THE CHURCH BELLS OF DORSET. Ill 



Puddletown Treble : Add " Hears & Stainbank founders 

 London." 



Shaflesbury S. Peter's. 2nd: Add 1670. 



Sherborne.TeKor : To the couplet, " By Wolsey's gift, &c.," 

 add the letters G. H. 



Mr. Wildman, with reference to these initials, writes: "Who 

 was G. H. ? Clearly, I think, he was the author of this couplet. 

 The churchwardens commemorated on this bell when it was 

 re-cast in 1670 were Gustavus Home and Walter Pride. It does 

 not seem far-fetched to infer that G. H. is Gustavus Home. If 

 so, the couplet cannot be regarded, as some have thought, as 

 equivalent to contemporary evidence that Wolsey gave this bell. 

 It only proves what the belief was in 1670, when Gustavus 

 Home composed the couplet. At the same time I believe that 

 Wolsey did give this bell to Sherborne, as there is no reason to 

 distrust the tradition. On the fire bell the lettering I W I G 

 should be I W I C, and they surely are the initials of John 

 Whatcomb and John Cooth, churchwardens, 1653." 



Silton. Treble : For G C T G read G T C G 1900 Deo 

 gloria This bell is said to have been brought from Farnworth, 

 in Lancashire. 2nd : A correspondent thinks the date is 

 intended for 1657. 5 th : For " Burfitt " read " Bvrpvtt " 



Solway Ash. One small bell, diameter zoin., inscribed J. 

 Taylor & C Loughborough 1897. 



South Perrot.i\\& : For " 1650 " read " 1602 R P" 3rd : 

 To the date add I H T P" 



Steeple. I have collected all the instances of the Culverden 

 stamp, and in Cocks's C.B. of Bucks there is a marvellous 

 account of a law suit of Culverden's against another bell founder, 

 Smith, for libel. The petition must, I think, have been 

 presented in the Court of Requests, abolished in 1641. There 

 seems to have been a foundry in Culver Street, Salisbury. 

 Culver being the old word for a dove, the joke seems to have 

 arisen from the supposed cooing of the bell. There is no parish 

 in England of the name of Culverden, though there may be a 

 hamlet or manor. Dr. Raven. 



