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PROCLAIMING THE NON-OBSERVANCE OF CHRISTMAS.

Accordingly, we learn that, in the year 1647, the Cromwell party ordered throughout the principal towns and cities of the country, by the mouth of the common crier, that Christmas Day should no longer be observed—it being a superstitious and hurtful custom; and that in place thereof, and the more effectually to work a change, markets should be held on the 25th day of December.

This was attacking the people, especially the country folks, in their most sensitive part. It was hardly to be expected that they would quietly submit to such a bereavement; nor did they, as the still-existing "News-letters" of those days amply testify.

THE MANNER OF WATCHMEN INTIMATING THE CLOCK AT HERRENHUTH IN GERMANY.

VIII. Past eight o'clock! O, Herrenhuth, do thou ponder;

Eight souls in Noah's ark were living yonder.

IX. 'Tis nine o'clock! ye brethren, hear it striking;

Keep hearts and houses clean, to our Saviour's liking.

X. Now, brethren, hear, the clock is ten and passing;

None rest but such as wait for Christ embracing.

XI. Eleven is past! still at this hour eleven,

The Lord is calling us from earth to heaven.

XII. Ye brethren, hear, the midnight clock is humming;

At midnight, our great Bridegroom will be coming.

I. Past one o'clock; the day breaks out of darkness:

Great Morning-star appear, and break our hardness!

II. 'Tis two! on Jesus wait this silent season,

Ye two so near related, will and reason.

III. The clock is three! the blessed Three doth merit

The best of praise, from body, soul, and spirit.

IV. 'Tis four o'clock, when three make supplication,

The Lord will be the fourth on that occasion.

V. Five is the clock! five virgins were discarded,

When five with wedding garments were rewarded.

VI. The clock is six, and I go off my station;

Now, brethren, watch yourselves for your salvation.

A DOG EXTINGUISHING A FIRE.

On the evening of the 21st February, 1822, the shop of Mr. Coxon, chandler, at the Folly, Sandgate, in Newcastle, was left in charge of his daughter, about nine years of age, and a large mastiff, which is generally kept there as a safeguard since an attempt was made to rob the shop. The child had on a straw bonnet lined with silk, which took fire from coming too near the candle. She endeavoured to pull it off, but being tied, she could not effect her purpose, and in her terror shrieked out, on which the mastiff instantly sprang to her assistance, and with mouth and paws completely smothered out the flame by pressing the bonnet together. The lining of the bonnet and the child's hair only were burnt.

CAMBRIDGE CLODS.

About sixty years since, two characters, equally singular in their way, resided at Cambridge: Paris, a well-known bookseller, and Jackson, a bookbinder, and principal bass-singer at Trinity College Chapel in that University; these two gentlemen, who were both remarkably corpulent, were such small consumers in the article of bread, that their abstemiousness in that particular was generally noticed; but, to make amends, they gave way to the greatest excess and indulgence of their appetites in meat, poultry, and fish, of almost every description. So one day, having taken an excursion, in walking a few miles from home, they were overtaken by hunger, and, on entering a public-house, the only provision they could procure was a clod of beef, weighing near fourteen pounds, which had been a day or two in salt; and this these two moderate bread consumers contrived to manage between them broiled, assisted by a due proportion of buttered potatoes and pickles. The landlord of the house, having some knowledge of his guests, the story got into circulation, and the two worthies were ever after denominated the Cambridge Clods!

WITCH-TESTING AT NEWCASTLE IN 1649.

