SIR,--I thank you for amending the errors and omissions about the
_Bawdrick_, though at the cost of publishing to all the world that "my
writing is indistinct."
I also thank your Strood Correspondent for his extract from an old
Churchwarden's book, bearing on the item _Baldrick_.
I would request the favour of any of your readers who have access to
old parish accounts, to publish, through the medium of your "Current
Notes," (pace tuâ) any entry relating to that _item_, or to the
"_Wheles of ye Belles_."
It is a desideratum in Campanalogical history, _when_ and by _whom_ the
ingenious and beautiful Bell-wheel now in use was first introduced.
In some retired villages, and indeed very generally in Dorsetshire,
the _half wheel_ may still be found. Bells so hung and rung, are said
to be with a "_Dead Rope_." The Bell can only be "_set_" one way, and
changes could not be rung on the system now practised, viz. changing
the position of each bell at every half pull.
The mention of this original sort of wheel may induce some of
your readers to wend their way into the Bell-chambers in their
neighbourhood, and, regardless of the filthy state in which most will
be found when they get there, they will, perhaps, crawl under the bells
(minding their heads), and hunt out and report if they meet with any
clappers hung with Bawdricks and Busk Boards, obliging many others
besides your scribbler.