was 22 feet in circumference, and a man, rather above the middle size, could stand upright in it. It had not been swung for nearly 30 years, on account of his shaking the north-west tower where he was hung, but the hours were struck upon him by the clock hammer;" and which the writer once heard nine miles off. "He became cracked near the rim, and an attempt to restore the tone, by cutting a piece out, having proved unsuccessful, he was taken down in August, 1834, and a new Great Tom has been cast in London from the metal, which is now suspended in the more lofty central tower. He started from the foundry of Mr. Mears, in Whitechapel, on a carriage drawn by nine horses, on the 7th April, 1835, and arrived on the 13th, having travelled a distance of 132 miles, when he was received in grand procession by the military, public schools, and companies of ringers and musicians, and having been conducted to the minster, was then drawn by manual strength into the center of that beautiful building, and was raised to his new station a few days after." Gent. Mag.

These ten bells are hung in the tower of St. Michael's church, Coventry, of which the foregoing engraving presents a north east view. The church was founded 1133, and is, I believe, the largest in England, without a transcept; it consists of five aisles, the middle one is 50 feet high, the whole length 2933 feet, and the width is 127 feet, inside measure. The steeple was began 1373, and was pronounced, by Sir Christopher Wren, to be a master-piece of architecture." The tower is 1361 feet high, the walls, at the base, are 8 feet thick, occupying an area of 36 feet square; upon this square tower stands an octagon prism 32 feet high; on this prism is raised the spire of 1303 feet, making in the whole, 299 feet; the walls of the spire are 17 inches thick at the bottom, gradually tapering in thickness and circumference to the top. The architect has displayed consummate art and symmetry, in a geometric proportion, between sprightliness and grandeur, giving to the whole a graceful and beautiful appearance. This "Heaven-directed spire" may be seen twenty miles off.

The bells were first put into the tower 1429, and when the wind is favorable, may be heard distinctly six miles. When all are swinging together, ringing changes on days of festivity, they pour forth a melody which must be heard to be duly and joyfully conceived, the delightful charm sets description at defiance; to these bells are attached a set of musical chimes, which ring merry tunes every three hours, and play a different tune every day in the week. No architect, after this, need feel any reluctance in being "sent to Coventry," where he may have his eye-sight and hearing so much gratified.

The following are very beautiful scraps on bells, and bell

ringing:

"At last a soft and breathing sound

Rose like a stream of rich distill'd perfume

And stole upon the ear; that even Silence

Was took 'ere she was aware, and wish'd she might

Deny her nature, and be evermore

Still, to be so displaced!" MILTON.

"But hark! that blythe and jolly peal,

Makes the Franciscan steeple reel."

Scott's Lady of the Lake.

The royal funerals are always at night, by torch light; the following lines well apply:

"The midnight clock has tolled, and hark the bell
Of death beats low! heard ye the note profound?
It pauses now, and now with rising knell,

Flings to the hollow gale its sullen sound!" MASON.

It is a custom all over England, to ring on Christmas eve and New Year's eve; hundreds may then say:

1

The following exquisite piece of poetry, by Arthur Cleveland Coxe, shows that talented poet to have caught this delightful charm, and to have historically and pathetically expressed himself:

wold.

From "The Poets and Poetry of America," by Rufus Wilmot Gris

Those chimes, those chimes of Motherland,
Upon a Christian morn,
Outbreaking as the angels did,

For a Redeemer born;
How merrily they call afar,

To cot and baron's hall,
With holly deck'd and misletoe,
To keep the festival.

The chimes of England, how they peal
From tower and Gothic pile,
Where hymn and swelling anthem fill
The dim cathedral aisle ;
Where windows bathe the holy light
On priestly heads that falls,
And stain the florid tracery
And banner dighted walls.

And then those Easter bells in spring,
Those glorious Easter chimes;
How loyally they hail thee round,
Old queen of holy times!
From hill to hill, like sentinels,
Responsively they cry,

And sing the rising of the Lord,
From vale to mountain high.

I love ye, chimes of Motherland,
With all this soul of mine,
And bless the Lord that I am sprung
Of good old English line;
And like a son, I sing thy lay,

That England's glory tells;

For she is lovely to the Lord,

For you ye Christian bells !*

And heir of her ancestral fame,
And happy in my birth,

Thee, too, I love, my forest land,

The joy of all the earth;

For thine thy mother's voice shall be,

And here where God is king,

With English chimes, from Christian spires,

The wilderness shall ring.

He also makes some pretty allusions to bells in some elegant stanza to old churches. In the same work of beautiful selections, there are some fine poetic allusions to bells, in the "Belfry Pigeon," by N. P. Willis. To conclude, then,

"Ring on, ye bells, most pleasant is your chime."

Wilson, Isle of Palms.

* My feelings have irresistibly compelled me to put this verse in italics.

127

HERALDRY.

"Be mine to read the records old,
Which thy awak'ning bards have told,
And when they meet my studied view,
Hold each strange tale devoutly true."

COLLINS.

"HERALDS are as old as priests; they were criers or messengers; they were chroniclers and historians.” In the 22d chap. of Numbers, 2d verse, we may read, " All the children of Israel shall camp by their troops, ensigns, and standards, and the houses of their kindred round about the tabernacle of the covenant.">

Heraldry is a key to history and biography, and is daily be-. coming more and more acknowledged. Two initials and a crest have been the means of establishing the once owner (my own name, but I dare not claim alliance to him) of a very old mansion, built 1461, at Southam, in Gloucestershire. When Ralph Lord Cromwell, was treasurer to Henry VI., he built Tattershall castle, in Lincolnshire, and in part of the sculpture of the fire-places there are among many other heraldric devices a purse, which is not only a pretty ornament, but is at once symbolic of his office, and the date of its erection.

There are no coronets of the nobility in military costumes, but only in robes of state. The first English subject who bore arms quarterly was Hastings, Earl of Pembroke. Family arms do not seem to have been continuedly adopted until toward the reign of Edward I.

Seals were in use as family marks many ages before even wealthy families could write their names.

There was no heraldric armorial bearings on coins before the thirteenth century.

It is supposed that it was Pope Boniface, who was pontiff from 1294 to 1303, that first used a seal with arms to his private official deeds.

"Artists often make great blunders in heraldry, by making. the heraldric animals resemble those of nature; they should understand they are not so intended, they are entirely symbolic like the hierogylphicks of Egypt; the prescriptive forms should not be varied under this mistaken idea, which is outrageous to the eyes and judgment of those who study this amusing historic art. Besides, many of the heraldric animals are not to be found in nature's list, as they are used only symbolically, this licence may be poetically or imaginatively allowed. There is an anecdote told of Brooke, the herald, (and one of the most sceptical of his class,) going to the Tower of London purposely to see the lions; when this worthy king at arms was shown the royal