FULHAM PALACE 



honour Fulham Palace during the prelacy of Fletcher, was a very 

 significant sign of her displeasure, all the more so that she was in 

 the habit of very frequently coming to a house in the immediate 

 neighbourhood. The sensitive bishop must therefore have been 

 keenly conscious of the slight deliberately put by the Queen upon 

 her quondam chaplain and favourite ; nor can we withhold our 

 sympathy from him and from his wife, on those numerous occasions 

 when they must have listened to the church bells ringing in 

 honour of the royal visits to a near, and by no means distinguished 

 neighbour. 



Reference is elsewhere made in these pages to the custom of ring- 

 ing the church bells whenever the reigning sovereign paid a visit 

 to a subject, or passed through a district. In popish times, they 

 were also rung on many other occasions, and for many additional 

 reasons, bells being accredited with all sorts of supernatural 

 powers. They were baptized, anointed, exorcised, and blessed 

 by the bishop. Evil spirits were supposed to dislike bells, which, 

 it was believed, had the power to drive the devils out of the air, 

 calm storms and tempests, make fair weather, extinguish sudden 

 fires, and raise the dead. Incidentally I may mention that the 

 practice of ringing changes on bells is said to be peculiar to this 

 country, and therefore according to Faulkner " Britain has been 

 called the ringing island." 



The parish accounts, both of Lambeth and Fulham, record 

 frequent payment to bell-ringers of sums varying from 4d. to 5s. 6d. 

 In 1603, even so much as 7s. a large amount in those days was 

 paid to the Lambeth ringers " being the proclamation of our noble 

 King." In 1571 Is. is entered as the reward of the ringers " when 

 the Queen's Majestic rode about the fields." Lysons also tells us 

 that when Elizabeth " went through Lambeth to my Lord Cham- 

 berlain's," they received 2s. 6d. ; and 5s. 4d. when she " tooke 

 water at Lambeth and went to the Bishop of London's," in August, 

 1601. This was during the lifetime of Bishop Aylmer. 



There is a tragic significance attaching to the charge of Is. for 

 ringing the bells when the Queen of Scots was put to death, and to 

 our minds they must have been " sweet bells jangled, out of tune, 

 and harsh." But, owing to the constant plots against the Queen 

 of England by the friends and supporters of Mary, a large section 

 of the nation regarded her continued existence as a menace, not 



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