BEL 



189 



BEL 



reader will find all the terras explained of single, plain bob, 

 grandsire bob, single bob minor, grandsire treble, bob- 

 major, caters, ten-in or bob royal, cinques, and twelve-in or 

 bob maximus, with all their regular permutations. 



The reader who is desirous of knowing more concerning 

 bells may consult Hieronymus Magius De Tintinnabulis, 

 8vo. Hanov. 1608, and 12mo. Amst. 1C64, in which book 

 are many curious particulars relating to them. See also 

 Arnoldus De Campanarum Usu, 12mo. Altdorf, 1GG5. 



BELL, HENRY, an individual whose name is connected 

 with the history of steam-navigation in this country. Dr. 

 Cleland, in his work on Glasgow, speaks of him as 'an in- 

 genious untutored engineer, and citizen of Glasgow,' and 

 states that it may be said, without the hazard of impro- 

 priety, that Mr. Bell 'invented' the steam propelling sys- 

 tem, ' for he knew nothing of the principles which had been 

 so successfully followed out by Mr. Fulton.' Fulton, how- 

 ever, launched his first steam-boat on the Hudson, Oct. 3, 

 1807, and it was not till more than four years after this date 

 that Bell successfully applied steam to the purposes of navi- 

 gation. In 1811 he caused a boat to be constructed on 

 a peculiar plan, which was named the ' Comet,' in conse- 

 quence of the appearance of a large comet that year. He 

 constructed the steam-engine himself, and in January, 1812, 

 the first trial of the Comet took place on the Clyde. Dr. 

 Cleland adds : ' After various experiments, the Comet was 

 at length propelled on the Clyde by an engine of three- 

 horse power, which was subsequently increased to six. Mr. 

 Bell continued to encounter and overcome the various and 

 indescribable difficulties incident to invention, till his ulti- 

 mate success encouraged others to embark in similar under- 

 takings.' In the course of these <rxperiments he' unfortu- 

 nately did not succeed in realising the advantages which 

 were due to his enterprise; and had it not been for the 

 liberality of the town of Glasgow, who settled upon him a 

 small annuity, he would probably have spent his latter days 

 in a state of poverty. 



BELL, JOHN, generally called from his Scottish estate 

 Bell of Antermony, was born in the West of Scotland in the 

 year 1691. He was brought up to the medical profession, 

 and passed as a physician in the twenty-third year of his 

 age. Shortly afterwards he began those travels to which 

 alone he is indebted for his celebrity. 



He says himself, in the preface to his valuable book, ' In 

 my youth I had a strong desire of seeing foreign parts ; to 

 satisfy which inclination, after having obtained from some 

 |j r-'ins of worth recommendatory letters to Dr. Arcskine, 

 chief physician and privy councillor to the Czar Peter I., I 

 embarked at London in the month of July, 171-1, on board 

 the Prosperity of Ramsgate, Captain Emerson, for St. 

 Petersburg!!.' Russia then stood in need of and welcomed 

 foreigners of talent and acquirements. Bell was exceed- 

 ingly well received, and immediately on his arrival became 

 personally known to Peter the Great, for whom he ever 

 afterwards entertained sentiments of veneration and sin- 

 gular affection. He had very soon an opportunity of gra- 

 tifying his passion for travelling, as at the time of his ar- 

 rival Peter was preparing an embassy to Persia, and his 

 friend Dr. Areskine having introduced him to Artemy 

 Petrovich Valensky, the ambassador, he was engaged to 

 accompany the expedition in quality of surgeon and phy- 

 sician. On the 15th of July, 1715, he left St. Petersburg!!. 

 ' That city,' he says, ' which has since grown so considerable 

 was then in its infancy, having been founded only ten or 

 eleven years before.' The embassy was obliged by the 

 severity of the weather to halt and pass the winter at Cazan, 

 Which place, indeed, it did not leave until the 4th of June, 

 1716. It then proceeded by Astrakhan, the Caspian Sea, 

 and Tauris to Ispahan, where the Persian monarch then 

 held his court, and where Bell says he arrived on the 13th 

 of March, 171 7. He did not return to St. Petersburgh until 

 the 30th of December, 1718, having been absent in all three 

 years and six months. His account of this long journey is 

 exceedingly interesting, and he tells us at the end of it, that 

 in spite of the Swedish war in which the czar was engaged, 

 the Russian capital had been so improved and beautified 

 during hig absence that he scarcely knew it again. He 

 was grieved to find that his excellent friend Dr. Areskine 

 was dead, but his love of travelling being as strong as 

 ever, he was soon made happy by learning that Peter the 

 Great was preparing a grand embassy to China. Valensky, 

 whose affection!) he had engaged during the Persian ex- 

 pedition, recommended him to LeolV V;ni1ovi''h Ismayloff, 



the ambassador appointed to Pekin, who gladly availed 

 himself of Bell's valuable services. Ismaylotf, with Bell 

 and a numerous retinue, departed from St. Petersbugh on 

 the Nth of July, 1719, and travelled by Moscow, Siberia, 

 and the great Tartar deserts, to the celebrated wall of China. 

