In Ireland with Emily, poet laureate John Betjeman drew what some might say was a strange, idiosyncratic caricature of Irish life: Bells are booming down the bohreens;
White the mist along the grass. Now the Julias, Maeves and Maureens Move between the fields to Mass. The sound of bells heard in most bohreens nowadays is produced by electronics, and such booms as there may be come from the powerful loudspeakers used to promulgate the tolls. But when real bells were the pride and joy of every village church, it was highly desirable that they fulfil their raison d'etre to the maximum extent; they had to be heard as far away as possible.
The bells were typically made from tin and copper, with small quantities of other metals added. It was common to include a little silver, in the mistaken belief that it added to the richness of the sound - hence references now and then to "silvery" tones. Ideally, belfries would have the largest possible vertical openings to allow the sound to escape, and solid, nearly soundproof floors and ceilings to prevent part of the sound being lost down the tower or through the roof.
The surrounding landscape and the weather affect the distance at which a bell is audible. A water surface in the vicinity, be it river, lake or sea, greatly assists in promulgation. And the sound carries very well when channelled down a valley, but travels poorly over hilly countryside. A dense atmosphere allows the sound to propagate much better than when the air is rare. Thus bells will be heard more clearly and farther away in the moisture-laden humid air before a spell of rain, than in very dry conditions. Sound carries better, too, in cloudy weather, when the ground is protected from the direct heat of the sun, so that vertical convective currents are weak or non-existent. This reduces the level of turbulence in the atmosphere, which in more sunny conditions tends to dissipate the sound.
Distant bells are more clearly heard by night than by day. In normal daytime circumstances, air temperature falls sharply with increasing height in the first few tens of feet above the ground. This causes sound waves originating near the earth to bend upwards as they spread out from their source, making sounds at the surface some distance away less audible. The opposite occurs at night. And the slightest breeze has an effect. Downwind, a bell might well be heard for miles in circumstances where half a mile upwind the sound is quite inaudible.