1672-1677.
BIRTH OF HIS ELDEST SON--S. STEPHEN'S, WALBROOK--S. BENNET
FINK--PLANS FOR S. PAUL'S--THE EXCAVATIONS--SON CHRISTOPHER
BORN--DEATH OF FAITH, LADY WREN--SECOND MARRIAGE--CITY
CHURCHES--THE MONUMENT--TOMB OF CHARLES I.--REMAINS OF THE LITTLE
PRINCES IN THE TOWER.
_K. Rich._ But didst thou see them dead?
_Tyr._ I did, my lord.
_K. Rich._ And buried, gentle Tyrrel?
_Tyr._ The chaplain of the Tower hath buried them,
But where, to say the truth, I do not know.
_Richard III._, Act 4, scene 3.
Early in October, 1672, Christopher Wren's eldest son was born, and
baptized by the name of Gilbert, at S. Martin's-in-the-Fields, a very
different-looking building from the present S. Martin's with its stately
portico. Wren and his wife lived in the house in Scotland Yard, and,
avoiding the uneven, difficult streets, could daily go by water, then
the favourite way of transit for a Londoner, to examine and superintend
his works in the city. Later on Wren built himself a little house of red
bricks in the yard of the Falcon Inn at Southwark, and watched from its
window the progress of S. Paul's and of his other buildings in the city.
Besides the churches already begun, three new ones were taken in hand
that year. S. Mary-at-Hill[131] was only partially destroyed by the
fire. Upon it Wren first tried his plan of a domed roof, and succeeded
in making it, at any rate within, a beautiful little church. S.
Michael's, Cornhill, of which only the tower was left standing, was
rebuilt that year; its situation threw a great difficulty in the
architect's way, as it could only be lit from one side; this difficulty
Wren overcame and produced an interior[132] equally light and good. The
tower was taken down in 1722, and rebuilt from designs of Wren's. These
designs were taken from the tower of Magdalen College at Oxford, and
instance Wren's power of producing a bold, rich effect in a style of
architecture altogether foreign to his taste.
Perhaps the most beautiful of all Wren's churches is S. Stephen's,
Walbrook, begun at this same time, and finished seven years later. The
outside, cramped by its situation, and overshadowed by tall houses, is
not handsome, but within, the church is as original as it is graceful
and beautiful:--
'The circular dome, placed on an octagonal base supported by eight
pillars, was an early, and long a favourite, mode of roofing in the
East.... Wren, however, is the only European architect who availed
himself of it ... he certainly has produced the most pleasing
interior of any Renaissance church which has yet been
erected.'[133]
So great was the fame, and such the charm of the building that when the
great sculptor Canova[134] visited England, and was asked should he ever
wish to return to the country? he answered, 'Yes, that I might again see
S. Paul's Cathedral, Somerset House, and S. Stephen's, Walbrook.'
[_SIR ISAAC NEWTON._]
In the midst of so much work it is not wonderful that, for the moment,
Wren's diligent attendance at the Royal Society slackened somewhat,
though at the end of 1672 his name occurs among those of the Society who
cordially welcomed Isaac Newton to their fellowship. Wren bestowed
especial praise on Newton's invention of a refracting telescope. Friends
they appear always to have remained, and their dispositions were not
unlike, though the travels and varied experiences of Wren's early years
had quickened his faculties, and prevented that entire absorption in one
idea which is evident from many stories about Isaac Newton. As, for
instance, when one of Newton's philosophical friends abroad--
'Sent him a curious prism, at that time a rarity in England, it was
taken to the Custom House and Newton claimed it. The officers asked
him to set some value upon it that they might regulate the duty.
Newton, rating the prism by his own idea of its use and excellence,
replied, "The value is so great I cannot ascertain it." They
pressed him again to set some estimate on it, but he still replied,
"I cannot say what it is worth, for the value is inestimable." The
honest Custom House officers took him at his word, and made him pay
an exorbitant duty for the prism, which he might have taken away
upon only paying a rate according to the weight of the glass!'[135]
The Royal Society was at this time put to serious inconvenience, as more
than half of the members failed in paying their weekly money. Wren, who,
as might be expected, was one of those who paid most punctually, was
re-elected a member of the council, and agreed to serve on a committee
for this special matter.
