54 PAPERS, ETC. 
sition to it. In both the former classes, the portion be- 
tween the roof of the church and belfry stage is generally 
divided into horizontal stages, which have no necessary 
connexion with each other, and any of which we could 
conceive being removed with no other prejudice to the tower 
than simply making it lower. This may be seen very re- 
markably in the tower at Middlezoy ; this is one of the 
Taunton and Weston Zoyland group, and has quite the 
same general effect; but, as it stands on higher ground 
than its neighbours, it was not thought necessary to give 
the tower itself the same height; consequently there is 
only one stage between the west window and the belfry, 
without any other change in the general composition of 
the steeple. 
We may also observe in most specimens of the two first 
classes a certain weakness in the pinnacles, which seem 
hardly of sufficient consequence to form the crown of the 
magnificent structures on which they are placed; while 
in the few exceptions they are often topheavy, as at St. 
Mary Magdalen, Taunton. There is also in many cases 
hardly any connexion between them and the pinnacles, so 
that the whole parapet seems something altogether extra- 
neous, merely put on, without in any way growing out of 
or being fused into one whole, with the stages beneath. 
This third class avoids all these deficiencies, and works up 
the whole tower into the most perfect unity that can be 
imagined. 
Its ideal form may be thus described. The staircase- 
turret, as any important »sthetical feature, is entirely 
dispensed with, being only carried up a little way above 
the roof of the church, and then finished off under the 
belfry-stage. The whole portion of the tower above the 
church is thrown into one vast stage, panelled with two 
