| 1. | Though I am but light and small
I will be heard above you all. |
| 2. | If you have a judicious ear
You will own my voice both sweet and clear. |
| 3. | Such wondrous power to music given,
It elevates the soul to heaven. |
| 4. | Whilst thus we join in cheerful sound,
May love and loyalty abound. |
| 5. | To honour both God and King
Our voices shall in concert ring. |
| 6. | Music is medicine to the mind. |
| 7. | Ye ringers all that prize
Your health and happiness,
Be sober, merry, wise,
And you’ll the same possess. |
| 8. | Ye people all who hear me ring
Be faithful to your God and King. |
| 9. | In wedlock’s bands all ye who join
With hands your hearts unite:
So shall our tuneful tongues combine
To laud the nuptial rite. |
| 10. | I am and have been called the common bell
To ring when fire breaks out to tell. |
On the bells of S. Peter’s, Nottingham, the appended lines appear:—
Our voices shall with joyful sound
Make hills and valleys echo round.
We celebrate th’ auspicious morn
On which the Son of God was born.
Our voices shall in concert ring
To honour God and King.
The bride and groom we greet in holy wedlock join’d,
Our sounds are emblems of hearts in love combined.
I toll the funeral knell,
I hail the festal day.—
The fleeting hour I tell,
I summon all to pray.
The longest continuous bell inscriptions we have noted are from Bakewell, Derbyshire, and on a peal of eight bells. They run thus:—
| 1. | When I begin Our merry Din,
This Band I lead from Discord Free;
And for the Fame of human Name,
May ev’ry Leader copy Me. |
| 2. | Mankind like Us, too oft are found
Possess’d of Nought but empty Sound. |
| 3. | When of departed Hours We toll the Knell,
Instruction take & spend the future well. |
| 4. | When Men in Hymen’s Bands unite,
Our Merry Peals produce Delight;
But when Death goes his dreary Rounds,
We send forth sad and solemn Sounds. |
| 5. | Thro’ Grandsires and Tripples with Pleasure men range,
Till Death calls the Bob & brings on the Last Change. |
| 6. | When Vict’ry crowns the Public Weal
With Glee We give the merry Peal. |
| 7. | Would Men Like Us join & agree
They’d live in tunefull Harmony. |
| 8. | Possess’d of deep sonorous Tone
This Belfry King sits on his Throne;
And, when the merry Bells go round,
Adds to & mellows ev’ry Sound;
So in a just & well pois’d State,
Where all Degrees possess due Weight,
One greater Pow’r, One greater Tone
Is ceded to improve their own. |
During a recent visit to Bakewell church we copied an epitaph blending in a remarkable degree business, loyalty and religion:—
To the Memory of
Matthew Strutt.
Of this town, farmer, long famed in these parts for veterinary skill. A good neighbour, and a staunch friend to Church and King. Being churchwarden at the time the present peal of bells were hung. Through zeal of the House of God, and unremitting attention to the airy business of the belfry he caught a cold, which terminated his existence May 25, 1798, in the 68 year of his age.
A beautiful Latin inscription has one—a Rutland bell—
Non clamor sed amor cantat in aure dei, i.e., It is not noise, but love that sings in the ear of God.