“Dieses Thor Glocke das erst mal schallt Als man 1618 sahlt Dass Mgte jahr regnet man Nach doctor Luther Jubal jahr Das Bös hinaus das Gut hinein Zu läuten soll igr arbeit seyn.”

The reference is to the year 1517, when Luther began his crusade, and the verse may be Englished as follows:—

When first ringeth this Gate Bell 1618 years we tell. We reckon this a year to be From Dr Luther’s jubilee. To ring out ill, the good ring in, Its daily task shall now begin.

Large Bells.—There are a few bells of world-wide renown, and several others more or less celebrated. The great bell at Moscow, “Tsar Kolokol,” which, according to the inscription, was cast in 1733, was in the earth 103 years and was raised by the emperor Nicholas in 1836. The present bell seems never to have been actually hung or rung, having been cracked in the furnace; and it now stands on a raised platform in the middle of a square. It is used as a chapel. It weighs about 180 tons, height 19 ft. 3 in., circumference 60 ft. 9 in., thickness 2 ft., weight of broken piece 11 tons. The second Moscow bell, the largest in the world in actual use, weighs 128 tons. In a pagoda in Upper Burma hangs a bell 16 ft. in diameter, weighing about 80 tons. The great bell at Peking weighs 53 tons; Nanking, 22 tons; Olmutz, 17 tons; Vienna (1711), 17 tons; Notre Dame (1680), 17 tons; Erfurt, 13 tons; Great Peter, York Minster, recast in 1845, 12½ tons; Great Paul, at St Paul’s cathedral, 16¾ tons; Great Tom at Oxford, 7½ tons; Great Tom at Lincoln, 5½ tons. Big Ben of the Westminster Clock Tower weighs 13½ tons; it was cast by George Mears under the direction of the first Lord Grimthorpe (E. Beckett Denison) in 1858. Its four quarters were cast by Warner in 1856. The “Kaiserglocke” of Cologne cathedral, recast in 1875, with metal from French cannon captured in 1870-1871, weighs 27½ tons.

These large bells are either not moved at all, or only slightly swung to enable the clapper to touch their side; in some cases they are struck by a hammer or beam from outside. The heaviest ringing peals in England are those at Exeter and St Paul’s cathedrals, tenors 72 cwt. and 62 cwt. respectively.

Bell-ringing.—The science and art of bell-ringing, as practised upon church and tower bells, falls under two main heads:—(1) Mechanical ringing, in connexion with the machinery of a clock or “carillon”; (2) Ringing by hand, by means of ropes attached to the fittings of the bells, whereby the bell itself is either moved as it hangs mouth downwards sufficiently for the clapper just to touch its side (called technically “chiming”); or is swung round nearly full circle with its mouth uppermost (technically “ringing”), in which case the impact of the clapper is much heavier, and the sound produced is consequently louder and more far-reaching. Mechanical ringing is more common on the continent of Europe, especially in Belgium and Flanders; ringing by hand is more common in England, where the development of change-ringing (see below) has brought it into prominence.

(1) Mechanical ringing is effected by a system of wires connected with small hammers striking the bells, usually on their outside, and worked either by connexion with the machinery of a clock, so as to play tunes or artificially arranged chimes at definite intervals; or with a key-board resembling that of an organ. The first of these methods is familiar in the chimes (Cambridge, Westminster, &c.) heard from many towers at the striking of the hours and quarters; or in hymn tunes played at intervals (e.g. of three hours) upon the church bells. The second method is peculiar to the “carillon” (q.v.), as found everywhere in Belgium, where with a set of from 20 or 30 to 60 or 70 bells a much wider scope for tunes and harmonies is provided than in English belfries, few of which have more than one octave of bells in one key only and none more than 12 bells. The carillons at Louvain and Bruges contain 40 bells, and that of Mechlin 44, while in the tower of Antwerp cathedral there are upwards of 90 bells, for the largest of which, cast in 1507, Charles V. stood sponsor at its consecration.

(2) Ringing by Hand.—Church bells may be “chimed” or “rung” (see above). One man can, as a rule, chime three bells, with a rope in each hand and one foot in the loop of another; but by the use of an “Ellacombe” or other chiming apparatus one man can work six, eight or ten bells. Some prefer the quieter sound of chiming as an introduction to divine service, but where a band of ringers is available and change-ringing is practised the bells as a rule are rung. The practice of “clocking” a bell, in which the clapper, by means of a cord attached to it and pulled from below, is allowed to swing against the bell at rest, is often employed to save trouble; but the jar is very likely to crack the bell. In ringing, or in true chiming, the bell is in motion when struck.

For ringing, a bell is pulled up and “set” mouth uppermost. She (to ringers a bell is feminine) is then pulled off, first at “handstroke” (i.e. with the hands on the “sally” or tufted portion of the rope, a few feet from its lower end) and then at “back-stroke” in the reverse direction (with the hands nearer the lower end, the rope having at the previous pull coiled round three-quarters of the wheel’s circumference), describing at each pull almost a full circle till she comes back to the upright position. At each revolution the swing is chiefly done by the weight of the bell, the ringer giving a pull of just sufficient strength to bring the bell back into the upright position; otherwise its swing would become gradually shorter till it remained at rest mouth downwards.

Change-ringing.—When a given number of bells are rung over and over again in the same order, from the highest note, or “treble,” to the lowest, or “tenor”—1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7—they are said to be rung in “rounds.” “Changes” are variations of this order—e.g. 2 1 3 5 4 7 6, 2 3 1 4 5 6 7; and “change-ringing” is the art of ringing bells in “changes,” so that a different “change” or rearrangement of order is produced at each pull of the bell-ropes, until, without any repetition of the same change, the bells come back into “rounds.” The general principle of all methods of change-ringing is that each bell, after striking in the first place or “lead,” works gradually “up” to the last place or “behind,” and “down” again to the first, and that no bell ever shifts more than one place in each change. Thus the ringer of any bell knows that whatever his position in one change, his place in the next will be either the same, or the place before or the place after. He does not have to learn by heart the different changes or variations of order; nor need he, unless he is the “conductor,” know the exact order of any one change. He has to bear in mind, first, which way his bell is working, viz. whether “up” from first to last place, or “down” from last to first; secondly, in what place his bell is striking; thirdly, what bell or bells are striking immediately before or after him—this being ascertained chiefly by “rope-sight,” i.e. the knack, acquired by practice, of seeing which rope is being pulled immediately before and after his own. He must also remember and apply the rules of the particular “method” which is being rung. The following table representing the first twenty changes of a “plain course” of “Grandsire Triples” (for these terms, see below) illustrates the subject-matter of this section:—