Has a Thing for Bells : Group Likes to Explain Those Ringing Phrases

According to fable, it was a sly mouse that suggested that someone hang a bell on the cat’s neck to give notice to all mice of its approach.

“Excellent,” responded a wise mouse. “But who is to undertake the job?”

Thus evolved the question, “Who will bell the cat?” meaning “who will risk his own life to save his neighbor’s?”

This story, illustrating the many ways in which bells have become a part of everyday speech, is told by Terry Mayer, who heads the New York metropolitan chapter of the American Bell Assn., a 40-year-old organization of 3,500 bell buffs.

Designs Bell Jewelry

Mayer, whose interest in bells extends to her work as a designer of bell jewelry in innovative shapes, has done extensive research on bells.

“We use the phrases,” she said, “but we don’t always know their origin.”

As an example, she explained how the expression “I’ll be there with bells on” came about.

It was first heard “when bells were attached to the horses pulling Conestoga wagons along the country’s early roads. If the driver of the wagon had trouble, he would reward the person who came to his aid by giving him the Conestoga bells. So, if a wagoner came in with bells on, everyone knew he had had a trouble-free trip.

“I came in with bells on” meant no mishaps.

Among other phrases and their origins that she has gleaned from the reference book “Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable” and The Bell Tower, monthly publication of the bell association, are these:

‘Let Her Fly’

--”Give her the bells and let her fly”: Don’t throw good money after bad. In falconry, when a hawk was worthless, it was allowed to escape--even at the expense of losing the bells attached to it.

--”I’ll not hang all my bells on one horse”: I’ll not leave all my property to one son.

--”As the bell clinks, so the fool thinks” or “As the fool thinks, so the bell clinks”: The tale says that when Dick Whittington ran away from his master and had got as far as Highgate Hill, he was hungry and tired and wished to return. Bow Bells began to ring, and young Whittington fancied they said, “Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of London.” The bells clinked in response to the boy’s thoughts.

--”One bell in the last dog watch”: It is a common story in the British Royal Navy that one bell has been struck at 6:30 p.m., instead of five, since the mutinies of 1797 because, in one port, five bells in the dog watch was to be the signal for mutiny. This was prevented by the foreknowledge of officers, who caused only one bell to be struck instead.

Cracked Bell

--”Sound as a bell”: Quite sound. A cracked bell is useless.

--”That rings a bell”: That strikes a chord, that sounds familiar, that reminds me of something.

--”Bell, book and candle”: The popular phrase for ceremonial excommunication in the Roman Catholic Church. After pronouncing sentence, the officiating cleric closes his book, extinguishes the candle by throwing it to the ground and tolls the bell as for one who has died.