At proper times my voice I’ll raise
And sound to my subscribers’ praise.
But in the last two centuries such expressions of gratitude for subscriptions to casting or re-casting are common enough. So in a similar strain speaks the bell of Alderton,
I’m given here to make a peal
And sound the praise of Mary Neale.
At Binstead, too, a bell says
Dr. Nicholas gave five pound
To help cast this peal tuneable and sound.
Bells at first bore strictly religious inscriptions; afterwards that rule became more relaxed, and irrelevant matters often find expression. After 1600 the claims of religion to be alone regarded on bells may be said to be almost entirely passed over. Marlborough’s victories are commemorated on the bells of S. Helen’s, Worcester, and those of Ottery and S. Martin, Exeter, have medals on which are represented grotesque pieces levelled at the churchmen in the most approved style of mediæval satire. Sometimes, nay, most often, the poetical attempts in the inscriptions are, to say the least, somewhat wanting in an indefinite something that goes to make true poetry. Yet the simple appeals of some of them do not fall unregarded. So when rich men give bells we find such an inscription as this—
Of your charite prai for the soulles of John Slutter, John
Hunt, and Willem Slutter.
An instance has been given of historical events being inscribed upon bells. A further one is that of the bell of Ashover, Derbyshire, which upon re-casting was inscribed—
This old bell rung the downfall of Buonaparte and broke, April, 1814.
At Tadcaster it is recorded on the fifth bell—