March 26.—Mention occurs of a petition in the common council books of Newcastle, of this date, and signed, no doubt, by the inhabitants, concerning witches, the purport of which appears, from what followed, to have been to cause all such persons as were suspected of that crime to be apprehended and brought to trial. In consequence of this, the magistrates sent two of their sergeants, viz.—Thomas Shevill and Cuthbert Nicholson, into Scotland, to agree with a Scotchman, who pretended knowledge to find out witches, by pricking them with pins, to come to Newcastle, where he should try such who should be brought to him, and to have twenty shillings a piece, for all he should condemn as witches, and free passage thither and back again. When the sergeants had brought the said witch-finder on horseback to town, the magistrates sent their bellman through the town, ringing his bell and crying, all people that would bring in any complaint against any woman for a witch, they should be sent for, and tried by the person appointed. Thirty women were brought into the town-hall, and stripped, and then openly had pins thrust into their bodies, and most of them were found guilty. The said reputed witch-finder acquainted Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Hobson, deputy-governor of Newcastle, that he knew women whether they were witches or no by their looks; and when the said person was searching of a personable and good-like woman, the said colonel replied, and said, surely this woman is none, and need not be tried, but the Scotchman said she was, and, therefore, he would try her; and presently, in the sight of all the people, laid her body naked to the waist, with her cloathes over her head, by which fright and shame all her blood contracted into one part of her body, and then he ran a pin into her thigh, and then suddenly let her cloathes fall, and then demanded whether she had nothing of his in her body, but did not bleed! but she being amazed, replied little; then he put his hands up her cloathes and pulled out the pin, and set her aside as a guilty person, and child of the devil, and fell to try others, whom he made guilty. Lieutenant-Colonel Hobson, perceiving the alteration of the aforesaid woman, by her blood settling in her right parts, caused that woman to be brought again, and her cloathes pulled up to her thigh, and required the Scot to run the pin into the same place, and then it gushed out of blood, and the said Scot cleared her, and said she was not a child of the devil. The witch-finder set aside twenty-seven out of the thirty suspected persons, and in consequence, fourteen witches and one wizard, belonging to Newcastle, were executed on the town moor.

ALEXANDER SELKIRK AND THE DANCING GOATS.

The adventures of Alexander Selkirk, an English sailor, who, more than one hundred and fifty years since, was left alone on the island of Juan Fernandez are very wonderful.

This extraordinary man sought to beguile his solitude by rearing kids, and he would often sing to them, and dance with his motley group around him. His clothes having worn out, he dressed himself in garments made from the skins of such as run wild about the island; these he sewed together with thongs of the same material. His only needle was a long slender nail; and when his knife was no longer available, he made an admirable substitute from an iron hoop that was cast ashore.

Upon the wonderful sojourn of this man, Defoe founded his exquisite tale of "Robinson Crusoe," a narrative more extensively read and better known than perhaps any other ever written.

JACOB BOBART.

A curious anecdote of Jacob Bobart, keeper of the physic garden at Oxford, occurs in one of Grey's notes to Hudibras—"He made a dead rat resemble the common picture of dragons, by altering its head and tail, and thrusting in taper sharp sticks, which, distended the skin on each side till it resembled wings. He let it dry as hard as possible. The learned immediately pronounced it a dragon; and one of them sent an accurate description of it to Dr. Magliabecchi, librarian to the Grand Duke of Tuscany; several fine copies of verses were wrote on so rare a subject; but at last Mr. Bobart owned the cheat. However, it was looked upon as a masterpiece of the art; and, as such, deposited in the Museum."

BLIND JACK.

The streets of London, in the reigns of Queen Anne and Georges I. and II., were infested with all sorts of paupers, vagabonds, impostors, and common adventurers; and many, who otherwise might be considered real objects of charity, by their disgusting manners and general appearance in public places, rather merited the interference of the parish beadles, and the discipline of Bridewell, than the countenance and encouragement of such persons as mostly congregated around common street exhibitions. One-eyed Granny and Blind Jack were particular nuisances to the neighbourhoods in which the first practised her mad-drunk gambols, and the latter his beastly manner of performing on the flageolet. John Keiling, alias Blind Jack, having the misfortune to lose his sight, thought of a strange method to insure himself a livelihood. He was constitutionally a hale, robust fellow, without any complaint, saving blindness, and having learnt to play a little on the flageolet, he conceived a notion that, by performing on that instrument in a different way to that generally practised, he should render himself more noticed by the public, and be able to levy larger contributions on their pockets.

