104: Bev. E. B. Haweis [Feb. 7, 



musical ear; but I do not know one single English belfry where 

 there is even one true octave, much less one and a half. In a Belgian 

 suite of forty bells there will probably be bells out of tune ; but we 

 pass in forty what we may fairly condemn in twelve. Now note 

 where the difficulty seems to be. It usually begins about the seventh 

 note, sometimes earlier. The difficulty of casting the upper notes 

 right with the lower is considerable ; and the St. Paul's peal, like 

 most others, goes wrong at the critical point. Now what I find fault 

 with in the St. Paul's peal is this: the first seven notes are very fairly 

 in tune, but the eighth note is sharp for the octave. That is where 

 they all begin to go wrong, and then commences an altogether new 

 tonal series. That is the incurable plague from which all English 

 bells suffer, a mixed tonal series. You get on very well at first, till 

 you arrive suddenly at a note which is no portion of the series you 

 began with. I have here a bell of Van Aerschodt's, and one which 

 Mr. Lewis, the organ builder, kindly lent me ; they are both good 

 bells, but by no possibility can they ever go together, for they belong 

 to two different tonal series ; they are trying to be a third, but 

 nothing will ever make them a third or any interval of the same 

 octave. I also produce a specimen of an incurably bad bell, which 

 for quite other reasons could never belong to any tonal series at all. 

 The much-23raised bells of St. Saviour's, Southwark, by Knight and 

 Mears, begin well, with the first seven notes fairly true, but the 

 eighth note is sharp, and after that all is wrong. Then there are the 

 bells at Fulham, by Kuddle, 1729, which are very much admired, and 

 they possess a very fair octave ; but with the ninth note they too go 

 wrong, and never get right again. 



It is just the same with the large suite of twenty bells put up at 

 Manchester Town Hall by Messrs. Taylor of Loughborough. From 

 A to A you get a fair octave ; from c to c the upper c is sharp, and the 

 series never recovers itself. Messrs. Gillett and Bland, perceiving 

 this, have wisely, in arranging the tunes, made most use of the lower 

 and medium-sized bells, which are best in tune. Taylor succeeds 

 best in his medium-sized bells. I remember saying to Van Aerschodt, 

 "It is a very odd thing that the English bells all go wrong at the 

 seventh or eighth note ! " and he said, " I don't wonder at it, for that 

 is our difficulty. We can tune the first octave, but it is the second 

 one that is difficult, and the third is more difficult still." I said, 

 " How long do you give to tune a bell ? " He replied, " About four 

 days to each bell, and to get a carillon right, the upper with the 

 lower, there is no rule, no limit ; that is why I cannot suj)ply bolls so 

 quickly as my impatient customers desire. Tuning the bells takes 

 away my sleep at night ; I lie awake thinking of them ; I must have 

 them all together, must have the first octave there, when I go to the 

 second and third octaves." That is how such perfect work as you 

 have before you in these two bells is produced, because M. S. Van 

 Aerschodt loses his sleep at night. 



Now I should have thought it did not want a prophet to tell you 



