1664-1667.
REPAIR OF S. PAUL'S--SHELDONIAN THEATRE--THE PLAGUE--A LETTER FROM
PARIS--CONSECRATION OF PEMBROKE CHAPEL--FIRE OF LONDON--BISHOP
WREN'S DEATH--HIS FAMILY.
Yet, London, Empress of the Northern Clime,
By an high fate thou greatly didst expire,
Great as the world's, which, at the death of time,
Must fall, and rise a nobler frame by fire
_Annus Mirabilis_, ccxii. Dryden.
The repairs of S. Paul's Cathedral could not be delayed. Wren, as Sir
John Denham's assistant, was greatly occupied about the matter, which
was one of no ordinary difficulty. The responsibility was really his,
for Sir John went out of his mind, and though he recovered, probably did
but little business.
When Inigo Jones built his portico, he cased the nave with Portland
stone, and rebuilt the north and south fronts. In doing so he pared down
the original pointed architecture, until little of its beauty or
character remained. His work had in its turn been damaged by the
Puritans, who set up booths in the portico, and dug sawpits in the
cathedral inclosure. Besides these injuries Christopher Wren's accurate
eye detected graver faults in the original design, some of which he
enumerates. 'The pillars of the nave, though eleven feet in diameter,
were only cased with stone, and filled up with rubbish inside. The roof
was always too heavy for them, so that they are bent outwards on both
sides, so that the roof already cracked will finally fall in.' He
proposed to substitute a roof[97] of 'a light, thin shell of stone,
very geometrically made.' The tower leant much to one side, and was
propped with arches and buttresses, so as to block the view from the
west end. Upon this tower, which he despairingly calls 'a heap of
deformities,' there had been formerly a tall, thin, wooden spire, which
was destroyed by lightning. For this he wished to substitute 'a dome or
rotunda, and upon the cupola for outward ornament, a lantern with a
spring top to rise proportionately.' He hints that when the dome was
finished the rest of the cathedral should be harmonised with it, almost
impossible though the task appeared. He expected great difference of
opinion, and that 'some would aim at a greater magnificence than the age
would afford, and some might fall so low as to think of piecing up the
old fabric here with stone, there with brick, and covering all faults
with a coat of plaster, to leave it still to posterity as an object of
charity.' The miserable state of the building is implied in the epitaph
of its Dean, Dr. Barwick, who in 1664, 'Inter sacras Ædis Paulinæ ruinas
reponit suas (utrasque resurrecturas securus)'.[98]
[_SHELDONIAN THEATRE._]
Another work upon which Wren was engaged was the Sheldonian Theatre at
Oxford. Sheldon, who succeeded Archbishop Juxon in the see of Canterbury
in 1663, was determined to free S. Mary's Church from the profane uses
to which it was put when the various 'Acts' were kept there, and any
kind of jesting and buffoonery was considered allowable. He had had
experience of Wren in the discussions about S. Paul's, and now engaged
him as architect. The building is too well known to need a description;
the roof was reckoned a triumph of skill because of 'the contrivance of
supporting the same without the help of any beam, it being entirely kept
up by braces and screws; and is the subject of an excellent mathematical
treatise by that prodigy of the age, Dr. Wallis.'[99] It was six years
building, and cost 25,000_l._ Evelyn, with whom Wren had often discussed
the plans, went to Oxford on purpose to be present at the opening on
July 9, 1669.
'In the morning,' he says, 'was celebrated the Encenia of the New
Theater ... it was resolved to keep the present Act in it and
celebrate its dedication with the greatest splendor and formalitie
that might be, and therefore drew a world of strangers and other
companie to the Universitie from all parts of the nation. The Vice
Chancellor, Heads of Houses and Doctors, being seated in
magisteriall seates, the Vice Chancellor's chaire and deske,
Proctors etc. covered with Brocatall (a kind of Brocade) and cloth
of gold; the Universitie Register read the founder's grant and gift
of it to the Universitie upon these solemn occasions. Then followed
Dr. South, the Universitie's orator, in an eloquent speech which
was very long and not without some malicious and indecent
reflections on the Royal Society as underminers of the Universitie,
which was very foolish and untrue, as well as unseasonable. But,
to let that pass from an ill-natured man, the rest was in praise of
the archbishop and the ingenious architect.'
