerous works on orthoepy, elocution and education, including
_Steno-Phonography_ (1852); _Letters and Sounds_ (1858); _The Standard
Elocutionist_ (1860); _Principles of Speech and Dictionary of Sounds_
(1863); _Visible Speech: The Science of Universal Alphabetics_ (1867);
_Sounds and their Relations_ (1881); _Lectures on Phonetics_ (1885); _A
Popular Manual of Visible Speech and Vocal Physiology_ (1889); _World
English: the Universal Language_ (1888); _The Science of Speech_ (1897);
_The Fundamentals of Elocution_ (1899).
See John Hitz, _Alexander Melville Bell_ (Washington, 1906).
BELL, ANDREW (1753-1832), British divine and educationalist, was born at
St Andrews on the 27th of March 1753. He graduated at the university
there, and afterwards spent some years as a tutor in Virginia, U.S.A. On
his return he took orders, and in 1787 sailed for India, where he held
eight army chaplaincies at the same time. In 1789 he became
superintendent of the male orphan asylum at Madras, and having been
obliged from scarcity of teachers to introduce the system of mutual
tuition by the pupils, found the scheme answer so well that he became
convinced of its universal applicability. In 1797, after his return to
London, he published a small pamphlet explaining his views on education.
Little public attention was drawn towards the "monitorial" plan till
Joseph Lancaster (q.v.), the Quaker, opened a school in Southwark,
conducting it in accordance with Bell's principles, and improving on his
system. The success of the method, and the strong support given to
Lancaster by the whole body of Nonconformists gave immense impetus to
the movement. Similar schools were established in great numbers; and the
members of the Church of England, becoming alarmed at the patronage of
such schools resting entirely in the hands of dissenters, resolved to
set up similar institutions in which their own principles should be
inculcated. In 1807 Bell was called from his rectory of Swanage in
Dorset to organize a system of schools in accordance with these views,
and in 1811 became superintendent of the newly formed "National Society
for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the
Established Church." For his valuable services he was in some degree
recompensed by his preferment to a prebend of Westminster, and to the
mastership of Sherburn hospital, Durham. He tried, but without success,
to plant his system in Scotland and on the continent. He died on the
27th of January 1832, at Cheltenham, and was buried in Westminster
Abbey. His great fortune was bequeathed almost entirely for educational
purposes. Of the L120,000 given in trust to the provost of St Andrews,
two city ministers and the professor of Greek in the university, half
was devoted to the founding of the important school, called the Madras
College, at St Andrews; L10,000 was left to each of the large cities,
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leith, Inverness and Aberdeen, for school purposes;
and L10,000 was also given to the Royal Naval School.
Southey's _Life of Dr Bell_ (3 vols.) is very tedious; J.D.
Meiklejohn's _An Old Educational Reformer_ is concise and accurate.
BELL, SIR CHARLES (1774-1842), Scottish anatomist, was born at Edinburgh
in November 1774, the youngest son of the Rev. William Bell, a clergyman
of the Episcopal Church of Scotland; among his brothers were the
anatomist, John Bell, and the jurist, G.J. Bell. After attending the
high school and the university of Edinburgh, he embraced the profession
of medicine, and devoted himself chiefly to the study of anatomy, under
the direction of his brother John. His first work, entitled _A System of
Dissections, explaining the anatomy of the human body, the manner of
displaying the parts, and their varieties in disease_, was published in
Edinburgh in 1798, while he was still a pupil, and for many years was
considered to be a valuable guide to the student of practical anatomy.
In 1802 he published a series of engravings of original drawings,
showing the anatomy of the brain and nervous system. These drawings,
which are remarkable for artistic skill and finish, were taken from
dissections made by Bell for the lectures or demonstrations he gave on
the nervous system as part of the course of anatomical instruction of
his brother. In 1804 he wrote the third volume, containing the anatomy
of the nervous system and of the organs of special sense, of _The
Anatomy of the Human Body_, by John and Charles Bell. In November of the
same year he migrated to London, and from that date, for nearly forty
years, he kept up a regular correspondence with his brother George, much
of which was published in the _Letters of Sir Charles Bell_, &c., 1870.
The earlier letters of this correspondence show how rapidly he rose to
distinction in a field where success was difficult, as it was already
occupied by such men as John Abernethy, Sir Astley Cooper and Henry
Cline. Before leaving Edinburgh, he had written his work on the _Anatomy
of Expression_, which was published in London soon after his arrival and
at once attracted attention. His practical knowledge of anatomy and his
skill as an artist qualified him in an exceptional manner for such a
work. The object of this treatise was to describe the arrangements by
which the influence of the mind is propagated to the muscular frame, and
to give a rational explanation of the muscular movements which usually
accompany the various emotions and passions. One special feature was the
importance attributed to the respiratory arrangements as a source of
expression, and it was shown how the physician and surgeon might derive
information regarding the nature and extent of important diseases by
observing the expression of bodily suffering. This work, apart from its
value to artists and psychologists, is of interest historically, as
there is no doubt the investigations of the author into the nervous
supply of the muscles of expression induced him to prosecute inquiries
which led to his great discoveries in the physiology of the nervous
system.
