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At the base of the dome, near nine feet below the first cross chain, was a second. This chain was a double cross connected at its ends with a circle of iron, which was bedded into the whole course and fastened by melted lead. Here the lightning made great ravage, burst and threw off the stones in which the iron circle was bedded, and tore out part of the roof of the dome, threw off two pieces of the cornice and one of the vases, which was contiguous to it. These two pieces of cornice weighed twelve hundred pounds. The courses of stone between the two chains, except those I just now mentioned, were not injured.
To what is here said, I shall only add, that in no part the steeple was injured, except where the stones were in contact or very near the iron and lead employed in its building; and the quantity of stone burst, spoiled, or so much damaged as not fit to be used again, amounts, as I am informed by Mr. Stanes, a very honest and ingenious mason, who has contracted to repair the damage done by the lightning, to not less than five and twenty tuns. An amazing quantity!
The above mentioned Mr. Stanes was employed, a few years since, in the repair of the steeple of St. Mary le Bow in Cheapside, which was injured by a very rare and uncommon accident. At its erection, the builders had employed, near the top of the spire, for additional security, several iron cramps; the ends of which, by being exposed to the weather, became rusty, swelled, and so much enlarged thereby, as to raise the stones above them, and to deflect the top of the spire six inches from the perpendicular. Danger being apprehended from this situation, the spire was