Dr. Plot, the historian of Oxfordshire, who was a member of the Royal
Society, in his quaint book gives a careful technical description of the
construction of the theatre by Wren, and his assistant, 'Richard
Frogley, an able carpenter.'
During the years that the theatre was building Wren did not intermit his
attendance at the Royal Society; amongst other inventions he produced a
machine for drawing in perspective, which was exhibited at one of the
meetings.
[_THE PLAGUE._]
A frightful interruption came to these and to all other pursuits in
London. In 1665, the plague, which had more than once afflicted England,
broke out with fearful force in London, where the dark narrow streets
with their houses meeting overhead, and the foul state of the entire
town, gave every encouragement to its ravages. Pepys, who stayed in
London all through the worst time of the plague, gives many a record of
this visitation.[100]
'_June 7th._--The hottest day that ever I felt in my life. This
day, much against my will I did in Drury Lane see two or three
houses marked with a red cross upon the doors and "Lord have mercy
upon us!" writ there; which was a sad sight to me, being the first
of the kind that, to my remembrance, I ever saw.
'_August 16th._--To the Exchange, where I have not been a great
while. But Lord! how sad a sight it is to see the streets empty of
people and very few upon the 'Change! Jealous of every door that
one sees shut up lest it should be the plague, and about us two
shops in three, if not more, generally shut up.
'_September 3rd_ (Lord's Day).--Up; and put on my coloured silk
suit very fine, and my new periwigg, bought a good while since, and
durst not wear because the plague was in Westminster when I bought
it; and it is a wonder what will be the fashion after the plague is
done as to periwiggs, for nobody will dare to buy any haire for
fear of the infection, that it had been cut off the heads of people
dead of the plague. My Lord Brouncker, Sir J. Minnes and I up to
the Vestry' (he was then at Greenwich) 'at the desire of the
justices of the peace, in order to the doing of something for the
keeping of the plague from growing; but Lord! to consider the
madness of the people of the town who will, because they are
forbid, come in crowds along with the dead corpses to see them
buried; but we agreed on some orders for the prevention thereof.
Among other stories, one was very passionate, me-thought, of a
complaint brought against a man in the town for taking a child from
London from an infected house. Alderman Hooker told us it was the
child of a very able citizen in Gracious Street' (Gracechurch
Street), 'a saddler, who had buried all the rest of his children
with the plague, and himself and his wife being now shut up and in
despair of escaping, did desire only to save the life of this
little child; and so prevailed to have it received stark naked into
the arms of a friend who brought it, having put it into fresh
clothes, to Greenwich, where upon hearing the story we did agree it
should be permitted to be received and kept in the town.'
So the days went on and the grass waved in Whitehall Court, and to quote
Pepys again: 'Lord! how everybody's looks and discourse in the streets
is of death and nothing else, and few people going up and down, that the
town is like a place distressed and forsaken.'
None but those whom absolute necessity kept in London stayed in the
infected air; the works at S. Paul's were stopped; all meetings and
lectures ceased, with good reason, since to gather people together was
but to spread the infection.
Christopher Wren profited by the cessation of his London work, to travel
abroad. Before going he had much to settle; to help Mr. Evelyn find a
tutor, 'a perfect Grecian and more than commonly mathematical,' for his
son. This youth went two years later, at the age of thirteen, to Trinity
College, Oxford, 'being newly out of long coates.'
['_THE WORLD GOVERNED BY WORDS._']
Wren's Oxford Professorship, and his works, both there and at Cambridge,
required to be set in good order before he could go. At Oxford he was
engaged on the repairs of Trinity College, for his friend Dr.
Bathurst.[101] On June 22, 1665, Wren writes to them as follows:--
'My honoured Friend,--I am convinced with Machiavel or some unlucky
fellow, 'tis no matter whether I quote true, that the world is
generally governed by words. I perceive the name of a quadrangle
will carry it with those whom you say may possibly be your
benefactors, though it be much the worse situation for the
chambers, and the beauty of the college, and of the particular pile
of building. If I had skill in enchantment to represent the pile,
first in one view, then in another, I should certainly make them of
my opinion; or else I will appeal to Mons. Mansard or Signor
Bernini, both of which I shall see at Paris within this fortnight.
