“The monastery had me made in Peter’s name,”
together with two shields, one charged with three bells, the other with the arms of the abbey. It may have been cast by the monks, as it bears no known foundry-stamps, but the expression “had me made” seems to imply otherwise. Its weight is 2 tons 18 cwt. Yet another, but a modern “Great Peter,” is that of York Minster, cast in 1845, and weighing 12½ tons. It is the second largest church bell in England.
BELL BY AN EARLY FOURTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON FOUNDER.
With inscription in Gothic capitals. (See page 24.)]
From “Great Peters” we pass to “Great Toms.” Of these there are two famous examples, one at Lincoln Cathedral, the other at Christ Church, Oxford. The Lincoln Tom, which hangs in the central tower of the cathedral, does not appear in records before 1610, in which year it was re-cast by Henry Oldfield of Nottingham, and Robert Newcombe of Leicester. It was cast in the minster yard, and weighed 4 tons 8 cwt. In course of time it was found to be too heavy for the tower, and was “clocked,” or tied down, as a contemporary journalist describes it, in 1802: “He has been chained and riveted down, so that instead of the full mouthful he hath been used to send forth, he is enjoined in the future merely to wag his tongue.” The result was inevitable, and in 1827 “he” was reported cracked, which led to his being re-cast by Mears of Whitechapel in 1835.
Great Tom of Christ Church, which now hangs in the tower over the gateway, originally came to the newly-founded “HOUSE OF CHRIST” from the despoiled Abbey of Oseney. Six other bells were brought with it, of which two still hang in the “meat-safe” belfry. Antony à Wood, the Oxford chronicler, tells us that it bore the inscription:
IN THOMAE LAVDE RESONO BIMBOM SINE FRAVDE
“In the praise of Thomas I sound ‘Bimbom’ without guile.”
Thrice unsuccessfully recast between 1612 and 1680, it is in its present form the work of Christopher Hodson, a London founder, who placed upon it a long inscription beginning with the words, MAGNUS THOMAS (“_Great Tom_”). Oxonians will remember the ringing of the bell every night at nine o’clock.
Among other great bells of historical interest we may mention that which hangs in the south tower of Beverley Minster. It survived from mediaeval times until so recent a date as 1902, when it was re-cast by Messrs. Taylor of Loughborough the weight being no less than 7 tons (Plate 19). The old bell was probably cast at Leicester about 1350, and bore some of the most beautiful lettering ever designed by mediaeval craftsmen (Plate 36). Another of Messrs. Taylor’s great works is the great bell of Tong, in Shropshire (Plate 20), originally given by Sir Harry Vernon, in 1518, to be tolled “when any Vernon came to Tong.” It was recast in 1720, and again in 1892, its present weight being 2½ tons. It was dedicated to SS. Mary and Bartholomew.