The manner of Blind Jack's playing the flageolet was by obtruding the mouthpiece of the instrument up one of his nostrils, and, by long custom, he could produce as much wind as most others with their lips into the pipe; but the continued contortion and gesticulation of his muscles and countenance rendered him an object of derision and disgust, as much as that of charity and commiseration.

THE YORKSHIRE TIKE.

Ah iz i truth a country youth,

Neean us'd teea Lunnon fashions;

Yet vartue guides, an' still presides,

Ower all mah steps an' passions.

Neea coortly leear, bud all sincere,

Neea bribe shall ivver blinnd me,

If thoo can like a Yorkshire tike,

A rooague thoo'll nivver finnd me.

Thof envy's tung, seea slimlee hung,

Wad lee aboot oor country,

Neea men o' t' eearth booast greter wurth,

Or mare extend ther boounty.

Oor northern breeze wi' uz agrees,

An' does for wark weel fit uz;

I' public cares, an' all affairs,

Wi' honour we acquit uz.

Seea gret a moind is ne'er confiand,

Tu onny shire or nation;

They geean meeast praise weea weel displays

A leearned iddicasion.

Whahl rancour rolls i' lahtle souls,

By shallo views dissarning,

They're nobbut wise 'at awlus prize

Gud manners, sense, and leearnin.

TWO OF THE FATHERS ON FALSE HAIR.

Tertullian says, "If you will not fling away your false hair, as hateful to Heaven, cannot I make it hateful to yourselves, by reminding you that the false hair you wear may have come not only from a criminal, but from a very dirty head; perhaps from the head of one already damned?" This was a very hard hit indeed; but it was not nearly so clever a stroke at wigs as that dealt by Clemens of Alexandria. The latter informed the astounded wig-wearers, when they knelt at church to receive the blessing, that they must be good enough to recollect that the benediction remained on the wig, and did not pass through to the wearer! This was a stumbling-block to the people; many of whom, however, retained the peruke, and took their chance as to the percolating through it of the benediction.

FOOD OF ANIMALS.

Linnæus states the cow to eat 276 plants, and to refuse 218; the goat eats 449, and declines 126; the sheep takes 387, and rejects 141; the horse likes 262, and avoids 212; but the hog, more nice in its provision than any of the former, eats but 72 plants, and rejects 171.

SLAVE ADVERTISEMENTS.

The following announcements are curious, as showing the merchandise light in which the negro was regarded in America while yet a colony of Great Britain:—

FRANCIS LEWIS, Has for SALE,

A Choice Parcel of Muscovado and Powder Sugars, in Hogsheads, Tierces, and Barrels; Ravens, Duck, and a Negro Woman and Negro Boy.—The Coach-House and Stables, with or without the Garden Spot, formerly the Property of Joseph Murray, Esq; in the Broad Way, to be let separately or together:—Inquire of said Francis Lewis.

New York Gazette, Apr. 25, 1765.

This Day Run away from John M' Comb, Junier, an Indian Woman, about 17 Years of Age, Pitted in the face, of a middle Stature and Indifferent fatt, having on her a Drugat, Wastcoat, and Kersey Petticoat, of a Light Collour. If any Person or Persons, shall bring the said Girle to her said Master, shall be Rewarded for their Trouble to their Content.

American Weekly Mercury, May 24, 1726.

A Female Negro Child (of an extraordinary good Breed) to be given away; Inquire of Edes and Gill.

Boston Gazette, Feb. 25, 1765.

To be Sold, for want of Employ.

A Likely Negro Fellow, about 25 Years of Age, he is an extraordinary good Cook, and understands setting or tending a Table very well, likewise all Kind of House Work, such as washing, scouring, scrubbing, &c. Also a Negro Wench his Wife, about 17 Years old, born in this City, and understands all Sorts of House Work. For farther Particulars inquire of the Printer.

New York Gazette, Mar. 21, 1765.