'But, to be sober, if anybody, as you say, will pay for a
quadrangle, there is no dispute to be made; let them have a
quadrangle, though a lame one somewhat like a three-legged
table.'...
Some technical details for the builder follow, and then:
'You need not use any apologies to me, for I must beg you to
believe you can command me in things of greater moment, and that I
love to serve you as your most faithful and affectionate Friend and
Servant,
'CHRISTOPHER WREN.'
The College was repaired by Sir Thomas Pope, it having been left in a
very ruinous condition, but the ornamental part is due to Dr. Bathurst,
aided by munificent Archbishop Sheldon and other old members of the
College.
He was making considerable additions to Trinity College at Cambridge: to
this date belongs the library, which he added to the beautiful western
Quadrangle known as Nevile's Court.
'A building,' said Wren, in a letter to the Master of Trinity, 'of
that consideration you go about, deserves good care in the design
and able workmen to perform it; and that he who takes the general
management upon him may have a prospect of the whole, and make all
parts inside and outside correspond well together.'
Very full directions and six drawings follow, explaining the plan and
its details.
'I suppose,' he ends, 'you have good masons; however, I would
willingly take a farther pains to give all the mouldings in great;
we are scrupulous in small matters and you must pardon us, the
architects are as great pedants as critics and heralds.'
[_WREN AT PARIS._]
It was not until midsummer that Wren was able to start on his journey:
he went at once to Paris to the Earl of S. Albans, the English
ambassador, to whom he had letters. Lord S. Albans had lived at Paris in
great ease and luxury all through the Rebellion, far more so, Evelyn
indignantly says, than had the King. He was supposed to be privately
married to the Queen Dowager, Henrietta Maria. He was what was then
called a great virtuoso, a friend of Cowley and of other wits, and
entertained Wren with much courtesy and hospitality. Wren's name was, in
itself, a sufficient introduction to the scientific men and philosophers
of the city, in whose society he took great pleasure.
He had long been a Member of the Order of Freemasons, and had
distinguished himself by the attention he gave to the lodges under his
care: at the time of his journey to France he was Deputy Grand Master
under Earl Rivers; no doubt he availed himself to the full of the
opportunities which Freemasonry afforded him for observing the details
of the work and becoming acquainted with the workmen, the architects,
and the sculptors, whom Louis XIV. had brought in great numbers to
Paris.
It would have been interesting had Wren left us a record of his
impressions of Paris from a political point of view. It was the brief
interval of peace between England and France before the war of the
Netherlands. Louis XIV., climbing upwards to the zenith of his brilliant
reign, keeping the supreme power in his own hands since Mazarin's death
(in 1661), with the wise Colbert for his financier, surrounded by all
the great captains, statesmen, wits and artists who made up the 'Siècle
de Louis XIV.,' must have been a very interesting subject for the
observation of a philosopher like Wren, whose youth had been passed
among terrible political storms. There is, however, but one slight hint
in his journal, but one suggestion that he discerned the true value of
much of the glitter and veneer of universal, if temporary, success.
Pascal, with whom he had corresponded, and between whose brief career
and his own there is a curious resemblance, had died three years before
Wren took his one foreign journey.
The 'Académie Royale des Sciences,' which had just received the formal
sanction of Louis XIV., had begun much like the English Royal Society,
by small meetings and conferences at Paris amongst scientific men, and
in these conferences, Pascal, while very young, had taken a brilliant
place. His father, Etienne Pascal, when he found it a vain attempt to
withhold mathematical science from his son, cultivated the boy's genius
to the utmost, beyond, perhaps, what the very feeble physical frame
could bear.
One cannot doubt that Wren was introduced to this society, and took an
interest in its discussions, though his attention seems most of all to
have been given to architecture.
