By the Rev. W. C. lukis. 79 



l'abbaye de St. Melaine au mois de 9. bre 1731 sous le regne de 

 Louis XY. Roy de France et de Navarre. Toussaint Francois 

 Rallier Maire Coronel des Milices Bourgeois. (Round the rim), 

 A. Brocard et M. Piosson Fondeurs Lorrains mont faitte avec les 

 douze appieu (sic). Gr. P. Les Chauchards pere fondeurs Lorrains 

 mont faite." At St. Brieuc there are two very great bells, which I 

 had no time to examine. The Brocards were eminent bell-founders 

 in the 18th century, and I was informed in August last, by the 

 Cure of the town of Baud in Brittany, that the foundry retains 

 its celebrity to the present day. I happened to reach Baud at the 

 very moment when a new bell, weighing about 13 cwt., arrived for 

 one of its churches. It was quite a model of good casting, and 

 the epigraph stated it to have been cast at Napoleon ville (Pontivy), 

 and sold by " Alphonse Danjou Marchand fondeur." The eight 

 bells of the church of St. Pierre Port, Guernsey, composed how- 

 ever of very indifferent metal, and cast in 1736, and the three bells 

 of St. Martin's church, in the same island, cast in the same year, 

 were the handiwork of the Brocards. 



I have to apologize for the great length of this paper; but if I 

 have succeeded in drawing your attention to the too often neglected 

 state of belfries, and in inducing some to take up the subject of 



| bell ringing for its own sake as well as a means of reforming village 

 ringers, I shall be well contented to submit to your unfavourable 

 judgment upon my efforts to ring a series of changes on your own 



j bells, and my very indifferent performance. 



I have feebly attempted to draw your notice to this subject with 

 the same feelings of pleasure and exultation with which the vener- 

 able shepherd of Marlborough Downs is said to have addressed 

 Queen Anne, when, on a progress to Bath, she was met at Shep- 

 herd's Shore, in these words : 



" Staund here greate Q,ueeii amongst your loving people, 

 And listen to the bells of Bishop's Cannings Steple." 



W. C. Lukis. 



N.B. The epigraphs or inscriptions will appear in our next number of the 



Magazine. 



