THE CHURCH BELLS OF DORSET. 20Q 



Here the initial cross is formed by very rectilineal fleur-de-lis. 

 The fourth at Wissett, Suffolk (UII^GO. fflflFJIfl). has the 

 Shapwick fourth lettering and stop, but the initial cross is 

 Glouc. Jo. Surlingham third (Norfolk) resembles Deopham, 

 not Shapwick, in lettering, and has the Deopham rhyme stop 

 for an ordinary word stop. The inscription is 4* UII^GIRIS. 

 GG^eGlfcl. UO@Oi^. (s^ffll^r^ ffi^ie. The bell at 

 East Ham, Essex, without initial cross, and with a stop 

 unknown to me, has the Shapwick fourth letter. 



Among the later Longobards is the Broadwinsor tenor, which 

 introduces us by its foundry stamp (52 A) to Robert Norton, of 

 Exeter. His inscriptions are generally in black letter, and are 

 found in Somerset and Devon, each of which counties contains 

 several of his bells. He seems to have been succeeded by a man 

 whose initials were i t, placed like Norton's on each side of a 

 bell in the stamp. We were inclined to assign to this foundry 

 the large group of bells bearing the cross 26 A ; but the locality 

 of that cross seems to indicate a more eastward position, 

 probably Salisbury. 



We obtain a glimpse, not a very pleasant one, of Norton in 

 the reign of Henry VI., for Ellacombe * quotes the record of his 

 dishonest dealing from a Chancery Roll, c. 1432, when the 

 " pore parishene's of Plymptre in Devenshere meekly besought 

 John Stafford, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Lord Chancellor, that 

 where as they by John Forde one of the same parisshe, bought 

 of one Robert Norton of Exeter, Bellemaker, iij Bellys to paye 

 for evry c 1 ' of the wight of the metal ther of xxvij" there the 

 sayd John and Robert by ontrewe ymagynacion coneyn and 

 desseit enformyd the said paryshenes that the said bellys were of 

 the wight of ij mill, ccc .... ij li wher as in dede thay weyyd but 

 xviij c lj " &c. 



Reverting to 2 6 A, it certainly occurs with Exeter lettering, but 

 Mr. Walters points out that a curious double-cusped cross 



* Church Bells of Devon, p. 46. 



