[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
S1R,—The letter about " Great Tom " of Oxford reminds me pleasantly of the several old " rounds " which allude to " Tom " and the. other bells associated with him at Christ Church.
Matthew White, organist of Ch. Ch. in 1611, wrote :- " Great TOm is cast, •
And Christ Church bells ring one, two, three, four, five, six,
• And Tom comes last."
The music (for three voices) shows the six bells as one, two, three, four, five, six of a ten-bell peal, and Tom as ten, in such a peal.
. The earlier. lome of these bells at Osney Abbey is named in the round published in 1609 _
" The great bells of Osney
-They_ rang, they ring. they ring, they ring, The tenor.of them goes merrily:. Only six bells are found in this round, and I do not know if " Tom " was the " tenor " which went " merrily."
Dr. Aldrich, Dean of Ch. Ch., who died in 1710, also wrote a round :-- '
" Hark the bonny Christ Church bells, One, two, three, four, five, six " (and so forth), ending with :—
" There's ne'er a man Will leave his can,
Till he hears the mighty Tom."
Judging by the voice parts, Aldrich clearly agrees with M. White, nearly a century previous.—I am, Sir, E. W. NAYLOR, Mus.D., Hon. Fellow of Emmanuel Coll. 49 Bateman Street, Cambridge.
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