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Custom. Whence we seem to have derived the nocern Compliment of welcoming Persons of Consence by a cheerful Peal.

Durandt, whose Superstition often makes one surie, is of Opinion that Devils are much afraid of Bel's, and dy away at the Sound of them. That Ritualist would have thought it a Prostitution of the sacred Utensils, had he heard them rung, as they are here with the greatest Impropriety, on winBing a long Main at Cock-fighting.-He would perhaps have talked in another Strain, and have represented these aerial Enemies as lending their Assistance to ring them.

In the populous, commercial Town, from whence 1 date these observations, Church Bells have not been confined to ecclesiastical Uses; they have also w.great Propriety been adapted to civil PurpoPoses - The tolling of the great Bell of St. Nicholas'

Car pulsatio in adventu Episcoporum et Abbatum in Aoices, pae as subuitæ sunt, antiquus mos.

Vide Du Cange. Gloss. verb. Campara. Dala Oberiouster Nangiì. An. 1878. Carolum quartanı Imperaeven ca in Gallam venit, nullo Campanarum somitu exceptum sex, good id sit signum dominti: “ Et est assavoir que en visą die Ville, et semblablement partoutes les autres Villes, ou il Pavery tant eo venant à Paris, comme en son retour, il n'a esté www.et quoique Eglise à Procession, ne Cloches sonnées a son ve1 jale, pe faut dann sjeme de queique domination, &c." Ibid. PLC davanter timentes fugiant-Timent enim auditis Tubis Ectootes, scilvit campaois; sicut aliquis Tyrannus timet, devişan za Torra sua tubas al'enfes potentis regis inimici sui.

• Durand. Rational. Lib. 1. c. 4. 1hem a a eweus Passage in Fuler's History of Waltham abbey. 1. A p42, tõe 34th or Henry VIII. relative to the Wages It is case ved from the Church-wardens Accounta

gatta Pace his coming a Penny."

Church

Church here, is an ancient Signal for our Burgesses to convene on Guild-Days, and on the Day of electing Magistrates:-Our little Carnival* on Pancake Tuesday commences by the same Signal:A Bell, usually called the Thief and † Reever Bell, proclaims our two annual Fairs :-A' peculiar Kind of Alarm is given by a Bell on Accidents of Fire: -A Bell is rung at six every Morning (except Sundays and Holidays) with a view it should seem of calling up the Artisans to their daily Employment; and we retain also a Vestige of the old Norman Curfew at eight in the Evening.-Our Bells are muffled on the 30th of January; for which I find no precedent of Antiquity; their sound on that occasion is peculiarly plaintive.

Distinction of Rank is preserved here in the tolling of the Soul-Bell; an high Fee excludes the common People, and appropriates to the Death of Persons of Consequence the tolling the great Bell of each Church on this Occasion.-With us too (as Durand orders above) a Bell is tolled, and sometimes Chimes are rung, a little before the Burial, and while they are conducting the Corpse to Church:

* Vide Pancake-Tuesday in the Appendix. Reever, a Robber. To reeve, to spoil or rob.

Speght's Glossary to Chaucer.

William the Conqueror, in the first Year of his Reign, commanded that in every Town and Village, a Bell should be rung every Night at eight o'clock, and that all people should then put out their Fire and Candle and go to Bed. The ringing of this Bell was called in French, Curfew; i. e. Cover-Fire. Ibid.

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They chime or ring too in some places while the grave is filling up.

There seems to be nothing intended by tolling the passing Bell at present, but to inform the Neighbourhood of any Person's Death, and I am much mistaken if our Author's very pious Exhortation will ever be able to revive the primitive Use of it.

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*

I know not how the present Generation will relish his Reflections in this and many subsequent Chapters: Serious Animadversions of this Sort seem by no Means pleasing to the refined Taste of our Age. We plainly discover an Intention of uniting Entertainment with Utility in his little Sermons; which, it must be confessed, are not always delivered in the most agreeable Manner.-He does not always stick by his Text:-His inferences are often far fetched :-His good Meaning, however, must atone for some little Deficiencies of Stile, and Penury of Composition.-Men, provided with keen Appetites for this kind of Entertainment, will con

* Mr. Bourne complains in his Preface of the invidious Behaviour of some of his Townsmen :-It is beneath a Man, conscious of inward Worth, to complain of that which he ought always to despise.-Posterity seems to have done him very ample Justice for their Insults:-A Copy of the Antiquitates Fulgares has of late fetched seven or eight Shillings in London.-Many perhaps will think the Purchasers mistook an Accident for Merit, and con-founded the Idea of Scarceness with that of intrinsic Value.-I received this Information from one of the Society of Antiquaries, who understands the Subject too well himself to be mistaken in his Opinion of the Merit of those who have written upon it. On the the Weight of that Opinion alone I have been induced to preserve every Line that our Author has left us in that Work.

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tent themselves with the homely Manner in which he has served it up to them.-Indeed Squeamishness in this Particular would but ill suit the Study of the English Antique. A great deal of wholesome Meat of this Sort has been brought on upon wooden PlatNice Guests will think our famous old Cook, Mr. Hearne himself, but a very coarse and greasy Kind of Host.

ters.

In fine, I have not presumed to violate my Author's Text, lest I should seem to play the Empiric, and lay the Foundation of my own little Structure upon the Ruins of his.

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CHAP. II.

Of Watching with the Dead. WATCHING with the Corpse was an antient Custom of the Church, and every where practised. They were wont to sit by it, from the Time of its Death till its Exportation to the Grave, either in the House it died in, or in the Church itself. Agreeable to this, we read in St. Austin, That as they watched his Mother Monica, * Euodius took the Psalter, and began to sing a Psalm, which the whole Family answered with that of the Psalmist David, I will sing of Mercy and Judgment, unto thee, O LORD, will I sing. And we are told, That at the Death of St. Ambrose, his body was carried into the Church before Day, the same Hour he died. It was the Night before Easter, and they watched with him there.

How unlike to this ancient Custom of

Psalterium arripuit Euodius, & cantare cæpit psalmum, cui respondebamus omnes demus: Miserecordiam & judicium cantabo tibi Domine. Aug. L.9. Corpes. C.12.

Ad ecclesiam adelucana hora qua defunctus est, corpus ipsius portatuan est: ibique eadem fuit nocte, quam vigilavimus in pacha. Greg. Taron. de Gloria, Confes. C. 104.

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