The incumbency has an endowment of about £70 a year. It was formerly a Perpetual Curacy, and is now a Vicarage. It is in the gift of the Dean and Chapter. A vicarage house for the minister has been purchased quite recently. [Picture: The Tower of St. Giles’s Church] IX. THE TOWER OF ST. GILES’S CHURCH, _And some things in relation thereto_. {99} By “relation thereto” I mean that my paper will first speak of myself—my personality and my belongings—and then recall to your memory a few of those changes and events of interest which have taken place in my neighbourhood and surroundings. Perhaps I ought to apologize for bringing before such a learned branch of the Church of England Young Men’s Society, as is this its Literary Class, so many familiar facts and events as are here alluded to. But nevertheless, I have thought that there might be some considerable interest in grouping and recalling to our minds a few such items connected with one city centre, and especially as they might be supposed to be noted by such an eyewitness as I have suggested myself to be. A knowledge of our city, of its specialities, its changes, and developments, is always good mental store. And although it might be said—are not many of these things to be found recorded in the City Archives, and in the volumes of City History? yet almost certainly many of the members of this class will not have studied these. And therefore, it may fairly be hoped that this little paper may stimulate the historical bump of some of the brains here present, and arouse in them a desire to further study such archæological facts and local histories. And here let me quote some lines of the Suffolk poet, Bernard Barton, in reference to the survey or study of past events or history. He says:— “No useless, or ignoble toil, To him who in ‘the past’ delights, Seems it—from dark Oblivion’s spoil To cull whate’er our taste invites, Of by-gone legends, parted rites, In earlier days believ’d as true; And bid our old ‘Historic Sites’ Peopled afresh, to charm anew. “That is no true Philosophy Which does not love at times to trace, With glowing heart and moisten’d eye, Time honoured haunts, whose chiefest grace Is to have been _their_ dwelling-place Whose names in history’s page are shrined, Whose memories time can ne’er erase From many a fond admiring mind.” Well—my _name_ and _title_ is THE TOWER OF ST. GILES’S CHURCH, _and as such I shall speak of some of the many things which I have seen_.