[Bell Historians] Lord Nelson.

[Richard Smith]

ALAN A J BUSWELL wrote:

> As no minutes were given to the time of the ringing, could 
> this be taken as a full length peal, one that is not in 
> the 'Felstead' records?

No, I don't think you can assume that.  It's quite common to 
find references to "peals" in newspapers at this time, but 
they're often not peals in the modern sense of performances 
of 5000 or more changes.  This is clear because there are 
plenty of occasions when a duration or number of changes is 
given for the these "peals", and they're incompatible with a 
5000+ change performance.  It seems pretty unsound to assume 
that, because these details are not present, the modern 
sense is meant.

In this particular instance, assuming Havant were around 15 
cwt (i.e. that the present tenor replaces an earlier one of 
similar weight -- and I have no evidence for that 
assumption), I would expect a half-muffled 5040 rung in 1805 
to be no faster than 2h55.  It would seem surprising if that 
were rounded down to the two hours in the newspaper report 
you quote.

We should also bear in mind that six-bell peals were rare at 
this time.  In the 20-year period centred on Nelson's death, 
Felstead records only 11 peals of doubles or minor, compared 
to 490 of triples or major, 128 of caters or royal, and 32 
of cinques or maximus.  I am willing to believe there is an 
element of bias here with records of six-bell peals having 
survived less well than for peals on higher stages.  But 
even allowing for that, it's clear that performances of 
5000+ changes were largely restricted to seven or more 
bells.

RAS