130 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 197. 



alluding to the successive descent of property from 

 one generation to another. 



Perhaps one of your readers may be enabled to 

 tell me whether the above line be original, or 

 copied, and from whom. P. H. Fisher. 



Stroud. 



The agreement referred to is no other than 

 the famous treaty of peace between Alfred and 

 Guthrun, whose name, by the substitution of an 

 initial " L." for a " G.," among various other inac- 

 curacies for which your correspondent is perhaps 

 not responsible, has been disguised under the form 

 of " Lvthrvnvs." The inscription itself forms the 

 commencement of the treaty, which is stated, in 

 Turner's Anglo-Saxons, book iv. cb. v., to be still 

 extant. It is translated as follows, in Lambard's 

 Apxaiovofna, p. 36. : — 



" Foedus quod Aluredus & Gythrunus reges ex sa- 

 pientum Anglorum, atque eorum omnium qui orien- 

 talera incolebant Angliam consulto ferierunt, in quod 

 prasterea singuli non solum de se ipsis, verum etiam de 

 natis suis, ac nondum in lucem editis (quotquot saltern 

 misericordiae divinae aut regiae velint esse participes), 

 jurarunt. 



" Primo igitur ditionls nostrae fines ad Thamesim 

 fluvium evehuntor : Inde ad Learn flumen profecti, ad 

 fontem ejus deferuntor : turn recta ad Bedfordiam por- 

 riguntor, ac denique per Usam fluvium porrecti ad viam 

 Vetelingianam desinunto." 



Another translation will be found in Wllkins's 

 Leges Anglo- Saxonicce, p. 47 , and the Saxon ori- 

 ginal in both. As to the boundaries here defined, 

 see note in Spelman's Alfred, p. 36. 



At Cirencester Guthrun remained for twelve 

 months after his baptism, according to his treaty 

 with Alfred. (See Sim. Dunelm, de gestis Regum 

 Anglorum, sub anno 879.) J. F. M. 



CUBIOUS CUSTOM OF HINGING BELLS FOB THE 

 DEAD. 



(Vol. viii., p. 55.) 



W. W., alluding to such a custom at Marshfield, 

 Massachusets, asks " if this custom ever did, or 

 does now exist in the mother country ? " The 

 curiosity is that your worthy Quei'ist has never 

 heard of it ! Dating from Malta, it may be he has 

 never been in our ringing island : for it must be 

 known to every Englishman, that the custom, 

 varying no doubt in different localities, exists in 

 every parish in England. 



The passing bell is of older date than the canon 

 of our church, which dii'ects " that when any is 

 passing out of this life, a bell shall be tolled, and 

 the minister shall not then slack to do his duty. 

 And after the party's death, if it so fall out, then 

 shall be rung no more than one short peal." 



It is interesting to learn that our colonists keep 

 up this custom of their mother country. 



In this parish, the custom has been to ring as 

 quickly after death as the sexton can be found ; 

 and the like prevails elsewhere. I have known 

 persons, sensible of their approaching death, direct 

 the bell at once to be tolled. 



Durand, in his Rituals of the Roman Church, 

 says : " For expiring persons bells must be tolled, 

 that people may put up their prayers : this must 

 be done twice for a woman, and thrice for a man." 

 And such is still the general custom : either before 

 or after the knell is rung, to toll three times three, 

 or three times two, at intervals, to mark the sex.* 



" Defunctos plorare" is probably as old as any 

 use of a bell ; but there is every reason to believe, 

 that — 



" the ringing of bells at the departure of the soul (to 

 quote from Brewster's Ency.) originated in the darkest 

 ages, but with a different view from that in which they 

 are now employed. It was to avert the influence of 

 Demons. But if the superstition of our ancestors 

 did not originate in this imaginary virtue, while they 

 preserved the practice, it is certain they believed the 

 mere noise had the same effect ; and as, according to 

 their ideas, evil spirits were always hovering around to 

 make a prey of departing souls, the tolling of bells 

 struck them with terror. We may trace the practice 

 of tolling bells during funerals to the like source. This 

 has been practised from times of great antiquity : the 

 bells being muffled, for the sake of greater solemnity, 

 in the same way as drums are muffled at military 

 funerals." 



H. T. Ellacombb. 



Rectory, Clyst St. George. 



At St. James' Church, Hull, on the occurrence 

 of a death in the parish, a bell is tolled quickly 

 for about the space of ten minutes ; and before 

 ceasing, nine knells given if the deceased be a 

 man, six if a woman, and three if a child. As far 

 as I have been able to ascertain, the custom is 

 now almost peculiar to the north of England ; but 

 in ancient times it must have been very general 

 according to Durandus, who has the following in 

 his Rationale, lib. i. cap. 4. 13. : 



" Verum aliquo moriente, campanaa debent pulsari ; 

 ut populus hoc audiens, oret pro illo. Pro muliere 

 quidem bis, pro eo quod invenit asperitatem .... Pro 

 viro vero ter pulsatur .... Si autem clericus sit, tot 

 vicibus slmpulsatur, quot ordines habnit ipse. Ad 

 ultimum vero compulsari debet cum omnibus campanis, 

 ut ita sciat populus pro quo sit orandum." — Mr. Strult's 

 Man. and Cast., iii. 176. 



* This custom of three tolls for a man, and two for 

 a woman, is thus explained in an ancient Homily on 

 Trinity Sunday : — "At the deth of a manne, three 

 bells should be ronge as his knyll in worship of the 

 Trinitie. And for a woman, who was the second per- 

 son of the Trinitie, two bells should be ronge." 