The death of his friend and cousin, Matthew, in the summer of 1672, was
a grief to him, as well as a loss to the Royal Society, of which he had
been a member from its beginning. On the 20th of November, 1673, Wren
received the well-earned honour of knighthood from King Charles at
Whitehall. No details of any kind respecting the ceremony are to be
found in the chary family record.
S. Bennet Fink, a very graceful and original composition despite the
corner into which it was squeezed; and S. Olave's, Jewry, built of brick
and stone with a good pinnacled stone tower, were begun at this period,
and finished three years later. S. Dionysius, or, as it was commonly
called, S. Dionis, Back Church Street, was one of the first completed;
its Ionic eastern façade was in Wren's most classical style; the pulpit
was carved by Grinling Gibbons. Its tower and steeple, according to a
frequent custom of Wren's, were added some years later. S. Dionis has,
alas! now been swept away, and its site, where the original church was
consecrated in 1288, desecrated.[136] The beautiful little S. Bennet's
has shared the same unholy fate. S. George's, Botolph Lane, built also
in 1674, a handsome stone church with a vaulted roof and good oak
fittings, though threatened, still fortunately survives.
[_GRINLING GIBBONS._]
Grinling Gibbons, whom Wren continually employed, was introduced to him
by Evelyn, who found the young man in a cottage at Deptford carving a
copy of Tintoretto's beautiful Crucifixion. Evelyn showed Wren the
carving and besought him to give some employment to a man of such
genius. This he gladly promised, and accordingly, many a little known
city church is adorned with carvings so light and so graceful that it is
hard to believe that they are cut out of wood.
Some works in stone Gibbons also did for Sir Christopher, but wood
appears to have been the material he preferred. In 1674 Wren had the
satisfaction of restoring Le Soeur's[137] beautiful statue of King
Charles to its place at Charing Cross. In the Rebellion it had been
overthrown by order of the Parliament, who directed that it should be
broken up. John Rivet, a brazier in Charing Cross, purchased it, hid it
in the vaults of S. Paul's, Covent Garden, and, to divert suspicion,
sold bronze medals and knife-handles, professedly made from its metal.
After the Restoration, he produced it intact, and, under Wren's
direction, it was placed on its present pedestal, which was carved by
Gibbons, whose handywork is easily recognised in the free, flowing lines
of the deeply-cut carving, much as time, aided by London atmosphere,
has eaten the very stone away. The poet Waller wrote an epigram[138] on
its restoration, which, besides its intrinsic merit, is interesting in
connection with the statue:--
That the first Charles does here in triumph ride,
See his son reign where he a martyr dy'd;
And people pay that rev'rence as they pass,
(Which then he wanted) to the sacred brass,
Is not th' effect of gratitude alone,
To which we owe the statue and the stone.
But heav'n this lasting monument has wrought,
That mortals may eternally be taught
Rebellion, though successful, is but vain,
And kings so kill'd rise conquerors again:
This truth the royal image does proclaim
Loud as the trumpet of surviving Fame.
[_HIS FAVOURITE DESIGN._]
It was about this period that Wren rebuilt the theatre in Drury Lane,
which had fallen a prey to its usual enemy, fire. It was reopened in
1674 with a play whose epilogue was written by Dryden. The 'old theatre
in Salisbury Court,' as Horace Walpole calls it, was also built by Wren.
During this time Sir Christopher, now formally appointed architect of S.
