as a signal for good men to offer up their prayers for the dying. Aliquo moriente Campanae debent pulsari, ut Populus hoc audiens oret pro illo.' Durandi Rationale." He is citing Donne's Letter to Sir Henry Wotton in verse: And thicken on you now, as prayers ascend To heaven on troops at a good man's Passing Bell. The following simile expresses well the heavy knell of large Soul Bells : Night Jars and Ravens, with wide stretched throats The ominous Raven with a dismal chear Through his hoarse beak of following horror tells, With heavy echos like to Passing Bells. There are some minor laws and regulations with respect to the mode of ringing the Passing Bell in our parish churches, and indeed in those of most European countries, which may be noticed here for the information of the general reader. When a person dies, immediate notice is given to the Clerk, or Sexton, who causes to be rung in consequence a greater or less bell, according to the rank, age, or youth of the parties. Thus a grandee has always the aid of the greatest bell, the soul of a very old person is allowed the same privilege, the common people a smaller one, and a lesser bell still for children, particularly if born of low parents: so that aristocracy extends itself even to the aid afforded to the manes of the dead in their critical passage out of this to another life. But whatever may be the rank of the parties the rule for the mode of ringing the bell is not changed, sex alone determining this. At first the bell is what they call tolled, that is, the clapper hits only one side of it, and the wheel has but little play, the sound of tolling being deep and mournful after tolling awhile, they raise the bell by a larger play of the wheel, and the clapper hits the two sides alternately as the wheel revolves backwards and forwards, this is ringing it out; they then lower it again, and give three solemn strokes three times repeated for a man, and two or three times repeated for a woman. When a ringer dies they honour his departing spirit with a dumb peal, the clappers of all the bells being muffled so as to give a dull sound. There is this passage in Shakespeare's Henry the Fourth, Part II. Some Antiquaries think that the Soul Bell or Passing Bell was originally intended to drive away any daemon that might seek to take possession of the soul of the deceased. In the cuts to those Horae which contain the service of the dead, several devils are waiting for this purpose in the chamber of the dying man, to whom the priest is administering extreme unction. Many weak persons feel uncomfortable at the sound of the bell at eight in the evening, commonly rung in most parishes, which is a remnant of the Curfew, merely because its dismal and measured strokes resemble those of the Passing Bell. A gentleman mentioned to us the peculiar melancholy effect which it had on him when he first left home, and heard it from the steeple of Bury St. Edmonds the first night of his journey. In Ray's Collection of old English Proverbs, we find the following verse : When thou dost hear a toll or knell, Then think upon thy Passing Bell. Lord have mercy on the soul. On the ringing of bells to drive away spirits much may be collected from Magius de Tintinnabulis. See also Swinburne's Travels in the Two Sicilies, 4to. vol. i. p. 98. The small bells which are seen in ancient representations. of hermitages were most probably intended to drive away evil spirits. St. Anthony, they say, stood in particular need of such assistance. See some curious particulars upon the subject of bells in Sir Henry Spelman's History of Sacrilege, p. 284 & seq. The same learned writer, in his Glossary, v. Campana, has preserved two monkish lines on the subject of the ancient offices of bells : Laudo Deum verum, Plebem voco, congrego Clerum, The following monkish rhymes on bells are in "A Helpe to Discourse," Lond. 1633: En ego Campana, nunquam denuntio vana, We shall resume the subject of bells on November 6; meanwhile, we recommend to the notice of the reader the beautiful observations on Bells recorded by M. Chateaubriand in the third volume of his Génie du Chrétienisme, Chap. Première, Des Cloches. The Descent of an Angel at Helstone.