In 1811 Bell published his _New Idea of the Anatomy of the Brain_, in
which he announced the discovery of the different functions of the
nerves corresponding with their relations to different parts of the
brain; his latest researches were described in _The Nervous System of
the Human Body_ (1830), a collection of papers read by him before the
Royal Society. He discovered that in the nervous trunks there are
special sensory filaments, the office of which is to transmit
impressions from the periphery of the body to the sensorium, and special
motor filaments which convey motor impressions from the brain or other
nerve centre to the muscles. He also showed that some nerves consist
entirely of sensory filaments and are therefore sensory nerves, that
others are composed of motor filaments and are therefore motor nerves,
whilst a third variety contains both kinds of filaments and are
therefore to be regarded as sensory-motor. Furthermore, he indicated
that the brain and spinal cord may be divided into separate parts, each
part having a special function--one part ministering to motion, the
other to sensation, and that the origin of the nerves from one or other
or both of those sources endows them with the peculiar property of the
division whence they spring. He also demonstrated that no motor nerve
ever passes through a ganglion. Lastly, he showed, both from theoretical
considerations and from the result of actual experiment on the living
animal, that the anterior roots of the spinal nerves are _motor_, while
the posterior are _sensory_. These discoveries as a whole must be
regarded as the greatest in physiology since that of the circulation of
the blood by William Harvey. They were not only a distinct and definite
advance in scientific knowledge, but from them flowed many practical
results of much importance in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. It
is not surprising that Bell should have viewed his results with
exultation. On the 26th of November 1807, he wrote to his brother
George:--"I have done a more interesting _nova anatomia cerebri humani_
than it is possible to conceive. I lectured it yesterday. I prosecuted
it last night till one o'clock; and I am sure it will be well received."
On the 31st of the same month he wrote:--"I really think this new
anatomy of the brain will strike more than the discovery of the
lymphatics being absorbents."
In 1807 he produced a _System of Comparative Surgery_, in which surgery
is regarded almost wholly from an anatomical and operative point of
view, and there is little or no mention of the use of medicinal
substances. It placed him, however, in the highest rank of English
writers on surgery. In 1809 he relinquished his professional work in
London, and rendered meritorious services to the wounded from Coruna,
who were brought to the Haslar hospital at Portsmouth. In 1810 he
published a series of _Letters concerning the Diseases of the Urethra_,
in which he treated of stricture from an anatomical and pathological
point of view. In 1812 he was appointed surgeon to the Middlesex
hospital, a post he retained for twenty-four years. He was also
professor of anatomy, physiology and surgery to the College of Surgeons
of London, and for many years teacher of anatomy in the school which
used to exist in Great Windmill Street. In 1815 he went to Brussels to
treat the wounded of the battle of Waterloo. In 1816, 1817 and 1818, he
published a series of _Quarterly Reports of Cases in Surgery_; in 1821 a
volume of coloured plates with descriptive letterpress, entitled
_Illustrations of the great operations of Surgery, Trepan, Hernia,
Amputation and Lithotomy_, and in 1824 _Observations on Injuries of the
Spine and of the Thigh Bone_. On the formation of University College,
Gower Street, he was for a short time head of the medical department. In
1832 he wrote a paper for the Royal Society of London on the "Organs of
the Human Voice," in which he gave many illustrations of the
physiological action of these parts, and in 1833 a Bridgewater treatise,
_The Hand: its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as evincing Design_. Along
with Lord Brougham he annotated and illustrated an edition of Paley's
_Natural Theology_, published in 1836. The Royal Society of London
awarded to him in 1829 the first annual medal of that year given by
George IV. for discoveries in science; and when William IV. ascended the
throne, Charles Bell received the honour of knighthood along with a few
other men distinguished in science and literature.
In 1836 the chair of surgery in the university of Edinburgh was offered
to him. He was then one of the foremost scientific men in London, and he
had a large surgical practice. But his opinion was "London is a place to
live in, but not to die in"; and he accepted the appointment. In
Edinburgh he did not earn great local professional success; and, it must
be confessed, he was not appreciated as he deserved. But honours came
thick upon him. On the continent of Europe he was spoken of as greater
than Harvey. It is narrated that one day P.J. Roux, a celebrated French
physiologist, dismissed his class without a lecture, saying "_C'est
assez, messieurs, vous avez vu Charles Bell._" During his professorship
he published the _Institutes of Surgery, arranged in the order of the
lectures delivered in the university of Edinburgh_ (1838); and in 1841
he wrote a volume of _Practical Essays_, two of which, "On Squinting,"
and "On the action of purgatives," are of great value. He died at Hallow
Park near Worcester on the 28th of April 1842.
BELL, GEORGE JOSEPH (1770-1843), Scottish jurist, was born at Edinburgh
on the 20th of March 1770. He was an elder brother of Sir Charles Bell.
