desecration the citizens happily retained their pride in the great
steeple, and by constant attention and rebuildings contrived to
preserve it when negligence might have caused its ruin. The scrupulous
care given to such work is well shown by items in an account for
repairs, of date 1580:

Payed to George Aster for poyntynge ye steple _£_7 2 8
Payed for 3 quarter and a halfe of lyme 13 4
Payed for egges 8 4
Payed for glovers pecis, woode & tallowe, abowte
the lyme 5 6
Payed for a load sand 7-1/2
Payed for 4 stryke of mawlte and gryndyng 7 8-1/2
Payd for 6 gallons of worte more 2 0
Payd for gatherynge of slates & oyster shelles 3-1/4
Payd to Cookson for the cradle and 3 other pullesses 5 8

The glovers' snippings were for making size, which, with the eggs,
malt and wort were used in place of water for tempering the mortar.
Lightning seriously damaged the spire in 1655 and 1694, in the former
case causing much injury to the nave roof by falling stone. In 1793
Wyatt, the architect responsible for so much destruction of Mediaeval
work in various cathedrals, advised that a timber framework to carry
the bells should be built up within the tower from the ground and that
the tower arch should be bricked up. All this has been changed since
1885, the bells now hang (but are not pealed) in the octagon, the
chimes and clock are in the chamber below, the arch is opened and the
groining restored.

All galleries had been taken down in 1849 and the present seats,