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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. APRIL ao, 10*.

PASSING-BELL. (10 th 13. i. 308.)

OCCASIONALLY in this town the passing- bell is rung at the time of the funeral. We have in the Museum attached to this building a very interesting relic in the shape of the "dead bell." It nas more than a passing interest, because it came through the fire on the occasion of the burning of the former Museum in 1898, when so many objects of old association were destroyed, among them being the Killiecrankie and Bannockburn flags.

Mr. George Watson, who was some time curator of this Museum, and wrote a most interesting brochure, 'The Annals of Jed- burgh Castle,' has a short paper in this month's Border Magazine on the dead bell, from which the following quotation is taken :

"The passing-bell, or soul bell as it was also termed, was tolled when a person was passing whence the term from this world into the next. In some parts it invited prayers on behalf of the soul of the dying person, and in other parts of the country intercession for the soul of the departed. This custom is distinctly referred to by Bede (A.D. 673-735) in connexion with the death of 8t Hilda. The former of these was owing to the current belief that devils lay in wait in order to afflict the soul the very moment it was separated from the body, the opinion being that the sound of the bell had the power to terrify the evil spirits... The custom of tolling the bell at funerals dates back fully seven centuries ; for Durand, who lived about the end of the twelfth century, informs us: A bell, too, must be rung when we are con- ducting the corpse to the church, and during the bringing it out of the church to the grave.' When thou dost hear a toll or knell Ihen think upon thy passing-bell.

t ."i A ?u ther J / the 'melancholy bells' employed at deaths and funerals was the dead bell ...... Upon

the death of a person in the times of which we speak, the intimation of such was immediately communicated to the inhabitants of the town or village. This was usually done,' says the Rev. Thomas Somerville, in his 'Life and Times' 1741-1814), 'by the beadle or kirk officer, who walked through the streets at a slow pace tinkling a small bell, sometimes called the dead bell and sometimes the passing-bell, and, with his head uncovered, intimated that a brother or sister! whose name was given, had departed this life A t ffiCer in ^burgh was obliged

myddfchaa ^ time to which

I refer

the rear of e 6mae r ? a "ves walked

rear of the funeral procession to the gate

r ? la "ves walked in

or

threshold of the churchyard, where they always

stopped and dispersed.' When the body was

removed in order for burial, the bellman took the bell and walked in front of the bier, giving notice of the approach of the funeral procession by an occasional toll of the bell. Such was the custom in Jedburgh, and the practice there is illustrated in the drawing of Jedburgh made by one of the French prisoners in 1812, in which a funeral, with the bellman proceeding in front, is seen under the bown clock on its way to the churchyard. Made by a John Meikel, of Edinburgh, it is nearly a century younger than Hawick dead bell, as is testified by the inscription \yhich the Jedburgh one formerly bore : 'John Meikel, me fecit. Edr., 1694.'"

J. LINDSAY HILSON. Public Library, Jedburgh.

In these parts the " passing-bell " is under- stood to be only a poetical phrase. Here, at least, it is popularly known as " the deed bell " _ (death bell). In our villages it is the practice, at the moment of death, to call up the sexton, who then goes to the church, ana, without delay, rings out the announcement. First of all he rings what are called " the tellers " ; then, after a pause, he continues to toll slowly on his great bell. In the English Dialect Society's ' Northumberland Glossary ' the tellers are thus described :

"Tellers, the successive strokes on a church bell, rung to tell the sex and age of a person just deceased. It is usual at village churches to knell the sex of an adult by nine strokes for a man, or six strokes for a woman, repeated on each of three bells. For a child three strokes are given and similarly repeated. Then follow a number of strokes on the treble bell to indicate the age, each stroke counting one year. In some places the age is given first."

In village life all are neighbours and are acquainted with the ordinary circumstances of each other's households ; so that the announcement of age and sex is generally sufficient for identification of the deceased person. When the function occurs through the night, its effect upon awakened villagers is a solemn experience, its impressiveness heightened by personal acquaintance with those for whom is heard the knell of the passing soul. II. OLIVER HESLOP.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The tolling of the church bell at the burial of a parishioner is a custom identical in its origin with, and complementary to, that of tolling at the actual passing of the soul of the deceased (see Brand's 'Antiquities,' Bohn, 1854, vol. ii. p. 203). The passing-bell was, I think, sometimes called the soul bell, and the custom was prevalent much later than 1732, when Nelson alludes to it in his ' Fasts and Festivals of the Church ' (p. 144). In hamlets and villages, where greater inti- macy prevails among the people than in