PRESERVATIVE POWER OF COAL-PIT WATER.

The following is extracted from the register of St. Andrew's, in Newcastle:—"April 24th, 1695, wear buried, James Archer and his son Stephen, who, in the moneth of May, 1658, were drowned in a coal-pit in the Galla-Flat, by the breaking in of water from an old waste. The bodys were found intire, after they had lyen in the water 36 years and 11 months."

THE QUEEN BEE.

Reaumur relates the following anecdote of which he was a witness:—A queen bee, and some of her attendants, were apparently drowned in a brook. He took them out of the water, and found that neither the queen bee, nor her attendants were quite dead. Reaumur exposed them to a gentle heat, by which they were revived. The plebeian bees recovered first. The moment they saw signs of animation in their queen, they approached her, and bestowed upon her all the care in their power, licking and rubbing her; and when the queen had acquired sufficient force to move, they hummed aloud, as if in triumph!

DREAM OF KING HENRY I.

A singular dream, which happened to this monarch when passing over to Normandy in 1130, has been depicted in a manuscript of Florence of Worcester, in Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The rapacity and oppressive taxation of his government, and the reflection forced on him by his own unpopular measures, may have originated the vision. He imagined himself to have been visited by the representatives of the three most important grades of society—the husbandmen, the knights, and the clergy—who gathered round his bed, and so fearfully menaced him, that he awoke in great alarm, and, seizing his sword, loudly called for his attendants. The drawings that accompany this narrative, and represent each of these visions, appear to have been executed shortly afterwards, and are valuable illustrations of the general costume of the period. One of them is introduced in this place.

The king is here seen sleeping; behind him stand three husbandmen, one carrying a scythe, another a pitchfork, and the third a shovel. They are each dressed in simple tunics, without girdles, with plain close-fitting sleeves; the central one has a mantle fastened by a plain brooch, leaving the right arm free. The beards of two of these figures are as ample as those of their lords, this being an article of fashionable indulgence within their means. The one with the scythe wears a hat not unlike the felt hat still worn by his descendants in the same grade: the scroll in his left hand is merely placed there to contain the words he is supposed to utter to the king.

SEPULCHRAL BARROW OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS.

The engraving on the next page is copied from a plate in Douglas's Neniæ and represents one of the most ancient of the Kentish barrows opened by him in the Chatham Lines, Sept. 1779; and it will enable the reader at once to understand the structure of these early graves, and the interesting nature of their contents. The outer circle marks the extent of the mound covering the body, and which varied considerably in elevation, sometimes being but a few inches or a couple of feet from the level of the ground, at others of a gigantic structure. In the centre of the mound, and at the depth of a few feet from the surface, an oblong rectangular grave is cut, the space between that and the outer circle being filled in with chalk, broken into small bits, and deposited carefully and firmly around and over the grave. The grave contained the body of a male adult, tall and well-proportioned, holding in his right hand a spear, the shaft of which was of wood, and had perished, leaving only the iron head, 15 inches in length, and at the bottom a flat iron stud (a), having, a small pin in the centre, which would appear to have been driven into the bottom of the spear-handle; an iron knife lay by the right side, with remains of the original handle of wood. Adhering to its under side were very discernible impressions of coarse linen cloth, showing that the warrior was buried in full costume. An iron sword is on the left side, thirty-five and a quarter inches in its entire length, from the point to the bottom of the handle, which is all in one piece, the wood-work which covered the handle having perished; the blade thirty inches in length and two in breadth, flat, double-edged, and sharp-pointed, a great portion of wood covering the blade, which indicates that it was buried with a scabbard, the external covering being of leather, the internal of wood. A leathern strap passed round the waist, from which hung the knife and sword, and which was secured by the brass buckle (b), which was found near the last bone of the vertebræ, or close to the os sacrum. Between the thigh-bones lay the iron umbo of a shield, which had been fastened by studs of iron, four of which were found near it, the face and reverse of one being represented at (c.) A thin plate of iron (d), four and a half inches in length, lay exactly under the centre of the umbo, having two rivets at the end, between which and the umbo were the remnants of the original wooden (and perhaps hide-bound) shield; the rivets of the umbo having apparently passed through the wood to this plate as its bracer or stay. In a recess at the feet was placed a vase of red earth, slightly ornamented round the neck with concentric circles and zigzag lines.

