Church Bells : Their Antiquities And Connection With Architecture.

William the Founder , and have his arms on them , a- j \_ between three ewers . Tho tenor , about the same date , has the initials S . 0 ., with a cross between them on a shield . It has not yet been identified . While upon London bells I may mention that

King Edward III . erected a clochier , or bell tower , and placed in it three bells for the use of St . Stephen ' s Chapel , at Westminster . On the tenor ivas inscribed ,

"King Ed . made mo thirty thousand weight and 3 , Take me down and wey me and more you will find me . " This , by thc way , if true , is tho earliest example known of an inscription in English . They were taken down in the reign of Henry VIII ., ivhen some one wrote underneath , in chalk ,

"Hut Henry the Eight Will bait me of my wei ght . " Stow tells the story , explaining that Sir Miles Partridge staked £ 100 , ancl Avon them of Henry VIII . at a cast of dice . He , however , affixes it to a clochier standing on the site of thc present St .

Paul ' s School , aud says that there ivere four bells , the greatest in England , and called the Jesus Bells . It is exceedingly difficult to guess the exact elate of tho oldest bells that have come clown to our times . Dates there are none at that early period ,

rarely even the founder's mark , or lettering , which may give the exact cut . In bells of tho fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there is not this difficulty for , though they are rarely dated , they invariably have shields , lettering , and other architectural devices , ivhich enable us to form a tolerably correct guess at their date . These marks , however ,

aro by no means infallible guides to the uninitiated in such matters ; for foundries often ivent on for generations , and marks and stamps Avere handed down from father to son often for a century or more . A little close inspection , however , will usually afford some slight addition , either in the

stopping or moulding , ivhich decides against the hoped-for antiquity . I havo myself several times seen Mediaeval shields and lettering upon bells only dating early in tho seventeenth century : a date in Arabic numerals often unravels tho mystery . Dates came in about 15 70 in Englandaud have

, been continued ever since . In foreign countries they are met with much earlier . The earliest known dated bell is at Freybourg . Its diameter at the mouth , according to Mr . Tyssen , is 57 in . ; height 5 ft . 5 in . ; AVeight , about 2 tons . The inscription is " - ( - 0 Rex Glorie veni cum pace , —me resonante

p ia populo succurre Maria , —A . D . 1258 . " At Dunctou , in Sussex , is a boll which Mr . Tyssen supposes to bo the earliest dated bell in England . The date on this is 1319 . This also is of foreign manufacture . At All Hallows , Staining , London , is another with an inscription in honour of St . Martin , dated 1458 . We come now to the prolific subject of

inscriptions . The oldest known bells , as I have already said , bear the simple name of the saint to whom , they were dedicated . After this came " ad laudem " or " in honorem" St . So-and-so . Then set in the everlasting " Ora pro nobis , " which was the stereotype of the fourteenth century and very common

up to the' Reformation . There were , during the fifteenth century , two celebrated foundries in East Auglia , one at Norwich , another at Bury St . Edmund's . Both of them , I believe more or less connected with monasteries , and they issued a much superior style of inscriptionusually cast

, into the form of a Latin hexameter , laudator } - or imprecatory of the saint to ivhom thc bell was dedicated , and often commemorated one of his or her supposed attributes . Somo of these are so good that I will read you a selection from them : —

" To our Saviour—, f P . ex eclorum Christe I I Vhceat-tlli chorus istc . c , f Films A'irginis Marie ( . Dot nobis gaudia vite . To tlie Blessed Virgin-Sum Rosa pu ! .. _ ita - . fundi Mario vocata .

Virginis egrcgie voc . ir campana Marie . Stella Maria Maris succurre piisima nobis . I Virgo co-. 'ouata due nos ad regna beat a . r ,, , -v . i ( Dona ropendo pia be . Jlarv jMagd . ] ., -, r L , , 1 , . ° C llogo Magdalen :. Man : ; . .-., 7- „ . CSubveniat digim ist . Katharine j n ... , ° T . , . ( . Donanlibus banc Katcnnfi .

„ , , C Cclesti manna tna proles St . Anne -i -.,. ., , . x Ci \ os cibot Anna . oi ir i f r- ' i ' -c Margarita St . Marrraret s ,- , - , ° , , ( .-Nobis hoc miinera leta . ( Ilec nova campana ( . Margarita est nominata . f Intonac do celis

<»_ TV , . fit . Michael ... j ,- -, r . i . ( . \ ox campana Micuaclis . f Duleis sisto melis I Campana vocor Michaclis . C Hac in conclave

St . Gabriel ... < Xunc pange mane ( . Gabriel avc . f Missus de celis C Xomcn habes Gabriclis . c , ( - ••] ,.. C Sonitus Egidii ' ' a I Ascendit ad culmina cell .

,,, T-, , f Meritis Edmnnde St . Edmund j „ . . ,. C bomper a cri'inne niundi . oi T T . i- . { Muncrc Baptistc oc . J . Baptist 5 „ ... ' ., , . , 1 C Bcnedictus sit chorus iste . c ., „ ,, f-Sfos Thome meritis at . Thomas ... -j Ar ,- ... ( . Mercamur gaudia vitis . „ , -,-., C Pctrus ad eterna StPeter

. < ,. . ., ( . Ducat nos pascua vite . 0 . -.-.. , -, f IS ' os societ Sanctis St . Aicholas < „ , . , , . ... ( . Semper JNicliolaus in altis . c ., T 71 f Johannes Xti care St . J . Evan . 1 7 V , . C Digna pro nobis orare . ' S ' . Pet fHocmihijam retro de Simono Petro

cNomen . o , . ,, f Antonius monet St . Anthony l U ( . ^^ n * bene sonet . " The two most common inscriptions of the age , common to all parts of England , aro " Sit nomen Domini benedictum , " and " In mnltis aunis resonet campana Johannis . " Tliese , however , were