[Bell Historians] Royal, or other names

[Richard Offen]

> 
> More recently (by which I mean during the 18th century),
> doubles came to mean any five bell method, and the terms
> 'minor', 'major', etc., came into being.  But I'm unsure
> exactly where these came from and why, for example, 'minor'
> refers to six bell ringing rather than (say) four bell
> ringing.  And 'royal' is a complete mystery to me.
> 
> Richard
>

It's doubles because a maximum of two pairs of bells can be swapped in 
any one change; triples has a maximum of three pairs; Caters 
(derivation from French for four), four pairs; etc. Quite when this 
convention came to be I am unsure.

R