AN OLD GANDER.

Willoughby states in his work on Ornithology, that a friend of his possessed a gander eighty years of age; which in the end became so ferocious that they were forced to kill it, in consequence of the havock it committed in the barn-yard. He also talks of a swan three centuries old; and several celebrated parrots are said to have attained from one hundred to one hundred and fifty years.

EXTRAORDINARY SLEEPER.

M. Brady, Physician to Prince Charles of Lorraine, gives the following particulars of an extraordinary sleeper:—

"A woman, named Elizabeth Alton, of a healthful strong constitution, who had been servant to the curate of St. Guilain, near the town of Mons, about the beginning of the year 1738, when she was about thirty-six years of age grew extremely restless and melancholy. In the month of August, in the same year, she fell into a sleep which held four days, notwithstanding all possible endeavours to awake her. At length she awoke naturally, but became more restless and uneasy than before; for six or seven days, however, she resumed her usual employments, until she fell asleep again, which continued eighteen hours. From that time to the year 1753, which is fifteen years, she fell asleep daily about three o'clock in the morning, without waking until about eight or nine at night. In 1754 indeed her sleep returned to the natural periods for four months, and, in 1748, a tertian ague prevented her sleeping for three weeks. On February 20, 1755, M. Brady, with a surgeon, went to see her. About five o'clock in the evening, they found her pulse extremely regular; on taking hold of her arm it was so rigid, that it was not bent without much trouble. They then attempted to lift up her head, but her neck and back were as stiff as her arms. He hallooed in her ear as loud as his voice could reach; he thrust a needle into her flesh up to the bone; he put a piece of rag to her nose flaming with spirits of wine, and let it burn some time, yet all without being able to disturb her in the least. At length, in about six hours and a half, her limbs began to relax; in eight hours she turned herself in the bed, and then suddenly raised herself up, sat down by the fire, ate heartily, and began to spin. At other times, they whipped her till the blood came; they rubbed her back with honey, and then exposed it to the stings of bees; they thrust nails under her finger-nails; and it seems these triers of experiments consulted more the gratifying their own curiosity than the recovery of the unhappy object of the malady."

A FAT ENGLISHMAN.

Keysler, in his travels, speaks of a corpulent Englishman, who in passing through Savoy, was obliged to make use of twelve chairmen. He is said to have weighed five hundred and fifty pounds, or thirty-nine stone four pounds.

A HAPPY FAMILY.

A gentleman travelling through Mecklenburg, some years since, witnessed a singular association of incongruous animals. After dinner, the landlord of the inn placed on the floor a large dish of soup, and gave a loud whistle. Immediately there came into the room a mastiff, an Angora cat, an old raven, and a remarkably large rat, with a bell about its neck. They all four went to the dish, and, without disturbing each other, fed together; after which the dog, cat, and rat, lay before the fire, while the raven hopped about the room. The landlord, after accounting for the familiarity of these animals, informed his guest that the rat was the most useful of the four; for the noise he made had completely freed his house from the rats and mice with which it was before infested.

ANCIENT FIRE-ARMS IN THE TOWER OF LONDON ARMORY.

We have just now before us a drawing of an old piece of ordnance, formed of bars of iron, strongly hooped with the same material, which forms a striking contrast with the finely-wrought cannons which may be seen in store at Woolwich Arsenal, and elsewhere, at the present day. The exact date and manner of the introduction of cannon is a matter which has caused much dispute. The earliest mention of the use of cannon on shipboard is in Rymer's "Fœdera." It is an order to Henry Somer, Keeper of the Private Wardrobe in the Tower, to deliver to Mr. Goveney, Treasurer to Queen Philippa, Queen of Sweeden, Denmark, and Norway, (who was then sent by her uncle, Henry the Fourth, to her husband, in the ship called the Queen's Hall,) the following military stores: 11 guns, 40 petras pro gunnes, 40 tumpers, 4 torches, 1 mallet, 2 fire-pans, 40 pavys, 24 bows, 40 sheaves of arrows.

