Kilbroney, Rostrevor, Co. Down
(R. Welch, photo. No. 1,932; _Jour. R. Soc. Ant. of Ireland_,
vol. xxxiii., P. 55).
Kilmainham (_Jour. R. Soc. Ant. of Ireland_, 5th ser.,
vol. x., p. 41).
Cappagh, Co. Tyrone (_Jour. R. Soc. Ant. of Ireland_,
vol. xxxiii., p. 52).
Drumragh, Co. Tyrone (_Ibid._, vol. xxxiii., p. 54).
FRANCE—
Goulien, Finistère (_Ibid._, 5th ser., vol. viii., p. 167).
As has already been pointed out, the bells of cast bronze are copies
in another material of the wrought-iron bells, the quadrangular form
of which had its origin in the method of construction out of a thin
sheet of metal with riveted joints being still adhered to in the bronze
bell, where joints were not required. The only difference in the shape
of the iron and the bronze bells is that the latter have in most cases
a flange, or an expansion and thickening of the metal round the mouth.
The handles vary from those which are almost rectangular to those which
are quite round. The bell still preserved in the church at Insh, near
Kingussie, Inverness-shire, may be taken as a fair sample of the Celtic
quadrangular bell of cast bronze without ornament. It is 10 inches
high, and measures 9 inches by 7¾ inches at the mouth. The handle is
oval and the mouth expanded. The remaining bells of the same class vary
from 4 inches to 11 inches in height, with their other dimensions in
proportion.
There are three Celtic quadrangular bells of cast bronze without
ornament, but inscribed, at the following places:—
IRELAND—
Clogher, Co. Tyrone
(H. T. Ellacombe’s _Church Bells of Devon—Supplement_, p. 369).
Armagh; now in the Museum of the R.I.A. at Dublin
(M. Stokes’ _Early Christian Art in Ireland_, p. 65).
BRITTANY—
Stival
(_Mémoires de l’Institut Impériale de France; Académie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres_, vol. xxiv., pt. ii., p. 387).
The bell of Clogher is inscribed, in one horizontal line, with Roman
capital letters—
PATRICI
The bell of Armagh is inscribed, in three horizontal lines, with
Hiberno-Saxon minuscules—
✠ oroit ar chu
mascach ṁ
ailello
“✠ A prayer for Cumascach, son of Ailell.”
The bell of Stival is inscribed, in one vertical line, with
Carlovingian minuscules—
pirtur ficifti
“Pirtur made this” (?).
Or, according to the Vicomte Hersart de la Villemarqué:
pir turfic is ti
“Sweet-sounding art thou.”
The Cumascach mentioned on the bell of Armagh was probably the steward
of Armagh, who, according to the _Annals of the Four Masters_, died in
A.D. 904, thus fixing the date of at least one of the bells of this
class.
Celtic quadrangular bells of cast bronze with ornamented handles exist
at the following places:—