BILBIE AND BOOSH MAY COME AND SEE WHAT EVANS AND NOTT HAVE DONE FOR ME.
When we reach the middle of the century a change comes over the inscriptions, though hardly one for the better. The frivolous doggerel rhymes are replaced by prim, though not always decorous, couplets which seem to be thoroughly characteristic of that period. In fact, so greatly was Methodism feared by the correct and worldly churchmen of Georgian days that we actually find on a bell at Welwyn, Herts.--
PROSPERITY TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND NO ENCOURAGEMENT TO ENTHUSIASM.
The most typical specimens, however, are on the bells of the London founders at this period--
AT PROPER TIMES OUR VOICES WE WILL RAISE IN SOUNDING TO OUR BENEFACTORS’ PRAISE.
WHEN FEMALE VIRTUE WEDS WITH MANLY WORTH WE CATCH THE RAPTURE AND WE SPREAD IT FORTH
MAY ALL WHOM I SHALL SUMMON TO THE GRAVE THE BLESSINGS OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE RECEIVE.
The Bells of which inspired Tennyson’s well-known lines. (See page 90).]
The last-named was composed by a Shropshire schoolmaster, who also devised verses of the same type for bells in his own church of High Ercall. One example may be given--
WHERE MEANDRING RODEN GENTLY GLIDES OR TURNE’S PROUD CURRENT FILLS ITS AMPLE SIDES HENCE MEDITATION VIEWS OUR CALM ABODE, HEALS THE SICK MIND, AND YIELDS IT PURE TO GOD.
The Rudhalls of Gloucester, who were typical “Church and State” men, usually place on their tenor bells the familiar couplet--
I TO THE CHURCH THE LIVING CALL AND TO THE GRAVE DO SUMMON ALL.
Perhaps the worst specimen of the taste of this period is to be found at Hornsey, in Middlesex--
THE RINGER’S ART OUR GRACEFUL NOTES PROLONG; APOLLO LISTENS AND APPROVES THE SONG.
Doubtless this seemed appropriate enough to an age which adorned its tombs and churchyards with cupids, urns, and such-like pagan emblems.
Other examples of this kind from the provinces are--
THE PUBLIC RAISED ME WITH A LIBERAL HAND; WE COME WITH HARMONY TO CHEER THE LAND [Stroud].
ALL YOU OF BATH THAT HEARE ME SOUND THANK LADY HOPTON’S HUNDRED POUND [Bath Abbey].
Some inscriptions again are of historical interest, such as at Child Okeford, Dorset, where, in 1648,
was actually placed on a bell by a founder who must have had the courage of his convictions! It need hardly be pointed out that the royal cause was just then at the depth of unpopularity. The eight bells of S. Helen’s, Worcester, bear the names of Marlborough’s victories in Queen Anne’s reign, with an appropriate couplet in each case. Other bells, such as the great bell of Glasgow Cathedral, and the tenor of Stepney, London, record their own history from mediaeval times down to their latest re-casting.