t merely an added ornament, not appearing part of the
solid structure.

Despite the somewhat ornate details of the upper stories and spire,
they accord well with the rest of the building, and, although typical
Early Decorated of the time of Edward III., fail to clash with the
more severe Early English work. These two stories have elaborately
canopied arcades running round them, the windows being pierced through
two of the arches on each facade and not emphasized by any special
treatment. Above each story is a traceried parapet of lozenge
decoration, the same design being repeated in the two bands that
encircle the spire itself. At each of the four angles of the tower is
an octagonal turret with crocketed spire. Amid a coronet of decorated
finials the great octagonal spire grows naturally with no abrupt
revelation of its change of plan. The whole cresting of the tower, and
the perfectly natural way in which its lines continue easily into the
graceful spire itself, are triumphs of successful design. The
silhouette of the mass against the sky so precisely reaches the ideal
effect that it is difficult to restrain oneself to sober criticism in
describing it, yet the result is achieved so naturally that until we
compare it with others, especially with modern ones, we hardly do
justice to the subtle beauty that gives it a right to the supremacy it
has won. The timber framework erected as a scaffold during the
progress of the building still remains inside the spire and helps to
impart strength to it; those curious in such matters will find a mass
of information and many plans and drawings of its internal
construction in Francis Price's "Antiquities of Salisbury, 1774." In
1762, during the progress of some repairs to the capstone and the
addition of a new copper vane, the workmen discovered a wooden box,
and inside it a round leaden one 5-1/2 inches in diameter and 2-1/4
inches deep, which contained a piece of woven fabric.[4] This was
conjectured to be a relic of the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of the
church, which had been deposited there to guard the lofty spire from
danger by lightning or tempest. When tested on the 600th anniversary
of the building the spire showed, it is said, no further deflection
from that registered two centuries earlier. Consequently the
settlement in the two western piers being so long at a standstill, and
the repeated additions of metal work to strengthen the spire being
apparently entirely succes