Church Bells And Their Associations.

CHURCH BELLS AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS .

BY BRO . THOMAS B . TROAVSDALE , Author of " Glimpses of Olden Kent , " "Lore of the Months , " etc . THE tones of the church bell haA'e ever exercised a sort of mystic influence over the human mindand in the dark ageswhen ignorance stalked

, , abroad in our land , bells were regarded with superstitious veneration . Who amongst us can hear , without catching something of the spirit they joyously disseminate , the merry wedding chimes , throwing all around a spell of happy gladness ; who can listen unmoved to the tolling of the passing bell , so slow , so deep , so sad , telling how a soul is winging its flight away from the earth for eA'er . Who has not heard , ancl felt better for hearing , however

unmindful of spiritual things he may be , " The sound of the church-going bell , " sending forth on some calm Sabbath morning its hallowed music , seeming , as it were , to re-echo the glad , SAveet song of peace on earth carolled forth b y the angels to the wondering shepherds of Bethlehem eighteen centuries ago . - We cannot wonder , with such associations as these , that bells have become interwoven Avith many a legend , quaint ancl old , ancl formed the subject of

many a strange and interesting story . In the general destruction ancl distribution of church property which occurred in the reign of Henry VIII ., countless bells were melted down for the sake of the metal . Tales of many curious coincidences attending this wholesale appropriation have been related . Ships attempting to carry bells across the seas foundered shortly after leaving land , as at Lynn and Yarmouth ; ancl fourteen of the Jersey bells being wrecked at the entrance of the harbour of St . Malo , a saying arose to the effect that when the wind blows the drowned bells are ringing . A certain Bishop of Bangor , too , who sold the bells of his

cathedral , is said to have been stricken with blindness when he went to see them shipped ; and Sir Miles Partridge , AA'I IO won the Jesus bells of St . Paul's , London , from King Henry , at dice , was not long afterwards hanged on Tower Hill . These bells , four in number , were staked by King Henry against one hundred pounds , and his opponent won . Camden relates a singular legend having reference to the bells of Ledbury Church , Herefordshire . A chapel on the north side of Ledbury Church is dedicated to Saint Catherineof whom

, Camden gives the folloAving account : — " Catherine Audley , or , as she is commonly called , St . Catherine , was a religions woman in the reign of Edward the Second , and had a maid named Mabel , ancl not being fixed in any settled place , she had a revelation that she should not set up her rest until she came to a town where the bells should ring of themselves . She ancl her maid , coming near Ledbury , heard the bells ring , though the church doors were shut

ancl no ringers there . Here , then , she determined to spend the remainder of her clays , ancl build a hermitage , living on herbs and milk . The king , in consideration of her birth ancl piety , or both , granted her an annuit y of £ 30 . " The church at Boscastle , Cornwall ( anciently called Bottreaux ) , has no bells ; but tradition says a peal Avas ordered on the Continent ancl there cast , but the vessel which was bringing them oA'er to Boscastle sank within sight of the

church toiver , of course losing the bells beneath the waves . It was said that the cause of the ship ' s foundering was a direct intervention of Almighty power , in reproof of the irreverence of the captain . The pilot , so runs the story , was a Boscastle man , ancl on sighting his native coast , he exclaimed , "Thank God ! we shall reach the shore Avith evening ' s tide ; " to which the captain mockingly