The spire of S. Mary's, Shrewsbury, is 220 feet high, and rises from an embattled tower, the four corners of which contain crocketed pinnacles. During a gale on the night of Sunday, the 11th of February, 1894, about 50 feet of the masonry of the spire crashed through the church roof and did enormous damage. This has, however, since been repaired. A memorial stone on the west wall of the tower tells how one Thomas Cadman, was killed on the 2nd of February, 1739, when attempting to descend from the spire by a rope. For elaborateness of detail, the spire of S. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, surpasses all others in this country. Its apex is some 90 feet from the ground, and around the base of the spire clusters a mass of richly decorated pinnacles, small spirelets, and canopies containing statues. The effect is picturesque in the extreme, and lends to the town of Oxford a unique charm. Its conception dates from the fourteenth century, but it has been much restored and added to since. Of the Northamptonshire spires, Oundle is the loftiest, being 210 feet high. It bears date 1634, but this evidently refers to a re-building. It was partly taken down again and rebuilt in 1874. It is hexagonal in shape, and the angles are crocketed. Raunds church is surmounted by an octagonal broach spire 186 feet high. It was struck by lightning on the 31st of July, 1826, and about 30 feet of the masonry was shattered. This was at once rebuilt at a cost of L1,737 15s. 3d. The octagonal spire of Higham Ferrers is 170 feet high, and was rebuilt after destruction by a storm of wind in 1632. Rushden spire is an octagon 192 feet high, and richly crocketed. At its base flying buttresses connect it with pinnacles at the corners of the tower. The spire at Finedon rises from an embattled tower to a height of 133 feet; that of Stanwick is 156 feet high, and that of Irchester 152 feet. Space forbids more than a passing allusion to the fine spires of Newcastle Cathedral, S. Mary de Castro, Leicester, Ross, Herefordshire, and Olney, Bucks. The latter rises to a height of 185 feet. At its summit is a weathercock which, when taken down for regilding in 1884, was found to contain the following triplet-- I never crow, But stand to show Where winds do blow. Several of the spires which have been mentioned are perceptibly out of the perpendicular, but in this respect the "tall twisted spire of Chesterfield has no rival either in shape or pose." It is no less than 230 feet high, and the wonder to many is that it has for so long maintained its equilibrium. Various conjectures have been made to account for the grotesque twist which the spire assumes; but none of these seems so likely as that which accounts for it by the combined action of age, wind, and sun. There are those who aver that it never was straight, and never will be, and one such person even goes so far as to attempt this statement in rhyme as follows:--