Church Bells: Their Antiquities And Connection With Architecture.

that might have had a peal had there been reasonable hope of securing the grand ancl mellow tones of former days . Again , as to the lettering , stopping , ancl ornamentation of bells , —Why are these now altogether abandoned ? It is true our . founders have a black

lettering , which can be used if asked for ; but something better than any of them have yet is easily attainable . and , when once the moulds are made , a good design costs no more than a- bad one . It may be said bells are out of sight , and so what is put on them does not very much matter .

I think it does . A bell is a sacred instrument dedicated to the service of God , and religious art may be brought to bear upon it just as rightly as upon other sacred vessels . The fact of its beingseen but by few does not appear to me to affect the question ; for we have got beyond the

notion prevalent some fifty years . since , that that only need be decent which meet the eye of man . The same rule applies to the careful selection of dedicatory inscriptions . Now in the nature of the case it cannot be expected that each architect should provide the bell-founder with designs for

the bells of any given church ; but I think it should be the care of this Institute to provide each founder with legitimate forms of lettering and stops .

Ihe next suggestion I would offer is this . We either find nothing but our little enemy the tingtang , or an ambitious scheme for a peal of six or eight , too often realized in the skeleton by the tenor , its third and fifth forming what -nay be called a hop , skip , and jump style of music , the

constant repetition of which is far from pleasing to the ear ; ancl but too often the further development of the peal is unrealized . The Marylebone churches , early in the present century , ivere furnished with these skeletons of peals of six , and they have hoppedskippedand jumped for the

, , last forty years ivithout the least sign of filling up their gaps . I am sorry to find they have even had the contrary effect of inducing other steeples to follow in their frolics , for St . Paul ' s , Knightsbridge ;

All Saints ' , Margaret-street ; and some others have begun a similar skirmish . Now instead of this unsatisfactory music , why not be content with a really good tenor and one bell next above it ? Nothing can be grander than two good bells chiming thus together . Such music is far

preferable to three or four light bells at odd intervals . I am , of course , only alluding to those churches where peal-ringing is not contemplated . You are all of you probably familiar with the grand ancl pleasing effect of the two heaviest of the Abbey bells at Westminster chiming thus together for

daily prayer . It is a return to ancient usage , besides being most dignified in itself , and satisfactory to the ear . Then , by degrees , perhaps , a third bell , also in succession , may be obtained . Three such bells would leave nothing to be desired . The third suggestion I have to make refers

to peals of five bells and upwards . It is that there is no necessity whatever for the universal adoption of the modern major scale , which , for the last half-century or more , has been the undeviating * practice . By so doing , the harmonic combinations are very much limited , and many very pleasing

scales in the minor mode altogether ignored . Now , minor intervals were great favourites in the ^ sixteenth , and seventeenth centuries , from their peculiar plaintiveness and expression . This fact was forced upon rny notice some feiv years since , when in charge of a Suffolk parish . The church

tower nearly adjoined the rectory ; and the peal of five was a very light one , the tenor ivas only 8 cwt . I was for some weeks puzzled to account for its pleasing effect , Suddenly the fact dawned upon me that it was in the kev of A minor . I at once

took the hint , and tested the keys of all the peals in the neighbourhood : the result was the discovery of several other examples . I have tried a great many peals of the present century , but I have not vet discovered one in the minor mode . I

speak under correction when I say that I do not believe there is one in all England . Now , accepting- the major aud minor modes as equally legitimate , see what an increase of harmonies we have . Taking D natural as the correct tenor note , ancl A natural as the highest for any peal , we get eight different keys for our peals ; and by flattening the third , to bring them into the minor mode , the number is doubled .

After ail , however-, we must remember that , so far as bells are concerned , an exact scale , in present received musical expression , is of no moment whatever . So long as a peal of bells is in harmony ivith itself , and satisfies the ear , it matters not in ivhat key it is , or whether in no describable

key whatever . It is a great mistake to tie a founder down to any exact key or scale -. it is sure to involve that evil instrument , the tuning-lathe , to reduce them to the appointed standard of pitch ; when most probably they were much better when first broken out of the moulds , and even more

pleasing to the ear . No bell is ever cast thicker in the sound-bow than it ought to be . The thickness of the sound-bow should be one-thirteenth of diameter ; that of the waist , one-thirty-sixth of the diameter of . the mouth . Many are cast far below this standardfor economy's

sakeWhenthere-, , , fore , the tuning-lathe is brought to bear upon a bell , we may bo certain that the tone is beingsacrificed to the note ; and , if this is bad in modern bells , what shall we say to paring down fine old bells , as I have seen done , to fit them to the shallow tones of modern additions to the peal ; It

is , I fully believe , to facilitate this tuning process that the proportion of copper to tin in present use is so much greater than it ought to be . The modern practice is to make the proportions three parts copper to one of tin . Now , as tin wastes considerably in the fusing , this is far too small . The proportions ought to be in thirds , —two ox