Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/132

Rh passing to ringe no more but one shorte peale ; and one before the buriall, and another short peale after the burialL" Shakespeare, in his " Henry IV." (second part), says :—

In "Ray's Collection of Old English Proverbs" occurs the following couplet : —

In "Articles to be enquired of throughout the Diocese of Chichester," 1638 (also quoted by Brand), under the head of " Visitation of the sicke, and persons at the point of death," we read : " In the meane time is there a passing-bell toUed, that they who are within the hearing of it may be moved in their private devotions to recommend the state of the departing soule into the hands of their Redeemer, a duty which all Christians are bound to, out of a feUow-feeling of their common mortality." The following, also, is from " Articles of Visitation for the Diocese of Worcester, 1662 :" — " Doth the parish clerk, or sexton, take care to admonish the living by tolling of a passing-beU of any that are dying, thereby to meditate of their own deaths, and to commend the other's weak condition to the mercy of God ?"

The custom of tolling the "Passing Bell" seems to have been long laid aside in this neighbour- hood, and in its place one of the bells of St. Ann's tolls during the early part of the morning for those who have passed away during the night. In the evening, at eight o'clock, the beD is again tolled, for a short time, for each individual, so long as the corpse remains unburied, and it is usual to make a numerical distinction at the conclusion of this ceremony : La, nine knells for a man, six for a woman, and three for a child. The bell of St. Ann's is, also, again tolled as the funeral cortege passes along the streets, and that of St, Andrew's as it approaches the churcL A custom (now fallen into disuse) of ringing the beU of St. Ann's at eleven o'clock on Shrove- Tuesday, was observed in Bishop Auckland when the writer was a boy. This was called the "Pancake Bell," and was an intimation for the housewives to set on their frying-pans, for the purpose of cooking' the pancakes. It also served as a signal for a general dismissal of the boys from the schools of the town for a half-day's holiday. But this custom seems to have been pretty universal, as we read in " Poor Robin's Almanack," for February, 1684 : —

Taylor, the Water Poet, in his " Jack-a-Lent Workes," 1630, gives the following curious account of the custom; — " Shrove-Tuesday, at whose entrance in the morning all the whole Kingdom is in quiet, but by the time the clock strikes eleven, which (by the help of a knavish sexton) is commonly before nine ; then there is a bell rung, called the Pancake-bell, the sound whereof makes thousands of people distracted, and forgetfull either of manners or humanitie ; then there is a thing cald wheaten floure, which the cooks doe mingle with water, egges, spice, and other tragicall, magicall inchantments, and then they put it by little and little into a frying- pan of boyling suet, where it makes a confused dismall hissing (like the Leamean snakes in the reeds of Achiron, Stix, or Phlegeton), untill at last, by the skill of the cook, it is transfermed into the forme of a Flap-jack, cal'd a Pancake, which ominous incantation the ignorant people doe devoure very greedily."

Blessed bells were also regarded formerly as having the power of dispelling thunder and other storms, and appeasing the wrath of heaven- In 1464, is a charge in the churchwardens' accounts of Sandwich for bread and drink for "ryngers in the great thunderyng." "In the Bumynge of Paules Church in London, 1561, we find eniunerated," says Brand, "ringinge the ludlowed belle in great tempestes or lightninges." Dr. Francis Herring, in " Certain Bules,