1687-1696.
PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED--CHURCH BUILDING--ACQUITTAL OF THE SEVEN
BISHOPS--JAMES II.'S FLIGHT--WILLIAM AND MARY--COLLEGE OF
PHYSICIANS--HAMPTON COURT--GREENWICH HOSPITAL--RICHARD
WHITTINGTON--S. PAUL'S ORGAN.
Be it enacted then
By the fair laws of thy firm-pointed pen,
God's services no longer shall put on
A sluttishness for pure religion;
No longer shall our churches' frighted stones
Lie scattered like the burnt and martyr'd bones
Of dead devotion.
_On a treatise on Charity._ RICHARD CRASHAW.
Wren's parliamentary career was soon interrupted, for King James
dissolved, in 1687, an assembly which had done so little to forward his
views.
Church building went on apace. S. Andrew's, Holborn, which, though the
fire had not reached it, was in a ruinous state, was rebuilt and made a
large handsome stone church, with an interior very like that of S.
James's, Westminster. The tower was merely repaired and not rebuilt.
Christ Church, Newgate, on the site of the old Franciscan Monastery of
Grey Friars, had formerly been a magnificent edifice: the choir only was
rebuilt by Wren, and sufficed to make a large parish church, which was
filled with handsome carving; a graceful pillared steeple was added in
1704.
S. Margaret Pattens,[199] in Rood Lane, was finished in 1687: built of
brick and stone with a tall tower and graceful spire, and much enriched
by carving within. Its existence has been threatened, but it stands out
an honourable, though fortunately not at all a solitary example, of a
well-worked, and therefore well-filled, City church, and it is to be
hoped may defy its threatened destroyers.
Early in the following year came the trial of those Seven Bishops who
refused to publish in church the King's declaration of liberty of
conscience.[200]
It was perhaps the most unwise thing that James II. ever did, and as the
Bishops passed to the barge that was to take them to the Tower, rank
upon rank of kneeling people besought their blessing. It was an event to
move Wren greatly: he could remember when a child hearing of Archbishop
Laud's imprisonment, and the long years of Bishop Wren's captivity were
frequently cheered by his nephew's visits to the Tower. Most of those
who now passed to that ill-omened abode were his friends or
acquaintance. Bishop Turner of Ely was on the S. Paul's Commission;
Bishop Lloyd of S. Asaph while rector of S. Martin's had baptized Wren's
daughter and youngest son; Bishop White he had known in the days when he
was rector. Bishop Ken at Winchester, and Archbishop Sancroft had been
for years his steady friends. If he failed in dignity at one crisis,
there is abundant material in Sancroft's letters, and in the rest of his
life, to show he must have been a charming companion and capable of
inspiring sincere affection.
[_DEATH OF MRS. HOLDER._]
They remained in the Tower about a week, and on June 29 were
triumphantly acquitted. The story of their acquittal has been told once
for all by Lord Macaulay and need not be re-told here. London was full
of illuminations, the favourite device being seven candles--the tallest
central one representing the arch-bishop--and all the newly-hung bells
of the city were set ringing. Wren had private sorrows to hinder him
from entering into the public rejoicing: his only surviving sister,
Susan, died just at this time, and Wren must have been watching by her
on the very day of the Bishops' acquittal. A little later, he, and her
husband, Dr. William Holder, brought her body to the crypt of S. Paul's
and laid her there. The epitaph, on a marble monument, is written with
all the diffuseness of style common to those of that time, but is
touching from its real affection.
The crypt of S. Paul's was of course the part of the building first
finished. Long ago Wren had spoken of 'the quantity of work to be done
in the dark,' and it certainly proved enormous. The crypt of S. Paul's
is one of the largest and most intricate that exists, extending under
the entire church, not the choir only, as is the case in S. Peter's at
Rome. The dimness of a London atmosphere renders it hard to get much
effect of light and shade, but on a clear day the curious twilight
effect is striking. There are all the tombs which were preserved from
the old cathedral, there are now the remains of some of our greatest
dead, and there is the Church of S. Faith, the floor of which is now
being slowly covered with a beautiful mosaic.[201]
When, however, Sir Christopher laid his sister there, all was empty and
not fully complete; the cluster of pillars and arches that sustain the
great dome with their massive strength must have been but newly
finished.