Paul's with a modest salary of 200_l._ a year, had busied himself in
designs for the future cathedral. Everyone, whether qualified or not,
gave their opinion about the designs. The first, which was 'a fabrick of
moderate bulk, but of good proportion, a convenient quire with a
vestibule and portico, and a dome conspicuous above the houses,' was
planned by Wren at a time when the Cathedral fund was very small, and
the chances of increasing it appeared but slender. This design was
rejected as deficient in size and grandeur. After this, in order to
find out what style of building was really desired, Wren made several
sketches 'merely for discourse sake,' and perceiving that the generality
had set their hearts upon a large building, he designed one with which
he was himself satisfied, considering it 'a design antique and well
studied, conformable to the best style of Greek and Roman architecture.'
The design was greatly admired by those who understood the matter, and
they begged Sir Christopher to let them see it in a model.[139] Wren
accordingly made a large one, apparently with his own hands, in wood,
with all the intended ornaments properly carved. Its ground plan was
that of a Greek cross, the choir was circular, it had a very short nave,
and no aisles. Externally there was a handsome portico, one small dome
immediately behind it, and over the centre of the cross a larger dome.
Within it would have been as beautiful as it was original, with the
eight smaller domes, not seen outside, encircling the central dome. The
Duke of York on seeing the plan complained much of the absence of side
oratories, such as are common in most foreign cathedrals, and insisted
upon their being added. Sir Christopher knew that such a change would
cramp the building and break the beauty of the design to a degree that
went to his heart. He shed tears in attempting to change the Duke's
opinion. The latter was, as ever, obstinate, and the change had to be
made.
The outside, with the two hollow curves joining the transepts with the
nave, and the two different-sized domes, would probably have been
disappointing; but one speaks with diffidence, for this was Sir
Christopher's favourite design, the S. Paul's which he told his son he
would most cheerfully have accomplished. When the time came for working
out the design, it is very likely that he would have remedied many of
the defects which critical eyes now see in the model; but no such
opportunity ever came. Preparations were indeed made, in May 1674, for a
building after this design; but the clergy were startled by the novelty
of the plan, the circular choir, and the absence of aisles, and the
architect was compelled to give up his cherished scheme. Several
designs, none equal to the first, were produced by Sir Christopher, the
large central dome appearing in each of them. Upon this feature he had
determined, even in the days before the fire, when the old pointed choir
still stood.
[_THE CROWN OF LONDON._]
At length Wren grew weary of criticism and showed his designs no more to
the public. King Charles decided on one,[140] and issued a warrant for
its erection, stating that the duty on coal[141] amounted to a
considerable sum, and saying:--
'Among the designs we have particularly pitched on one as well
because we found it very artificial, proper and useful as because
it was so ordered that it might be built and finished by parts.'
The east end was to be begun first. Liberty was left to Wren 'to make
some variations rather ornamental than essential as from time to time he
should see proper,' and the whole was left to his management.
This design is wholly unlike the present Cathedral, and is inferior to
any of Wren's other buildings. 'Artificial' in the modern sense of the
word, it undoubtedly is. The west end much resembles old S. Paul's as
Inigo Jones left it, and is poor and flat; there is a low flat dome,
then a lantern with ribbed vaulting, surmounted by a spire something
like S. Bride's, but thin and ungraceful. One feels that Wren must have
been disgusted with the design when finished, and could only have done
such a thing at a time when his genius was rebuked and harassed by
vexatious limitations and interference. Accepted, however, the design
was, and Wren, provided with funds and ordered to begin, shook off the
fetters which had so cramped him, and by a series of alterations, which
certainly reversed the King's order, being essential rather than
ornamental, he by degrees worked out the plan of the beautiful S. Paul's
which is the crown of London.
No objection seems to have been raised to these changes.
He had a large staff of workmen under him, and an assistant surveyor,
John Oliver, who directed the workmen, measured the masons' work, bought
in materials, and examined the accounts; a clerk of the works, Laurence
Spenser, who overlooked the men, saw that they did their work as
directed, and made up the accounts; each of these was paid 100_l._ a
year, half as much as the salary of the architect himself; a clerk of
the cheque, Thomas Russell, who called over the labourers three times a
day, and kept them to their business. Besides these, there was the
master-mason,[142] Thomas Strong, the master-builder of S. Stephen's,
Walbrook, frequently employed by Wren, and the master-carpenter, Richard
Jennings; all were carefully chosen, and were devoted to Sir
Christopher, whose great genius, gentle disposition, and steady equable
mind made him much beloved and respected.
