76. _The Devil's Knell._--In the _Collectanea Topographica_, vol. i. p.
167., is the following note:
"At Dewsbury, Yorkshire, there is a bell called 'Black Tom of
Sothill:' the tradition is, that it is as expiatory gift for a
murder. One of the bells, perhaps this one, is tolled on
Christmas-eve as at a funeral, or in the manner of a passing-bell:
and any one asking whose bell it was, would be told that it was
the _devil's knell_. The moral of it is, that the devil died when
Christ was born. The custom was discontinued for many years, but
was revived by the vicar in 1828."
Is the gift of a bell a common expiatory gift for crime? And does the
custom of tolling the _devil's knell_ on Christmas eve exist in any
other place at the present time?