[953]

Another glass painting of something the same character, and showing the
same futile attempt at impossible effects of light and shade,[954] was a
picture of the Resurrection, executed by Edgington, from a design by Sir
Joshua Reynolds, for the Lady Chapel of Salisbury Cathedral. Mention
should also be made of the great eastern window in St. George's Chapel,
Windsor, by Jarvis and Forrest, and designed by West. The three last
examples quoted by Dallaway are Pearson's windows in Brasenose Chapel,
his scenes from St. Paul's life, at St. Paul's, Birmingham, and his
'Christ bearing the Cross,' at Wanstead, Essex.[955] All these were
produced towards the close of the century. They have merit, but they
show also how much had to be learnt before the slowly reviving art of
glass painting could recover anything of its ancient splendour.

Many ancient church bells disappeared in the general wreck of monastic
property at the commencement of the Reformation. Many more were broken
up and sold during the Civil Wars. In the eighteenth century another
danger awaited them. They were not converted into money for spendthrift
courtiers, nor disposed of for State necessities, nor cast into cannons
and other implements of war; but they came to be considered a useful
fund which the guardians of churches could fall back upon. 'Very
numerous were the instances in which four bells out of five have been
sold by the parish to defray churchwardens' accounts.'[956] On the other
hand, a great number of new bells were cast during the period, among
which may be mentioned the great bell of St. Paul's, 1716, and those of
the University Church, Cambridge, a peal particularly admired by
Handel. The single family of Rudall of Gloucester, cast during the
ninety years ending with 1774 no less than 3,594 church bells.
Bell-ringing is often spoken of as an exercise and recreation of
educated men. Hearne, the famous Oxford antiquary, was passionately fond
of it. In his diary there are constant allusions to the feats of
bell-ringing which took place in Oxford, and to the intricacies and
technicalities of the art.[957] The learned Samuel Parr is said to have
been excessively fond of church bells,[958] and so was Robert Southey
the poet.

The old superstitions connected with the inauguration of bells, and the
services expected from them, had become exchanged in either case for a
great deal of coarse rusticity and vulgarity. Some pious aspiration was
still i