Weather – Vanes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 31, 31 July 1902, Page 7

Weather - Vanes.

Travellers who are unaccustomed to the sight, are often amused to see the figure of a cock — or, as is often said in America, a ' rooster ' — surmounting the top of church towers or sometimes secular buildings ; but the custom had a legitimate origin and and meaning, the cock being the symbol of clerical vigilance. Aside from this reason, there was the practical one that the bird had a large tail which turned easily with the wind. From the use of the cock in this manner came the term ' weathercock ' ; but there are many other object?, natural or otherwise, used for the same purpose. Many old English churches have the emblems of their patronsaint for a weather-vane ; thus St. Peter's has the key, that of St. Lawrence a gridiron, and St. Mildred's a gilt ship in full sail. Bow Church, in Cheapside, London, has for a weather-vane a gilt dragon lift, long ; ard upon the Royal Exchange is a grasshopper of equal length. Some say that this was used because the life of its founder was saved by the chirp of a grasshopper. In a famous prophecy it was foretold that when the dragon of Bow street should meet the grasshopper of the Royal Exchange, London's streets wculd be deluged with blood. In 1820 these two vanes were sent together to the same stonemason for repairs, but nothing in particular happened. St. Sepulchre's Church in London has four weather-vanes ; and from this came the old saying, ' As hard to reconcile ' as the vanes of St. Sepulchre's towers, which pointsd four different wayß.