210 THE CHURCH BELLS OF DORSET. 



(Glouc. 63) used by Norton is also used by Robert Handler, 

 of Gloucester. We cannot unravel this knot. 



We need be in no doubt about Bristol when we consider the 

 largest of the three bells at Langton Matravers, bearing the Ship' 

 stamp (90A), the main charge in the arms of that city from 

 ancient days. Mr. Walters has collected some 25 examples from 

 Devonshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Brecknockshire, Wiltshire, 

 and Somerset. The last county alone contains seven of them. 

 The crown (900) appears on several of these bells. Sometimes 

 a smaller one (Somerset 42) is used. The Langton Matravers 

 inscription does not indicate erudition in the craftsman, fl is 

 left in Snn(s><5C. HOnflS appears unknown to hagiology, 

 and O is split from Pf! by what is meant for an initial cross. 

 This type of bell seems to belong to the last days of the 

 Longobards, for the diameter and height are 33 inches and 

 24 respectively, the former 1^375 of the latter. 



Among the London founders of the black letter period we 

 mentioned Henry Jurden (p. in). The two smaller bells at 

 Chetnole are by him. The melancholy history of his -son Dan 

 Henry may be read in my Church Bells of Suffolk, and much 

 later information about the Metropolis and its craftsmen is in 

 Mr. Cocks's Church Bells of Buckinghamshire. 



The presence of the Norwich bells at Ford Abbey, in Thorn- 

 combe Parish, is still quite a mystery. 



There is little enough to record during the first half of 

 Elizabeth's reign. The bell at Hook is dated 1563, and bears 

 eight letters, which may be the initials of four benefactors. 

 Ryme Intrinsica second and third are seven years later, with 

 initials N.D., not those of any known founder; but the other 

 contemporaneous bell, the larger one at Milton Abbas, enables 

 us to hazard a guess, the inscription being A DN 1576. As 

 the figures are placed backwards at Ryme, ND may be taken for 

 DN. To this small contribution the doings of the end of the 

 sixteenth century stand in strong contrast. The star of John 

 Wallis, of Salisbury, rises at Buckland Newton (pardon the 

 mixed metaphor!) in 1581, very soon after the beginning of his 



