214 THE CHURCH BELLS OF DORSET. 



the importance of Alice, the wife of William Brend, bell founder, 

 of Norwich, at the same time. Some day it may come to pass 

 that Wimborne Minster records may reveal the man, who could 

 have had no mean reputation to have been entrusted with the 

 recasting of their tenor, the Cuthberga bell, made by Mr. 

 Wilhemus Loringe, one of the canons of the church, in the 

 eighth year of King Richard II. Hutchins* notes its "repair" 

 with the Morrow Mass bell and a bell in the spire in 1534. 



At Puncknowle the initials R. N. are somewhat distracting. 

 On the treble and tenor (1682) they stand for the squire, and 

 perhaps for his progenitor in 1629 on the third, though they 

 may denote the founder. The verse 



" He that will purchase honors gayne 

 Mvst ancient lathers still ma (yntagne) " 



presents us with a word which I cannot find in Dialect 

 Glossaries. Perhaps "lathers" may be allied to "lath," used 

 elsewhere for a county sub-division, and mean local customs. 



We find the Commonwealth days not altogether destitute of 

 bell casting. The parallelism in time of Thomas Purdue and 

 Thomas Pennington prevents me from dogmatizing on the 

 initials T. P. The poetic gift, however, shows itself, as may be 

 seen by reference to Bere Regis, Shaftesbury S. Peter's, and 

 Sherborne fire bell, and most conspicuously might it have been 

 seen on the old tenor (dated 1658) at Okeford Fitzpaine : 



" I often have been beate and bandge 

 My friends reioyce to see me handge : 

 And when my friends doe chance to die 

 Then I for them aloud will cry." 



Not long ago, in conversation with a friend, I was asked for 

 an interpretation of 



* H.D., II., 147. 



