Note 198 — THE TOWER
Reading edition
"When they heard the bell of the chapel of Isabella sounding through the forests as it rung for mass, and beheld the Spaniards hastening to wards the chapel, they imagined that it talked."—Irving's Life of Columbus, ch. iv.
The office of the church bell in summoning the people to prayer and holy worship was regarded in olden times with such respect that the bell was very solemnly set apart by a special religious service for this sacred use.
In the churchwarden's accounts of St. Lawrence, Reading, is the following curious entry:—
"1449. It payed for halowing of the bell named Harry, vjs. viijd., and over that, Sir William Symys, Richard Cleck, and Maistres Smyth, being Godfaders and Godmoder at the consecraycyon of the same bell, and beryng all oth' costs to the suffrygan."