[_THE LOUVRE._]
In a journal written for a Dr. Bateman, the friend who gave him the
letters to Lord S. Albans, he says:
'I have busied myself in surveying the most esteemed Fabrics of
Paris, and the country round; the Louvre for a while was my daily
object where no less than a thousand hands are constantly employed
in the works; some in laying mighty Foundations, some in raising
the stories, columns, and entablements &c. with vast stones, by
great and useful engines, others in carving, inlaying of marbles,
plaistering, painting, gilding &c., which altogether makes a School
of Architecture, the best probably at this day in Europe. The
college of the Four Nations,[102] is usually admired, but the
Artist had purposely set it ill-favouredly that he might shew his
wit in struggling with an ill-convenienced situation. An Academy of
Painters, Sculptors, Architects and the chief Artificers of the
Louvre, meet every first and last Saturday of the month. Mons.
Colbert, Surintendant, comes to the works of the Louvre every
Wednesday, and if business hinders not, Thursday. The Workmen are
paid every Sunday duly. Mons. Abbé Charles introduced me to the
acquaintance of Bernini,[103] who showed me his designs of the
Louvre, and of the King's Statue. Abbé Bruno keeps the curious
rarities of the Duke of Orleans' library, well filled with
excellent Intaglios, medals, books of Plants and Fowls in
miniature. Abbé Burdelo keeps an Academy at his house for
Philosophy every Monday afternoon. But I must not think to describe
Paris, and the numerous observables there in the compass of a short
letter. The King's Houses I could not miss, Fontainbleau has a
stately wildness and vastness suitable to the Desert it stands in.
['_TO PRY INTO TRADES AND ARTS._']
'The antique mass of the Castle of S. Germains and the hanging
gardens are delightfully surprising (I mean to any man of
judgement), for the pleasures below vanish away in the breath that
is spent in ascending. The Palace, or if you please the Cabinet, of
Versailles call'd me twice to view it; the mixtures of brick,
stone, blue tile and gold make it look like a rich livery: not an
inch within but is crowded with little curiosities of ornaments:
the women as they make here the language and fashions and meddle
with Politics and Philosophy, so they sway also in Architecture;
works of Filgrand and little Knacks are in great vogue; but
Building certainly ought to have the attribute of Eternal and
therefore the only thing uncapable of new Fashions. The masculine
furniture of _Palais Mazarine_ pleased me much better, where is a
great and noble collection of antique Statues and Bustoes, (many of
porphyry), good Basso-relievos: excellent pictures of the great
masters, fine Arras, true Mosaics, besides _pièces de Raport_[104]
in compartiments and pavements, vases of porcelain painted by
Raphael, and infinite other rarities. The best of which now furnish
the glorious appartment of the Queen Mother at the Louvre which I
saw many times. After the incomparable villas of Vaux and Maisons,
I shall name but Ruel, Coutances, Chilly, Essoane, St. Maur, St.
Mande, Issy, Meudon, Rincy, Chantilly, Verneuil, Liancour, all
which, and I might add many others, I have surveyed, and that I
might not lose the impressions of them, I shall bring you all
France on paper. Bernini's design of the Louvre I would have given
my skin for; but the old reserved Italian gave me but a few
minutes' view; it was five designs on paper, for which he hath
received as many thousand pistoles. I had only time to copy it in
my fancy and memory, and shall be able, by discourse and a crayon,
to give you a tolerable account of it. I have purchased a great
deal of taille-douce, that I might give our countrymen examples of
ornaments and grotesques, in which the Italians themselves confess
the French to excel. I hope I shall give you a very good account of
all the best artists of France; my business now is to pry into
trades and arts. I put myself into all shapes to humour them; it is
a comedy to me, and though sometimes expenseful, I am yet loth to
leave it.' There follows a long list of what he calls 'the most
noted artisans within my knowledge or acquaintance,' in which is
many a famous name, Bernini, Poussin, Mignard, Mansard, &c., and
then he says, 'My Lord Berkeley returns to England at Christmas,
when I propose to take the opportunity of his company, and by that
time to perfect what I have on the anvil--observations on the
present state of architecture, arts, and manufactures in France.'