At the age of eight he entered the high school, but he received no
university education further than attending the lectures of A.F. Tytler,
Dugald Stewart and Hume. He became a member of the Faculty of Advocates
in 1791, and was one of the earliest and most attached friends of
Francis Jeffrey. In 1804 he published a _Treatise on the Law of
Bankruptcy_ in Scotland, which he subsequently enlarged and published in
1826 under the title of _Commentaries on the Law of Scotland and on the
principles of Mercantile Jurisprudence--_ an institutional work of the
very highest excellence, which has had its value acknowledged by such
eminent jurists as Joseph Story and James Kent. In 1821 Bell was elected
professor of the law of Scotland in the university of Edinburgh; and in
1831 he was appointed to one of the principal clerkships in the supreme
court. He was placed at the head of a commission in 1833 to inquire into
the Scottish bankruptcy law; and in consequence of the reports of the
commissioners, chiefly drawn up by himself, many beneficial alterations
were made. He died on the 23rd of September 1843. Bell's smaller
treatise, _Principles of the Law of Scotland_, became a standard
text-book for law students. The _Illustrations of the Principles_ is
also a work of high value.
BELL, HENRY (1767-1830), Scottish engineer, was born at Torphichen,
Linlithgowshire, in 1767. Having received the ordinary education of a
parish school, he was apprenticed to his uncle, a millwright, and, after
qualifying himself as a ship-modeller at Bo'ness, went to London, where
he found employment under John Rennie, the celebrated engineer.
Returning to Scotland in 1790, he first settled as a carpenter at
Glasgow and afterwards removed to Helensburgh, on the Firth of Clyde
where he pursued his mechanical projects, and also found occasional
employment as an engineer. In January 1812 he placed on the Clyde a
steamboat (which he named the "Comet") of about 25 tons, propelled by an
engine of three horse power, at a speed of 7 m. an hour. Although the
honour of priority is admitted to belong to the American engineer Robert
Fulton, there appears to be no doubt that Fulton had received very
material assistance in the construction of his vessel from Bell and
others in Great Britain. A handsome sum was raised for Bell by
subscription among the citizens of Glasgow; and he also received from
the trustees of the river Clyde a pension of L100 a year. He died at
Helensburgh on the 14th of November 1830. A monument to his memory
stands on the banks of the Clyde, at Dunglass, near Bowling.
BELL, HENRY GLASSFORD (1803-1874), a Scottish lawyer and man of letters,
was born at Glasgow on the 8th of November 1803. He received his
education at the Glasgow high school and at Edinburgh University. He
became intimate with "Delta" Moir, James Hogg, John Wilson (Christopher
North), and others of the brilliant staff of _Blackwood's Magazine_, to
which he was drawn by his political sympathies. In 1828 he became editor
of the _Edinburgh Literary Journal_, which was eventually incorporated
in the _Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle_. He was admitted to the bar in
1832. In 1839 he was appointed sheriff-substitute of Lanarkshire, and in
1867 he succeeded Sir Archibald Alison in the post of sheriff-principal
of the county, an office which he filled with distinguished success. In
1831 he published _Summer and Winter Hours_, a volume of poems, of which
the best known is that on Mary, queen of Scots. He further defended the
cause of the unfortunate queen in a prose _Life_ (2 vols., 1828-1831).
Among his other works may be mentioned a preface which he wrote to Bell
and Bains's edition (1865) of the works of Shakespeare, and _Romances
and Minor Poems_ (1866). He figures in the society of the _Noctes
Ambrosianae_ as "Tallboys." He died on the 7th of January 1874.
BELL, JACOB (1810-1859), British pharmaceutical chemist, was born in
London on the 5th of March 1810. On the completion of his education, he
joined his father in business as a chemist in Oxford Street, and at the
same time attended the chemistry lectures at the Royal Institution, and
those on medicine at King's College. Always keenly alive to the
interests of chemists in general, Bell conceived the idea of a society
which should at once protect the interests of the trade, and improve its
status, and at a public meeting held on the 15th of April 1841, it was
resolved to found the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Bell
carried his scheme through in the face of many difficulties, and further
advanced the cause of pharmacy by establishing the _Pharmaceutical
Journal_, and superintending its publication for eighteen years. The
Pharmaceutical Society was incorporated by royal charter in 1843. One of
the first abuses to engage the attention of the new body was the
practice of pharmacy by unqualified persons, and in 1845 Bell drew up
the draft of a bill to deal with the matter, one of the provisions of
which was the recognition of the Pharmaceutical Society as the governing
body in all questions connected with pharmacy. For some time after this
the question of pharmaceutical legislation was widely discussed. In 1850
Bell successfully contested the borough of St Albans in order that he
might be able to advocate his proposals for reform more effectually in
parliament. In 1851 he brought forward a bill embodying these proposals.
It passed its second reading, but was considerably whittled down in
committee, and when eventually it became law it only partially
represented its sponsor's intentions. Bell was the author of an
_Historical Sketch of the Progress of Pharmacy in Great Britain_. He
died on the 12th of June 1859.
BELL, JOHN (1691-1780), Scottish traveller, was born at Antermony in
Scotland in 1691, and educated for the medical profession, in which he
took the degree of M.D. In 1714 he set out for St Petersburg, where,
through the introduction of a countryman, he was nominated medical
attendant to Valensky, recently appointed to the Persian embassy, with
whom he travelled from 1715 to 1718. The next four years he spent in an
embassy to China, passing through Siberia and the great Tatar deserts.
