archives of the company are displayed on the
table, before the master, who fills the chair.
We are shown a curious old silver bell, fixed
on a silver mounted staff, which in old days
were carried before the members of the society
when they went on the 5th of November,
as was their annual custom, to St. Mary-
le-Bow to attend divine service. This is looked
upon as the palladium of the society. The
company also boast an old-fashioned two-
handled silver cup, won in fair fight, as its
inscription records: "This cup, the gift of Mr.
Peter Bluck, of Sonning, in the county of
Berks, was adjudged to the Society of College
Youths for the superior stile"—the engraver's
orthography at fault here—"in which they
rang ten hundred and eight bob major in a
contest with Oxford and Farnham Societies, at the
above parish church, on Monday, August 4,
1783."

Among the archives are the name book,
which contains the names of the members from
the remotest time: the peal book, to which
allusion has already been made, records their
performances. The first entry in this book
contains the names of the ringers, and the
description of a peal rung at St. Bride's in
January, 1724. Prior to that date these
records were not kept with so much care as is
now the case. The calligraphic achievements
and decorations in the old book are not so
brilliant as those in the new, but are always
neat and in good taste.

Our obliging informant points out the most
celebrated recorded peals for our admiration,
and although we are by this time a little
bewildered with caters, and bobs, and trebles,
we are gratified to find that on the 27th
April, 1861, the society rang a peal of cinques
on Stedman's principle, at St. Michael's,
Cornhill, which contained eight thousand five
hundred and eighty changes, lasted six hours and
forty-one minutes, and was the greatest number
of changes ever rung in that intricate manner
on twelve bells. It also pleases us to know
that our friends accomplished in three hours and
forty-two minutes, at St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside,
a peal of Stedman's caters (or cators)
containing five thousand and eighty-one changes,
and considered (although this looks a little
egotistical on the part of the society) the finest
performance on record.

If, however, this phrase seems to savour a
little of patting oneself on the back, the ancient
youths are justly entitled to be proud of their
greatest achievement—an achievement so great
that it has impelled them to have it recorded on
an ornate glazed card, a distinction conferred on
no other peal. By this decorative document it
appears that on the 27th of April, 1868, a true
peal of Kent treble-bob major, containing
fifteen thousand eight hundred and forty
changes, was rung at St. Matthews, Bethnal-
green, in nine hours and twelve minutes. This
was the longest peal ever rung by one set of
men, and certainly seems a considerable feat.

The bells of St. Saviours, Southwark, which
we have just been ringing, are the heaviest
peal in London, although the Bow Church
tenor is heavier than our refractory friend.
These appear to be the favourite bells in
London; the heaviest peal of eight bells in
England is in Exeter.

The flow of information is here interrupted
by a suggestion that the society may like to
hear a touch on the hand-bells, and this
proposition being received with great favour, the
hand-bells are produced and half a dozen college
youths taking each two bells, and drawing
their chairs into a circle away from the table,
play up manfully. If it is difficult to remember
and execute the part one bell has to take in a
peal, it must be maddening to have charge of
two bells. Of course the absence of the
mechanical labour is in favour of the hand-bell
ringer.

The precision of these ringers was
marvellous. We could not have supposed it
possible that such sweet sounds and such musical
combinations could have been produced by a
dozen hand-bells, and the members of the
society present, experts be it remarked,
appeared as pleased as the ignorant visitors.
The ringers were all college youths of long
experience and vast learning, but were
nevertheless not insensible to the admiration and
applause which greeted the termination of the
touch.

The Society of College Youths was founded
in 1637, by Lord Brereton and Sir Cliff Clifton,
for the purpose of promoting the art of change
ringing. It is said that the name is derived
from the fact that the young gentlemen of the
City were in the habit of chiming rounds on
the bells of the College of St. Spirit and Mary,
near College-hill, Thames-street, a foundation
of Sir Richard Whittington's, and afterwards
destroyed in the great fire. The society made
good progress, and bears many noble and
distinguished names on its early rolls; but its
performances must have been of a tame and
monotonous nature at first. The members
began with simple rounds and changes, and it
was not until about 1642 that any complicated
changes were rung. Even then very little
progress was made, until Stedman, the father
of change ringing, appeared. The college
youths visited Cambridge, where this Caxton
of bells lived, and performed the first peal on
his principles, at St. Benet's, in that town, and
he, in return presumably, dedicated to the
society his Campanologia, an elaborate treatise
on bell ringing, published about this time.
From this period the art made rapid progress,
and intricate peals soon began to be recorded.

The society having outlived its first youth,
now dubbed itself the Ancient Society of
College Youths; and we find that in 1718
they, in conjunction with the London scholars,
presented St. Bride's with two bells to
complete the set of twelve. For about sixty years
the head-quarters of the society were at St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields; since 1849 they have
been at St. Saviour's, Southwark.

The list of members is curious. Several lord
mayors are to be found in it, including a