I ring to sermon with a lusty bome,
That all may come and none may stay at home.
More pronounced is the self-congratulation of a bell of East Dean—
Me melior vere,
Non est Campana sub aere,
and one of Hurstpierpoint, which says—
If you have a judicious ear
You’ll own my voice is sweet and clear.
Rye Church, in Sussex, alludes in its bells to the marriage chimes induced by the liberality of the bridegroom—
In wedlock bands, all ye who join
With hands your hearts unite.
So shall our tuneful tongues combine
To bless the nuptial rite.
At other times it is the shape that is celebrated. At Combe, Somerset, a bell says—
My sound is good, my shape is neat,
’Twas Bayley made me so compleat.
Or the size, as at Bexhill, Sussex—