[r-t] Anything Goes vs Peals Mean Something

[Don Morrison]

On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 5:37 AM, Mark Davies <mark at snowtiger.net> wrote:
> Yes, your brief historical summary is probably pretty accurate. But no-one
> can deny there is a clear and important link between the modern concept of
> peal, and the length of the extent on seven.

But we, or really our forebears long ago, let the genie out of the
bottle when they decreed "on more the seven bells, we'll just round
down to the nearest thousand". A peal is no longer an extent. It's
something else now.

If they'd said even on higher stages it needs to be at least 5,040
we'd not be having this part of this discussion. But they didn't, and
I doubt anyone would seriously suggest raising at this late date the
lower limit on peals of major, etc.


-- 
Don Morrison <dfm at ringing.org>
"I don't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm
frightened of the old ones."                -- John Cage, _Silence_