On June 21, 1675, the first stone of S. Paul's was laid by Sir
Christopher and his master-mason, not by King Charles, as is sometimes
said.[143]
In the previous year Wren had lost his son Gilbert, who was buried in S.
Martin's on March 23. In the February following another son was born and
baptized by the name of Christopher. This son survived his father and
began the collection of letters, papers, and miscellaneous facts about
the Wren family which was afterwards published under the name of
'Parentalia; or, Memoirs of the Wrens.' It is, in truth, little but a
heap of materials amongst which each fact has to be sought for and its
proper place ascertained.
[_EXCAVATIONS._]
It has been truly said that the accounts of the building of S. Paul's
are meagre in the extreme. A little is, however, known. As Wren had
foretold, there was much 'to be done in the dark;' the old foundations
were not to be trusted, and immense excavations had to be made. In the
course of this work, he discovered 'graves of several ages and fashions,
in strata or layers of earth, one above another, from the British and
Roman times.' The 'Parentalia' describes
'a row of Saxon graves, the sides lined with chalk stones, below were
British graves, where were found ivory and wooden pins of a hard
wood, seemingly box, about six inches long; it seems the bodies were
only wrapped up and pinned in woollen shrouds, which being consumed
the pins remained entire. In the same row and deeper were Roman urns
intermixed.'
Below this was hard 'pot-earth,' which Wren thought would be
sufficiently firm to bear the great weight about to be laid upon it, but
to ascertain its depth he had dry wells dug, and found it very unequal,
in one place hardly four feet; he searched lower and found loose sand,
then sand and shells; he speaks of them as sea shells, but it is now
thought that they were probably river; below this again hard beach, and
then London clay. He took great precautions when he laid any foundations
here, fearing lest the sand should slip. The bed of sand is a danger
still, for if pierced by a drain or other underground works the sand
might run off, leaving a hollow under the pot-earth. The Cathedral
authorities are accordingly wisely jealous of any excavations near S.
Paul's. When the north-east portion of the choir was reached, in digging
the foundations a pit was found, from which all the pot-earth had been
taken, containing many fragments of vases and urns, all of Roman
pottery. This pit was a very serious difficulty, occurring as it did at
the very angle of the choir.
Sir Christopher's assistants suggested to him to drive in piles of
timber; but he knew that, though timber lasted well under water, yet in
this case, where it would be half in dry and half in wet sand, it would
rot in the course of time, and 'his endeavours were to build for
eternity.' He dug down more than forty feet, till he came to the hard
beach, below which was the London clay, and upon the beach built a pier
of solid masonry ten feet square, till within fifteen feet of the
ground, and then by turning an arch brought it level with the rest of
his foundation.
The theory commonly received was that a temple of Apollo stood where
Westminster Abbey now stands, and that the site of S. Paul's Cathedral
was occupied by a temple of Diana. Wren, however, believed in neither
legend. The temple of Apollo he thought was invented merely that the
monks of Westminster might not be behind the Londoners in antiquities.
In spite of the horns of stags, tusks of boars, and the like, said to
have been found during former repairs of S. Paul's, in spite of an image
of Diana dug up hard by and in the possession of Dr. Woodward,[144] he
wrote to Bishop Atterbury[145] that he 'changed all the foundations of
old S. Paul's, and rummaged all the ground thereabouts, and being very
desirous to find the footsteps of such a temple, I could not discover
any, and therefore can give no more credit to Diana[146] than to
Apollo.'
In the September of 1675, when the work with which her husband's
name is for ever connected was but little advanced, Lady Wren died,
and was buried, as her son Gilbert had been, in the chancel of S.
