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th same manner l>v the king* of Persia. Among the 

 Greek* we find hand-bells used in camps and garrisons. 

 At certain hours in the night, patroles (called jripiVoXoi) 

 went rouml the camp and visited the sentinels; nnd to try 

 if any were asleep, they had a little hell (termed natuv, 

 codon), at the sound of which the soldiers were to answer : 

 whence to go this circuit was called >rWiJn>, and tufuivo- 

 jeptiv. (See Potter's Grrek Antio.edil. Edinb. 1827, vol. ii. 

 p. 74; compare also Aristoph. Birds, 842, 1 100, edit. Brunck. 

 8vo. Arjrent. 1783: and Suidas, iculuv.) This custom fur- 

 nished Brasilia* with an advantage against Potidcea in the 

 Peloponnesian war. Having observed that the hell hail 

 passed a certain part of the walls, he seized the opportunity 

 before its return to set up bis ludders, and nearly succeeded 

 in entering the city. (Thucyd. iv. 135.) Plutarch mentions 

 the use of the bell in the Grecian fish-market. (Symposiac. 

 lib. iv. Oper. edit. Reiske.tom. viii. p. 653 ; and also Strabo in 

 bis account of Jassus, lib.xiv. edit. Falconer, fol. Oxf. 1807, 

 p. 942.) The Romans had three chief appellations for the 

 little \x\\, pelajus, codo, and tintinnabulum ; the second of 

 these was evidently borrowed from the Greek word already 

 mentioned; the last was probably intended to be imitative 

 of the sound of the bell. The. hour of bathing among 

 the Romans was announced by a bell (Pitisci Lexicon, 

 p. 966, col. ii.), which was hence called by Martial ees ther- 

 inarum : it was also in domestic use (ibid.) ; was adopted 

 both as an ornament and an emblem upon triumphal cars 

 (Zonaras, lib. xi. 3^) ; and was fastened to the necks of 

 cattle, that they might be traced when they strayed (Phredr. 

 Pub. xi. 8, 4), particularly to the necks of sheep. 



The large bells now used in churches are said to have 

 been invented by Paulinas, bishop of Nola in Campania, 

 about the year 400, whence the Nola and Campana of the 

 lower Latinity. They were probably introduced into England 

 very soon after their invention. They are first mentioned 

 by Bede about the close of the seventh century. (Hist. 

 JKcrl. lib. iv. c. 28.) Ingulphus records that Turketul, 

 abbot of Croyland, who died about the year 870, pave a bell 

 of \cry large size to that abbey, which he named Guthlac. 

 His successor Egelric cast a ring of six others, to which he 

 gave the names of Bartholomew, Bettelin.Turketul.Tatwinc, 

 Pega, and Bega. He adds, ' nee erat tune tnnta conso- 

 nantia campanarum in tola Anglia,' (Ingulplii Hi.it. Xrri/it. 

 post Bedam, edit. Saville, fol., London, 1596, fol. 505 bO 

 Baronius informs us that Pope John XIII., A.D. 9f,8, con- 

 secrated a very large new cast bell in the Latcran Church, 

 and gave it the name of John. (Annal.a. Spondano.p. 871.) 

 The ritual for the baptizing of bells may be found in the 

 Roman Pontificate. 



Sir Henry >Spelman, in his Glossary, v. Campana, has 

 preserved two monkish lines on the subject of the anlient 

 office* of bells : 



Laudo Deum vtrum. Plebera TOCO, congrago Clerum, 

 rx-functos ploro, I'cstem fu;;o, Pesta decora.' 



Brand quotes the following monkish rhymes on bells, in 

 which the first of these- lines is repeated, from a tract en- 

 titled A Helpe to Discourse, 12mo. Lond. 1633, p. 63 : 



' En egn Catnpana, ntini|M.im tWnuniio vana, 

 I^tiiilo Deum \i-rum. I'lcbem vocu. cutiL'icL'u Clrrum, 

 Dtfuactas |>1 "<i, rulmin.-i fi ! 



\'i\ mr.t MIX VIIBP, vocu < uv ad sacra \riiitr. 

 Sanrtos oitlauiio, tomrrtm fnX". fmieri claildo, 

 Funer.1 |1 i!iij<i r.iUuni fiango, Sabli.ilh.i p n.^o 

 Kxrito kulov, dmtpo ventov, JP.ICJ crurnto*.' 



The city of Nankin in China, was anlirntly famous for 

 the largeness of its bells, as we learn from Father Le Comte ; 

 but they were afterwards far exceeded in size by those of 

 the churches in Moscow. A bell in tho tower of St. Ivan's 

 church, in Moscow, weighed 127,836 English p muds. A 

 bell given by the r/ar B iris Godunof to the cathedral of .Mos- 

 cow weighed 288,000 pounds, and another given by the Em- 

 press Anne, probably the largest in the known world, 

 weighed 432,000 pounds. According to Coxe ( Travels in 

 Russia, vol. i. p. 322), the height of this last bell was nine- 

 teen feet, the circumference at the bottom sixty-three feet 

 eleven inches, and its greatest thickness twenty-three 

 inches. The: great bell of St. Paul's weighs between'] 1,000 

 nd 12,000 Ins., and is nine feet in diameter. 