With the great men Latin was probably the common tongue, but with the
artizans he must have talked in French, and have either possessed or
acquired no small mastery of the language and of the technical terms of
their various trades. The 'observations' were either never hammered into
the shape Wren wished, or else were subsequently lost or copied by
someone else, as frequently happened to one so careless of his own fame
as was Wren. In January 1666, the English Ambassador was recalled from
Paris, and the war began between England, and the Netherlands with
France for their ally.
[_A THANKOFFERING._]
Pembroke Chapel was meanwhile completed, and
'being beautified with splendid and decorous furniture and amply
endowed with an annual revenue, was upon the feast of S. Matthew'
(the Bishop's patron saint) '1665, solemnly consecrated and
dedicated by Bishop Wren in person and by his Episcopal authority
to the honour of Almighty God. A noble and lasting monument of the
rare piety and munificence of that great and wise Prelate and in
every point accorded to his character, which was so well known that
the sole nomination of the founder was a sufficient account of the
magnificence of the foundation. Before evening service the
exterior or outer chapel and the cloister leading to it (a new
fabrick of Sir R. Hitcham's foundation) were by his Lordship also
consecrated for places of sepulture for the use of the Society,
together with a cell or vault at the East end of the chapel under
the altar for a dormitory for his Lordship.'[105]
Bishop Wren must have looked with joy on the completion of his
thankoffering, and may have guessed, as he surveyed its beautiful
proportions, that he had set his nephew, its young architect, on the
road to fame. Very little is told us of the latter years of Wren's
Episcopate; one or two stories are given in the 'Parentalia' and then
contradicted, but it seems he kept his old firmness. In 1662 he held the
second Visitation of his Diocese and the articles of inquiry and
directions show no change in his opinions and no deference to Puritan
notions. It was by a stretch of his power as Visitor that he admitted
Dr. Beaumont to be master of Peterhouse, though the college had
nominated two other deserving persons, of whom Cosin was one. The choice
proved, in the end, a very wise one. He could be lenient also when he
thought it right, and admitted several Fellows of Jesus College who came
to him, in some fear of a refusal, for institution. He 'was very fair
and civil towards them, despatched them without the usual height of the
fees and persuaded them to studiousness and peace against all
animosities.' So says a contemporary letter quoted in the 'Parentalia.'
Wren had come home at Christmas to find London comparatively free from
the plague, and people gradually returning. The Royal Society, whose
meetings had of course ceased during the infection, busied themselves in
investigations as to the plague, and the possible methods of preventing
it. It still raged in the country, and especially at Cambridge, driving
Isaac Newton from his lectures there to the garden at Woolsthorpe in
Lincolnshire, where the idea of the law of gravitation first occurred to
his mind.
The repair of S. Paul's was again discussed and commissioners appointed
in 1666, among whom were Evelyn, Wren, Dean Sancroft, and the then
Bishop of London, who was Humphrey Henchman, the early friend of George
Herbert.
[_FIRE OF LONDON._]
On August 27th they inspected the cathedral. Two of the commissioners,
Mr. Chichley and Mr. Prat, evidently wished to do as little as possible,
declaring, when the nave was proved to lean outwards on both sides, 'it
was so built for an effect of the perspective,' and proposing to repair
the steeple on its old foundations. Wren thought very differently,
insisted on new foundations, renewed his former proposal of 'a noble
cupola' which was strongly supported by Evelyn, who had never forgotten
the grandeur of S. Peter's just completed when he went to Rome as a
young man in 1644. They retired to the Deanery to give their opinions in
writing, promising to send estimates of the cost of their several plans.
Six days later a new disaster overwhelmed London and solved the
question of repairing the cathedral. On the night of September 2nd the
Fire of London began; for three days and four nights it burned
unchecked, having gained such strength during the first panic that it
could not be beaten back, the sparks constantly kindling new centres of
flame.
'All the skie,' says Evelyn,[106] 'was of a fiery aspect, like the
top of a burning oven, and the light seen above forty miles round
about for many nights. God grant mine eyes may never behold the
like who now saw 10,000 houses all in one flame; the noise and
crackling and thunder of the impetuous flames, the shrieking of
women and children, the hurry of people, the fall of towers, houses
and churches, was like an hideous storme, and the aire all about so
hot and inflam'd that at last one was not able to approch it, so
that they were forc'd to stand still and let the flames burn on,
which they did for neere two miles in length and one in bredth. The
clowds also of smoke were dismall and reached upon computation
neere fifty-six miles in length. Thus I left it this afternoone
burning, a resemblance of Sodom, or of the last day.
