THE LANCASHIRE
BELLRINGERS
The most talented and wonderful band of the kind in the world
Performing under the auspices of P.T. Barnum
Proprietor of AMERICAN and CHINESE MUSEUMS
New York and BARNUMS MUSEUM Philadelphia
"SWISS RINGERS"
One summer Raymond L. Myrer of the Beacon Hill Ringers vacationed in London. He wandered into a secondhand music store off Shaftesbury Avenue and asked if there was any handbell music for sale. The proprietress said No but she did have a picture of some old ringers. Would the American be interested? Ray Myrer took one look. He wanted to whoop and holler but being a proper Bostonian, he just gasped. It was a rare and long-lost colour lithograph of the Lancashire Bell Ringers brought by Barnum to America in 1847. Every handbell ringer has heard of this famous band but until now no one knew what they looked like.
Most of us first learned about the Lancashire Ringers in Scott Parry's "The Story of Handbells". There we read that while they may not have been the first handbell band to perform in America, they were certainly one of the most popular and are responsible for a historical misnomer. Indeed, they should have been sensational for they appeared in Barnum's astonishing museum alongside a veritable zoo of strange and fascinating characters — Joice Heth, a Feejee Mermaid, Tom Thumb, Chang and Eng, the Cardiff Giant and Josephine Clofullia, the bearded lady.
Though the Lancashire Ringers were English handbell ringers, Barnum, for some reason required that they should be billed as "Swiss Bell Ringers". "And so," writes Scott Parry, "because of Barnum's insistence that the Lancashire Ringers appear as "Swiss" ringers, the misnomer that handbells and tune ringing are indigenous to Switzerland, has continued to the present day." (page 23)
Shall we read what the Great Showman himself has to say about this matter — here is an extract from Barnum's autobiography (Chapter XII, p. 345).
Having heard, while in London in 1844, of a company of "Campanologians, or Lancashire Bell Ringers," performing in Ireland, I induced them to meet me in Liverpool, and there engaged them for an American tour. One of my stipulations was that they should suffer their moustaches to grow, assume a picturesque dress, and be known as the
"Swiss Bell Ringers". They at first objected, in the broad and almost unintelligible dialect of Lancashire, because, as they said, they spoke only the English language and could not pass muster as Swiss people; but the objection was withdrawn when I assured them that if they continued to speak in America as they had just spoken to me, they might safely claim to be Swiss, or anything else and no one would be any the wiser.
As in other cases, so in this, the deception as to the birth-place was of small account, and did no injury. Those seven men were really admirable performers, and by means of their numerous bells of various sizes, they produced the most delicious music. They attracted much attention in various parts of the United States, in Canada, and in Cuba.
The Life of P. T. Barnum, written by Himself.
New York: Redfield, 1855. London: Sampson Low, 1855.
While in Philadelphia the Lancashire Ringers covered themselves with more campanological glory by ringing the first successful peal in this country on Sunday, June 9, 1850, on the ring of eight bells at Christ Church.
They returned to England, but Barnum brought other "Swiss Bell Ringers" to America in the 1870ies for his
"Greatest Show on Earth" circus.
To complete the story of the print, Ray Myrer did purchase it and exhibited it at the 1961 Ipswich Festival. In addition to this appearance in OVERTONES, Ray also gave permission to Nancy Tufts to reproduce it in the English edition of her "The Art of Handbell Ringing." Ray has generously willed the print to the AGEHR Margaret H. Shurcliff Memorial Library.
