[r-t] History

[Mark Davies]

JEC writes,

> In what sense is "5040 changes" purer than "5000 changes"?

It is a mathematical purity, because 5040 = the factorial of the number 
of bells. To ring 5040 changes you must ring every combination of seven 
bells, not every combination minus an arbitrary handful.

This mathematical ideal is what drove all the early innovation in 
changeringing - and quite a lot of the more recent stuff, too.

MBD