CHURCH RESTORATION. Roslin Chapel. We have great pleasure in communicating the unexpected good news that Roslin chapel is being fitted up for Anglican worship. We trust that all the arrangements will be made in the spirit of its unique architecture. NOTICES AND ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. Monument in Little Cawthorpe, Lincolnshire.—Mr. Withers has designed a very appropriate monument, placed under the west window of the rebuilt church of this village, in memory of Mr. Lysimachus Parker, a liberal benefactor to the work. It consists of a sunk panel, with a flat-headed cornice, supported by dwarf marble shafts. There is much beauty of detail in the carved foliage and capitals. Somewhat less effective are two half-figures of angels in low relief. They are overpowered by the floral decoration. A curious experiment in terra cotta architecture is being made at the New Horticultural Gardens, which are laid out within a huge cloister surrounding the entire area. The northern portion, by Mr. Sydney Smirke, is designed in by no means remarkable Italian; but in the southern part, which was left to the authorities of the South Kensington Museum, the attempt has been made to introduce Italian Romanesque, and the design is founded on the chantry of the Lateran. The pillars are of terra cotta, the design being counterchanged at the half height of each out of a series of twelve patterns, each burnt in a single length. As far as we could judge, the designs (which are by the students at the Museum) seemed pretty, and the execution creditable. We hear, with great interest, that in the progress of the restoration of the Anglo-Saxon church of Deerhurst, in Gloucestershire, some very curious architectural remains have been discovered. We are obliged to postpone to our next number papers on-Church Building Twenty Years Ago; The Decent Adorning of Churches; Gibson's Memoirs of Northumberland; Hutchison's Monograph of Callington; Hereford Cathedral Restoration; Sedding's Carols; Bell Inscriptions; and the Northampton Architectural Society's Report. THE ECCLESIOLOGIST. "Surge igitur et fac: et erit Dominus tecum.” No. CXLIV.-JUNE, 1861. (NEW SERIES, NO. CVIII.) BELL INSCRIPTIONS. A WRITER in the Ecclesiologist for 1846, vol. i., new series, p. 207, states that ante-Reformation bells are very scarce. Though sixteen years have elapsed since that paper was written, which has not, of course, tended to increase their number, still many districts yield a much larger supply of medieval bells than would appear from the averages there given. It is but fair to say that his calculation is founded from Leicestershire data; and though other counties, such as Cambridgeshire or Middlesex, may prove his rule, yet East Anglia, Lincolnshire included, is an exception. The twelve churches, for instance, of Ipswich furnish sixty-two bells, and of these twelve are clearly of ante- Reformation date. The city of Norwich affords more than forty, and in country districts the number is still greater. The earliest inscriptions are in single capitals, placed widely apart : gradually, as they became longer, the letters were grouped into words, with an ornamental stop between each; and in the fifteenth century the single capital-letter type gave way to what is usually called blackletter. These latter, particularly the bells from the Norwich foundry, generally had fine illuminated initials inclosing human heads, and figures of birds and beasts; in other examples each capital is crowned. The crosses at the beginning of the inscriptions are of great beauty and variety. In the early part of the seventeenth century, a type of a decidedly mediæval character was made use of by two or three leading founders. This type, which is no doubt ancient, having been handed down together with other bell-founding secrets, would puzzle many an inexperienced campanologist, and lead him to ante-date his bell by two full centuries. In such cases, however, the date usually appears in plain Roman characters; and there are other minor marks easily recognisable to the practised eye, even if it should not know the type, which is usually the case. We now come to the inscriptions themselves. Passing over the ... earliest ones, which consisted only of the name of the patron saint, and that other form common in all black-letter bells, "Sancte . . . ora pro nobis," we come to the Norwich foundry, which was distinguished not only by the beauty of its type, but by the elegance of its inscriptions. Amongst a host of them may be mentioned :— "Nos societ sanctis semper Nicholaus in altis. + Dona repende pia rogo Magdalene Maria. Johannes Christi care dignare pro nobis