The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 3 (of 3) / Everlasting Calerdar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac

by William Hone

FULBOURN, CAMBRIDGE.

All Saints’ and St. Vigor’s Bells.

To the Editor.

On a visit to a friend at Fulbourn we strolled to the site whereon All Saints’ church formerly stood, and his portfolio furnished me with the subjoined memoranda, which by your fostering care may be preserved.

I am, sir, &c.

Cambridge, May, 1826. T. N.

Trinity Sunday, 1766.

This morning at five o’clock the steeple of All Saints’ church fell down. An act of parliament passed the 22d May, 1775, to unite the service in St. Vigor’s church, and to enable the vicar and churchwardens to sell the materials and the bells, towards repairing the church of St. Vigor’s—the amount was 150l. 0s. 6d. The two broken bells were sold towards the expenses; the other three, with the two of St. Vigor’s, and the saints’ bell, were new cast by E. Arnold at St. Neot’s Hunt’s, and six new bells were put up on the 9th of May, 1776. The subscription amounted to 141l.; the bells cost 262l. 2s. 3d.; the frames 45l., the six new ropes 1l. 15s.; making together the sum of 308l. 17s. 3d.

The poor inhabitants were so attached to the old bells, that they frequently watched them in the evening, lest they should be carried away and sold; for the broken bells lay among the ruins of All Saints’ church. At last their fears subsiding, they neglected their watching, and the churchwardens set a waggon in Monk’s barn, (hard by,) and carried away two of them in the night, delivering them to the Cambridge waggon for St. Neot’s, and returning before morning, which occasioned the following

Ballad.

There are some farmers in Fulbourn town,
They have lately sold what was not their own;
They have sold the bells, likewise the church,
And cheat the poor of twice as much.
And O! you Fulbourn farmers O!

Some estate there was left, all for the poor,
They have robb’d them of half, and something more,
Such dirty tricks will go hard on their sides.
For the d—l will have them, and singe their hides.
And O! you Fulbourn farmers O!

Before the bells they could be sold,
They were forc’d to swear, as we’ve been told,
They forswore themselves—then they cried.
For this, my boys, we shall be tried.
And O! you Fulbourn farmers O!

There is old Twig, and young Twig—the whining dissenter,
Says one to the other, this night we will venture;
And says little Gibble-Gabble, I long for to go.
But first I will call my neighbour Swing-toe:
And O! you Fulbourn farmers O!

In the dead of the night this thievish crew
Broke into the church, as other thieves do,
For to steal the bells and sell them all,
May the d—l take such churchwardens all;
And O! you Fulbourn farmers O!

This ballad is said to have been the production of one William Rolfe, a labourer. It was probably written soon after the act passed. The new peal was brought home on the 9th of May, 1776, so that it was not a year from the passing of the act to the casting of the bells.

After the bill had been perused by counsel, Mr. Edward Hancock, the rector’s churchwarden, conducted it through both houses of parliament without the expense of a solicitor; sir John Cotton, one of the members for the county, forwarding it in the different stages through the House of Commons. So earnest were the populace about the bells, (when they were satisfied they were to have a new peal of six,) that after they were loaded they drew them a furlong or more before the horses were put to the waggon. The tenor was cast in G sharp, or old A. Mr. Edmund Andrews Salisbury rode on the great bell, when it was drawn up within the steeple, and his was the first death this bell was rung for; he was buried 8th July, 1776. The motto on this bell is—

“I to the church the living call—
And to the grave I summon all.”

Mr. Charles Dawson was the author of the complete peal of Plain Bob, called “The Fulbourn Surprise” with 154 bobs, and two singles, and 720 changes. The peal was opened December 7, 1789.

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ST. THOMAS’S DAY.
Mr. Day’s Short Day.

Mr. Thomas Day, of D——t, Wilts, used, when living, to give his workmen on St. Thomas’s Day a holiday, a short pint of his ale, an ounce of short-cut tobacco, and a short pipe, in remembrance of his name. “For,” said he,—in a couplet decidedly his own,—

“Look round the village where ye may;
Day is the shortest day, to-day.”

Puceron.

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