'_Sept. 4._--The burning still rages and it was now gotten as far
as the Inner Temple; all Fleet Streete, the Old Bailey, Ludgate
Hill, Warwick Lane, Newgate, Paules' Chaine, Watling Streete now
flaming and most of it reduced to ashes; the stones of Paules flew
like granados, the mealting lead running downe the streetes in a
streame and the very pavement glowing with fiery rednesse so as no
horse nor man was able to tread them and the demolition had stopped
all the passages so as no help could be applied. The Eastern wind
still more impetuously driving the flames forward. Nothing but the
Almighty power of God was able to stop them, for vaine was the help
of man.'
At last the people were roused to take some steps. King Charles, who
showed on this occasion great courage and presence of mind, got by water
to the Tower and insisted on the houses near being blown up so as to
prevent the flames from reaching the powder magazine.
[_ITS LONG CONTINUANCE._]
Pepys gives a vivid account of the dismay and confusion; the goods
removed and removed again as the fire reached what had been thought to
be places of safety; the rain of fire drops, and the ever-new places in
which the fire broke out, and his own difficulties of getting anything
to eat but the cold remains of his Sunday's dinner! On September 17 he
went by water to Greenwich--'seeing the City all the way, a sad sight
much fire being in it still.' S. Paul's suffered terribly; the Portico
was split and rent, nothing but the inscription remaining, of which each
letter was perfect. The heat had calcined the largest blocks of stone,
the Portland stone flew off wherever the flames touched it; the lead
roof (no less than six acres by measure[107]), melted and fell in, and
carrying everything with it in its fall, broke into S. Faith's, the
crypt below the choir, where the books belonging to the Stationers'
Hall had been carried for safety. They caught fire and continued burning
for a week. The altar and roof above it, though of lead, remained
untouched, and one Bishop's tomb.[108] When at length the fire burnt
out, the city was a 'ruinous heap,' the air still so hot as almost to
singe the hair of those who sought amongst the ruins for some remains of
former wealth. In the fields all round were two hundred thousand people
of all classes equally destitute, silent from the very greatness of
their calamity and asking no relief. The King did his utmost for them,
and a proclamation was made for the country to come in and refresh them.
Most fortunately the weather was warm and fair.
For a few days their stupor lasted, when it was broken into by a general
alarm that the Dutch were in the river burning all the shipping. When
this was at length appeased, the people flocked back to what had been
the city, and either set up little sheds where their houses had been or
took refuge with friends whose dwellings were uninjured, so that in four
days' time of the hundreds who had thronged the fields not one remained.
To rebuild the city was an urgent necessity, and while the flames were
in parts still burning Wren and Evelyn had both made plans for a new
city and presented them to the King. Wren's was the first shown to King
Charles, and though there is much resemblance between it and that of
Evelyn, yet Wren's is evidently the more useful, as well as the finer
plan of the two, and was the one which the King accepted. All persons
were agreed that to allow the old, narrow, filthy streets, with their
magazines of oil and rosin, and their wooden houses touching each other
overhead, to be put back was only to insure another plague and another
fire, but the manner of rebuilding was in as great dispute as was the
origin of the fire. Pepys believed that it was caused by the Dutch, who
in the following year did venture into Chatham and burnt several
men-of-war as they lay at anchor there; but the popular idea was that it
was caused by the French and the Roman Catholics, and there were plenty
ready to swear that they had seen foreigners kindling the flames in
fresh places by throwing fire-balls into the houses. Some said it was
done by the Puritans, and very few appear to have accepted the theory,
probably the true one, that it was caused by the over-heating of a
baker's oven.
Christopher Wren began his work by having the ruins cleared away. It was
no easy task, especially as every now and then the flames would break
out anew when the air reached the cellars where they had been
smouldering. But it was a mere matter of necessity, as until this was
done it was not possible to pass to and fro or take the necessary levels
and measurements. He also repaired a portion of the west end of S.
