“Whichever way you turn your eye
It always seems to be awry,
Pray can you tell the reason why?
The only reason known of weight
Is that the thing was never straight,
Nor know the people where to go
To find the man to make it so.”
However this may be, it is satisfactory to note that a movement has recently been set on foot to collect subscriptions towards its much needed repair.
When speaking of Salisbury Cathedral spire, allusion was made to the repairs being carried out from a wicker-work contrivance suspended from the top. This was not the first time that [p 111] wicker-work had been used for such a purpose, for in 1787 the spire at S. Mary’s, Islington, was entirely encased in a cage composed of willow, hazel, and other sticks, while undergoing repair. An ingenious basket-maker of S. Albans, named Birch, carried out the work, and constructed a spiral staircase inside the cage. His contract was to do the work for £20 paid down, and to be allowed to charge sixpence a head to any sightseers who liked to mount to the top. It is said that in this way he gained some two or three pounds a day above his contract.
People and steeple rhymes are by no means uncommon; perhaps the most spiteful is that relating to an Essex village:—