"
Tom Tower appeals to Oxford men through more than one of their
senses; it is a most conspicuous object in every view; and in it is
hung the famous bell, "Great Tom," the fourth largest bell in
England, weighing over seven tons. This once belonged to Osney Abbey,
when it was dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury, and bore the
legend:
"In Thomae laude resono Bim Bom sine fraude."
It was transplanted to Christ Church in the reign of Queen Mary, and
at the time it was proposed to rechristen it "Pulcra Maria," in
honour at once of the Queen and of the Blessed Virgin; but the old
name prevailed. Every night but one, from May 29, 1684, until the
Great War silenced him, Tom has sounded out, after 9 p.m., his 101
strokes, as a signal that all should be within their college walls;
the number is the number of the members of the foundation of Christ
Church in 1684, when the tower was finished. During the war Tom was
forbidden to sound, along with all other Oxford bells and clocks, for
might not his mighty voice have guided some zeppelin or German
aeroplane to pour down destruction on Oxford? Few things brought home
more to Oxford the meaning of the Armistice than hearing Tom once
more on the night of November 11, 1918.
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