CHAPTER III. ASSOCIATIONS CONNECTED WITH THE SOUND OF BELLS-STATISTICS OF CELEBRATED BELLS. -How many a tale their music tells Of youth, and home, and that sweet time MOORE. THE bells of a church are under the joint guardianship of incumbent and churchwardens. The latter are not to suffer them to be rung "without good cause to be allowed by the minister and themselves;" and the consent of the former is necessary, he having the power to limit the times of ringing, and the ringers being subject to his orders. It would, nevertheless, seem that on particular occasions at some churches, the incum E bent has not always the power to prevent their being rung. For instance, it was often matter of stipulation in covenants, &c., that bells of churches should be rung in honour of the arrival at the place of bishops, abbots, &c., and neglect to ring them, when these visitations occurred, was an offence for which the incumbent was liable to a penalty. But his general authority over the peal appears to be implied in the custom at induction to the benefice; for "the inductor having opened the door, puts the person inducted into the church, who usually tolls a bell, to make his induction public and known to the parishioners” (Burns); and there is an old saying, that the number of strokes given on the occasion will correspond with the years the incumbent is to hold the living. Our clerical friends ought to remember this on being presented to a valuable piece of preferment! Returning to the early uses to which church bells were applied, we must not omit to remark that they were very soon employed to measure out the hours of the day. Clock bells, we are told, were in general use in the monasteries of Europe in the eleventh century. But even in the writings of Lucian, who died A.D. 180, reference is made to an instrument, mechanically constructed with water, which reported the hours by means of a bell. The ingenious may easily conceive how this might have been arranged: for, it being granted that the divisions of time were understood, there is no difficulty in imagining such an adaptation of sound to mark them. "Before the times of Jerome," (born A.D. 332,) says Brown, "there were horologies that measured the hours, not only by drops of water in glasses, called clepsydra, but also by sand in glasses called clepsammia.", It was the clepsydra to which Lucian alludes. When the water, which was constantly dripping out of the vessel, reached a certain level, it drew away, by means of a rope connected with the piston in the water vessel, the ledge on which a weight rested; and the falling of this weight, which was attached to a bell, caused it to strike. This perhaps was the earliest kind of striking clock. In order to enjoy the grateful sensations produced by the strokes of the clock bell at the = present time, we would recommend a stroll in the quiet environs of a town, not too far distant, of course, for the various church clocks to be heard, as they announce with their chimes the different hours and quarters of the day. To be fully sensible of this charming influence, a person ought certainly to retire from the turmoil of the streets; and, if he seeks the gentle river's bank for his ruminating walk, the enjoyment will be heightened. We know no place like Oxford for an indulgence of this kind; especially if a portion of our earlier years were spent within its classic bowers. It matters not what road the steps may have subsequently taken. Ten or fifteen years after the dawn of manhood, must necessarily create strange alterations in the character and feelings of any man; so strange, indeed, that whilst we remain at a distance from the scene of these early associations, neither the studies nor pastimes of the days gone by can be realized; nor will a return to the spot itself do more at first than develope the wondrous change that has taken place within us. Indeed a sight of the old buildings, of the old shops, of the old faces grown so much older, only seems to widen the separation of what we were and aremyrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty" will not re-blossom at their presence. But in a stroll in Christ Church meadows, or from a skiff on the Isis, (which looks so much narrower than it did of yore!) what a resurrection takes place, when the soon-heard and oft-repeated and familiar chimes from the many church towers peal forth! We drink again of the fountain "the of our youth, and former feelings and associations are then palpably recovered. We listen on, and by and by the chapel bell of our own college sounds, and there springs up an old sensation that the morning toilet must be hurried, or the evening party must be left. A dream comes around our spirit, and gown and cap are again worn by us-the badges of allegiance to academical authority. Anon, the silvery changes of the Magdalene peal are audible -they seem familiar as if not a day had intervened since we last heard them. We involuntarily recall the bright May morning, and the picturesque custom at that college of hailing the return of the season by a Latin hymn from the choristers, who ascend to the top of the magnificent tower at early dawn; and the opening stanza of Wilson's sweet poem on the scholar's funeral floats, like the ripple of the gentle river, across our mind :— "Why hang the sweet bells mute in Magdalene tower, The dewy silence of the morning hour Were hovering o'er the earth with angel melody?" |