I AM A CRIER IN THE HOUSE OF GOD COME AND KIP [keep] HOLI,
at Witcomb, Gloucestershire (1630), or—
BE MECKE AND LOLY TO HEARE THE WORD OF GOD,
at Chichester Cathedral (1587). Some of these inscriptions are on bells by John Wallis of Salisbury, of whom it has been said, “If we estimate him by his works he was a great man; and if we take his laconic epigraphs as an index of his heart, he was a trustful, thankful, religious character.” They are, at all events, characteristic of the sober and straightforward piety of the days of George Herbert and Bishop Andrewes. Three more characteristic expressions of the period are largely used by the Nottingham founders:
“I sweetly toling men do call to taste on meate that feeds the soule.”
“All you who hear my roaring sound repent before you lie in ground.”
“My roaring sound doth warning give that men may not here always live.”
