Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/317

Charles Dickens] archives of the company are displayed on the table, before the master, who fills the chair. We are shown a curious old silver bell, fixed on a silver mounted staff, which in old days were carried before the members of the society when they went on the 5th of November, as was their annual custom, to St. Mary-le-Bow to attend divine service. This is looked upon as the palladium of the society. The company also boast an old-fashioned two-handled silver cup, won in fair fight, as its inscription records: "This cup, the gift of Mr. Peter Bluck, of Sonning, in the county of Berks, was adjudged to the Society of College Youths for the superior stile"—the engraver's orthography at fault here—"in which they rang ten hundred and eight bob major in a contest with Oxford and Farnham Societies, at the above parish church, on Monday, August 4, 1783."

Among the archives are the name book, which contains the names of the members from the remotest time: the peal book, to which allusion has already been made, records their performances. The first entry in this book contains the names of the ringers, and the description of a peal rung at St. Bride's in January, 1724. Prior to that date these records were not kept with so much care as is now the case. The calligraphic achievements and decorations in the old book are not so brilliant as those in the new, but are always neat and in good taste.

Our obliging informant points out the most celebrated recorded peals for our admiration, and although we are by this time a little bewildered with caters, and bobs, and trebles, we are gratified to find that on the 27th April, 1861, the society rang a peal of cinques on Stedman's principle, at St. Michael's, Cornhill, which contained eight thousand five hundred and eighty changes, lasted six hours and forty-one minutes, and was the greatest number of changes ever rung in that intricate manner on twelve bells. It also pleases us to know that our friends accomplished in three hours and forty-two minutes, at St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, a peal of Stedman's caters (or cators) containing five thousand and eighty-one changes, and considered (although this looks a little egotistical on the part of the society) the finest performance on record.

If, however, this phrase seems to savour a little of patting oneself on the back, the ancient youths are justly entitled to be proud of their greatest achievement—an achievement so great that it has impelled them to have it recorded on an ornate glazed card, a distinction conferred on no other peal. By this decorative document it appears that on the 27th of April, 1868, a true peal of Kent treble-bob major, containing fifteen thousand eight hundred and forty changes, was rung at St. Matthews, Bethnalgreen, in nine hours and twelve minutes. This was the longest peal ever rung by one set of men. and certainly seems a considerable feat.

The bells of St. Saviours. Southwark, which we have just been ringing, are the heaviest peal in London, although the Bow Church tenor is heavier than our refractory friend. These appear to be the favourite bells in London; the heaviest peal of eight bells in England is in Exeter.

The flow of information is here interrupted by a suggestion that the society may like to hear a touch on the hand-bells, and this proposition being received with great favour, the hand-bells are produced and half a dozen college youths taking each two bells, and drawing their chairs into a circle away from the table, play up manfully. If it is difficult to remember and execute the part one bell has to take in a peal, it must be maddening to have charge of two bells. Of course the absence of the mechanical labour is in favour of the hand-bell ringer.

The precision of these ringers was marvellous. We could not have supposed it possible that such sweet sounds and such musical combinations could have been produced by a dozen hand-bells, and the members of the society present, experts be it remarked, appeared as pleased as the ignorant visitors. The ringers were all college youths of long experience and vast learning, but were nevertheless not insensible to the admiration and applause which greeted the termination of the touch.

The Society of College Youths was founded in 1637, by Lord Brereton and Sir Cliff Clifton, for the purpose of promoting the art of change ringing. It is said that the name is derived from the fact that the young gentlemen of the City were in the habit of chiming rounds on the bells of the College of St. Spirit and Mary, near College-hill, Thames-street, a foundation of Sir Richard Whittington's, and afterwards destroyed in the great fire. The society made good progress, and bears many noble and distinguished names on its early rolls; but its performances must have been of a tame and monotonous nature at first. The members began with simple rounds and changes, and it was not until about 1642 that any complicated changes were rung. Even then very little progress was made, until Stedman, the father of change ringing, appeared. The college youths visited Cambridge, where this Caxton of bells lived, and performed the first peal on his principles, at St. Benet's, in that town, and he, in return presumably, dedicated to the society his Campanologia, an elaborate treatise on bell ringing, published about this time. From this period the art made rapid progress, and intricate peals soon began to be recorded.

The society having outlived its first youth, now dubbed itself the Ancient Society of College Youths; and we find that in 1718 they, in conjunction with the London scholars, presented St. Bride's with two bells to complete the set of twelve. For about sixty years the head-quarters of the society were at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields; since 1849 they have been at St. Saviour's, Southwark.

The list of members is curious. Several lord mayors are to be found in it, including a