Martin's-in-the-Fields, leaving her husband with a baby son hardly seven
months old. The 'Parentalia,' with characteristic carelessness, gives
neither the date of her death nor the place of her burial.
[_SECOND MARRIAGE._]
No hint even is to be found of how this loss affected Sir Christopher,
but whether it was from the desolate state of his home, or the
helplessness of a widower left with an infant son, or from other causes,
he was not long in marrying again. His second wife was Jane Fitzwilliam,
daughter of the second Baron Fitzwilliam, her mother was an heiress, the
daughter of Hugh Perry _alias_ Hunter, a sheriff and alderman of London.
Lord Fitzwilliam died in 1643, the same year that he had succeeded to
his father, and the widowed Lady Fitzwilliam died twenty-seven years
later at 'Dutchy House in the Savoy,' the family house; so Jane
Fitzwilliam had been some years an orphan when she was married to Sir
Christopher in the Chapel Royal at Whitehall, on February 24, 1676-7.
In this year Wren rebuilt S. Magnus, London Bridge,[147] which having
escaped one 'most dismal fire' in 1633, was destroyed by the Great Fire
of 1666. Sir Christopher rebuilt the church with Portland stone and oak
timber, adding to it a picturesque tower with a cupola and a peal of ten
bells. London Bridge, then covered with little houses and shops, would,
Sir Christopher foresaw, require alteration, and he, anxious that S.
Magnus should not suffer when the time came, proposed to leave space by
it for a footway. The churchwardens overruled him. The improvement Wren
expected has since been made, and when the workmen came to make a
pathway under the portico they discovered to their great surprise that
Sir Christopher had made the necessary arches, though bricked up, and
left them to be in readiness for the change which he foresaw, though the
churchwardens of S. Magnus did not. The state of London Bridge was very
unsatisfactory; constant repairs were needed, and to shoot the narrow
arches and not be swamped by the fall of the water was no easy feat.
Wren had a plan for saving repairs and improving the water way by wide
Gothic arches, taking away every other arch, and making the two into
one, which would reduce the fall to nine inches at the most. This seems
to have remained a scheme only.
[_MODERN DESECRATION._]
S. Mildred's in the Poultry was also begun in this year, a small stone
church with a tower and cupola. It was destroyed in 1872,[148] and the
details of its removal are instructive as well as painful, and may well
be contrasted with the account of the manner of removing the remains of
old S. Paul's.[149]
S. Stephen's, Coleman Street, on the site of an old Jewish synagogue, is
of the same date; it is a neat small church mostly built of stone, with
a curious old stone carving, in high relief, of the Last Judgment, over
the door leading to the churchyard.
S. Lawrence, Jewry, 'that new and cheerful pile,'[150] is a large
well-proportioned building in the Corinthian style, with a tower and
spire, built in the following year. It had been repaired by the
parishioners in 1618, and boasted among its vicars three who had become
bishops: Edward Reynolds, Bishop of Norwich, one of those who, during
the Rebellion, sided strongly with the Presbyterians, and conformed at
the Restoration; Dr. Seth Ward, Bishop of Exeter and Salisbury, who has
been mentioned before; and Wren's other scientific friend, Dr. Wilkins,
Bishop of Chester, who was buried in the chancel of S. Lawrence's Church
in 1672.
S. Lawrence's possesses some excellent stone carving of fruit, possibly
from Gibbons' chisel.
S. Nicholas, Coleabbey, was built this year by Sir Christopher on the
site of a church so ancient that it stood some feet below the street,
and was entered by steps descending down to the floor; its most recent
addition was in Richard II.'s reign, though the whole building was
repaired in 1630. Wren's is a well-proportioned brick and stone church
with a square tower and short fat steeple. S. Mary's, Woolnoth, was only
repaired by Sir Christopher; it was afterwards rebuilt entirely by his
clerk and pupil, Nicholas Hawksmoor,[151] in 1719. S. Mary's,
Aldermanbury, a fine bold stone church, its nave and aisles divided by
well-sculptured columns; and S. Michael's, Queenhithe, belong also to
this busy year. S. Michael's, standing close to the river, built of
stone with plenty of space and room in it; its slender graceful spire
ever beckoning to the swarming river and riverside population, might,
one would have imagined, have been invaluable in zealous hands, but it
has been swept away and the opportunity is lost.