He had scarcely rested from this last journey when he was summoned to
attend Peter the Great in his perilous expedition to Derbend and the
Caspian Gates. The narrative of this journey he enriched with
interesting particulars of the public and private life of that
remarkable prince. In 1738 he was sent by the Russian government on a
mission to Constantinople, to which, accompanied by a single attendant
who spoke Turkish, he proceeded in the midst of winter and all the
horrors of war, returning in May to St Petersburg. It appears that after
this he was for several years established as a merchant at
Constantinople, where he married in 1746. In the following year he
retired to his estate of Antermony, where he spent the remainder of his
life. He died in 1780. His travels, published at Glasgow in 1763, were
speedily translated into French, and widely circulated in Europe.
BELL, JOHN (1763-1820), Scottish anatomist and surgeon, an elder brother
of Sir Charles Bell, was born at Edinburgh on the 12th of May 1763.
After completing his professional education at Edinburgh, he carried on
from 1790 in Surgeons' Square an anatomical lecture-theatre, where, in
spite of much opposition, due partly to the unconservative character of
his teaching, he attracted large audiences by his lectures, in which he
was for a time assisted by his younger brother Charles. In 1793-1795 he
published _Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds_, and in 1800 he
became involved in an unfortunate controversy with James Gregory
(1753-1821), the professor of medicine at Edinburgh. Gregory in 1800
attacked the system whereby the fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons
of Edinburgh acted in rotation as surgeons at the Royal Infirmary, with
the result that the younger fellows were excluded. Bell, who was among
the number, composed an _Answer for the Junior Members_ (1800), and ten
years later published a collection of _Letters on Professional Character
and Manners_, which he had addressed to Gregory. After his exclusion
from the infirmary he ceased to lecture and devoted himself to study and
practice. In 1816 he was injured by a fall from his horse and in the
following year went to Italy for the benefit of his health. He died at
Rome on the 15th of April 1820. His works also included _Principles of
Surgery_ (1801), _Anatomy of the Human Body_, which went through several
editions and was translated into German, and _Observations on Italy_,
published by his widow in 1825.
BELL, JOHN (1797-1869), American political leader, was born near
Nashville, Tennessee, on the 15th of February 1797. He graduated at the
university of Nashville in 1814, and in 1817 was elected to the state
senate, but retiring after one term, he devoted himself for ten years to
the study and the practice of the law. From 1827 until 1841 he was a
member of the national House of Representatives, of which from June 1834
to March 1835 he was the speaker, and in which he was conspicuous as a
debater and a conservative leader. Though he entered political life as a
Democrat, he became estranged from his party's leader, President
Jackson, also a Tennessean, and after 1835 was one of the leaders of the
Whig party in the South. In March 1841 he became the secretary of war in
President Harrison's cabinet, but in September, after the death of
Harrison and the rupture between the Whig leaders and President Tyler,
he resigned this position. From 1847 until 1859 he was a member of the
United States Senate, and attracted attention by his ability in debate
and his political independence, being one of two Southern senators to
vote against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854 and against the admission
of Kansas with the Lecompton or pro-slavery constitution in 1858.
Strongly conservative by temperament and devoted to the Union, he
ardently desired to prevent the threatened secession of the Southern
states in 1860, and was the candidate, for the presidency, of the
Constitutional Union Party, often called from the names of its
candidates for the presidency and the vice-presidency (Edward Everett)
the "Bell and Everett Party," which was made up largely of former Whigs
and Southern "Know-Nothings," opposed sectionalism, and strove to
prevent the disruption of the union. The party adopted no platform, and
discarding all other issues, resolved that "it is both the part of
patriotism and of duty to recognize no political principle other than
the constitution of the country, the union of the states, and the
enforcement of the laws." Bell was defeated, but received a popular vote
of 587,830 (mostly cast in the Southern states), and obtained the
electoral votes of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee--39 altogether, out
of a total of 303. Bell tried earnestly to prevent the secession of his
own state, but after the issue of President Lincoln's proclamation of
the 15th of April 1861 calling on the various states for volunteers, his
efforts were unavailing, and when Tennessee joined the Confederacy Bell
"went with his state." He took no part in the Civil War, and died on the
10th of September 1869.
BELL, ROBERT (1800-1867), Irish man of letters, was born at Cork on the
16th of January 1800. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where
he was one of the founders of the Dublin Historical Society. In 1828 he
settled in London, where he edited a weekly paper, the _Atlas_, and
until 1841 was engaged in journalism; and afterwards in miscellaneous
literary work. He died on the 12th of April 1867. His most important
work is his annotated edition of the _English Poets_ (24 vols.,
1854-1857; new ed., 29 vols., 1866), the works of each poet being
prefaced by a memoir. For Lardner's _Cabinet Cyclopaedia_ he wrote:
_History of Russia_ (3 vols., 1836-1838); _Lives of English Poets_ (2
vols., 1839); a continuation, with W. Wallace, of Sir James
Mackintosh's _History of England_ (vols. iv.-x., 1830-1840); and the
fifth volume (1840) of the _Lives of the British Admirals_, begun by R.
