I toll the funeral knell, I hail the festal day.-- The fleeting hour I tell, I summon all to pray. The longest continuous bell inscriptions we have noted are from Bakewell, Derbyshire, and on a peal of eight bells. They run thus:-- 1. When I begin Our merry Din, This Band I lead from Discord Free; And for the Fame of human Name, May ev'ry Leader copy Me. 2. Mankind like Us, too oft are found Possess'd of Nought but empty Sound. 3. When of departed Hours We toll the Knell, Instruction take & spend the future well. 4. When Men in Hymen's Bands unite, Our Merry Peals produce Delight; But when Death goes his dreary Rounds, We send forth sad and solemn Sounds. 5. Thro' Grandsires and Tripples with Pleasure men range, Till Death calls the Bob & brings on the Last Change. 6. When Vict'ry crowns the Public Weal With Glee We give the merry Peal. 7. Would Men Like Us join & agree They'd live in tunefull Harmony. 8. Possess'd of deep sonorous Tone This Belfry King sits on his Throne; And, when the merry Bells go round, Adds to & mellows ev'ry Sound; So in a just & well pois'd State, Where all Degrees possess due Weight, One greater Pow'r, One greater Tone Is ceded to improve their own. During a recent visit to Bakewell church we copied an epitaph blending in a remarkable degree business, loyalty and religion:-- To the Memory of Matthew Strutt. Of this town, farmer, long famed in these parts for veterinary skill. A good neighbour, and a staunch friend to Church and King. Being churchwarden at the time the present peal of bells were hung. Through zeal of the House of God, and unremitting attention to the airy business of the belfry he caught a cold, which terminated his existence May 25, 1798, in the 68 year of his age. A beautiful Latin inscription has one--a Rutland bell-- Non clamor sed amor cantat in aure dei, _i.e._, It is not noise, but love that sings in the ear of God. And it is in the same county that we find the modern use of the death-bell described, I sound not for the souls of the dead but the ears of the living. Cheltenham, too, bears out the spirit of this inscription in the following:-- I to prayer the living do combine The dead shall hear a greater sound than mine. The offices of the various bells form a large proportion of their legends, particularly those uses which are the most common. Thus the death bell at Axbridge, Somerset, states, For homesoever this bell doth toll The Lord have mercy on that sole! Many Somersetshire bells have the following and similar inscriptions:-- I to the church the living call, And to the grave I summon all. Brent, Somerset, has a bell with--