[_THE MONUMENT._]
It was also in 1677 that Sir Christopher completed the column generally
known to Londoners as 'the Monument.' He began it in 1671; but the work
had been much hindered by the difficulty of getting blocks of Portland
stone of sufficient size. There had been great debate about the ornament
for the summit. Wren wished it to be a large statue, as 'carrying much
dignity with it, and being more valluable in the eyes of forreigners and
strangers.' It was to be fifteen feet high, cast in brass, at a cost of
1,000_l._ The expense was one reason why this was given up, and the
present ornament, a flaming vase of gilt bronze, substituted.
Cibber[152] carved a basso-relievo on one side, representing King
Charles in a Roman costume, protecting the ruined city. The four dragons
at the base were carved by Edward Pierce,[153] a sculptor and architect
who frequently worked for Wren. The other three sides have Latin
inscriptions, of which one is an account of the fire, accusing the
_furor Papisticus_ as its cause; a brief inscription in English, lower
down on the pedestal, repeats the same charge against the 'treachery and
malice of the Popish faction.' Sir Christopher had written a Latin one
for the column, which spoke of the fire as originating in a humble
house, and briefly recounted its ravages; he added, as he was well
entitled to add, that the city was rebuilt 'not with wood and mud as
before, but with edifices, some brick and some stone, and adorned with
such works that it was seen to rise fairer from its ruins far than
before.' As he wrote, he must have given a sigh of regret to the
perfection of his unused plan.
The accusation against the Romanists appealed powerfully to the
inveterate prejudices of the multitude. It was accordingly insisted upon
and ordered to be put up. James II. had the inscription effaced, but in
William III.'s reign it was re-cut deeper than before, and so remained
to justify Pope's well-known lines:--
----London's column pointing to the skies,
Like a tall bully lifts the head and lies.[154]
It is a curious retribution that the Monument designed by so great an
architect as Wren, to commemorate such an event as the burning of
London, and the singular courage and energy of its citizens, is now more
generally connected in men's mind with falsehood and calumny than with a
great historical event.
The column was at first used, as Wren had intended it should be, as a
place for certain experiments of the Royal Society; but the vibration of
the column during the ceaseless traffic of London proved too great to
allow of the experiments being successfully carried on. Evelyn, with
much sense, wished that the column had been placed where the fire ended,
and a 'plain lugubrious marble' where it began; and says:--
'I question not but I have the architect himself on my side, whose
rare and extraordinary talent and what he has performed of great
and magnificent, this column and what he is still about and is
advancing under his direction, will speak and perpetuate his
memory, as long as one stone remains upon another in this
nation.'[155]
[_A TARDY HONOUR._]
The King had proposed to Sir Christopher a very congenial piece of work.
The remains of Charles I., which had been hastily buried in S. George's
Chapel at Windsor, were to be removed to what was known as the
tomb-house at the east end of the chapel, re-interred there with the
solemn service that had been denied to them before, and a grand tomb
built over them. Lord O'Brien proposed in the House of Commons a grant
of money for the purpose, and the House voted 70,000_l._ to be raised by
a two months' tax. Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, preaching before the
Commons on the following day, the anniversary of King Charles's death,
alluded to the tardy honour done 'by that much-desired, long-expected
vote.' Sir Christopher prepared designs for a splendid monument.
It was to take the form of a Rotundo with a beautiful Dome and Lantern,
and a Colonnade without, like that of the Temple of Vesta at Rome.
