INSCRIPTIONS ON BELLS.
(Vol. viii., p. 448.)
The inscription on one of the bells of Great Milton Church, Oxon. (as given by Mr. Simpson in "N. & Q."), has a better and rhyming form occasionally.
In Meivod Church, Montgomeryshire, a bell (the "great" bell, I think) has the inscription—
"I to the church the living call,
And to the grave do summon all."
The same also is found on the great bell of the interesting church (formerly cathedral) of Llanbadarn Fawr, Cardiganshire.
E. Dyer Green.
Nantcribba Hall.
I beg to forward the following inscription on one of the bells in the tower of St. Nicholas Church, Sidmouth. I have not met with it elsewhere; and you may, perhaps, consider it worthy of being added to those given by Cuthbert Bede and J. L. Sisson:
"Est michi collatum
Ihc istud nomen amatum."
There is no date, but the characters may indicate the commencement of the fifteenth century as the period when the bell was cast.
G. J. R. Gordon.
At Lapley in Staffordshire:
"I will sound and resound to thee, O Lord,
To call thy people to thy word."
G. E. T. S. R. N.
Pray add the following savoury inscriptions to your next list of bell-mottoes. The first disgraces the belfry of St. Paul's, Bedford; the second, that, of St. Mary's, Islington:
"At proper times my voice I'll raise,
And sound to my subscribers' praise!"
"At proper times our voices we will raise,
In sounding to our benefactors' praise!"
The similarity between these two inscriptions favours the supposition that the ancient bell-founders, like some modern enterprising firms, kept a poet on the establishment, e.g.
"Thine incomparable oil, Macassar!"
J. Yeowell.
A friend informs me, that on a bell in Durham Cathedral these lines occur:
"To call the folk to Church in time,
I chime.
When mirth and pleasure's on the wing,
I ring.
And when the body leaves the soul,
I toll."
J. L. S.