- Whittington chimes
Whittington chimes is the name of a clock chime melody, which, according to the traditional English story,
Dick Whittington , first rang from the bell tower of the church of St Mary le Bow inLondon in1392 , where the penniless boy was on his way out of London and suddenly heard the bells ringing and seemingly saying to him "Turn again turn back again Dick Whittington". Dick returned to London upon hearing the bells where he went on to find his fortune and became theLord Mayor of London three times.The Whittington Chimes are less well known than the Westminster (Cambridge) chimes, despite being much older. The chimes were found on many early English bracket and
longcase clock s, however the melody was never really given the term "Whittington Chimes" on domestic clocks until the late Victorian period onwards.There are 6 variations of this chime sequence.All the bells in the tower of St Mary le Bow have inscriptions and the first letters of each inscription spell out "D, W,H,I,T,T,I,N,G,T,O,N".
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