-It is said in an old Cornish legend, and is still believed by some persons, that the tutelary Angel of Helstone in Cornwall annually comes down from heaven on each anniversary of the dedication, and that she sits on the weathercock which surmounts the steeple of that church. November 3. St. Wenefrede of Wales V. M. St. Malachy. St. Hubert. St. Papoul. St. Flour. St. Rumwald. St. Wenefrede was a holy Virgin of exemplary piety who was murdered by the infamous Caradoc Prince of North Wales; an account of which may be found in Butler's Lives of the Saints, and also in a small publication on the Miracles performed at Holywell, by the Right Reverend Dr. Milner. At the place where she was immolated, a well of pure water sprung up, the stones at the bottom of which were marked with red streaks, in memory of her innocent blood shed on that spot, to which spring, so celebrated for its miraculous cures, the following lines allude: : Ad Basingwerk fons oritur, See Pan. Higd. Polychron. xv. At this well was performed the wonderful cure of Miss Winifred White, a miracle regularly attested by between twenty and thirty witnesses; and of which Dr. Milner has given a detailed account in his "End of Religious Controversy;" and also in a separate pamphlet, published by Keating and Brown of London. See May 3d and August 1st. Mr. Pennant, speaking of St. Wenefride's Well, in Flintshire, says: "A bell belonging to the church was also christened in honour of her. I cannot learn the names of the gossips, who, as usual, were doubtless rich persons. On the ceremony they all laid hold of the rope, bestowed a name on the bell, and the Priest, sprinkling it with holy water, baptized it in the name of the Father, &c. &c.; he then clothed it with a fine garment. After this the Gossips gave a grand feast, and made great presents, which the Priest received in behalf of the bell. Thus blessed, it was endowed with great powers, allayed all storms, diverted the thunderbolt, drove away evil Spirits. These consecrated bells were always inscribed. The inscription on that in question ran thus: 'Sancta Wenefreda, Deo hoc commendare memento, And a little lower was another address :— 'Protege prece pia quos convoco, Virgo Maria."" Mr. Ellis has the following remark in his edition of Brand: -"Our British Topography abounds with accounts of Holy Wells, or such as had assigned them, by ancient superstition, most extraordinary properties. These ideas, so far from being worn out in this enlightened age, are still retained by the vulgar, not only in the distant provinces, but also close to the metropolis itself. Thus we read in the Account of Tottenham High Cross, in The Ambulator,' 4th edit. 1790, In a brick field on the west side of the great road, belonging to Mr. Charles Saunders, is St. Loy's Well, which is said to be always full, and never to run over; and in a field opposite the Vicarage House, rises a spring called Bishop's Well,' of which the common people report many strange cures.' Borlase, in his Natural History of Cornwall, p. 31, speaking of Madern Well, in the parish of Madern, tells us:-"Here people who labour under pains, aches, and stiffness of limbs, come and wash; and many cures are said to have been performed. Hither also, upon much less justifiable errands, come the uneasy, impatient, and superstitious, and by dropping pins or pebbles into the water, and by shaking the ground round the Spring, so as to raise bubbles from the bottom, at a certain time of the Year, Moon, and Day, endeavour to settle such doubts and inquiries as will not let the idle and anxious rest.—As great a piece of folly as this may be, it is a very ancient one. The Castalian Fountain, and many others among the Grecians, were supposed to be of a prophetic nature. By dipping a fair mirror into a well, the Patraeans of Greece received, as they supposed, some notice of ensuing sickness or health, from the various figures pourtrayed upon the surface. In Laconia they cast cakes of corn into a pool sacred to Juno: if they sunk, good was portended; if they swam, something dreadful was to ensue. Sometimes they threw three stones into the water, and formed their conclusions from the several turns they made in sinking. See also Stowe's Survey of London, under the account of Clerkenwell, &c. CHRONOLOGY. - Drake returned from his voyage round the world 1580. COELUM. On this day, being Sunday, in 1803, at eight in the evening, a large fiery meteor of unusual brilliancy, was seen in the neighbourhood of London. FLORA. Our botanical observations now can only record a few remaining fungi, and other cryptogamia; after which, the Botanist who is enthusiastic enough, may grope through fogs and mists, and over ground damp and slippery from the fallen leaves. For by this time, as a modern poet says All the pride Of the sweet garden fades. Where now the Rose, Upon the cheek of Nature? Where blooms now Under the cottage eaves? Where waves the leaf, |