Chapter Belford to Bells of B by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Bell (Peter), the subject of a “tale in verse” by Wordsworth (1798). Shelley wrote a burlesque upon it, entitled Peter Bell the Third.

Bell Battle (The). The casus belli was this: Have the local magistrates power to allow parish bells to be rung at their discretion, or is the right vested in the parish clergyman? This squabble was carried on with great animosity in the parish of Paisley in 1832. The clergyman, John Macnaughton, brought the question before the local council, which gave it in favour of the magistrates; but the court of sessions gave it the other way, and when the magistrates granted a permit for the bells to be rung, the court issued an interdict against them.

For nearly two years the Paisley bell battle was fought with the fiercest zeal. It was the subject of every political meeting, the theme of every board, the gossip at tea-tables and dinner-parties, and the children delighted in chalking on the walls, “Please to ring the bell” (May 14, 1832, to September 10, 1834).—Newspaper paragraph.

Bell-the-Cat, sobriquet of Archibald Douglas, great earl of Angus, who died in 1514.

The mice, being much annoyed by the persecutions of a cat, resolved that a bell should be hung about her neck to give notice of her approach. The measure was agreed to in full council, but one of the sager mice inquired, “Who would undertake to bell the cat?” When Lauder told this fable to a council of Scotch nobles, met to declaim against one Cochran, Archibald Douglas started up, and exclaimed in thunder, “I will;” and hence the sobriquet referred to.—Sir W. Scott: Tales of a Grandfather, xxii.

Bells. Those Evening Bells, a poem by T. Moore. The bells referred to were those of Ashbourne parish church, Derbyshire.—National Airs, I.

To shake one’s bells, to defy, to resist, to set up one’s back. The allusion is to the little bells tied to the feet of hawks. Immediately the hawks were tossed, they were alarmed at the sound of the bells, and took to flight.

Neither the king, nor he that loves him best …
Dare stir a wing if Warwick shake his bells.
   —Shakespeare: 3 Henry VI. act i. sc. I (1592).

Seven bells (half-past 7), breakfast-time; eight bells (noon), dinner-time; three bells (half-past 5), supper- time.

Eight bells (the highest number) are rung at noon and every fourth hour afterwards. Thus they are sounded at 12, 4, and 8 o’clock. For all other parts of the day an Even number of bells announce the hours, and an Odd number the half-hours. Thus 12½ is 1 bell; 1 o’clock is 2 bells; 1½ is 3 bells; 2 o’clock is 4 bells; 2½ is 5 bells; 3 o’clock is 6 bells; 3½ is 7 bells. Again, 4½ is 1 bell; 5 o’clock is 2 bells; 5½ is 3 bells; 6 o’clock is 4 bells; 6½ is 5 bells; 7 o’clock is 6 bells; 7½ is 7 bells. Again, 8½ is 1 bell; 9 o’clock is 2 bells; 9½ is 3 bells; 10 o’clock is 4 bells; 10½ is 5 bells; 11 o’clock is 6 bells; 11½ is 7 bells. Or, 1 bell sounds at 12½, 4½, 8½; 2 bells sound at 1, 5, 9; 3 bells sound at at 1½, 5½, 9½; 4 bells sound at 2, 6, 10; 5 bells sound at 2½, 6½, 10½; 6 bells sound at 3, 7, 11; 7 bells sound at 3½, 7½, 11½; 8 bells sound at 4, 8, 12 o’clock.