’Twas here my Maiden’s love I drew By the hushing of her bosom; She knelt, her mouth and press were true, And sweet as rose’s blossom:-- E’er since, though onward we to glory, And cares our lives enhance, Reflection dearly tells the “story”-- Hail!--hail!--thou “happy Cushion Dance.” J. R. PRIOR. _Islington._ * * * * * ST. SEPULCHRE’S BELL. _For the Table Book._ On the right-hand side of the altar of St. Sepulchre’s church is a board, with a list of charitable donations and gifts, containing the following item:-- £. _s._ _d._ 1605. Mr. Robert Dowe gave 50 0 0 for ringing the greatest bell in this church on the day the condemned prisoners are executed, and for other services, _for ever_, concerning such condemned prisoners, for which services _the sexton_ is paid £1. 6_s._ 8_d._ Looking over an old volume of the Newgate Calendar, I found some elucidation of this inscription. In a narrative of the case of Stephen Gardner, (who was executed at Tyburn, February 3, 1724,) it is related that a person said to Gardner, when he was set at liberty on a former occasion, “Beware how you come here again, or the _bellman_ will certainly say his verses over you.” On this saying there is the following remark:-- “It has been a very ancient practice, on the night preceding the execution of condemned criminals, for the _bellman_ of the parish of St. Sepulchre, to go under Newgate, and, ringing his bell, to repeat the following verses, as a piece of friendly advice to the unhappy wretches under sentence of death:-- All you that in the condemn’d hold do lie, Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die; Watch all, and pray, the hour is drawing near, That you before the Almighty must appear: Examine well yourselves, in time repent, That you may not to eternal flames be sent. And when St. Sepulchre’s bell to-morrow tolls, The Lord above have mercy on your souls! Past twelve o’clock!” In the following extract from Stowe’s London,[44] it will be shown that the above verses ought to be repeated by a clergyman, instead of a bellman:--