By the Rev. W. C. Lukis. 



41 



ascend it, and the bells themselves then come under your con- 

 sideration. But you will know very little about them, unless you 

 have first become acquainted with their founders, and the several 

 changes which were introduced by them in the form of the bells. 



1. Belfries. Some persons apply this term to signify the whole 

 tower; others limit its application tp the part in which the bells are 

 suspended; and others again to the room or space in which the 

 ringers stand, which is either on the floor of the church, or in one 

 of the stages of the tower. This is a matter of very little con- 

 sequence ; and I do not intend to speak of this part of the church 

 further than just to remark by the way, that as it was clearly erected 

 for the purpose of carrying bells, it is a matter for our grave con- 

 sideration how it comes to pass that so many of our village churches 

 should have their towers in so dilapidated a condition. I have seen 

 several in the course of my Wiltshire rambles which are in so 

 dangerous a state that the bells are forbidden to be rung. There 

 can be no doubt that this arises from two causes. In the first place, 

 bells for which the towers were originally constructed were not 

 subject to the same revolutions and tossings as now. They were 

 swung to and fro, it is true, as I shall explain presently, but very 

 gently compared with the present wild summersets of change 

 ringing, an art of comparatively recent date. Consequently in 

 constructing the towers, the architects of those days had not to take 

 into their calculation the great vibration of the walls produced by 

 the violent motion of the bells. In 1810 the spire of St. Nicholas's 

 church, Liverpool, fell, as the people were assembling for service, and 

 killed twenty-three persons. This catastrophe was partly caused 

 by the vibration of the bells. Any one who has stood in the belfry 

 of the lofty and beautiful tower of Magdalen College, Oxford, when 

 a peal is ringing on its ten sweet-toned bells, knows the way in 

 which a tower is made to sway. To a person of weak nerves it is 

 perfectly alarming, and it is easy to understand how this kind of 

 vibration must loosen the masonry and eventually endanger the 

 building. 



The following is an extract from the ancient churchwarden's 

 accounts of St. Thomas's, Salisbury. "At a vestry held 6 April, 



