Pray add the following savoury inscriptions to your next list of bell-mottoes. The first disgraces the belfry of St. Paul's, Bedford; the second, that, of St. Mary's, Islington:
"At proper times my voice I'll raise,
And sound to my subscribers' praise!"
"At proper times our voices we will raise,
In sounding to our benefactors' praise!"
The similarity between these two inscriptions favours the supposition that the ancient bell-founders, like some modern enterprising firms, kept a poet on the establishment, e.g.
"Thine incomparable oil, Macassar!"
J. Yeowell.
A friend informs me, that on a bell in Durham Cathedral these lines occur:
"To call the folk to Church in time,