Bible records tell of bells of gold suspended from the robes of priests, and of their use in temple worship. From that time onward they have been associated with religious ceremonials. In later times the early Christians employed bells of copper and brass and consecrated them to their use. Thus musical peals, rung collectively or individually, have sounded for all kinds of sacred rites. The bell--a mere handbell--was soon fixed over a doorway, or in some convenient place where it could with greater ease be rung by a cord. Then came the suggestion of larger bells, afterwards covered over, and finally hung in steeple or tower, like the campanile (a tower separated from the church) so often met with in Italy. The church bell is said to have been introduced here by Paulinus, the Bishop of Mona, in A.D. 400. The next record of importance is the historical account of the Venerable Bede, who describes bells hung in towers--that was in A.D. 670. Some two hundred years after Bede's days a peal was rung for the first time in England, in the Abbey of Crowland. The pioneers of bell-ringing upon bells tuned in harmony were the ringers who produced such charming results with the bells of King's College, Cambridge. The bells of churches were rung for ecclesiastical and for national and parochial purposes. There was the vesper bell for evensong, and there was the curfew bell which rang in obedience to the "lights out" enactments of Norman days (see _Couvre de feu_, p. 113). Of the minor uses of bells there are many. In Tudor days small bells were familiar objects in hunting. They formed part of the equipment of the hawk or falcon. Of these we read in Shakespeare's works--of the "'larum bell and of sweet bells jangled out of tune." In _Othello_ there is a record of the "snorting citizen with his bell." [Illustration: FIG. 52.--BELL CAST BY JOHN PENNINGTON AT EXETER IN 1670.] [Illustration: FIG. 53.--GROUP OF BELL-METAL MORTARS. (_In the British Museum._)] Bellmen were the heralds of news in country towns, and the importance of their office was made clear by the "Oyez! Oyez!" by which they prefixed their tale. The ancient watchman clanged his bell and the light in the lantern slung at his waist flickered as he sounded the call. This is mentioned in an old ballad, the first verse of which reads: "Time, master, calls your bellman to his task, To see your doors and windows are all fast." Numerous examples of curious bells are to be seen in our museums. In the Welsh Museum at Cardiff there is an old Celtic bell from Llangwynodl, shown side by side with an electrotype of the famous bell of St. Patrick. There is rather a sad note in the story of the fate of the old division bell of the Irish House of Commons, which, when the Parliament was abolished, was sold for use in a Dublin theatre as a call bell, eventually to be resold as old metal. That curio would at this juncture have been regarded as an historical relic of some value.