After the old cannon composed of bars of iron, hooped together, had been some time in use, hand-cannon, a simple tube fixed on a straight stake, was used in warfare, charged with gunpowder and an iron bullet. This was made with trunnions and casabel precisely like the large cannon. In course of time, the touch-hole was improved, and the barrel cast in brass. This, fixed to a rod, had much the appearance of a large sky-rocket. What is now called the stock was originally called the frame of the gun.

Various improvements were from time to time made in the hand-gun, amongst which was a pan fixed for containing the touch-powder. In rainy weather, this became a receptacle for water; to obviate which, a small piece of brass made to turn on a pin was placed as a cover. This done, there was a difficulty in preserving the aim in consequence of the liability of the eye to be diverted from the sight by the motion of the right hand when conveying the lighted match to the priming. This was, to a certain extent, prevented by a piece of brass being fixed to the breech and perforated. The improved plan for holding the lighted match for firing the hand-guns is shown in the engraving of the Buckler and Pistol; it consists of a thin piece of metal something in shape of an S reversed, the upper part slit to hold the match, the lower pushed up by the hand when entended to ignite the powder.

After the invention of the hand-cannon, its use became general in a very short space of time in most parts of the civilized world.

Philip de Comines, in his account of the battle of Morat, in 1476, says he encountered in the confederate army 10,000 arquebusiers.

The arquebusiers in Hans Burgmain's plates of the "Triumph of Maximilian the First," have suspended from their necks large powder flasks or horns, a bullet bag on the right hip, and a sword on the left, while they carry the matchlock in their hands.

Henry the Eighth's Walking-stick, as the Yeomen of Guard at the Tower call it, is a short spiked mace, in the head of which are three short guns or pistols, which may be fired at very primitive touch-holes by a match.

The Revolver has four barrels, and although clumsy in construction, is not very different in principles from those recently introduced.

1. Henry the Eighth's Walking-stick. 2. A Revolver of the Fifteenth century. 3. Buckler, with Pistol inserted.

The use of the pistol inserted inside the buckler is obvious as the latter affords protection to the person while using the former.

WIGS.

In 1772 the Maccaronies, as the exquisites of that time were called, wore wigs similar to 1, 2, 3, with a large toupee, noticed as early as 1731, in the play of the Modern Husband: "I meet with nothing but a parcel of toupet coxcombs, who plaster up their brains upon their periwigs," alluding to the pometum with which they were covered. Those worn by the ladies in 1772 are given as 4, showing the rows of curls at the sides. The pig-tails were worn hanging down the back, or tied up in a knot behind, as in 5. About 1780 the hair which formed it was allowed to stream in a long lock down the back, as in 6, and soon afterwards was turned up in a knot behind. Towards the end of the century, the wig, as a general and indispensable article of attire to young and old, went out of fashion.

A FALSE FIND.

At Falmouth, some years ago, the sexton found coal in digging a grave; he concluded it must be a mine, and ran with the news and the specimen to the clergyman. The surgeon explained that they had stolen a French prisoner who died, and filled his coffin with coal that the bearers might not discover its emptiness.

BELLS.

As far back as the Anglo-Saxon times, before the conclusion of the seventh century, bells had been in use in the churches of this country, particularly in the monastic societies of Northumbria; and were, therefore, in use from the first erection of parish churches among us. Those of France and England appear to have been furnished with several bells. In the time of Clothaire II., King of France, and in the year 610, the army of that king was frightened from the siege of the city of Sens, by ringing the bells of St. Stephen's Church. They were sometimes composed of iron in France; and in England, as formerly at Rome, they were frequently made of brass. And as early as the ninth century many were cast of a large size and deep note.

