ty, and little is known about
them previous to the XVth century. It is probable, however, that they
were used in India and China centuries before they reached Europe.

Bells were used by the Romans for many secular purposes, and although
their use was sanctioned by the Christian Church about 400 A.D., they
were not in general use in England until 650 A.D.

The earliest bells were hand bells, quadrangular in shape, and made of
thin plates of copper or iron riveted together, and their abominable
sound when struck must have been one of their chief merits, as the early
bells were much used for the purpose of frightening the devil and other
evil spirits.

Our oldest bells are hand bells, S. Patrick's bell at Belfast (1091) and
S. Ninian's bell at Edinburgh, which is probably of even earlier date.
From 1550 to 1750 was the golden age of production for bells, more
especially so in Belgium and the Low Countries, where the bells of the
towers and belfries were rung to arouse the country in times of danger
and invasion. It is quite possible that the bells used for secular and
religious purposes were kept distinct. Bells played a very important
part in mediaeval life, and next to cannon were regarded as the chief
city guardians, for he who held the bells held the town, and the first
thing done by the invader on taking a town was to melt the bells and
thus destroy the means of communicating an alarm.

In England our old towns, being almost entirely constructed of wood,
were liable to periodic and devastating conflagrations, which fact
suggested to that genius, William the Conqueror, the institution of
Couvre-feu, or in its more popular form, Curfew, which rang at eight
o'clock in the evening, when all lights were to be extinguished. The
ringing of curfew has survived in many of our towns and villages to this
day, but it is doubtful if the custom has been continuous from its first
institution.

The secular use of the bell is, however, only incidental, and it is in
its connection with religious life that we are now concerned, for all
church history, church doctrine and church custom and observances are
set to bell music. Bells in fact may be said to sum up the short span of
our mortal life, for the birthday, the wedding and the funeral, are all
welded to religion by the church bell.

Bells were used for ecclesiastical purposes in England long before the
erection of our parish churches, for Bede, speaking of the death of S.
Hil