Mosaic work was to be freely used, black and white marble and gilded
brass; the cupola was to be painted in fresco. In the central niche
fronting the entrance was the King's monument. Four statues, emblems of
heroic virtues, standing on a square plinth, and pressing underneath the
prostrate figures of Rebellion, Heresy, Hypocrisy, Envy and Murder,
support a large shield, on which is a statue erect of King Charles in
modern armour, over his head a group of angels bearing a crown, a cross,
and branches of palm. Two designs were made, one for brass work, one for
marble: one design is drawn by Grinling Gibbons, whom Wren meant to
employ for the carving. The other is by Wren himself, drawn with
extraordinary care, in delicate pen and ink, and they yet remain with
his note upon them. 'Alas! for the state of the times!--not yet
erected.' The failure of his design was a great annoyance to Wren, who
was most anxious to have paid this tribute to the King's memory.
Why the plan was never executed it is hard to say. Charles II. kept the
designs for some time and then returned them, begging Wren to keep them
carefully; but the moment for their use never arrived.
Though he was not allowed to honour King Charles, curiously enough, it
fell to Wren's lot to provide a tomb for two other murdered Princes of
England.
[_THE REMAINS OF THE PRINCES._]
Some repairs were being made in the Tower of London under the orders of
Wren, who was at that time repairing what is known as the White Tower,
one of the oldest parts of the fortress. As the workmen were removing
some stairs which led from the Royal lodgings to S. John's Chapel, they
came upon a wooden chest, which proved to contain the remains of two
children, exactly corresponding in age and state of decay with the date
of the murder of Edward V. and his brother Richard Duke of York in 1573.
The place also corresponded in every respect with the traditions
respecting the murder:[156] it was said to have been done in the Bloody
Tower--the spot where the bones were found is but seventy yards distant;
they were always said to have been buried in consecrated ground by the
Priest of the Tower--the place where the remains were was just within S.
John's Chapel. The discovery caused considerable interest, and was fully
represented to the King, who desired that the bones should be laid,
under the Surveyor's directions, in Henry VII.'s Chapel in Westminster
Abbey in a white marble coffin with a suitable monument. Wren designed a
pedestal and urn of white marble surmounted by twin crowns and palms. No
doubt the monument accords better with the taste of the age in which it
was erected than with that of the building in which it is placed, but it
has an interest of its own. By the King's wish a mulberry-tree was
planted on the spot where the bones were discovered, but subsequent
buildings at the Tower destroyed the tree, and even its stump has
perished.
FOOTNOTES:
[131] To this church and parish belongs the honourable distinction
of having successfully resisted the encroachments of the
railway company which recently attempted to desecrate the
church. 'The City Church and Churchyard Protection
Society'--alas! that any such society should be needed--which
fought this battle, must have the best wishes of any
biographer of Christopher Wren.
[132] The interior has been lately altered.
[133] _History of Modern Architecture._ Fergusson, p. 307.
[134] Antonio Canova, born 1757, died 1822. He had come to England
to see the Elgin Marbles.
[135] _History of the Royal Society_, p. 237. Weld. The anecdote is
taken from an article in an old _Gentleman's Magazine_,
written professedly by one who knew Sir I. Newton.
[136] Destroyed 1876.
[137] Hubert Le Soeur was a pupil of John of Bologna; he came to
England in 1630. The statue of Lord Pembroke at Oxford, and
that of King Charles, which has Le Soeur's name on the horse's
hoof, are all that now remain of his works.
[138] On the statue of King Charles I. at Charing Cross in the year
1674. E. Waller.
[139] The model was long preserved in what was called the Trophy
Room of S. Paul's. 'It unfortunately has suffered much from
neglect, decay, and the uncontrolled mischief of visitors;
that which was one of its noblest features, its long stately
western portico, has entirely disappeared. The model was lent
to and still remains in the Architectural Exhibition at South
Kensington, on condition of repairing some of its reparable
parts (a condition but imperfectly fulfilled).'--_Annals of S.
Paul's Cathedral_, Dean Milman, p. 40.
[140] An engraving giving a section of this very curious design is
to be found at page 97 of Mr. Longman's exhaustive and
interesting _Three Cathedrals dedicated to S. Paul's in
London_.
