The isolated bell in the churchyard of St Michael's (now St Mary's) in Wix in Essex.

"A nunnery of the Benedictine order, founded in the reign of Henry I, by the sons and daughters of Walter the Deacon, formerly stood in a field on the Abbey farm, adjoining the church, and the remains of a moat, which, it is supposed, encircled the building, still exist. The ancient Church of St. Michael was originally given to the Nunnery by the founders, but falling into disuse from neglect, it became a ruin, and the greater part of it fell down in the early part of last century. What now remains is only the aisle, which was repaired,and rendered fit for divine service, about 1740.

"The belfry is a singularly picturesque object in the middle of the grave-yard; the bell being hung in a kind of cage, from which two trees grow out, whose mature growth attest the fact, that the belfry must have been in existence a great number of years, as the trees could only have been produced from seeds dropped there by accident. The reason given by the simple villagers for its having been placed here is that it was so fixed for security, for that the monks of old had three times caused the tower of the church to be built for the reception of the bell, and that three times his Satanic majesty had employed himself in the night to pull it down, till at last the monks, finding that they could not have a tower belfry, effected a compromiseby placing it where it now remains."