Weever, in his work on funeral monuments, says—"In the little sanctuary at Westminster, King Edward III., erected a clochier, and placed therein three bells, for the use of St. Stephen's Chapel. About the biggest of them were cast in the metal these words:—

"King Edward made mee thirty thousand weight and three;

Take me down and wey mee, and more you shall find mee."

"But these bells being taken down in the reign of Henry VIII., one wrote underneath with a coal:—

"But Henry the Eight,

Will bait me of my weight."

This last distich alludes to a fact mentioned by Stow, in his survey of London—ward of Farringdon Within to wit—that near to St. Paul's School stood a clochier, in which were four bells, called Jesus' bells, the greatest in all England, against which Sir Miles Partridge staked an hundred pounds, and won them of Henry VIII., at a cast of dice.

Matthew Paris observes, that anciently the use of bells was prohibited in time of mourning. Mabillon adds, that it was an old practice to ring the bells for persons about to expire, to advertise the people to pray for them—whence our passing-bell. The passing-bell, indeed, was anciently for two purposes—one to bespeak the prayers of all good Christians for a soul just departing; the other to drive away the evil spirits who were supposed to stand at the bed's foot.

This dislike of spirits to bells is mentioned in the Golden Legend, by Wynkyn de Worde. "It is said, evill spirytes that ben in the regyon of thayre, doubte moche when they here the belles rongen; and this is the cause why the belles ben rongen when it thondreth, and when grete tempeste and outrages of wether happen; to the ende that the fiends and wycked spirytes shold be abashed and flee, and cease of the movynge of tempeste." Another author observes, that the custom of ringing bells at the approach of thunder is of some antiquity; but that the design was not so much to shake the air, and so dissipate the thunder, as to call the people to church, to pray that the parish might be preserved from the terrible effect of lightning.

Warner, in his history of Hampshire, enumerates the virtues of a bell, by translating the lines from the "Helpe to Discourse:—

"Men's death's I tell by doleful knell;

Lightning and thunder I break asunder.

On Sabbath all to church I call;

The sleepy head I raise from bed;

The winds so fierce I doe disperse;

Men's cruel rage I doe assuage."

THE CURFEW BELL.

Four of the bells of the ancient Abbey of Hexham were dedicated or baptised; and although the old bells no longer exist, the legends upon the whole six have been preserved, and a free translation given by Mr. Wright, is as follows:—

1. Even at our earliest sound,

The light of God is spread around.

2. At the echo of my voice,

Ocean, earth and air, rejoice.

3. Blend thy mellow tones with mine,

Silver voice of Catherine!

4. Till time on ruin's lap shall nod.

John shall sound the praise of God.

5. With John in heavenly harmony,

Andrew, pour thy melody.

6. Be mine to chant Jehovah's fame,

While Maria is my name.

These epigraphs or legends on bells, are not uncommon. The Rev. W. C. Lukis, in his notices on church bells, read at the Wilts Archæological Meeting, gave the following instances:—

At Aldbourne, on the first bell, we read, "The gift of Jos. Pizzie and Wm. Gwynn.

"Music and ringing we like so well,

And for that reason we gave this bell."

On the fourth bell is,—

"Humphry Symsin gave xx pound to buy this bell,

And the parish gave xx more to make this ring go well."

A not uncommon epigraph is,—

"Come when I call

To serve God all."

At Chilton Foliatt, on the tenor, is,—

"Into the church the living I call,

And to the grave I summon all.

Attend the instruction which I give,

That so you may for ever live."

At Devizes, St. Mary, on the first bell, is,—

"I am the first, altho' but small.

I will be heard above you all."

And on the second bell is,—

"I am the second in this ring,

Therefore next to thee I will sing."

Which, at Broadchalk, is thus varied:—

"I in this place am second bell,

I'll surely do my part as well."

