I summon all to pray,
I toll the funeral knell,
I hail the festal day.
The seventh bell at Castleton has the following legend—
When of departed hours we toll the knell,
Instruction take, and spend the future well.
James Harrison, Founder, 1803.
The second bell at Monyash is inscribed: “Sca Maria o. p. n.” (Sancta Maria ora pro nobis.)
The old curfew custom is still kept up in the [p 130] Peak district of Derbyshire, notably at Winster, where the bell is rung throughout November, December, January, and February at eight o’clock every work day evening, except on Saturdays, when the hour is seven. There are Sanctus bells at Tideswell, Hathersage, Beeley, Ashover, and other Derbyshire churches. All Saints’ Church, at Derby (“All Saints,” i.e., “the unknown good”), has a melodious set of chimes. They play the following tunes: Sunday, “Old One Hundred and Fourth” (Hanover); Monday, “The Lass of Patie’s Mill”; Tuesday, “The Highland Lassie”; Wednesday, “The Shady Bowers”; Thursday, “The National Anthem”; Friday, Handel’s “March in Scipio”; Saturday, “The Silken Garter.” They all date from the last century.
Church bells have the subtle charm of sentiment. When they swing in the hoary village tower, and send their mellifluous message across the country side and down the deep and devious valley, or when they make musical with mellow carillon the dreamy atmosphere of moss grown cathedral closes, they have a poetical influence. How pleasant it is to listen to the chimes which ring out from time to time from the towers of [p 131] Notre Dame, in the city of Rubens, and from the Campanile at Venice!