Southey. He was a director of the Royal Literary Fund, and well known
for his open-hearted generosity to fellow men of letters.
BELL a hollow metallic vessel used for making a more or less loud noise
(A.S. _bellan_, to bellow; Mid. Eng. "to bell"; cf. "As loud as belleth,
winde in helle," in Chaucer, _House of Fame_, iii. 713). Bells are
usually cup-like in shape, and are constructed so as to give one
fundamental note when struck. The term does not strictly include gongs,
cymbals, metal plates, resonant bars of metal or wood, or tinkling
ornaments, such as e.g. the "bells" upon the Jewish high priest's dress
(Exodus xxviii. 32); nor is it necessary here to deal with the common
useful varieties of sheep or cow bells, or bells on sledges or harness.
For house bells see the end of this article. A "diving-bell" (see
DIVERS) is only so called from the analogy of its shape.
The main interest of bells and bell-ringing has reference to church or
tower bells, their history, construction and uses.
_Early Bells._--Of bells before the Christian era there is no
trustworthy evidence. The instruments which summoned the Romans to
public baths or processions, or that which Lucian (A.D. 180) describes
as set in motion by a water-clock (_clepsydra_) to measure time, were
probably cymbals or resonant plates of metal, like the timbrels
(_corybantia aera_, Virg. _Aen._ iii. 111) used in the worship of
Cybele, or the Egyptian _sistrum_, which seems to have been a sort of
rattle. The earliest Latin word for a bell (_campana_) is late Latin of
the 4th or 5th century A.D.; and the first application of bells to
churches has been ascribed to Paulinus, bishop of Nola in Campania about
A.D. 400. There is, however, no confirmation of this story, which may
have arisen from the words _campana_ and _nola_ (a small bell); and in a
letter from Paulinus to the emperor Severus, describing very fully the
decoration of his church, the bishop makes no mention of bells. It has
been maintained with somewhat more reason that Pope Sabinianus (604)
first used church bells; but it seems clear that they were introduced
into France as early as 550. In the 7th century Bede mentions a bell
brought from Italy by Benedict Biscop for his abbey at Wearmouth, and
speaks of the sound of a bell being well known at Whitby Abbey at the
time of St Hilda's death (680). St Dunstan hung many in the 10th
century; and in the 11th they were not uncommon in Switzerland and
Germany. It is said that the Greek Christians were unacquainted with
bells till the 9th century; but it is known that for political reasons,
after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, their use was
forbidden lest they should provide a popular signal for revolt.
Several old bells are extant in Scotland, Ireland and Wales; the oldest
are often quadrangular, made of thin iron plates hammered and riveted
together. A well-known specimen is St Patrick's bell preserved at
Belfast, called _Clog an eadhachta Phatraic_, "the bell of St Patrick's
will." It is 6 in. high, 5 broad, 4 deep, adorned with gems and gold and
silver filigree-work; it is inscribed 1091 and 1105, but it is probably
alluded to in Ulster annals in 552. (For Scottish bells, see
_Illustrated Catalogue of Archaeological Museum_, Edinburgh, for 1856.)
The four-sided bell of the Irish missionary St Gall (646) is preserved
at the monastery of St Gall, Switzerland. In these early times bells
were usually small; even in the 11th century a bell presented to the
church at Orleans weighing 2600 lb. was thought large. In the 13th
century larger bells were cast. The bell Jacqueline of Paris, cast in
1400, weighed 15,000 lb.; another Paris bell of 1472, 25,000 lb.; and
the famous Amboise bell at Rouen (1501) 36,364 lb.
To these scanty records of the early history of bells may be added the
enumeration of different kinds of bells by Hieronymus Magius, in his
work _De Tintinnabulis:--1. Tintinnabulum_, a little bell, otherwise
called _tinniolum_, for refectory or dormitory, according to Joannes
Belethus, but Guillaume Durand names _squilla_ for the refectory; 2.
_Petasius_, or larger "broad-brimmed hat" bell; 3. _Codon_, orifice of
trumpet, a Greek hand-bell; 4. _Nola_, a very small bell, used in the
choir, according to Durand; 5. _Campana_, a large bell, first used in
the Latin churches in the steeple (Durand), in the tower (Belethus); 6.
