And is repayred as you do see
And sett in order good
By the true owner nowe thereof
The foresaid Christopher Wood.
There was also painted in the belfry a rhyming list of the "ringers'
orders":
If to ring ye do come here,
You must ring well with hand and ear;
Keep stroke and time and go not out,
Or else you'll forfeit without doubt.
He that a bell doth overthrow
Must pay a groat before he go;
He that rings with his hat on,
Must pay his groat and so begone.
He that rings with spur on heel,
The same penalty he must feel.
If an oath you chance to hear,
You forfeit each two quarts of beer.
These lines are old, they are not new.
Therefore the ringers must have their due.
_N.B._--Any ringer entering a peal of six pays his shilling.
The first two lines greatly interested my brother, whose quick ear could
distinguish defects when they occurred in the ringing of church bells,
and he often remarked that no ringer should be appointed unless he had a
good ear for music.
There were one or two old-fashioned inns in the town, which looked very
quaint, and Kirkby Old Hall did duty for one of them, being referred to
by the rhymester "Honest" or "Drunken Barnaby" in his Latin Itinerary of
his "Travels in the North":
I came to Lonsdale, where I staid
At Hall, into a tavern made.
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