Having examined the various editions of Hubbard in Essay for the Friends No. 3, the editions of Troyte's Change Ringing would appear at first sight to be more straightforward, but this is not so.

In 1866 Troyte had the bells at Huntsham, Devon, augmented from a ring of three bells to one of six. The work was done by John Taylor of Loughborough who introduced Troyte to change ringing. In the preface to his book, Troyte has this to say:

Troyte also makes the point that books such as Hubbard's are really designed for reference purposes and not for teaching. To overcome this, Troyte's book, the first edition of which was published in 1869, concentrates on the elementary side of ringing, and gives detailed instruction in change ringing up to Kent Treble Bob Major. He begins with handling a bell, and then leads on to change ringing on three and four bells, before giving detailed instructions on ringing Grandsire Doubles upwards. The main text has 170 pages, including the index, and it was printed in Exeter by William Roberts, and published in London by Joseph Masters as well as by William Roberts.

Such was the success of the book that a second edition was called for. An advertisement appeared in the issue of Church Bells for 16 December 1871 announcing that a second edition would shortly be published and that the first six chapters would be brought out as a separate volume. A letter from Troyte appeared in the issue of Church Bells of 9 March 1872, asking for details of the longest peals from Major to Maximus, except for those of Kent Treble Bob Major and "Stedman's" Cinques about which he knew, so that he could add a page at the end of a new edition of Change Ringing. What response there was is not known, but we can guess, for when the second edition was published later in 1872, no such page was included. This second edition was again published in London by J Masters but the Exeter publisher - and probably printer - was Henry S Eland of High Street. Only minor alterations were made to the text which ran to 178 pages including the index. Troyte's note to this second edition states that the first six chapters, which deal with six-bell ringing, were printed separately in a cheaper form of binding so that the price was considerably reduced and indeed this 'Handbook for Young Ringers' was advertised in Church Bells on 14 September 1872 at a price of one shilling. Yet again the demand was such that another edition was called for, and the third edition was published in 1876, although Troyte's introduction to that edition was dated 1875. It was published by the same publishers, and there were 176 pages of text, little altered from the previous edition. It was first advertised in the issue of Church Bells of 26 February 1876, where the advertisement states that it cost 2s 6d (12½p), or 3s 6d (17½p) in cloth boards. The advertisement also states that the first six chapters could be had separately in wrappers, price 1s (5p). This is another of those puzzles that make books so interesting, for the six-bell edition, identical to the first six chapters of the third edition of 1876 but published in paper wrappers only, is also described as the third edition but is dated 1874. The answer seems to be that the first six chapters of the second edition, issued separately as indicated above, sold out before the full second edition and were updated and issued first, and the full third edition was not produced until two years later, in 1876.

The most common edition of Troyte that comes on the market is the fourth, undated, edition. An enquiry appeared in the issue of Church Bells of 27 November 1880, asking when the fourth edition of Troyte would be ready, or as an alternative where the correspondent could get a copy of Hubbard. A response from Troyte in the next issue indicated that the fourth edition was then in the hands of the printer and that the delay in its issue had been caused by adding a chapter on Plain Bob in response to 'repeated requests'. The actual date of publication is not certain and it was not advertised in the pages of Church Bells until 15 April 1882, when it was said to be 'Just Ready'. Of 190 pages of text including index, the London publisher was Wells Gardner, Darton & Co, while again the Exeter publisher was Henry S Eland. This printing does not have the author's preface, nor the notes to the second and third editions, but has the same blind-stamped binding as the second edition of 1872 and the third edition of 1876. There was sufficient demand for this fourth edition to be reprinted twice. The first time was about 1900 when the text was set in a different typeface and with different blind-stamping on the boards, but with the same publishers. Interestingly, the author's preface and the notes to the second and third editions appear, as does a note relating to the fourth edition. This printing was probably done in two runs, as two variants have been recorded. In all editions of Troyte a quotation from Keble's "Lyra Innocentium" is given on the title page, and in the first variant of the fourth edition the quotation marks are not closed, while in the other they are closed. Otherwise, they are identical. This printing was advertised in Bell News, and then weekly in The Ringing World, the last advertisement appearing in the issue of the 24th March 1916. Presumably the War affected sales and it was considered not worth advertising again.

On 19th December 1924 this edition was advertised again in The Ringing World and continued to be advertised until 25th February 1938. The first advertisement probably coincides with the second reprinting, the typeface of which is identical to the previous reprinting but with a different blind-stamping on the cover. At the back the name of the printer is given as William Brendon & Son, Ltd at the Mayflower Press, Plymouth, while the London publisher had become Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co, Ltd, with Henry S Eland at Exeter again. These two reprints meant that this edition was in print for more than 50 years, and explain the large number of copies that are in circulation.

Each of the printings of the fourth edition was issued in a six-bell version, in paper covers instead of a hard binding. Generally, there is nothing on the title page to indicate that it is the six-bell version and the first indication is that the Contents page has only six chapters. Until 1916 the eight-bell version in hard covers cost 2s 6d (12½p) while the six-bell version cost 1s (5p). When the book was advertised again in 1924 the cost had gone up to 3s 6d (17½p) for the eight-bell version and 1s 6d (7½p) for the six-bell version.