Game of Thrones TV - John Donne - Evelyn Princess Blucher - Edgar Allan Poe - Mark Williams - Ezra Pound - Lord Byron - Alice Roberts & Gavin Hughes: Ireland’s Treasures Uncovered TV - Big Ben: Saving the World’s Most Famous Clock TV - Jules Holland -
Ring the bloody bells! Games of Thrones s8e5: The Bells, all, Netflix 2019
No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of they friends of thine own were; an man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. John Donne, 1572-1631, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions: Meditation XVII, 1624
There are increasing signs of a scarcity of metal. In a small town near here a sad ceremony took place: the ancient church bell which had rung people from cradle to grave for three hundred years was requisitioned. The inhabitants performed a funeral service for it. The bell was covered with wreaths and flowers, and handed over to the authorities under tears and protestations. Evelyn, Princess Blucher, British woman living in Germany
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells. Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells, 1849
The bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell. William Shakespeare, Macbeth II i 62
For centuries bell foundries like Taylor’s have been taking tin and copper from Cornish mines. Mark Williams, More Industrial Revelations s2e8: Heavy Metal, Discovery 2005
65,029. The act of bell ringing is symbolic of all proselytizing religions. It implies the pointless interference with the quiet of other people. Ezra Pound
That all-softening, overpowering knell,
The tocsin of the soul – the dinner bell. Lord Byron, Don Juan V:49
The treasure is St Conall Cael’s bell and the shrine that held it. Alice Roberts & Gavin Hughes, Ireland’s Treasures Uncovered, BBC 2020
Big Ben: the heartbeat of the nation, a symbol of British democracy. Its four great clock-faces have watched over six monarchs, welcomed in twenty-nine prime ministers and survived two world wars, and throughout it all it’s celebrated nearly 160 new years. Big Ben is one of the most photographed buildings in the world. Yet what the cameras don’t see is that it’s falling into disrepair. Now tens of millions of pounds will be spent to bring the clocktower back to its former glory. Big Ben: Saving the World’s Most Famous Clock, Channel 4 2017
The tower has eleven floors that few get to see … even a Victorian prison once used to lock up unruly MPs. ibid.
It looks like Big Ben is tilting … ‘about 260 millimetres out.’ ibid.
Big Ben was cast in 1858 at the Whitechapel Foundry in London. ibid.
The crack is almost as old as the bell. ibid.
‘I have never worked so hard in my life for Mr Barry for tomorrow I render all the designs for finishing his bell tower and it is beautiful.’ ibid. Augustus Pugin
What if anything is the sound of London? Jules Holland: London Calling, BBC 2012
Bells told an illiterate population everything. ibid.