_Squilla_, a shrill little bell. We read of _cymbalum_ for the cloister
(Durand) or _campanella_ for the cloister (Belethus); _nolula_ or
_dupla_ in the clock; _signum_ in the tower (e.g. in the _Excerptions_
of St Egbert, 750); the Portuguese still call a bell _sino._
_Bell-founding._--The earliest bells were probably not cast, but made of
plates riveted together, like the bells of St Gall or Belfast above
mentioned. The bell-founder's art, originally practised in the
monasteries, passed gradually into the hands of a professional class, by
whom, in England and the Low Countries especially, were gradually worked
out the principles of construction, mixture of metals, lines and
proportions, now generally accepted as necessary for a good bell. In
England some of the early founders were peripatetic artificers, who
travelled about the country, setting up a temporary foundry to cast
bells wherever they were wanted. Miles Graye (c. 1650), a celebrated
East Anglian founder, carried on his work in this fashion, and in old
churchwardens' accounts are sometimes found notices of payment for the
casting of bells at places where no regular foundry is known to have
existed. The chief centres of the art in medieval times were London,
York, Gloucester and Nottingham; and bells by e.g. "John of York" (14th
century), Samuel Smith, father and son, of York (1680-1730), Abraham
Rudhall and his descendants of Gloucester (1684-1774), Mot (16th
century), Lester and Pack (1750), Christopher Hodson of London (who cast
"Great Tom" of Oxford, 1681) and Richard Phelps (1716) are still in high
repute. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry (now Mears and Stainbank),
established by Robert Mot in 1570, incorporated the business of the
Rudhalls, Lester and Pack, Phelps, Briant and others, and is now one of
the leading firms of bell-founders; others being Warner and Sons of
Spitalfields and Taylor & Co., Loughborough, the founders of "Great
Paul" for St Paul's cathedral (1881). Of Dutch and Flemish founders the
firms of van den Gheyn (1550), Hemony (1650), Aerschodt & Wagheven at
Louvain and others have a great reputation in the Low Countries,
especially for "carillons," such as those at Antwerp or Bruges, a form
of bell-music which has not taken much root in England, despite the
advocacy of the Rev. H.R. Haweis, who proclaimed its superiority to
English change-ringing.
Bell-metal is a mixture of copper and tin in the proportion of 4 to 1.
In Henry III.'s reign it was 2 to 1. In Layard's Nineveh bronze bells,
it was 10 to 1. Zinc and lead are used in small bells. The thickness of
the bell's edge is about one-tenth of its diameter, and its height is
twelve times its thickness.
Bells, like viols, have been made of every conceivable shape within
certain limits. The long narrow bell, the quadrangular, and the
mitre-shaped in Europe at least indicate antiquity, and the graceful
curved-inwardly-midway and full trumpet-mouthed bell indicates an age
not earlier than the 16th century.
The bell is first designed on paper according to the scale of
measurement. Then the crook is made, which is a kind of double wooden
compass, the legs of which are respectively curved to the shape of the
inner and outer sides of the bell, a space of the exact form and
thickness of the bell being left betwixt them. The compass is pivoted on
a stake driven into the bottom of the casting-pit. A stuffing of
brickwork is built round the stake, leaving room for a fire to be
lighted inside it. The outside of this stuffing is then padded with fine
soft clay, well mixed and bound together with calves' hair, and the
inner leg of the compass run round it, bringing it to the exact shape of
the inside of the bell. Upon this _core_, well smeared with grease, is
fashioned the false clay bell, the outside of which is defined by the
outer leg of the compass. Inscriptions are now moulded in wax on the
outside of the clay-bell; these are carefully smeared with grease, then
lightly covered with the finest clay, and then with coarser clay, until
a solid mantle is thickened over the outside of the clay bell. A fire is
now lighted, and the whole baked hard; the grease and wax inscriptions
steam out through holes at the top, leaving the sham clay bell baked
hard and tolerably loose, between the _core_ and the _cope_ or
_mantle_. The cope is then lifted, the clay bell broken up, the _cope_
let down again, enclosing now between itself and the _core_ the exact
shape of the bell. The metal is then boiled and run molten into the
mould. A large bell will take several weeks to cool. When extricated it
ought to be scarcely touched and should hardly require tuning. This is
called its maiden state, and it used to be so sought after that many
bells were left rough and out of tune in order to claim it.
_Bell Tones and Tuning._--A good bell, fairly struck, should give out
three distinct notes--a "fundamental" note or "tonic"; the octave above,
or "nominal"; and the octave below, or "hum-note." (It also gives out
the "third" and "fifth" above the fundamental; but of these it is less
necessary to take notice.) Very few bells, however, have any two of
these notes, and hardly any all three, in unison--the "hum-notes" being
generally a little sharper, and the "fundamentals" a little flatter,
than their respective "nominals." In tuning a "ring" or series of bells,
the practice of founders has hitherto been to take one set of notes (in
England usually the nominals, on the continent the fundamentals) and put
these into tune, leaving the other tones to take care of themselves. But
in different circumstances different tones assert themselves. Thus, when
bells are struck at considerable intervals, the fundamental notes being
fuller and more persistent are more prominent; but when struck in rapid
succession (as in English change-ringing or with the higher bells of a
Belgian "carillon," which take the "air") the higher tone of the
"nominal" is more perceptible. The inharmonious character of many
Belgian carillons, and of certain Belgian and French rings in England,
is ascribed by Canon A.B. Simpson (in his pamphlet, _Why Bells sound out
of Tune_, 1897) to neglect of the "nominals," the fundamentals only
being tuned to each other. To tune a series of bells properly, the
fundamental tone of each bell must be brought into true octave with its
nominal, and the whole series of bells, thus rectified, put into tune
with each other. The "hum-note" of each, which is the tone of the whole
mass of metal, should also be in tune with the others. If flatter than
the nominal, it cannot be sharpened; but if sharper (as is more usual),
it may be flattened by thinning the metal near the crown of the bell.
