Before the bells they could be sold,
They were forc’d to swear, as we’ve been told,
They forswore themselves—then they cried.
For this, my boys, we shall be tried.
And O! you Fulbourn farmers O!
There is old Twig, and young Twig—the whining dissenter,
Says one to the other, this night we will venture;
And says little Gibble-Gabble, I long for to go.
But first I will call my neighbour Swing-toe:
And O! you Fulbourn farmers O!
In the dead of the night this thievish crew
Broke into the church, as other thieves do,
For to steal the bells and sell them all,
May the d—l take such churchwardens all;
And O! you Fulbourn farmers O!
This ballad is said to have been the production of one William Rolfe, a labourer. It was probably written soon after the act passed. The new peal was brought home on the 9th of May, 1776, so that it was not a year from the passing of the act to the casting of the bells.
After the bill had been perused by counsel, Mr. Edward Hancock, the rector’s churchwarden, conducted it through both houses of parliament without the expense of a solicitor; sir John Cotton, one of the members for the county, forwarding it in the different stages through the House of Commons. So earnest were the populace about the bells, (when they were satisfied they were to have a new peal of six,) that after they were loaded they drew them a furlong or more before the horses were put to the waggon. The tenor was cast in G sharp, or old A. Mr. Edmund Andrews Salisbury rode on the great bell, when it was drawn up within the steeple, and his was the first death this bell was rung for; he was buried 8th July, 1776. The motto on this bell is—
“I to the church the living call—
And to the grave I summon all.”
Mr. Charles Dawson was the author of the complete peal of Plain Bob, called “The Fulbourn Surprise” with 154 bobs, and two singles, and 720 changes. The peal was opened December 7, 1789.
ST. THOMAS’S DAY.
Mr. Day’s Short Day.
Mr. Thomas Day, of D——t, Wilts, used, when living, to give his workmen on St. Thomas’s Day a holiday, a short pint of his ale, an ounce of short-cut tobacco, and a short pipe, in remembrance of his name. “For,” said he,—in a couplet decidedly his own,—