to take; and without being overturdened -witli the
consideration of technical details pertainiag only to
church bell ringing, such as " setting " the bell,
" half stroke," " back stroke," &c., he could devote
the whole of his brain power to counting his time,
and " come in" (or not ! according to circumstances
and his ability).
Tinder these conditions harmony could not be
attempted, the range of the bells not being sufficient
to allow of the movement of more than one part, so
that those who were ambitious to play a little more
than mere melody, and to get a certain amount of
entertainment as well as " substituted service " out
of their handbells, adopted the very obvious course
of " lengthening " the peal, and by holding one in
each hand eight players could easily manipulate
sixteen bells. The ^number of tunes, however, which
can be played in harmony on sixteen bells is very
limited, hence it is not very difficult to imagine that
some genius soon thought of the plan of having two
additional bells standing on the floor in front of each
of the players as they sat in their chairs round the
belfry, and poured their enthusiasm into their work
while their neighbours slept in peace. From the
floor to the table is not a very great leap (it should
be 28 inches), and the placing of four bells before
each player on a table, at which he stood ready to
pick up whichever two might be required, was a
move in the right direction.
Beyond this point, however, it was not easy to go :
four bells to be played quickly after each other must
be lifted with alternate hands, and as the same



TEE SYSTEM OF NOTATION.
