INDUSTRIES 



The next change in the ornaments on bells 

 from this foundry is the disappearing of the 

 original lion's head (Fig. i), and the substitu- 

 tion of a new and very inferior copy (Fig. 6). 





FIG. 6. STAMP OF LION'S HEAD SUBSTITUTED FOR 

 FIG. i. 



This, I suggest, shows the death or retire- 

 ment of Roger Landen, and the advent of 

 a successor, probably some years past the 

 middle of the fifteenth century. This suc- 

 cessor appears to have been John Michell, for 

 whose name we are indebted to the Corpora- 

 tion Records 1 of Henley( Oxon.), where, 

 under date 4 January, 1493, there is an entry 

 of a payment to John Michell of Wokingham 

 for making a big bell. 



Berkshire has two bells by Michell, one at 

 Stanford Dingley, inscribed, ijt TE DEUM 

 LAUDAMUS, and one at Warfield with the 

 invocation to SANCTA KATERINA ; both have 

 the coin and ' R.L.' shield, and the newer 

 lion's head. 



There is one bell by him in Buckingham- 

 shire with invocation to SANCTA MARIA, and 

 one in Sussex, and apparently one in Bedford- 

 shire with the Stanford Dingley inscription ; 

 the Bedfordshire bell, however, may be by 

 Roger Landen, as Mr. North, who records it, 

 does not notice the change in the lion's head. 



Michell appears to have been the last of 

 this line of founders who worked at Woking- 

 ham, and he seems to have either died or 

 retired before Ascension, 1495, and the 

 business was then transferred to Reading. 

 That this business was a continuation of the 

 Wokingham one is shown by the use of 

 Wokingham stamps by subsequent owners of 

 the Reading foundry, though the first man to 

 work there provided himself with a complete 

 stock of new stamps. The link between the 

 two localities and the approximate date of 

 the change, are recorded in the Thame 

 Churchwardens ' Accounts, where there are 

 entries referring to a bell cast by ' le Belle- 



maker de Okyngham ' in 1487-8, which broke 

 and was taken down before Ascension, 1495, 

 and two men were sent on horseback to 

 Wokingham, but they apparently found on 

 arrival that the foundry had been removed, and 

 later there is an item of the expenses of two 

 men riding to Henley, which might be on the 

 way either to Wokingham or Reading, from 

 Thame. There are then items showing the 

 carriage of the cracked bell to Reading, and 

 that two men rode there to see it recast ; and 

 lastly, an item of zd. for the expenses of 

 writing an indenture between the church- 

 wardens and William Hasylwood, which gives 

 the name of the Reading founder. William 

 Hasylwood's new letters were a large bold 

 set of capitals averaging about i inches 

 in height, with an initial cross pattde, and a 

 larger set of smalls than had hitherto been 

 used, the ' n ' being reversed, and a shield 

 charged with the cross of St. George. 



There is no bell, so far as is yet known, by 

 Hasylwood in Berkshire, but there are two 

 in Buckinghamshire and one in Hampshire , all 

 having the invocation form of inscription 

 and bearing his initials. Mr. H. B. Walters 

 has told me of one by him at Broadwell 

 (Oxon.), but I do not know what the inscrip- 

 tion is. The treble at Baddesley Clinton 

 (Warwick) is similarly inscribed to his bells, 

 and bears his initials ; but the orthography 

 is so much blundered that it is very likely by 

 his successor. Two other bells bearing his 

 initials in Hampshire, and one in Somerset, 

 nray also, perhaps, from the mixture of 

 letterings used, be assigned to his successor 

 rather than to him. His will 2 is dated 

 8 March, 1507, and was proved 10 December, 

 1509. 



The Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Law- 

 rence, Reading, have : 



1509-10. 



It. rec* of Hasylwood is weyff for ringing of the 

 grett bell . . . xijd. 



It. rec d of Hasylwood is weyff for hir husbond is 

 grave, and for couyng of the same . . . vijs. ijd. 



These accounts contain several other refer- 

 ences to him. His will shows that his first 

 wife's name was Margaret ; the accounts 

 show that she died in 1502-3 ; two or three 

 years afterwards he married his second wife 

 Elizabeth. Entries of payments for a seat 

 for both wives appear in the accounts. In 

 1507-8 he made for St. Lawrence's ' a new 

 holy water stok of laton,' the price being 

 ' ijs. viijd.' One entry in these accounts 

 seems worth quoting here in full, for al- 



Burn, History of Henley-on-Tbam.es, p. 214. 



Given in full in Church Bells of Bucks, p. 60. 



415 



