ry, but with some not very considerable repairs
then, and some slight ones later, lasted until 1749. Its height was 156
feet, but the authorities for its form do not at all agree. It is given
a very uncommon shape in the north prospect by Daniel King, reproduced
on p. 14. This seems to be followed by many engravings which, however,
bring no additional testimony, for they do not correct great faults in
other parts of it, such as the insertion of a bay too many in the nave,
and the ignoring of a story in the transept ends. The north-west view
from Harris's "History of Kent" (1719) makes the spire octagonal, and it
appears of this form in many small sketches. Other engravings, as
another view in Harris's own book, show it square, but without the
peculiar treatment of the middle of each side, and with something
simpler and plainer than the pairs of dormer windows in the plate by
King. Some reasons may, however, be given for thinking the latter's
version of the spire correct, though his engraving is elsewhere so
inaccurate. Such are: (1) its abundant detail, perhaps too abundant, as
others do not support his dormer windows, for instance; (2) the fact
that Browne Willis, in his "Mitred Abbies," refers to this "draught"
(when used to illustrate Dugdale's "Monasticon"), in preference to
attempting a description himself; and (3) that the tiny view shown on
the portrait engraving of Dr. Thorpe that forms the frontispiece to his
"Registrum Roffense," agrees with it well when we take into
consideration the smallness of its scale. The tower was square, without
either battlements or corner pinnacles, and the spire rose directly from
it. On the west side, it will be noticed, the blind arcading under a
string course at the height of the ridges of the transept roofs,
terminated downwards on the lines of a pointed gable, and we may hence
conclude that the nave used to have a high-pitched roof before its
present flat one.

The spire raised in 1749 was octagonal, and rose directly from the
tower. It had neither parapet nor corner pinnacles to hide the
transition from the square to the octagon, nor splaying to make this
change less abrupt. Its form is shown in the 1816 view (p. 31), and Mr.
Sloane's model of its woodwork is still to be seen in the crypt, in a
very damaged state. A curious instance of the inaccuracy of some old
engravings occurs in two plates by Metcalf, and by Ryland after B.
Ralphe, which reproduce the same view of this ca