Christ Church Bells
DESCRIPTION: "Hark! the bonny Christ Church Bells." The first and second bell ring "every day at four and ten Crys ... come to prayers." The small bell rings at nine "to call the beerers home" but no man "will leave his can 'Till he hears the mighty Tom"
AUTHOR: Henry Aldrich (1647-1710) (see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1814 (Clark)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 54, "Christ Church Bells" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 128)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Clark, The Words of the Most Favourite Pieces Performed at The Glee Club, The Catch Club, and Other Public Societies (London, 1814 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 111, ("Hark! The bonny Christ-Church bells") (1 text)
Roud #1237
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(275) View 2 of 2, "Merry Christ-Church Bells" ("Hark! the bonny Christ-Church bells"), W. Ordoyno (Nottingham), no date
NOTES [121 words]: Bodleian Library does not date any of its W. Ordoyno broadsides but there is a reference at the Coddington History Group site of 1815 ("O - Oats to Oxley", p. 2).
Henry Aldrich, who wrote "Christ Church Bells," was dean of Christ Church College of Oxford University. He was a musician and amateur[?] architect. "The mighty Tom" is the nearly 17000 pound bell in the Christ Church College Tower. (sources: Leigh Hunt, Table-Talk (1879, London ("Digitized by Google")), p. 51; Thomas Dinham Atkinson, English Architecture (1904, London ("Digitized by Google")), p. 198; George Laurence Gomme, editor, Topographical History of Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Rutlandshire (1897, London ("Digitized by Google")), p. 56.) - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT054
Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography
The Ballad Index Copyright 2024 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.