for four days i lay in bed stricken with the dreaded flu and whelmed in deep seas of industrial strength tissue, but today i got out of bed and went to the national museum with sarah and ariel. and that was how i found, in the very first history gallery i went into, a bell inscribed thus:

REVERE BOSTON 1843
PRESENTED TO ST. ANDREWS CHURCH SINGAPORE
BY MRS. MARIA REVERE BALESTIER
OF BOSTON UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

can there be, i say to myself, a boston connection for me here in singapore? and i soon find out that this is genuine and original bell from the revere foundry. it had been presented to st andrew's church in singapore in 1843, by paul revere's daughter maria, who was wife to joseph balestier, then american consul in singapore. (quite why the daughter of an american revolutionary war patriot would present a bell to a prominent anglican church built in a british colony by the colonial government with convict labour brought from india is, i suppose, another matter.) the bell was in use until 1889 (balestier's consulship having ended in 1952) and was rung each night at 8 to signal the beginning of the curfew. it seems that this is the only known revere bell outside of the us of a. from 1997 until 2006 it had resided in the us embassy in singapore, but has since been returned to the national museum. a sign taken for a wonder? i think i shall write to nohrnberg about it!