Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856 edition. Excerpt: ...nothing more than a base for a spire, the bells have to hang so low that they are scarcely above the roofs of the houses, and so are disagreeably noisy at a little distance and yet hardly to be heard a good way off: whereas good bells properly placed always sound the best at a distance. And when they are clear of all these defects in the tower, the architect generally contrives to bottle up the sound as much as possible by filling the bellchamber windows with close louvres deeply overlapping each other, so that even the sound which does get out i9 as it were shot down on to the roof of the church, instead of being allowed to spread freely. In order that a peal of bells may produce the proper effect, the tower should be large enough to let the bell-frame stand at least two feet from the wall all round; and the bells should neither be below the bottom of the windows when they are tolling Windows should be large and open. 153 (i. e. swinging flowly with their mouths downwards) nor above the top when they are ringing in full swing with their mouths upwards; and the windows should be large, and the louvres wide apart and not much inclined, so as to keep in the sound as little as possible. Mr. Ruskin also abuses close louvres on architectural grounds, and notices the grand effect of the large wide ones in many foreign churches. Ours are generally made as if the architect supposed that the bells would catch cold and lose their voices if they got wet; whereas bell-metal is perfectly indifferent to it; and if the bell-chamber floor is covered with lead or zinc outside the bell-frame and drained into a pipe in one corner, no rain that can come in through louvres however wide will do any harm either to the bell-frame or the floors underneath; and...