But their religious and civil uses may be further noticed. The Ave Mary bell tolled at 6 and 12 to remind men of prayer to the Virgin; the vesper bell for evening prayer; the compline was for the last service of the day. The sanctus, often a handbell, rung at the sacrifice of the mass; the passing bell, at death. The curfew (couvre feu), introduced by the Conqueror into England, rang at 8 o'clock to extinguish all lights. In many parts of the country and in university towns at 8 and 6 o'clock bells are still rung. At Antwerp cathedral we find the Cloche de Triomphe, by Dumery; sixteen bells at Sotteghem and several at Ghent and elsewhere bear the same maker's name. The Horrida, or ancient tocsin at Antwerp, said to date from 1316, is long-shaped and is now unused. The curfew in the same tower rings at 5, 12, and 8. The Santa Maria (4½ tons) first rang when Carl the Bold entered Antwerp 1467. St Antoine is another celebrated bell, and the favourite Carolus, given by Charles V. (7½ tons), is made of copper, silver, and gold, and valued at £20,000. At Strasburg we have the Holy Ghost bell, with motto, “O Rex gloriæ Christæ veni cum pace,” and date 1375, 3 nonas Augusti (8 tons), only rung when two fires are seen in the town at once. The recall or storm bell warns travellers in the plain of the storm coming from the Vosges Mountains. The Thor or gate bell, for shutting and opening gates of the city, has been cast three times (1618, 1641, and 1651); it bears the following inscription:—
| “ | Dieses Thor Glocke das erst mal schallt |
| Als man 1618 sahlt | |
| Dass Mgte jahr regnet man | |
| Nach doctor Luther Jubal jahr | |
| Das Bös hinaus das Gut hinein | |
| Zu läuten soll igr arbeit seyn.” |
The Mittags, or 12 o'clock bell, taken down in the French Revolution, bore the motto—
| “ | Vox ego sum vitæ |
| Voco vos—orate—venite.” |
From all this it will appear that these Continental bells acquired a strong personality from the feelings and uses with which they were associated; and, indeed, they were formally christened with more ceremony than we give to christening our ships, and were then supposed to have the power of driving away evil spirits, dispersing storms, &c.
Bell-founding attained perfection in Holland in the 16th and 17th centuries; and the names of Hemony, Dumery, and the Van den Gheyns stand out as the princes of the art. Their bells are still heard throughout the Low Countries, and are plentiful at Amsterdam, Bruges, Ghent, Louvain, Mechlin, and Antwerp. These bells are frequently adorned with bas reliefs of exquisite beauty, such as feathers, forest leaves, fruit, flowers, portraits, or dancing groups, and inscribed with Latin, sometimes bad, but strong, quaint, and often pathetic. We give the preference to Hemony's small bells, and to Van den Gheyns's large ones. The names of Deklerk, Claes Noorden and Johann Albert de Grave (1714), Claude and Joseph Plumere (1664), Bartholomew Goethale (1680), and Andrew Steiliert (1563) also occur in Belgium. The following illustrate the nature of inscriptions and mottoes common in Belgium:—“Non sunt loquelæ neque sermones audiantur voces eorum, F. Hemony, Amstelodamia, 1658;” “Laudate Domini omnes gentes, F. Hemony, 1674;” and on a Ghent bell—
| “ | Mynem naem is Roelant |
| Als ick clippe dan ist brandt | |
| Als ick luyde dan is storm in Vlænderland.” |
A common inscription runs—
| “ | Funera plango, Fulgura frango, Sabbata pango, |
| Excito lentos, Dissipo ventos, Paco cruentos.” |
A few other inscriptions which occur on bells in France and England may be quoted. The bell in the cathedral at Rouen, already mentioned, which was melted down by the Revolutionists in 1793, bore the words—
| “ | Je suis George d'Ambois |
| Qui trente cinque mille pois | |
| Mais lui qui me pesera | |
| Trente six mille me trouvera.” |
Bells of the parish church at Winnington, Bedfordshire, had—
| “Nomina campanis hsec indita sunt quoque nostris.” | |||
| 1st | bell. | — | “Hoc signum Petri pulsatur nomine Christi.” |
| 2d | ” | “Nomen Magdalene campana sonat melode.” | |
| 3d | ” | “Sit nomen Domini benedictum semper in eum.” | |
| 4th | ” | “Musa Raphaelis sonat auribus Immanuelis.” | |
| 5th | ” | “Sum Rosa pulsata mundique Maria vocata.” | |
By an old chartulary it appears that the bells of the Priory of Little Dunmow, in Essex, were in the year 1501 new cast and baptized—
| “ | Prima in honore Sancti Michaelis Archangeli. |
| Secunda in honore Sancti Johannis Evangelisti | |
| Tertia in honore S. Johannis Baptisti. | |
| Quarta in honore Assumptionis beatæ Mariæ. | |
| Quinta in honore sanctæ Trinitatis et omnium sanctorum.” |
In the little sanctum at Westminster, Edward III. built a clocher, and placed in it bells for St Stephen's chapel, round the largest of which was cast—
| “ | King Edward made mee thirtye thousand weight and three |
| Take me down and wey mee, | |
| And more you shall fynd mee.” |
Some of the music played on the carillon clavecin is still extant. We may specially mention the morceaux fugués discovered by the Chevalier van Elewyck, in the archives at Louvain, the work of the celebrated organist and carilloneur Matthias van den Gheyn (published by Schott and Co., Brussels and London). This music is as fine in its way as Bach or Handel.
Quite lately several carillons have been put up in England; and one (1875) is in contemplation for St Paul’s cathedral. The new carillon machinery by Messrs Gillett and Bland of Croydon, now employed almost everywhere in connection with clocks and carillons, is incomparably superior to anything of the kind on the Continent. By its aid the hammer, which falls on the outside of the bell, is raised mechanically instead of by the action of the fist or finger on the key; and all that the stroke on the key does is to let it slide off like a hair-trigger, and drop on the bell. Thus the touch of the modern carillon clavecin bids fair to rival that of the organ. The same firm has also invented a bell piano. The chief carillons in England at present are at Boston church, Lincolnshire, Worcester cathedral, Bradford town-hall, Rochdale town-hall, and Shoreditch. Several good peals of bells in London are immortalized in the common nursery rhyme—
| “ | Gay go up and Gay go down, |
| To ring the bells of London town.” |
