Copy 1, Volume 4

An historical miscellany of the curiosities and rarities in nature and art. Comprising new and entertaining descriptions of the most surprising volcanos, caverns, cataracts, whirlpools, waterfalls, earthquakes, thunder, lightning, and other wonderful and stupendous phenomena of nature.

Date:: [1794-1800]

Credit: An historical miscellany of the curiosities and rarities in nature and art. Comprising new and entertaining descriptions of the most surprising volcanos, caverns, cataracts, whirlpools, waterfalls, earthquakes, thunder, lightning, and other wonderful and stupendous phenomena of nature. Source: Wellcome Collection.

33/416 page 21

$rongen whan it thondreth, and wlian grctc tempefic and outrages of avether happen, to the endc that the feinds and wycked fpirvtes (hold be abafhed and flee, and ceale of tlie niovynge of tempclle.” Lobi-r nean obferves, that the cuflom of ringing bells at the approach of thunder, is of fonie antiquity ; but that the delign was not fo much to fhake the air, and fo diflipate the thunder, as to call the people to church to pray that the parifh might be preferved from that terrible meteor. In tlte Romifl) church, bells were-baptized and anointed clco Chrif- malis : they were cxorciled, and bleffed by the bidiop ; from a belief, that, when thele ceremonies were performed, they had power to drive the devil out of the air, to calm tempefls, to extinouifh fire, and to recreate even tlie dead. The ritual for thefe ceremonies is contained m the Roman pontifical \ vvhence the origin of '^ivinv to bells the name of feme faint. In Chauncey’s Hiflo^ry of llertford- • fhire, page 3S3, is a relation of the baptifm of a fet of bells in Italy with great ceremony, a fhort time before the writing that book. The bells of the parifh-church of Winnington in Bedford (hire had their names ca(t about the verge of every one in particular, wiill thefe rhiming he.xaineters: Nomina Campanis haec indita funt qiioque noflris. 1. Hoc (ignum Petri pulfatur nomine Chrifti. 2. Nomen Magdalene campana fonat melode, 3. Sit nomen Domini benediiflum femper in effm. 4. Mufa Raphaelis fonat auribus Immanniielis. 5. Sum Rofa pulfata mundique Maria vocata, JVeezj.Fun.ii:^. P.y an old chartulary, once in tlie pofTcffion of Weever the anti- quary, it appears that the bells of the priory of Little Dunmow in Llfex were, anno 1501, new caff, and baptized by the following names ^ Prima in honore Samfli Michaelis Archangeli. Secimda in hcnorc S. Johannis EvangelidK Tertia in honore S. Johannis Baptifii. in honore Airqmptionis beatae Marias, f^fu^intain honore fanfli Trinitatis, et omnium famflorum. /L633; The bells of 0(ney abbey near Oxford were very famous ; their Rvcral names were Douce, Clemgnr, Aufiin, Hauteaer [potius Hamclei i], Gabriel, and John. Tlie Riilliaii.', it is laid, liave a great paflion for bell-ringing ; and wc are told, tliat the great bell of Mofeow, weighs, according to Mr. Coxe, “ 432,000 pounds, and whicli exceeds in bignc(s every bell in tlie known world. Its fize is fo enormous, that I could irarcely have given credit to tlie account of its magnitude, if I had not cxaimned it myleif, and afcertaiiicd its diineiifions with great exactnefsy Its lieiglit is nineieen Icet, its circumference at the bot- tom twenty-one yards eleven inches, its greatelf thicknefs twenty- thice inches.” It was ca(l in the reign of the emprcls Anne ; but, the beam oy which it luin^bcing burnt, it fell, and a large piece is brokc.'i out (if it; fo that it lately lay in a ni.inner iifclefs. Mp. Bruce, in his late memoirs, mentions a bell at Mofeow, fomulcd in (.zar Boris’.s time, nineteen tect high, twenty-three in diameter, and tw o in f Irek nets, that weighed 336,000 pounds. Nankin in China was anciently famous for the largciicfs of its bells; but their cnofinyus weight brought down tlic tower, the w hole$