Transaclionti. 1 •') 1 



newly cast. The inscription of two lines, extending quite round 

 the body of the bell, composed of ornamented raised Gothic 

 letters, each on a small square, is — 



+ : WILHELMUS : DE : CABLIEL : DOMINCS : L)E TORTHOKVALUE : ME : 

 FECIT : FIEIil : + IN : HONORE : SANCTI : MICIIAELIS ; ANKO : DOMINI : 



MiLLEsiMo : cccc:xxxx: iii.(+ : William (.le Carliel, Lord of ToithorwiiUl, 

 caused me to be made. + In honour of St. Michael, the year of our Lord, 

 1443.) 



Below the inscription appears what I take to be the founder's 

 mark, circular in form, about an inch diameter, slightly raised, 

 showing inscribed border, and in the centre a heator-shaped shield 

 bearing a bell and cheveron lines over it, probably representing 

 the frame on which tlje bell would hang. From marks of abrasion 

 on the interior and exterior of the sound-bow, it is evident that 

 the bell has been in use not only to be wrung in the ordinary way, 

 but also for sounding the hours by the mechanism of a clock. 

 This is the bell which hung in the Tolbootli, mentioned by Edgar^ 

 who describes it as a "little, sharp, clear-sounding bell." As no 

 clock existed at the Tolbooth, it is to be presumed that the 

 original position of the bell would be elsewhere, and, doubtless, the 

 Lord of Torthorwald's gift in honour of St. Michael would be to 

 the Chui'cli dedicated to the archangel, which, as we will see, was 

 afterwards gifted with another bell. I hope to be able to show 

 at another time that several churches in the district were 

 similarly furnished with two bells. When the Town Council, in 

 1830, removed from the Tolbooth, afterwards "The Rainbow 

 Tavern," and now a bookbinder's workshop, to the Council 

 Chamber in the Midsteeple, formerly " the Court-House," the bell, 

 which hung in a cleft of the chimney over the rainbow stair, was 

 moved and placed in the parapet of the Midsteeple building, 

 again beside a chimney, where it remained, and was known as 

 the lire bell until about twenty years ago. The chimney being 

 out of order, a tradesman was employed to put it into repair, who, 

 finding the bell, which had been out of use for a long time, to be 

 in the way removed it. After a space the absence of the familiar 

 object from its accustomed place was observed, and search being 

 made it was found in the tradesman's yard on a heap of scrap, 

 and recovered. So this artistic bell, whose clear, sharp notes 

 have sounded over the towji for four hundred years, narrowly 

 escaped the melting pot. 



St. Michael's Church bell, while not approaching the one just 



