"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 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 L20 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:-- "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 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." The Five of Spades and the Church of Ashton-under-Lyne. By John Eglington Bailey, F.S.A.