“My peal of bells is come. It cost a great sum of
money; and as I want to pay the founder, I take the liberty of requesting, that
you will have the goodness to forward the contribution, which you promised me;
and which I ask with great boldness, when I am pleading in favour of my
improved parish-church, and of my parishioners, who are endeared to me, as a
sort of family; and whose present and future interests are most important to
me. I believe that my Norwich friends would have honoured me, as a country
parson, if they had seen the harmless but animated festivity of my village, on
Friday last. A new tenor bell had been given them by my pupils, my friends, and
myself: and we have no inconsiderable share in the charges of some of the old
bells, which have been recast and enlarged. My orthodoxy has endowed all of
them with scriptural appellations. The great bell has inscribed upon it the
name of Paul; and is now lying upon our green. It holds
more than seventy-three gallons. It was filled with good ale, and was emptied,
too, on Friday last. More than three hundred of my parishioners, young and old,
rich and poor, assembled: and their joy was beyond description. I gave some rum
for the farmers’ wives; and some Vidonia and elder wine for their
daughters: and the lads and lasses had a merry dance in a large school-room.
Now, as the apostle Paul preached a famous
sermon
| LIFE OF DR. PARR. | 317 |
