ANCIENT BELLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1037, 30 July 1930, Page 6

ANCIENT BELLS

FOR GARDEN ORNAMENTS SOMETHING REALLY NEW Garden lovers are often on the look-out for some form of garden ornamentation that shall he out of the common. To be heard at their best, bells should be out of doors. It is fitting, therefore, that the owner of two bells in a London suburb should have hit upon this method of ornamenting a corner of his garden. The bells are mounted on a stout oak frame. One or other of (hem is sometimes used to summon the owner from the neighbouring Higligate golf links when he is wanted at home to answer an urgent telephone call. The upper bell was removed from Bellmore, the house occupying the highest position in Hampstead, when that residence was recently demolished. The lower bell was taken from the belfry of the celebrated Bulwer Lytton's house at Totteridge, when that, also, was pulled down during the prevailing craze for “developing” estates which, in many cases, are too large foi the occupation of a single landowner in the old grand manner. One bell is dated 1806. Like its companion, it has acquired a beautiful bronze-green weathering; and. both being veterans of the open air, they are, it will be agreed, appropriately placed in their present setting.

DUCK DECANTERS The new wine decanters are made of deep green or red glass in the shape of ducks. The birds have their wings folded back to form a handle, and their heads are made of silver, with a long beak through which the drink ■emerges. To fill the decanters one has merely to unscrew the silver head, where it joints the glass, and pour the liquid inside. ,