BELFRY

from the Old French berfrei, is literally ‘ a place of safety.’ Originally it was a kind of movable tower used in sieges lor defence. It came to mean a watch-tower or alarm bell-tower, and later any tower where a bell was hung. The belfry usually forms a part of the church, but it is detached from it at Evesham, Beccles, and Berkeley in England, and frequently in Italy. When the church was built in a hollow, the belfry was sometimes put on a height near, as at St. Feve and elsewhere in Cornwall, When and at Ardclach and Auldbar in Scotland. the boroughs became important, they used the bells to call the burghers together for council or action. At a later date they were part of the town-house, as at Glasgow and Aberdeen, St. Quentin aud Douai, and at Bru els. The belfry in Bruges is 353 ft. high and has a carillon of 48 bells, regarded as the finest in Europe. It has been immortalized in Long fellow’s poems.