(_For the Mirror_.)
Mr. Bentham, in his "History of Ely Cathedral," says, that one of the
earliest spires of which we have any account, "is that of old St. Paul's,
finished in the year 1222." This spire was of timber covered with lead;
"but, not long after, they began to build them of stone, and to finish all
their buttresses in the same manner." Mr. Murphy observes that spires were
introduced in the 12th century, about the time that the practice of
burying in churches became general over Europe; and he supposes that the
pyramidal form of the spire, was used as the denotation of a church
comprising a cemetery. This representation he imagines to have been
borrowed "from the ancient Egyptians, who placed the pyramid over their
cemeteries, as denoting the soul under the emblem of a flame of fire,
(whence it is supposed to derive its origin) thus to testify their belief
of its immortality." There are other opinions respecting the origin of
spires. It may appear probable (says Mr. Brewer,) to many persons, that
such an elevated feature of our ancient churches was merely designed in
the simplicity of its first intention, to act as a guide to the place of
worship, when rural roads, throughout the whole country, were devious, and
rendered more obscure by thick masses of forest and woodland.