By the Rev. W. C. Lukis. 



57 



sharp, or, by cutting away the edge of the lip, reduces its diameter, 

 if too flat. 1 It must have been a very difficult operation for Mr. 

 Lawson Huddlestone, by the process of chipping, to modulate the 

 sound of every bell in a peal till they answered exactly the intervals 

 of the monochord, and more particularly in those cases where the 

 bells had been cast at different periods, by different founders, and 

 with different metal. But it appears that this gentleman, who had 

 a passion for bells, used to pass days and weeks in belfries in this 

 laborious work; and thus tuned the peals of Colerne, Shaftesbury, 

 Knoyle, and St. Cuthbert's, Wells. 



5. Bell hanging. When a bell is ready, the next operation is 

 to hang it in the church tower; and here, in England, one or two 

 great changes have been introduced in the mode of doing this. 

 It is perhaps one of the most difficult of all the operations con- 

 nected with bell fixing, and requires the greatest care and skill of 

 the person employed. I must here begin by saying that a great 

 deal of the mischief to which I have alluded in speaking of belfries, 

 arises from the unscientific manner in which bells are too often hung 

 now. It is too frequently the practice for parishioners or church- 

 wardens, when the bells require repair, to send for the village 

 carpenter, who knows about as much of bell hanging as he does of 

 geology, in the comfortable but vain notion of saving parish money. 

 Bell hanging is an art of itself, quite distinct from that of bell 

 founding, and, like it, has secrets of the trade. It is of the utmost 

 coiisequence that the stock, or piece of wood to which the crown 

 of the bell is fixed, should bear a due proportion to the size of the 

 bell, and the length of the staple from which the clapper hangs. 

 If this is not attended to, the clapper will not strike the bell 

 properly. This is determined on sound principles of dynamics. 

 But what can a village carpenter, who never fixed church bells 

 before, know of that science ? And what must be the result of his 

 unskilful efforts ? 



Before the introduction of change ringing it was not of so much 



1 The key note of a bell depends in a great measure on its diameter at the 

 mouth, and on the thickness of the sound-bow. It depends also of course on 

 the quality of the metal. 



I 