 They did not reach Pekin until sixteen months after their 

 departure from the Russian capital, having undergone im- 

 mense fatigue during the journey, They left the Chinese 

 capital on the 2nd of March, 1781, and arrived at Moscow 

 on the 5th of January', 1722. The account of this journey, 

 and of what he saw and learned daring his residence at the 

 court of China, is the most valuable part of his book, and 

 one of the best and most interesting relations ever written 

 by any traveller. He fully confirms many of the almost 

 incredible things told of the Chinese by the old Venetian 

 traveller Marco Polo, with whose work Bell does not appear 

 to have been acquainted. 



He had scarcely recovered from the fatigues ofhis Chinese 

 expedition, when, in May, 1722, he started on a long and 

 dangerous journey with the Russian emperor to Derbent, a 

 celebrated pass between the foot of the Caucasus and the 

 Caspian Sea. This was the most original and singular ex- 

 pedition in which Peter the Great was ever engaged. Having 

 concluded peace with Sweden he resolved to assist the Shah 

 of Persia, whose territories had been invaded by the fierce 

 and warlike Afghans ; and accordingly Peter marched with 

 an army, taking the empress with him. The Russians suf- 

 fered severely during their return march, and even the 

 emperor and his wife had some narrow escapes from the 

 savage mountain-tribes that infested the rear and Hanks of 

 the retiring army. In the course of his account of this 

 journey B'.'ll introduces a short but good description of Tzer- 

 cnssia, or Daghestan (Circassia), and at the end cf it he 

 draws a fine character of Peter the Great, whose habits, 

 both public and private, he had excellent opportunities of 

 studying during the Derbent expedition. It appears that 

 shortly after this journey Bell visited Scotland ; and we do 

 not hear of him again until 1 737, when he resumed his tra- 

 velling vocation. Three years before that date, a war, in 

 which the emperor of Germany eventually became engaged, 

 had broken out between Russia and Turkey. In the au- 

 tumn of 1737 a congress was appointed to be held at 

 Nemirotf, a frontier town of Poland, in order to prepare a 

 peace through the mediation of the ministers of Great 

 Britain, France, and Holland; but, on meeting, the plenipo- 

 tentiaries of the powers at war could not agree, and the 

 conferences were stopped. The court of Russia then de- 

 termined on sending a confidential agent to Constantinople, 

 and as during hostilities no Russian or German subject was 

 allowed by the Turks to set foot on their territory, Bell, 

 whose activity and talents were highly appreciated, under- 

 took the mission at the earnest desire of Count Osterman, 

 the grand-chancellor of Russia, and of Mr. Rondeau, at that 

 time British minister at St. Petersburg. Accordingly, on 

 the 6th of December, 1737, Bell once more quitted the 

 banks of the Neva, and travelling in the midst of winter, 

 and through countries exposed to all the horrors of a bar- 

 barous warfare, arrived at Constantinople, attended by only 

 one servant, who understood the Turkish language. On the 

 17th of May, 1738, he returned to St. Petersburg. (All hia 

 dates are according to the old style.) 



We know very little more of this estimable man than 

 what he tells himself in his book of travels, wherein he is 

 far from being communicative as to his personal history. It 

 appears, however, that he afterwards settled for some years 

 as a merchant at Constantinople; that he married about 

 the year 1 7-16, and in the following year returned to Scot- 

 land, where he lived in ease and affluence on his estates 

 of Antermony. He was a warm-hearted, benevolent, and 

 sociable man, and he obtained from his friends and neigh- 

 bours the appellation of ' Honest John Bell.' He died at a 

 very advanced age on the 1st of July, 1780. 



Although he had so much to tell he was by no means 

 anxious to distinguish himself as an author. For many 

 years the only record of his travels was a simple diary, to 

 which he occasionally referred to refresh his memory, for he 

 was fond of talking about his journeys and adventures with 

 his intimate associates. In his preface, which is dated 

 Antermony, the 1st of October, 176.', he pays, that, ' About 

 four years ago, spending some days at the house of a right 

 honourable and most honoured friend,' and talking about 

 his travels, he was pressed to throw his notes together in - 

 the form of a regular narrative, and that then, with diffident 