The Courre-feu. or Curfew Rr/l, the name of whicn is 

 almost proverbial with us, is commonly supposed to have 

 been introduced by \Yillmn the Conqueror, and to have 

 been imposed upon the English as a badge of servitude. 

 Henry, however, in his Hixt-iry Iff Britain, 4lo. vol. iii. p. 

 667, says tbut this opinion docs not seem well founded. For 



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there is sufficient evidence that the same custom prevailed 

 in Franu;, S|).iin, Italy, Scotland, and probably in all tho 

 countries of Europe at the same | 1 w.v> intended 



as a precaution against fires, which were then very frequent 

 and very fatal, when so many houses were built of wood. 

 The practice of ringing the curfew bell, that all people 

 should put out their fires and lights nr 

 to have been observed to its full extent, only during the 

 reigns of the first two Williams. (See Brand's Popular 

 Antiq. 4to. edit. vol. ii. p. 136.) 



The Patting Bell was so named, as being tolled when 

 any one was passing from life. Hence it .uu-s 



cal'led the Soul Bell ; and was rung that those who i 

 it might pray for the per-Mii dying, and whowa, not xet 

 dead. Duraud, who flourished about the end of i 

 century, tells us in his Rationale, 'when any one is i 

 bells must be tolled, that the people may put up their 

 prayers: twice for a woman, and thrice for a man: if for 

 a clergyman, as many times as he had orders; and at 

 the conclusion a peal on all the bells, to distinguish the 

 (iiiality of the person for whom the people are tn put up 

 their prayers.' This practice is of high antiquity in Kng- 

 land. Bcde, in his Ecclesiastical History, lib. iv. rap. - i. 

 speaking of the death of the abbess of St. Hilda, says, that 

 one of the sisters of a distant monastery, as she was - 

 ing, thought she heard the well-known sound of that bell 

 which called them to prayers, when any of them was de- 

 parting this life. She no sooner heard it, than she raised 

 all the sisters, and called them into the church, where she 

 exhorted them to pray fervently, and sin;: a Requiem for 

 the soul of their Mother. We have a remarkable mention 

 of it also in the narrative of the last moments of the Lady 

 Katherine (sister of Lady Jane) Grey, who died a prisoner 

 in the Tower of London in 1567. Sir Owen Hopton, con- 

 sta'ole of the Tower, 'perceiving her to draw towards her 

 end, said to Mr. Bockeham, Were it not best to send to the 

 church that the bell may be rung, and she herself hearing 

 him, sa ; d, " Good Sir Owen, be it so :" and almost imme- 

 diately died. (Ellis's Orig. Letters, iDustr. of Bng. Hint. 

 Jd ser. vol. ii. p. 290.) The tolling of the pnssing-bell cer- 

 tainly continued in use as late as the time of Charles II. : 

 and Nelson (who died in 1715), in his Meditations for the 

 Holy Time of Lent, (Feasts and Fasts of the Church of 

 England, 8vo. Lond. 1732, p. 144.) speaking of the death 

 of a good Christian, says, ' if his senses hold out so long, 

 he can hear even his passing-bell without disturbance.' To 

 the time of Charles II., the tolling of this bell formed one 

 of the enquiries in all Articles of Visitation: there tt 

 to be nothing intended by tolling it at present, but to inform 

 the neighbourhood of a death. 



A Sanctus, or Suint's-bell, many of which are still to be 

 seen in our country churches, was so called, because it was 

 rung when the priest came to those words of the mass, 

 Sancte, Sancte, Sancte Deus Sabaolh, that all persons 

 who were absent might fall on their knees, in reverence of 

 the holy oll'.ee which was then going on in tiic church. It 

 was usually placed where it might bo heard farthest, in a 

 lantern at the springing of the steeple, or in a turret at an 

 angle of tho tower: and sometimes, for the convenience of 

 bciiii: more readily and exactly rung, within a pediment or 

 arcade, between the church and the chancel : the rope in this 

 situation falling down into the choir not far from the altar. 

 (See Warton's Hist, of Kiddtngton in O.rfordsh. 4to. Loud. 

 1815. p. 14, i:uti<) 



Ringing, says Sir John Hawkins (//*/. nf Mimic, vol. 

 iv. p. 211, iKitf), is a practice which is said to be peculiar to 

 Kngland, w hich for ttiat reason, and the dexterity of its in- 

 habitants in composing and ringing musical peals, wherein 

 the sounds interchange in regular order, is called the Ring- 

 ing Island. Dr. Burucy, in bit History (;/". I.'/. >./<, \ul. ui. p. 

 113, mentions Ti ntinnalogia, or th Art of Ringing, pub- 

 lished in 1668 ; a work, he assures us, not beneath the notice 

 of musicians who wish to explore all the regions of natural 

 melody; as in this little book they will sn- every possible 

 change in the arrangement of diatonic sounds, from two to 

 twelve ; which being reduced to musical notes, would point 

 out innumerable passages, that, in spite. of all which has 

 hitherto been written, would be new in melody and musical 

 composition. In the art of ringing, however, melody has 

 inner been studied ; mechanical order and succession hava 

 bei'ii all iii all. The treatise on this subject at present in 

 highest repute is Campanologia Improved, or the Art of 

 Ringing made easy, 3d edit. 12mo. Lond. 1733, where the 