On the third bell at Coln is,—

"Robert Forman collected the money for casting this bell

Of well-disposed people, as I do you tell."

At Bath Abbey, on the tenth bell, is,—

"All you of Bath that hear me sound,

Thank Lady Hopton's hundred pound."

On the fifth bell at Amesbury is,—

"Be strong in faith, praise God well,

Frances Countess Hertford's bell."

And, on the tenor,—

"Altho' it be unto my loss,

I hope you will consider my cost."

At Stowe, Northamptonshire, and at St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, we find,—

"Be it known to all that doth me see,

That Newcombe, of Leicester, made me."

At St. Michael's, Coventry, on the fourth bell, is,—

"I ring at six to let men know

When to and from their work to go."

On the seventh bell is,—

"I ring to Sermon with a lusty bome,

That all may come and none can stay at home."

On the eighth bell is—

"I am and have been called the common bell

To ring, when fire breaks out to tell."

At St. Peter's-le-Bailey, Oxford, four bells were sold towards finishing the tower, and in 1792 a large bell was put up, with this inscription:—

"With seven more I hope soon to be

For ages joined in harmony."

But this very reasonable wish has not yet been realized; whereas at St. Lawrence's, Reading, when two bells were added to form a peal of ten, on the second we find—

"By adding two our notes we'll raise,

And sound the good subscribers' praise."

The occasion of the erection of the Westminster Clock-tower, is said to have been as follows:—A certain poor man, in an action for debt, being fined the sum of 13s. 4d., Radulphus Ingham, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, commiserating his case, caused the court roll to be erased, and the fine reduced to 6s. 8d., which being soon after discovered, Ingham was amerced in a pecuniary mulct of eight hundred marks, which was employed in erecting the said bell-tower, in which was placed a bell and a clock, which, striking hourly, was to remind the judges in the hall of the offence of their brother. This bell was originally called Edward; "but," says a writer in the "Antiquarian Repertory," "when the Reformation caused St. Edward and his hours to be but little regarded; as other bells were frequently called Tom, as fancied to pronounce that name when stricken—that at Lincoln, for instance, and that at Oxford—this also followed the fashion, of which, to what I remember of it before it was hung up, I may add another proof from a catch made by the late Mr. Eccles, which begins—

"'Hark, Harry, 'tis late—'tis time to be gone,

For Westminster Tom, by my faith, strikes one."

Hawkins, in his "History of Music," says,—"The practice of ringing bells in change, or regular peals, is said to be peculiar to England: whence Britain has been termed the ringing island. The custom seems to have commenced in the time of the Saxons, and was common before the Conquest. The ringing of bells, although a recreation chiefly of the lower sort, is, in itself, not incurious. The tolling of a bell is nothing more than the producing of a sound by a stroke of the clapper against the side of the bell, the bell itself being in a pendant position, and at rest. In ringing, the bell, by means of a wheel and a rope, is elevated to a perpendicular; in its motion, the clapper strikes forcibly on one side, and in its return downwards, on the other side of the bell, producing at each stroke a sound." There are still in London several societies of ringers. There was one called the College Youths (bell-ringers, like post-boys, never seem to acquire old age). Of this it is said Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, was, in his youthful days, a member; and in the life of that upright judge, by Burnet, some facts are mentioned which favour this relation. In England the practice of ringing has been reduced to a science, and peals have been composed which bear the names of their inventors; some of the most celebrated of these were composed about fifty years ago by one Patrick. This man was a maker of barometers. In the year 1684, one Abraham Rudhall, of the city of Gloucester, brought the art of bell-founding to great perfection. His descendants in succession have continued the business of casting bells; and by a list published by them at Lady Day, 1774, the family, in peals and odd bells, had cast to the amount of 3,594. The peals of St. Dunstan's in the East, St. Bride's, London, and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, are among the number. The following "Articles of Ringing" are upon the walls of the belfry in the pleasant village of Dunster, in Somersetshire. They are dated 1787:—