[r-t] Anything Goes vs Peals Mean Something

[Richard Smith]

Mark Davies wrote:

> OK, I guess these are good examples. I'm slightly surprised they exist, to
> be honest. Who were the conductors and composers? Was there any controversy
> over them at the time?

Dunno.  I've given you all the details I have.  Though I too 
would be interested to know more.

> Why the doubt over the Grandsire length?

At a guess because he was doing it from memory.  I probably 
remembered it was one lead short of an extent, but couldn't 
remember whether it was a handstroke or backstroke finish.

> My guess is that both peals were rung after it became acceptable to ring a
> 5000 of Major,

>From a very brief and incomplete search, the first peal of 
fewer than 5040 changes that I can find was 5016 Bob Maximus 
as Southwark in 1740.  For major, as 5040 is a natural 
length for plain major and 5056 is an easy length for Kent 
or Oxford, I expect the first sub-5040 peals of major were 
surprisingly recent.

> However by the sound of it this was never repeated,

I don't think we have enough evidence to say this.  I only 
have access to a list of ASCY peals up to 1873, and there 
are no further examples there.  But we've already gone from 
believing no-one would do such a thing to uncovering two 
examples.  Who's to say there aren't a few more hiding away?

RAS