Paul's, which best permitted it, for divine service. It was employment
enough for one man, but as the evenings grew longer, in the intervals of
elaborating his plans for the new city, he returned to the Royal
Society and attended all its meetings.
Improvements in building naturally occupied much of the Society's
attention. Mr. Hooke produced a scheme for a better method of
brick-making;[109] new models for the London granaries were required,
and Wren gave an account of those at Dantzic.
[_DEATH OF BISHOP WREN._]
On April 24, 1667, his uncle, the Bishop of Ely, died, at the age of
eighty-one, at Ely House, in Holborn, which had probably been his chief
abode, though he left it on occasions for the work of his diocese and
for the consecration of the chapel at Pembroke Hall. Back to his
well-loved University, and to the resting-place he had prepared for
himself underneath the altar of the chapel, the Bishop's remains were
slowly borne during the first bright days of May, attended by 'his
children, his alliance, and his family.' The Heralds' College conducted
the funeral with full dignity and solemnity. When they reached Cambridge
the Vice-Chancellor and the whole university met the procession, which
was headed by Rouge Dragon, Pursuivant-at-arms, carrying the silver-gilt
Crozier, and Norroy, King-at-arms, carrying the silver-gilt Mitre, both
of which, as well as a pair of massive silver altar candlesticks, the
Bishop had provided a year before. On May 9, with the same attendance,
which included 'twenty-four scholars of S. John's, Peter House, and
Pembroke who were his relations,'[110] the coffin was borne to Pembroke
Chapel from the Registry, at the end of the Regent's Walk, where it had
lain in state for two days, and after Evening Service had been said was
laid in a 'coffin of one fair whole stone,' in the vault of the chapel.
Dr. Pearson pronounced a Latin oration over it, recalling the chief
events of the Bishop's long and troubled life, describing his
high-minded character, his resolute self-denial, and contrasting his
conduct in never seeking, or by the least word asking, for promotion,
but rather being besought to accept it, with those who gaped for church
preferment, and rather snatched honours than received them. Dr. Pearson
dwelt on his liberality to the University, on his never enriching his
family out of the revenues of the sees he had ruled; and paid a warm
tribute to the courage and faith with which he had fought for the
Church, and either alone, or amongst very few, had understood her
discipline and dared to revive it.
[_BISHOP WREN'S SONS._]
Of the four sons who survived the Bishop, Matthew, the eldest, early
attracted notice by an answer to Harrington's 'Commonwealth of Oceana'
and by a pamphlet 'Monarchy asserted,' a vindication of a former work
written in 1659. He was highly thought of by the Royalists, and was a
member of the Parliament which met in 1661. He was Lord Clarendon's
secretary, remained loyal to him during his unmerited disgrace, and was
then taken by the Duke of York as his secretary. Matthew remained with
the Duke until 1672; when he died and was buried in the vault at
Pembroke Chapel. He had taken a share in most of the political events of
his day, always with honour and credit. Thomas, the next brother, left
the profession of medicine, received holy orders, and was given the
Rectory of Littlebury in Essex by his father; a preferment that he held
until his death in 1680. Bishop Wren also made him Archdeacon of Ely. He
was a great musician and a member of the Royal Society. The two younger
sons, Charles and William, were both Oxford scholars, and received
degrees at the Restoration. Charles sat for Cambridge in the Parliament
of 1685, called by James II. on his accession. All these three younger
sons received degrees in 1660, with many others who had been ejected by
the Parliamentary Visitors in 1648-9. William Wren, who was made a
knight, was a barrister of the Middle Temple, and enjoyed the
questionable advantage of Judge Jeffreys' acquaintance. Jeffreys, then
Lord Chancellor, writing to Pepys[111] in 1687, says:--
'My most Hon^{ed} Friend,--The bearer, Capt. Wren, came to mee this
evening, with a strong fancy that a recommendation of myne might at
least entitle him to your favourable reception; His civillities to
my brother and his relation to honest Will Wren, and you know who
else, emboldens me to offer my request on his behalfe. I hope he
has served our M^r. well, and is capable of being an object of the
King's favour in his request; however, I am sure I shall be
excused for this impertinency, because I will gladly, in my way,
embrace all opportunities wherein I may manifest myselfe to be what
I here assure you I am, Sir,
'Your most entirely affectionate
'Friend and Servant,
'JEFFREYS, C.'