[141] The fourth portion of the tax on coal granted for the public
buildings of the City was given for the rebuilding of S.
Paul's.
[142] Thomas was the son of Mr. Valentine Strong, a well-known
master-mason of Hertfordshire; his six sons were all engaged
in the same trade as himself. _Life of Sir C. Wren_, p. 316.
Elmes.
[143] Sir C. Wren gave the mallet and trowel used on this occasion
to the Freemasons' lodge of which he was master, then called
after his name, now the 'Lodge of Antiquity, No. 21.'
[144] J. Woodward, the founder of the Cambridge Geological
Professorship, was born 1665, published a series of curious
geological speculations under the name of _A Natural History
of the Earth_. In 1707 he published _An Account of Roman Urns
and Antiquities lately dug up near Bishopsgate_, addressed to
Sir C. Wren, whom, as I have said, he did not convince.
Woodward was a Fellow of the Royal Society and the College of
Physicians. He died 1728.
[145] Francis Atterbury, born 1662, made Dean of Westminster and
Bishop of Rochester 1715; was a strong Jacobite, and was
banished in 1723: died 1732.
[146] A stone altar was however found during some excavations in
Foster Lane in 1830, at no great distance from the Cathedral,
with an image of Diana about which there can be no
misapprehension, as it closely resembles the Diana of the
Louvre.--_Annals of S. Paul's_, p. 7.
[147] Jack Cade's instruction to his followers on reaching London
was 'Up Fish Street, down _S. Magnus_ corner. Kill and knock
down, throw them into the Thames.' _Henry VI._, part ii. act
iv. scene 8.
[148] The following interesting anecdote was related to one of the
Honorary Secretaries (Mr. Wright) by a member of the Society
(Mr. Fytche):--'Walking one fine summer morning in June 1872
down to the Mansion House, on reaching the Poultry I was
surprised to see a man on the top of the tower of S. Mildred's
Church hammering away at the stones with a crowbar; so,
finding the door open, I went up the stairs of the tower and
said to my friend of the crowbar, "Why, you are pulling the
church down!" "Ay," says he, "it's all to be down and carted
away by the end of July." "I suppose it's going to be rebuilt
elsewhere!" "_Built_ anywhere? No; my master has _bought_ it."
"Who is your master?" "Don't you know him? Mr. So-and-So, the
great contractor." "What's he going to do with it?" "Do with
it? Why, he's twenty carts and forty horses to lead it away to
his stoneyard, and he's going to grind it up to make Portland
cement!" So I asked him of the crowbar to show me round the
church. "Would your master sell the stones instead of grinding
'em up?" I asked. "Sell 'em? Yes, he'll sell his soul for
money!" So I made an appointment for his master to come up to
the Langham Hotel next morning, and we agreed about the
purchase--he to deliver the stones at a wharf on the Thames,
and they were brought down in barges and landed at the head of
a canal on the east coast of Lincolnshire, and are now lying
in a green field near my house, called S. Katherine's Garth,
from an old Priory of S. Katherine, which formerly stood
there, and which I hope some day to rebuild as my domestic
chapel.'--_Report of the City Church and Churchyard Protection
Society_, 1880.
[149] _Vide supra_, p. 186-7.
[150] Evelyn's _Diary_, May 28, 1682.
[151] Nicholas Hawksmoor, born the year of the fire, became Wren's
pupil in 1683 and helped him in many of his works. Hawksmoor
built several churches under Queen Anne's Act; they are
original, but heavy, and not always in good taste. He died
1736.
[152] Caius Cibber, born 1630. The statues of Melancholy and Madness
at Bedlam were his greatest works: died about 1700.
[153] He did much of the work of S. Clement Danes under Wren's
directions, and made a bust of Sir Christopher, now at All
Souls: died 1698.
[154] _Moral Essays_, Ep. iii.
[155] _Of Medals_, p. 162, ed. 1697. Evelyn.
[156] For an interesting account of these see _The Tower of London_,
by Lord de Ros, p. 417.