Once the object of general praise, from its loftiness and beauty, and
till now the subject of censure, even among Protestants, from that
inscription of which the Papists always complained, was the offspring of
this period, and realized one of those decorations which Wren had
lavished upon his air-drawn Babylon. This lofty column was ordered by
the Commons, in commemoration of the extinction of the great fire and
the rebuilding of the city: it stands on the site of the old church of
St. Margaret, and within a hundred feet of the spot where the
conflagration began. It is of the Doric order, and rises from the
pavement to the height of two hundred and two feet, containing within
its shaft a spiral stair of black marble of three hundred and forty-five
steps. The plinth is twenty-one feet square, and ornamented with
sculpture by Cibber, representing the flames subsiding on the appearance
of King Charles;--beneath his horse's feet a figure, meant to personify
religious malice, crawls out vomiting fire, and above is that
unjustifiable legend which called forth the indignant lines of Pope--
"Where London's column pointing to the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts his head and lies."[4]
The shaft, deeply fluted, measures fifteen feet diameter at the base,
and diminishing according to the proportion of its order, terminates
in a capital, crowned with a balcony, from the centre of which rises a
circular pedestal, bearing a flaming urn of gilt bronze. The various
notions of the architect concerning a suitable termination, are worth
relating:--"I cannot," said he, "but commend a large statue as carrying
much dignity with it, and that which would be more valuable in the eyes
of foreigners and strangers. It hath been proposed to cast such a one in
brass of twelve feet high for a thousand pounds. I hope we may find
those who will cast a figure for that money of fifteen feet high, which
will suit the greatness of the pillar, and is, as I take it, the largest
at this day extant. And this would undoubtedly be the noblest finishing
that can be found answerable to so goodly a work in all men's
judgments." The King preferred a large ball of metal gilt. A phoenix was
introduced in the wooden model of the pillar, but afterwards rejected by
the architect himself, "because it would be costly, not easily
understood at that height, and worse understood at a distance; and
lastly, dangerous by reason of the sail the spread wings would carry in
the wind." A statue of Charles, fifteen feet high, on a pedestal of two
hundred, would have looked small and mean; the King resisted the
compliment. This work, begun in 1671, was not completed till 1677; stone
was scarce, and the restoration of London and its Cathedral swallowed up
the produce of the quarries. "It was at first used," says Elmes, "by the
members of the Royal Society, for astronomical experiments, but was
abandoned on account of its vibrations being too great for the nicety
required in their observations. This occasioned a report that it was
unsafe; but its scientific construction may bid defiance to the attacks
of all but earthquakes for centuries."
_Life of Wren.--Family Library._
[4] The original inscription, ascribing to the Roman Catholics the
fire which consumed the city, obliterated during the reign of
James II. and restored with much pomp on the coming of King
William, is now ordered, I hear, to be erased by the Common
Council. Fiction is truth and truth is fiction as party prevails.
* * * * *