At the time these words were written the north porch was in a wrecked
condition. Both gables of the transept were in ruins, and the
high-pitched roofs of the old library, the lady-chapel, and the south
arm of the transept were absent altogether.

But soon the authorities began to take some interest in the condition
of the building. James Elmes had been called in to deal with the spire
in 1813-1814, and under his direction the "useful piece of machinery"
which had been put there by Wren was "taken down and reinstated." In
his "Life of Wren" an illustration is given of the device, which he
had carefully examined and measured. He describes it thus:

"To the finial is fastened a strong metal ring, and to that
is suspended a large piece of yellow fir-timber eighty feet
long and thirteen inches square; the masonry at the apex of
the spire, being from nine to six inches thick, diminishing
as it rises. The pendulum is loaded with iron, adding all
its weight to the finial, and has two stout solid oak
floors, the lower one smaller by about three, and the upper
one by about two and a quarter inches, than the octagonal
masonry which surrounds it. The effect in a storm is
surprising and satisfactory. While the wind blows high
against the vane and spire, the pendulum floor touches on
the lee side, and its aperture is double on the windward: at
the cessation, it oscillates slightly, and terminates in a
perpendicular. The rest of the spire is quite clear of
scaffolding. This contrivance is doubtless one of the most
ingenious and appropriate of its great inventor's
applications."