orare." These have no reference to the bell further than to assign its dedication. The following are therefore more appropriate :— "Munere Baptiste benedictus sit chorus iste. + Sonitus Egidii conscendit ad culmina celi. Sometimes we find a prayer for the safety of the bell, as— "O Trinitas sacra campanam istam conserva. + Augustine tuam campanam protege sanam.' وو Or a hope that the casting may turn out successfully couched under the form of a prayer to the patron of the workers in molten metal:— 66 "+ Antonius monet ut campana bene sonet." Early in the sixteenth century we find a change in the inscriptions; the old forms gradually died out, and their places were taken by the following: "+Filius Virginis Marie det nobis gaudia vite. +Hec sit dicta sancta campana Johannes. Johannes est nomen meum.' A few years later we find further changes, indicative of the gradual change of faith, thus :— "Non sono animabus mortuorum sed auribus viventium. At the close of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries we find a number of beautiful inscriptions, admirably adapted for present use, as :— "+Rex celorum Christe, placeat tibi sonus iste. + Non clamor, sed amor, cantat in aure Dei. + Sonoro sono meo sono Deo. + Cantabo laudes tuas Domine. + Omnis sonus laudet Dominum. + Merorem mestis, letis sic leta sonabo. Laudo Deum Verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum. + Domini laudem non verbo sed voce resonabo." To this age belongs the beautiful inscription on Old Tom of Lincoln, which has been wisely preserved at its re-casting in 1835: "Spiritus Sanctus a Patre et Filio procedens, The custom of carrying a connected inscription over a whole peal began about this period. It may have been in existence earlier, but none of the complete black-letter peals which the writer has examined have any traces of it; they are simply a sequence of "ora pro nobis," probably addressed to the saints whose altars were in the church below, reserving, of course, the tenor for the patron saint. One of the earliest examples of a consecutive inscription is at Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, but of this only one bell remains. Originally the tenor led off with "+ Omnis populus terre plaudite Domino;" the fourth followed with "+Cum psalmis venite ad Dominum." Another good example occurred at Oxbury, Norfolk, circ. 1582, where the Te Deum was used thus :: 66 + Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur ecclesia, + Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium." About the same time we find a number of pleasing inscriptions in English, as : "Glory be to GOD on high. Praise the LORD. JESUS be our speede." The following inscriptions on tenors may also be quoted : "I, sweetly tolling, men do call, To taste of meats that feed the soul." "GOD save the Church, our Queene and Realme, And send us peace in CHRIST. Amen." (Old tenor at Lincoln, 1593.) "My roaring sound doth notice give "All ye who hear my mournful sound, "When I do ring, God's praises sing; Sometimes they are of a local character, as : "O may their souls in heaven dwell, Who made the last a tenor bell." (Ripponden, Yorkshire.) "Learn of John Holden, all good Christian people, Who gave Sometimes we see a facetious couplet : "William Pawlett chimed so well, (4th bell, Burgh, Lincolnshire.) "To him that rings me high and well, (Wainfleet, S. Mary.) One more specimen must close this century :— "3. It joyeth me much to go to God's Church; 6. I wish to die to live heavenlie." (Attleborough, Norfolk.) During the last century bell inscriptions gradually became entirely secular. Latin inscriptions became very rare. Among the best of 3. Grata sit arguta resonans campanula voce. 5. Nos sic homines inter se conveniant." Generally, however, the inscriptions are in English rhyme. Thus, at S. Helen, Worcester, a peal of eight is inscribed with verses commemorative of Marlborough's victories. The Whitechapel foundry, when in the hands of Lester, Pack, and Chapman, was very prolific in these rhyming inscriptions. The two following, by Penn, of Peterborough, from S. Ives, Huntingdonshire, 1723, are here given, as more uncommon: "When backward rung, I tell of fire, Sometimes we have verses descriptive of the art of bell-ringing, as at Masham, Yorkshire, 1766 : "1. Look to my brethren whilst the peal I lead; 6. Dodge, and Bob, and Round at the extreme." Occasionally inscriptions are extremely frivolous, as at All Saints, Maldon, Essex, cast by Henry Pleasant, of Sudbury, 1707 : "1. When three this steeple long did hold, 2. They were three emblems of a scold; 3. No music then, but we shall see 4. What pleasant music six will be." |