1879.] on Bells. 103 



EDgland aud the Low Countries, all throiigli the rise and jirogress 

 of the great bell-fouudiug period. The Dutch drained our marshes, 

 painted our best pictures — witness Van Dyke and Rubens — taught us 

 criticism with Grotius, ins2)ired our fashions in dress, gave us tho 

 loom, and I believe it was from the Hague that William of Orange 

 set sail to become king of England ; nor do I think it would be 

 difficult to show that when Dutch influence was fresh, there was a 

 remarkable rajyproclicment between the English and Belgian boll 

 models : but when trade prejudices arose and Dutch jiopularity waned, 

 the bells also deteriorated ; at any rate, note the undoubted fact that 

 the English and Belgian founders flourished side by side. Peter Van 

 den Glieyn of Louvaiu, 1560, with the Braziers and Brends of 

 Norwich; Hemony of Amsterdam, 1658, with Myles Gray, 1625-59, 

 of Colchester. Between 1679 and 1755 flourished Richard Chandler 

 of Buckingham, Keene of Worksoj), Pleasant and Gardner of Sudbury, 

 Ruddle of Gloucester, aud Penn of Peterborough. The same period 

 was marked across the water by the Van den Gheyns, Hemony, 

 Dumery, Deklerk, and De Haze. But it is still more unfortunate for 

 those who deny the influence of Dutch models in England, to find 

 a bell of Peter Van den Gheyn hanging at this hour in St. Peter's 

 College, Cambridge ; and to note that Wagheven, a Dutchman, had a 

 foundry as far west as Nicolaston in Glamorganshire. You may say per- 

 haps that we taught the Belgians the art and not they us : but if you 

 wish to learn, you go to the people who are experts, and you will find 

 that at the time we were casting those rough bell octaves of which 

 organists are now beginning to be a little ashamed, the Belgians were 

 casting complicated series of thirty, forty, and even sixty bells, 

 which hang to this day in the towers of Mechlin, Antw^erp, aud 

 Louvain. Of all the Belgian masters, Hemony was the most prolific. 

 As Bernardino Luini has flooded Lombardy with his pictures, so has 

 Hemony flooded Holland and Belgium with his bells. We get quite 

 tired of reading his name. He excelled in little bells, as did Peter 

 Van den Gheyn in big ones ; and Severin Van Aerschodt's small bells 

 have all his exquisite qualities. I noted especially four in semitones 

 that hang in the Duke of Westminster's tower at Eaton Hall, as true 

 as any pianoforte. I tried to get over for the Royal Institution 

 an octave of Severin Van Aerschodt's Belgian bells, to show what I 

 mean by a bell octave in tune. I did not succeed, but Messrs. Gillett 

 and Bland lent me four large ones fairly in tune, which served my 

 purpose. Were the St. Paul's peal as well in tune throughout as 

 were those four bells, I should be content. But I obtained two 

 exquisite bells belonging to the carillon then being cast by Severin 

 Van Aerschodt for Cattistock Rectory, Dorchester ; they are in tone 

 like a fine violoncello, and are tuned to a minor thii*d. No pianoforte 

 could be better in tune. 



We know that the pianoforte is never accurately in tune, and 

 in bells we must expect a lower standard, and all I seek for in 

 any belfry is an ordinary octave good enough to satisfy an ordinarj 



