London's Famous Bow Bells Ring Again

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1933, Page 18

London's Famous Bow Bells Ring Again

London's' famous Bow Bells, silent for the past six years, are now ringing again. They were mute so long because two of them were' cracked and tho.rest were out of order and no funds wW» available for repair's.' But,'thanks Vo E. Gordon Self ridge, the American merchant, of London, who gave 4500 dollars for the purpose, the "Bells of Bow" were finally recast, while other donors made it possible to repair the tower and steeple of St. Mary-le-Bow, writes Haydori "Church from' London to the "New York Times." "With the bells restored, it is possible once more to identify children born in this metropolis as Co6kneys—in other words,, genuine Londoners —for the ancient saying limits the title to those born "within the sound of Bow Bells." Comparatively few, one imagines, will be in a position to make such a claim, because with London almost as noisy as New York, it is doubtful if the sound of this famous peal will carry very far. Bow Bells take their names from the ancient Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, one of the most beautiful of London's City churches. It stands about midway between St. Paul's Cathedral and the Bank of England, in a busy street that is oddly named Cheapsidc, and in olden times was known simply as Cheap. Bow Church, as it is popularly known, wag built by Sir Christopher Wren, and its steeple, 235 feet high, is generally regarded as his masterpiece. "Queen of city steeples; richer in design imd more majestic than any," one enthusiast termed it. ' Probably few Americans are aware — and even fewer Londoners, for that matter —that St. Mary-le-Bow has a sister church across the Atlantic in Trinity Church, New York. Trinity received a charter from King William 111, giving a. special vestry the same facilities of conduct as were exercised by St. Mary-le-Bow. In this charter the Lord Bishop of London was named as first rector and one of the paragraphs reads as follows: —"The constitution and statutes of this parish lfere framed after the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow in the City of London, where of old the Archbishops of Canterbury were consecrated and of which the traditions *nd suetoms sere pre-

served in this distant land beyond the sea." Trinity Church, too, possesses several relics of Bow Church. "Bow Bells" are famous in song and story. It was their musical chimes, according to tradition, that lured the runaway apprentice, Dick Whittingfon —to whom they seemed to say, "Turn again, AVhittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London"—back to the City from Highgate Hill to achieve his lofty destiny. Ever since medieval times, these bells have played a part in the life of London. It is not certain just how early the church that originally stood on this site in Cheapside was built, but in the fourteenth century the biggest of its bells, which then numbered six, used to ring the curfew. Later the "big boll of Bow" sounded tho hour at which work in the district should begin and end. A silk merchant, or mercer, as they were called then, Bouno by name, had bequeathed two tenements in Hosier Lane, nearby that the rents might pay for the daily ringing of the tenor bell as a signal | for the workers. It was to ring at six in tho morning nnd eight in the evening—a long day, made longer sometimes by a dilatory clerk—for the parish clerk rang the bell. And so there was invented the oft-quoted rhyme: Clerkc of the Bow Bell, with the yellow lockea. For thy lute ringing thy head shall have knocks. Children nf Chenne, hold you all still, You shall have the Bow Bell rung at your will. The original church was destroyed, and ils bells with it, in the Great Tire of 1G66. This was the first church rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the firr>, and was finished in 1680. Wren built its steeple on walls left by the first Roman settlers, part of the church rising over the arches or "bows" of a Norman ruin still visible in the crypt of the present church. St. Mary's took its name from these "bows." A new set of bells was cast for the new church and.another new set, numbering ten, was supplied to the belfry J in the middle of the eighteenth century. Tho tenor bell—which weighs two and a half., tons —with the nine other bells then existing in the tower, was recast in 1762, and until it; cracked about seven years ago had given little tronbfo.