548 The Sixty-First General Meeting. 



issued as in former years. At Avebury Mr. H. St. G. Gray, on 

 behalf of the British Association, during this spring, opened out a 

 new section of the ditch where it ends against the entrance cause- 

 way on the north side of the Kennet Eoad. The ditch proved so 

 much deeper and wider at this part than had been anticipated that 

 the work could not be finished in the time available, and Mr. Gray 

 hopes to complete it either this autumn or next spring. Meanwhile 

 the excavation remains open. At the same time a section was cut 

 half-way through the mound at a point a little further north, down 

 to the original surface level, the funds for this being specially 

 contributed by members of our own Society. The results of the 

 whole series of excavations when completed will be published bj 

 Mr. Gray as a separate volume. 



Church Bells. The Committee desire to draw the attention of! 

 the clergy, churchwardens, and others interested in the preservation 

 of the ancient furniture of our Churches to the proposals no^ 

 commonly made by eminent firms of bell-hangers, when bells have 

 to be re-hung. These firms too often condemn the ancient oal 

 frames and recommend the substitution of an " up-to-date " iroij 

 frame, when for far less cost the timber frame can be efficiently 

 repaired, on the plea that to repair the wooden frame " will not dj| 

 credit to their firm " ; they propose to " sandblast " medieval am 

 17th century bells, and so destroy the ancient surface an< 

 appearance of the bells, on the plea that this will " improve thei 1 

 resonance "; worse still they often proceed, without even mentionin 

 the fact in the specifications, to cut off the cannons of the bell 

 and pierce the crowns with iron bolts, in order to save the troubll 

 of fitting the new stock to the cannons when the bell has to 

 "turned." The Committee submit that these processes, in man| 

 cases unnecessary, by which the ancient frames are destroyed ar 

 the appearance and character of the bells themselves too ofte 

 ruined, should be strongly resisted by all who have the preseivatic 

 of the antiquities of our Churches at heart. They desire also 

 impress on churchwardens the fact that ancient timber bell-fram^ 

 cannot be removed without a faculty. 



In this connection the Society at its General Meeting last yetj 



