Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/50

 NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12!S. V.FEB, I9J9.

(A. R. Macdonell) claimed the dance. She finally said she would dance with neither of them. Macleod, who was standing near, told Glengarry not to tease her, and she danced with him and then left the ball.

Other witnesses deponed that Glengarry and Macleod then met in the messroom of the 79th Regiment, and in the course of a quarrel Glengarry struck Macleod with a stick and kicked him. Macleod immediately sent a challenge to Glengarry ; and when the parties met, Glengarry's seconds offered an apology, which Macleod refused to accept, as Glengarry would not hand over the stick with which he had struck him. Glengarry's ball passed through Macleod' s right armpit into his back. The wound was thought at the time not to be serious ; the principals shook hands, and mutually apologized. The jury returned a verdict of " not guilty," and expressly stated that they based their verdict on the fact that Glengarry had offered an apology before the duel.

JOHN A. INGLIS.

[G. thanked for reply.]

HAMPSHIRE CHURCH BELLS.

(12 S. iv. 188, 341.)

MUCH speculative interest has been aroused in the minds of many campanologists by the mystery which still shrouds the personality of two bell -founders whose initials, " R. B." and "I. H.," appear inscribed on many Hampshire bells. The queries arise, Who' were they, and where were their foundries located ?

The writer of the all too brief notes on Hampshire church bells in the Victoria County History alludes to R. B. as " an unknown founder " or "a founder R. B.," and to a bell as " having the founder's initials R. B." There are some twenty-three bells in the county cast by this founder in the interval 1595-1622, seven of the series being in the Isle of Wight.

The simple epigraph " God be our guyd " is inscribed on eight of the bells, " Geve God the glory " on three, " In God is my hope " on a like number ; " Geve thanks to God " appears on two, whilst " Love God " and " I live in hope " are inscribed on single bells. The remaining five have the initials with the date of casting only.

Another R. B., but not a church bell, is located in the westernmost of the six em- brasures on the south side of the ancient

Bargate at Southampton. The bell is referred to by the Rev. Silvester Davies in his history of that town as

" one of three or four bells at different stations, which answered one another in ringing the watches or sounding alarms. The present boll bears the inscription ' In God is my hope B. B.,* with the date 1605."

Mr. H. B. Walters, 'Church Bells of England' (1912), writes, on p. 220:

" The post-Reformation foundries in Sussex and Hants are of little importance. Many bells in Hants, between 1571 and 1624, bear the initials, of an unknown ' B. B.,' and others, between 1616 and 1652. those of I. H."

He adds : " Both men were probably resident at Winchester or Southampton."

From the dates an inference may be drawn that two distinct series of bells have been cast by founders whose identity has been hidden under the R. B. initials ; indeed, such would almost seem to have been the case. Dr. Amherst D. Tyssen, ' Church Bells of Sussex ' (ed. 1915), writes :

" The early Elizabethan bells are still involved in mystery. .. .nor do we know what name is. indicated by the initials B. B. which occur on five bells in Sussex, dated 1571 and 1572. Mr. Cocks (' Bucks,' p. 195) and Mr. North (' Butland,* p. 48) give an account of a bell-founder named Bichard Benetly or Bentley, who was living at this time ; but his work is very different from the B. B. bells of Sussex. I have notes of nine bells, in the south of Hampshire, and six more in the Isle of Wight, ranging from 1598 to 1614, bearing the initials of B. B., but these have fuller inscrip- tions than our Sussex B. B. bells, besides being; somewhat later."

Mr. North, ' Church Bells of Northampton- shire ' (1878), also alludes to Richard Benetlye :

" At Passenham hangs a bell the fourth inscribed :

-f A + TRVSTY + FRENDE -f IS + H ARDE -f TO -f FYNDB

+ 1585.

The initial cross [fig. given] is also placed as a stop between each word. The founder of this bell I trace by the same initial cross and form of letter which is a large semi-Gothic-Boman one being- found upon the third ^bell at Seaton, Butland^ which is inscribed :

-f RYECHARDE BENETLYE BELLFOVNDDER

It is worthy of notice," Mr. North adds, " how these bells help to explain each other : the one gives the founder's name, the other his date.. The location of his foundry has still to be learned.'*

Mr. H. B. Walters, 'Church Bells of England' (1912), in the chapter on 'Post- Reformation Foundries ' refers to one at Colchester, and names Richard Bowler, the- originator of the foundry, as casting bells there between 158? and 1604 a man of some artistic taste who used ornamental Gothia