William Wren died in 1689 and was buried in the Temple Church. There is
no mention of the marriage of any of the Bishop's children, and
respecting the daughters I can find no record whatever, so it seems that
that branch of the Wren family died out. Captain Wren was probably one
of the Durham Wrens, or of those who lived at Withibrook in Warwickshire
and are mentioned by Dugdale.
FOOTNOTES:
[97] For an account of the great rarity of stone roofs see
Fergusson's _Illustrated Handbook of Architecture_, vol. ii.
p. 879. It is said that Wren used often to look at the
beautiful roof of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and say
he would build such another if anyone would tell him where to
put the first stone.
[98] 'Among the sacred ruins of S. Paul's Church laid down his own
(sure that both will rise again).' Sancroft, afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury, succeeded him.
[99] _Oxford_, vol. i. p. 473. Ayliffe.
[100] _Diary_, vol. ii. p. 273, _et seq._, ed. 1828.
[101] Dr. Ralph Bathurst, born 1620, educated at Coventry and
Oxford. Was ordained, but during the rebellion maintained
himself by the practice of medicine. He was a fellow of the
Royal Society, and in 1688 its president. He was president of
Trinity from 1644 till his death in 1704. He was Dean of
Wells, and was offered the bishopric, but refused it as taking
him from his college and hindering the improvements he was
making there. Evelyn speaks highly of his preaching and his
admirable parts and learning.'
[102] Wren refers to the University of Paris, which was divided into
four faculties--arts (letters and science), theology, civil
and canon law, and medicine. The faculty of arts was divided
into four _nations_. That of France divided again into five
provinces or tribes, that of Picardy divided in the same way,
that of Normandy, and that of Germany which was divided into
two tribes, that of the continents (divided into two
provinces), and that of the islanders, which included Great
Britain and Ireland.--_Dictionnaire Historique de la France_,
par L. Lalanne.
[103] Gio. Bernini was born at Naples 1598 and was a great sculptor
as well as architect. He made a bust of Charles I. of England
after a picture by Vandyke. When the bust was carried to the
king's house at Chelsea his Majesty with a train of nobles
went to view it, and as they were viewing it a hawk flew over
their heads with a partridge in his claw which he had wounded
to death. Some of the partridge's blood fell on the neck of
the bust, where it always remained without being wiped off.
This bust, with the picture from which it was taken, is
thought to have perished in the fire at Whitehall,
1697.--_Biographical History_, vol. ii. p. 88. Grainger.
Bernini was splendidly received at Paris and employed in
several works of sculpture, among which was a bust of Louis
XIV., probably the one to which Wren refers. His design for the
Louvre was accepted, and he had just begun to work it out at
the time Wren wrote, but Colbert and the two Perraults stirred
up so many difficulties that Bernini abandoned the task, and
the Louvre was left in the hands of Claude Perrault. Bernini
returned to Rome and died there in 1680.
[104] _i.e._ Mosaic.
[105] Wood. _Athenæ Oxoniensis_, vol. i. p. 735. He used certain
peculiarities in the Act of Consecration which have been
repeated at the consecration of the addition to the chapel,
March 25, 1881.
[106] _Diary_, September, 1666.
[107] Evelyn's _Diary_, September, 1666.
[108] That of Robert de Braybrook (Bishop of London 1382 and 1405).
The tomb of Donne (Dean of S. Paul's 1621-1631) was not
entirely destroyed.
[109] The bricks, which were temporarily used in the building of S.
Paul's, were of so good a quality that Richard Jennings,
Wren's master carpenter, bought and transported them by water
to Henley-on-Thames (his native town), and with them built a
house a mile from Henley, which, bearing the name of
'Badgemore,' is still to be seen. The bricks of which it is
built are often admired.
[110] _Desiderata Curiosa_, p. 545. Peck.
[111] Pepys' _Diary_, vol. v. p. 326.