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Show MAYNOOTH'S TALL SPIRE. Will Reach. More. Than Twice as High as Nelson's Pillar. The stately tower and spire of St. Patrick's church at Maynooth college, j Ireland, now in course of erection, will, when completed, touch the great height of 267 feet four inches a snlendid appendage ap-pendage of the fine ecclesiastical edifice to which it belongs and a noble memo-I memo-I rial of the occasion which it will com-j com-j memorate. The vast elevation to which the massive cross at, the summit of the spire will be raised may be understood when it is stated that the altitude of Nelson's pillar is only 125 feet, and that the Arnott tower near it is five feet j lower. The Christian emblem will thus be visible many miles on every side of Maynooth, and the tower itself mut form a prominent feature of the surrounding sur-rounding landscape. Eighty-seven feet from the ground will be placed the massive clock, with a face six feet three inches in diameter, and still far away overhead the bells will swing and send the music of their chimes from hill to hill. The tower at the base is thirty feet square, the massive walls being nine feet six inches thick. The work generally will be built of local punched block limestone, arid the dressings and windows and buttresses and turrets, etc., wilfbe chiseled white limestone. The tower is divided into j six stages or floors, which will be j reached by cast iron staircases. On the lower stage, or ground floor, will be a highly ornamental doorway facing th north or present hospital. The wet and east sides will be ornamented with two lancet-head windows, and the remaining re-maining side is. of course, annexed to the church. The second floor will be sixty feet over this, the work being of i a massive character, being relieved by two buttresses on' each side of the four sides, and two large windows thirty-five thirty-five feet high... In the next stage the great clock will be placed, the work being be-ing very chaste, the four sides being relieved re-lieved in limestone arcading, with polished pol-ished columns, with moulded and carved caps and bosses. Then comas the belfry, the roof of which is forty feet higher up in the tower. The belfry bel-fry division is in harmony with the ; other parts of this fine design, relieved by two windows on each side, with suit- able ornamentation. From the top of I the belfry level the spire will rise, as-. as-. suming an octagon shape, and add an ; additional height of 140 feet. On four sides of the octagon there will be high-!ly high-!ly ornamented pinnacles, with a win-I win-I dow in each, having chiseled limestone : dressings, columns, caps and bosses, j and each pinnacle being surmounted by I a large wrought iron cross four feet j high. The great cross which will crown i the entire edifice is to measure nineteen ! feet high, tied into the spire for a depth of twenty feet with wrought iron bars and anchor plates. The whole structure at the different heights will be tied in with galvanized chain bar for a space of fifteen or sixteen six-teen feet high. The work of constructing construct-ing the tower was commenced on March 27, and is already up some twenty-five or thirty feet. |