Great Bells of Historic Fame.
There are many great bells of historic fame, and others which have gained notoriety from their great size. The claim to the possession of the largest bell was formerly made by the Chinese, but the palm is usually accorded to the Great Bell of Moscow, which measures 19 ft. in height and 64 ft. in circumference. In our own country there are the Great Bell of St. Paul's, weighing five tons; "Great Tom" of Lincoln, of similar weight; "Peter" of York, weighing ten tons; and "Big Ben" of Westminster, scaling fourteen tons.
Some old churches and cathedrals are noted more for their beautiful chimes than for the size and weight of their larger bells. At Mechlin there are forty-four bells in the carillon, and in Antwerp Cathedral the chimes are played on sixty-five bells, the oldest in the set, named "Horrida," being dated 1316, but the bell which is said to be the best loved of all by the ringers is stamped "Carolas," having been given by Charles V.
There are bells of lesser size which have gained popularity, some from their former associations; others perhaps, more so because of their present location or ownership. Sometimes bells have been removed from old churches and after having changed hands several times have found a resting-place in the possession of laymen; often in museums, it is true, but not always so: as an instance there is the fine old bell in the possession of the Grocers' Company, cast in 1463 for the Church of All Hallows, Staining, where it hung for many years. The bell illustrated in Fig. 52, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is of more recent date, having been cast in Exeter in 1670 by John Pennington.
Bells have frequently been brought to this country as trophies of war. At the Tower there are several fine examples of Eastern workmanship, and there are others now in the United Service Museum at Whitehall.