orches or doors on north and
south, and a western tower, and this, save for its apsidal east end,
but amplified by accretions in the form of chapels belonging to the
many Gilds of the city, is the plan of St. Michael's.

In no part, however, do we find the chapels so set as to produce a
pseudo-cruciform plan.

Before the latest restoration the walls were entirely of the local red
sandstone, very similar in quality and appearance to that of which
Chester Cathedral was built, and the extent of its decay, especially
on the tower, was as grievous. Hardly a piece of external moulding or
carving preserved its original profile or form, and some of the tower
buttresses had lost so large a proportion of their substance not far
above ground that they appeared to hang to the walls rather than
support them. All save the aisles, which were refaced in the sixties,
have now been cased with Runcorn Stone nearly the same in colour and
much harder in texture.

The special glory of the church is its =steeple=. No doubt
intentionally its height of 300 feet is practically equal to the
length of the church. Only one other parish church, Louth in
Lincolnshire, has a steeple as high as this, and those of only two
English cathedrals, Salisbury and Norwich, exceed it.

There is, however, an essential difference to be noted in the position
of these spires, those of the cathedrals at the centre, the crowning
point in the composition, those of the parish churches at the west
end, springing sheer from the ground. While the former have a more
intimate relation to the building the latter have an almost
independent existence in keeping with the theory which regards them
more as symbols of municipal pride and power than as expressions of
spiritual aspiration.

But however mixed the motives for their erection, religious forms and
symbolism governed the design. Thus we have here three principal
divisions--tower, octagon, spire, and nine stories or stages in all,
six belonging to the tower and octagon, and three to the spire. Then
in its dimensions we find that the total height is 300 feet,[5] the
plan (exclusive of buttresses) is 30 feet square, while in its
proportions the number 30 is interwoven, so to speak, with a simple
arithmetical progression of heights in each story. Thus it is 30 feet
from the ground to the spring of the lowest five-light windows, 30
feet again to the spring of the single-light windows, 27 feet more to
the spring of the gr