The great bell ("Great Paul") cast by Messrs Taylor for St Paul's
cathedral, London, has all its tones in true harmony, except that the
tone next above the fundamental (E-flat) is a "fourth" (A-flat) instead
of a "third" (G or G-flat). The great bell cast by the same founders for
Beverley Minster is in perfect tune; and with the improved machinery now
in use, there is no reason why this should not henceforth be the case
with all church bells.
The quality of a bell depends not only on the casting and the fineness
and mixture of metals, but upon the due proportion of metal to the
calibre of the bell. The larger the bell the lower the tone; but if we
try to make a large E bell with metal only enough for a smaller F bell,
the E bell will be puny and poor. It has been calculated that for a peal
of bells to give the pure chord of the ground tone or key-note, third,
fifth and octave, the diameters are required to be as thirty,
twenty-four, twenty, fifteen, and the weights as eighty, forty-one,
twenty-four and ten.
_History and Uses of Bells._--The history of bells is full of romantic
interest. In civilized times they have been intimately associated, not
only with all kinds of religious and social uses, but with almost every
important historical event. Their influence upon architecture is not
less remarkable, for to them indirectly we probably owe most of the
famous towers in the world. Church towers at first, perhaps, scarcely
rose above the roof, being intended as lanterns for the admission of
light, and addition to their height was in all likelihood suggested by
the more common use of bells.
Bells early summoned soldiers to arms, as well as Christians to church.
They sounded the alarm in fire or tumult; and the rights of the burghers
in their bells were jealously guarded. Thus the chief bell in the
cathedral often belonged to the town, not to the cathedral chapter. The
curfew, the Carolus and St Mary's bell in the Antwerp tower all belong
to the town; the rest are the property of the chapter. He who commanded
the bell commanded the town; for by that sound, at a moment's notice, he
could rally and concentrate his adherents. Hence a conqueror commonly
acknowledged the political importance of bells by melting them down; and
the cannon of the conquered was in turn melted up to supply the garrison
with bells to be used in the suppression of revolts. Many a bloody
chapter in history has been rung in and out by bells.
On the third day of Easter 1282, at the ringing of the Sicilian vespers
(which have given their name to the affair), 8000 French were massacred
in cold blood by John of Procida, who had thus planned to free Sicily
from Charles of Anjou. On the 24th of August, St Bartholomew's day,
1571, bells ushered in the massacre of the Huguenots in France, to the
number, it is said, of 100,000. Bells have rung alike over slaughtered
and ransomed cities; and far and wide throughout Europe in the hour of
victory or irreparable loss. At the news of Nelson's triumph and death
at Trafalgar, the bells of Chester rang a merry peal alternated with one
deep toll, and similar incidents could be multiplied.
There are many old customs connected with the use of church bells, some
of which have died out, while others remain here and there. The best
known and perhaps oldest of these is the "Curfew" (_couvre-feu_), first
enforced (though not perhaps introduced) by William the Conqueror in
England as a signal for all lights and fires to be extinguished at 8
P.M.--probably to prevent nocturnal gatherings of disaffected subjects.
In many towns it survived into the 19th century as a signal for closing
shops at 8 or 9; and it is still kept up in various places as an old
custom; thus at Oxford the familiar boom of "Tom's" 101 strokes is still
the signal for closing college gates at 9. The largest and heaviest
bells were used for the Curfew, to carry the sound as far as possible,
as it did to Milton's ear, suggesting the descriptive lines in _Il
Penseroso_ (74-75):--
"Oft, on a plot of rising ground,
I hear the far-off curfew sound
Over some wide-watered shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar."
Gray's allusion in the _Elegy_ is well known; as also are those of
Shakespeare to the elves "that rejoice to hear the solemn curfew"
(_Tempest_), or the fiend that "begins at curfew and walks till the
first cock" (_King Lear_); or Milton's in _Comus_ to the ghost "that
breaks his magic chains at curfew time."
Among secular uses connected with church bells are the "Mote" or
"Common" bell, summoning to municipal or other meetings, as e.g. the 7th
at St Mary's, Stamford, tolled for quarter sessions, or the bell at St
Mary's, Oxford, for meetings of Convocation. In some places one of the
bells is known as the "Vestry Bell." The "Pancake Bell," still rung here
and there on Shrove Tuesday, was originally a summons to confession
before Lent; the "Harvest Bell" and "Seeding Bell" called labourers to
their work; while the "Gleaning Bell" fixed the hours for beginning or
leaving off gleaning, so that everyone might start fair and have an even
chance. The "Oven Bell" gave notice when the lord of the manor's oven
was ready for his tenants to bake their bread; the "Market Bell" was a
signal for selling to begin; and in some country districts a church bell
is still rung at dinner time. The general diffusion of clocks and
watches has rendered bells less necessary for marking the events of
daily life; and most of these old customs have either disappeared or are
fast disappearing. At Strassburg a large bell of eight tons weight,
known as the "Holy Ghost Bell," is only rung when two fires are seen in
the town at once; a "storm-bell" warns travellers in the plain of storms
approaching from the mountains, and the "Thor Glocke" (gate bell) gives
the signal for opening or shutting the city gates. On the European
continent, especially in countries which, like Belgium and Holland, were
distracted by constant war, bells acquired great public importance. They
were formally baptized with religious ceremonies (as also in England in
pre-Reformation days), the notabilities of a town or church standing as
sponsors; and they were very generally supposed to have the power of
scaring away evil spirits.
