Both sets are reduced to about half size. (See pages 32, 49, 109.)]
I have said that, on the whole, the last fifty years have seen a great improvement in the treatment of bells and belfries; but only so lately as 1897, a recent writer, a keen ringer and expert in all relating to bells, had occasion to re-echo Mr. Lukis’ complaints. He points out, however, that the Central Council of Ringers, then recently formed, is doing excellent work by its reports on bell-hanging and similar matters.
Some of these remarks of Mr. A. H. Cocks, in his great work on Buckinghamshire bells, are so admirable and so instructive that I cannot forbear to quote them. He devotes himself to finding out the reasons _why bells crack_; and his conclusion is that such a thing _rarely happens except from sheer neglect_. Further, that while the sexton and ringers may be entrusted with the actual care and use of the bells, the real responsibility lies, in the first place, with the incumbent of the parish, and, in a lesser degree, with the churchwardens. The incumbent, it should be remembered, has the legal right of granting or refusing access to the bells, and of saying when they shall or shall not be rung.
“If all incumbents,” he says, “would remember that bell-hangings are _machines_, even if not quite so complicated as a steam-engine, and that all machines want a _little_ attention, the lamentable and disgraceful state of many of the belfries would cease; and we bell-hunters would no longer get the almost stereotyped, semi-apologetic statement, on making our request for the key, ‘I’m afraid you will find a great mess up there, but, to tell you the truth, I have never been up to them.’” As he aptly points out, ringers, who usually visit towers where the bells are ringable and everything in order, know little of these neglected places; but it is the incumbent’s duty to know what goes on under his supposed charge; and if he refuses, the authority of rural deans and archdeacons should step in to arouse him to his duty.
Let every incumbent, then, who “has never been up,” determine to visit his bells. He will doubtless find his trouble repaid, if they bear interesting inscriptions or devices; and if he finds the attempt attended by risk of life or limb, let him be persuaded to renew worn steps or broken ladder-rungs. If he finds the belfry or staircase full of animal and vegetable rubbish, let him take the simple but necessary step of fixing wire-netting over the windows, and cleanliness, once attained, should be easily preserved.