Christopher Wren, the most celebrated of British architects, was born at
East Knoyle in Wiltshire, October 20, 1632. His father was Rector of
that parish, Dean of Windsor, and Registrar of the Order of the Garter:
his uncle, Dr. Matthew Wren, was successively Bishop of Hereford, of
Norwich, and of Ely; and was one of the greatest sufferers for the royal
cause during the Commonwealth, having been imprisoned nearly twenty
years in the Tower without ever having been brought to trial. The
political predilections of Wren’s family may be sufficiently understood
from these notices; but he himself, although his leaning probably was to
the side which had been espoused by his father and his uncle, seems to
have taken no active part in state affairs. The period of his long life
comprehended a series of the mightiest national convulsions and changes
that ever took place in England—the civil war—the overthrow of the
monarchy—the domination of Cromwell—the Restoration—the Revolution—the
union with Scotland—and, finally, the accession of a new family to the
throne; but we do not find that in the high region of philosophy and art
in which he moved, he ever allowed himself to be either withdrawn from
or interrupted in his course by any of these great events of the outer
world.
His health in his early years was extremely delicate. On this account he
received the commencement of his education at home under the
superintendence of his father and a domestic tutor. He was then sent to
Westminster School, over which the celebrated Busby had just come to
preside. The only memorial which we possess of Wren’s schoolboy days, is
a dedication in Latin verse, addressed by him to his father in his
thirteenth year, of an astronomical machine which he had invented, and
which seems from his description to have been a sort of apparatus for
representing the celestial motions, such as we now call an orrery. His
genius is also stated to have displayed itself at this early age in
other mechanical contrivances.
[Illustration:
_Engraved by W. Holl._