Other old customs are naturally connected with the ecclesiastical uses
of bells. The "Passing Bell," rung for the dying, is now generally rung
after death; the ancient mode of indicating the sex of the deceased,
viz. two pulls for a woman and three for a man being still very common,
with many varying customs as regards the interval after death or the
bell to be used, e.g. smaller bells for children and females, and larger
ones for aged men; the tenor bell being sometimes reserved for the death
of the incumbent, or of a bishop or member of the royal family. "Burial
Peals," once common at or after funerals to scare away the evil spirits
from the soul of the departed, though discouraged by bishops as early as
the 14th century, were kept alive by popular superstition, and only
finally checked in Puritan times; but they have been revived, since the
spread of change-ringing, in the "muffled peals" now frequently rung as
a mark of respect to deceased persons of public or local importance, or
the short "touches" on hand-bells sometimes rung at the grave by the
comrades of a deceased ringer. The "Sermon-Bell," rung in
pre-Reformation times to give notice that a sermon was to be preached
(cf. Shakespeare, _Henry IV._, Pt. II. iv. 2. 4-7), survives in some
places in a custom of ringing the tenor bell before a service with a
sermon; and a similar custom before a celebration of the Holy Communion
preserves the memory of the "Sacrament Bell." The ancient "Sanctus" or
"Sance" bell, hung on the rood-screen or in a small bell cot on the
chancel gable, and sounded three times when the priest said the
_Tersanctus_ (Holy, Holy, Holy) in the office of mass, was specially
obnoxious to Puritan zeal, and few of them survived the Reformation. An
early morning bell, rung in many places for no apparent reason, is
probably a relic of the _Ave Maria_ or _Angelus_ bell. The inscription
on some old bells, _Lectum fuge, discute somnum_ ("Away from bed, shake
off sleep"), points to this use, as also does the name "Gabriel" applied
to the bell used for ringing the Angelus. In old times bells were
generally named at their baptism, after the Virgin Mary or saints, or
their donors; thus the bells at Oseney Abbey in the 13th century were
called Hautclere, Doucement, Austyn, Marie, Gabriel and John; sometimes
they were known by mere nicknames, such as "Great (or "Mighty") Tom" at
Oxford, or "Big Ben," "Great Paul," &c., in recent times.
_Bell Inscriptions._--The names of bells were often stamped upon them in
the casting; whence arose inscriptions upon church bells, giving in
monkish Latin the name of some saint, a prayer to the Virgin, or for the
soul of the donor, or a distich upon the function of the bell itself;
e.g.--
"Funera plango, fulgura frango, Sabbata pango,
Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos."
(I mourn for death, I break the lightning, I fix the Sabbath, I rouse
the lazy, I scatter the winds, I appease the cruel.)
The character of the lettering and the foundry marks upon old bells, are
of great assistance in determining their date. Sometimes a set of bells
has each a separate verse, e.g. on a ring of five in Bedfordshire:--
1st. "Hoc signum Petri pulsatum nomine Christi."
(This emblem of Peter is struck in the name of Christ.)
2nd. "Nomen Magdalene campana sonat melode."
(This bell named Magdalen sounds melodiously.)
3rd. "Sit nomen Domini benedictum semper in eum."
(May the name of the Lord always be blessed upon him, i.e. on
the bell when struck.)
4th. "Musa Raphaelis sonat auribus Immanuelis."
(The music of Raphael sounds in the ear of Immanuel.)
5th. "Sum Rosa pulsata mundique Maria vocata."
(I, Maria, am struck and called the Rose of the world.)
The names of these five bells were thus:--Peter, Magdalen, (?) Jesus,
Raphael and Mary.
Other inscriptions take the form of an invocation or prayer for the bell
itself, its donor or those who hear it, e.g.--
"Augustine tuam campanam protege sanam."
(Augustine, protect thy bell and keep it sound.)
"Sancte Johannes, ora pro animabus Johannis Pudsey, militis, et Mariae,
consortae suae."
(St John, pray for the souls of John Pudsey, knight, and Mary his
wife.)
"Protege pura via quos convoco virgo Maria."
(Guard in the way those whom I pure Virgin Mary call.)
The "Mittags Glocke" (mid-day bell) at Strassburg, taken down at the
time of the French Revolution, bore the legend:
"Vox ego sum vitae; voco vos; orate venite."
(I am the voice of life: I call you: come and pray.)
A bell in Rouen cathedral, melted down in 1793, was inscribed:
"Je suis George d'Ambois,
Qui trente cinque mille pois;
Mais lui qui me pesera
Trente six mille me trouvera."
(I am George d'Ambois, weighing 35,000 lb.; but he who weighs me
will find me 36,000.)
A similar inscription is said to have been cast on the largest of the
bells placed by Edward III. in a "clocher" or bell hut in the Little
Cloisters at Westminster:
"King Edward made mee thirty thousand weight and three,
Take mee down and wey mee and more you shall find mee."