“Ugley church, Ugley steeple,
Ugley parson, Ugley people.”
The Yorkshire village of Raskelfe is usually called Rascall, and an old rhyme says:—
“A wooden church, a wooden steeple,
Rascally church, rascally people.”
Mr. William Andrews, in his “Antiquities and Curiosities of the Church” (London, 1897), gives many examples of “People and Steeple Rhymes.”
There is a never-ending romance connected [p 112] with the subject of spires. Every one possesses some story or legend. Spirits are supposed to inhabit their gloomy recesses, and are even credited with their construction. There is certainly an uncanny feeling connected with the interior of a spire, even on a sunny summer’s day, and given sufficient stress of howling winds and gloomy darkness, one can almost imagine a situation conducive to the acutest kind of devilry. So much for the interior of spires. What sensations may be produced by climbing the exterior is given to few to experience. The vast majority of mankind must perforce content themselves with a position on terra firma, whence they may with pleasure and safety combined behold
“——the spires that glow so bright
In front of yonder setting sun.”