In the Western Counties bell-ringing was a favourite and delightful pastime. Parties of ringers went about from parish to parish and rang on the church bells, very generally for a prize--"a hat laced with gold." At Launcells, where the bells are of superior sweetness, the ringers who rang for the accession of George III rang for that of George IV, there not having been a gap caused by death among them in sixty years. No songs are so popular and well remembered at bell-ringers' feasts as those that record the achievements of some who went before them in the same office. I give one that has never before been printed, that can be traced back to 1810, but is certainly older. It relates to the ringers of Egloshayle.
1. Come all you ringers good and grave, Come listen to my peal, I'll tell you of five ringers brave That lived in Egloshayle. They bear the sway in ring array, Where'er they chance to go; Good music of melodious bells, 'Tis their delight to show.
2. The foreman gives the sigan-al, He steps long with the toe, He casts his eyes about them all, And gives the sign to go. Away they pull, with courage full, The heart it do revive, To hear them swing, and music ring, One, two, three, four, and five.
3. There's Craddock the cordwainer first, That rings the treble bell; The second is John Ellery, And none may him excel; The third is Pollard, carpenter; The fourth is Thomas Cleave; Goodfellow is the tenor man, That rings them round so brave.
4. They went up to Lanlivery, They brought away the prize; And then they went to San-Tudy, And there they did likewise. There's Stratton men, S. Mabyn men, S. Issey and S. Kew, But we five lads of Egloshayle Can all the rest outdo.
5. Now, to conclude my merry task, I' th' Sovereign's health we join; Stand every man and pass the flask, And drink his health in wine. And here's to Craddock, Ellery, And here's to Thomas Cleave, To Pollard and the tenor man That rings them round so brave.
Humphry Craddock died in 1839; John Ellery in 1845, aged 85 years; John Pollard in 1825, aged 71; Thomas Cleave in 1821, aged 78; John Goodfellow in 1846, aged 80.
But for bell-ringers there must be bells; and who cast those that have been in past years and are still pealed so merrily? A great many were cast by the Penningtons of Lezant, and latterly at Stoke Climsland. The Penningtons were an ancient family in Bodmin, resident there in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Perhaps because not being landed gentry, perhaps because they could not establish the right, they did not record their arms or give their pedigree in the Heralds' Visitations. But the coat they bore or assumed was a goodly one and simple, and therefore ancient--_or_, in fesse five lozenges _azure_. Robert Pennington, of Bodmin, had two sons--John, baptized in 1595, and Bernard two years later. John married at Bodmin, and had seven sons baptized there, one of whom was probably the progenitor of the Penningtons of Lezant and Stoke Climsland. The pedigree of the Exeter bell-founders of the family has not been made out; but that they belonged to the stock that sprang up at Bodmin cannot be doubted.