And it is in the same county that we find the modern use of the death-bell described,
I sound not for the souls of the dead but the ears of the living.
Cheltenham, too, bears out the spirit of this inscription in the following:—
I to prayer the living do combine
The dead shall hear a greater sound than mine.
The offices of the various bells form a large proportion of their legends, particularly those uses which are the most common. Thus the death bell at Axbridge, Somerset, states,
For homesoever this bell doth toll
The Lord have mercy on that sole!
Many Somersetshire bells have the following and similar inscriptions:—
to the church the living call,
And to the grave I summon all.
Brent, Somerset, has a bell with—
When I doth toll pray mind your souls
And in God put your trust,
As may be well with you at last
When you come to doust.