[r-t] 1927 Surprise Methods book in the Snowdon Series

[Robert Bennett]

I came across this book in my father's library.
The book as a whole seemed very old fashioned, and the author had the
mindset of making rules and preventing things.
On skimming through it, I found a couple of points of interest:

(1) a method similar to Superlative, dismissed with the comment that it
would be harder than Cambridge to get a peal, if not impossible.

X36x16x58x38x14x38x36x78, with lead 12.
Group [b] and falseness EGL with no name currently.

This is a novel combination of falseness, but it would seem to be fairly
easy to get a peal using singles, e.g. 24 courses with the 678 unaffected.

This use of singles would no doubt have caused the author (Rev CDP Davies)
and the Central Council to have gone berserk.
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(2) a comment that in the list of false lead heads for the first lead of
Cambridge, London and Superlative, Shipway (1816) had made a mistake and
introduced an extra false lead head related to when the treble was in 1-2:

C: 6845273
L: 8745632
S: 2865473

CDPD was of the opinion that Shipway had fallen into some pitfall connected
with the start of the lead.

These figures are interesting, as in each case they are transpositions
which are their own inverse.

In the case of Cambridge, 6845273 appears in the table in connection with
the second lead:
5738164 x 7582634 ----> 6845273

CDPD says that Hubbard (1886) gives the list correctly.

This error of Shipway's may have made ringers suspicious that his peal of
Cambridge Surprise Major was false, when it was found to be true in recent
years. In fact, Shipway's ability to produce a true tenors parted peal of
CS8 suggests a very careful and painstaking composer.

5,600 Cambridge Surprise Major
William Shipway
23456    V  B  I  M  W  F
432765      -  -     -  -
625734               -  -
276354      -
645723   -        -
53246    -        -
34562       -
5 part.

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Robert Bennett
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