Only one church was completed by Sir Christopher in this troubled year,
that of S. Michael, Crooked Lane; a handsome stone church with a stately
tower and spire. It contained the tomb of a famous city worthy, Sir
William Walworth:
Who with courage stout and manly might
Slew Wat Tyler in King Richard's sight.[202]
This association had no value in the eyes of the Corporation of London,
with whom it might have weighed: they were as indifferent to this lesser
reason as to the infinitely higher claim of consecrated ground, and in
1830 the church was swept away for the new London Bridge.
All through the year the relations between King James and his people
were growing more and more strained. Messages were passed and repassed
between many of the high officials and the Prince of Orange, and in
their dread of the Church of Rome, the people forgot what they had
suffered under the tyranny of the Puritan sects. Hurry and confusion
were everywhere; as the year advanced the Prince of Orange's landing was
hourly reported on all parts of the coast. Too late King James took some
of the measures which, taken earlier, might have saved all; and on
November 5, 1688, the Prince landed at Brixham in Torbay.
[_WILLIAM AND MARY._]
For some time all was confusion and all private business was suspended.
Early in the next year a convention was called of the Lords and Commons,
and the crown offered to William and Mary. The Queen's behaviour, the
absence of even the show of feeling for her father, were much remarked
on at the time and are a great stain on her memory. A Parliament was
called on the 13th of February, to which Sir C. Wren was returned for
the borough of New Windsor. His election was set aside for a technical
error in the manner of his return, but he was instantly re-elected. It
is evident from this that he took the new oath of allegiance, probably
holding, with Evelyn and other honourable men, that King James had
abdicated and that therefore the throne was vacant. The S. Paul's
commission was renewed, and amid all the changes the work there went on;
making in its steady, undeviating progress, its unity of design, a fair
type of the growth of the spiritual church, despite the sharp contrast
apparently existing between the peaceful, regular growth of the material
edifice, and the hindrances and trials that beset the spiritual one.
Those were the days when some of the best and most learned churchmen,
unable to reconcile the contradiction of the two oaths, lost high
office, honours, and all prospects of worldly success by becoming
'non-jurors.' It should be borne in mind that it was on no doctrinal
ground that they left the Communion of the Church in England, but simply
because, considering James II. still as King, they could not honestly
take an oath of allegiance to William as his successor, or attend
services where an usurper was prayed for as the rightful sovereign.
It was a most grievous blow to the Church, by no means recovered from
the struggle with Puritanism or from the semi-Puritan clergy she had
been constrained to accept. Yet, in the midst of all these misfortunes,
thus much at least was gained; men were forced to understand the true
grounds of their position and to learn, as the Church in Scotland learnt
by a sharper lesson, that State aid, and State protection, are not among
the essentials of the Church. The misfortune of so many friends, and
especially that of good Archbishop Sancroft, must greatly have moved
Wren, and it is provoking that his grandson has given no intimation of
his ancestor's views, not even saying on which side he voted in the
Convention Parliament, which offered the crown to William and Mary.
Wren certainly knew how to manage his Windsor constituents. He had
erected from time to time several buildings there, among which was the
Town Hall, built upon arches, with a wide vaulted space below, which is
now used as the Corn Exchange.
When all was finished, the mayor and corporation came in state to
inspect the new building, and to stamp with their approval another of
the great architect's works. Much seems to have been approved of, but
one member of the municipality declared in alarm that the room above the
vaulted space was inadequately supported and would one day fall in.
[_ADDITIONAL PROPS._]
In vain Wren, who had built vault after vault and knew to a nicety what
weight each of his arches would bear, explained the perfect security of
the upper room; the anxious man could not be pacified and the architect
promised to put two columns below. He did so, and the alderman was
calmed, little knowing that Sir Christopher's columns when complete had
about half an inch of space between themselves and the ceiling they were
supposed to support! Wren must many a time have laughed to himself when
he passed that way.
Two other buildings of his, one of which is called 'the Bank House,'
stand in Windsor not far from what are known as 'The Hundred Steps.'
There is another house there of his design, now used by the freemasons
and the volunteers. Wren sent his eldest son to Eton, where the boy was
at this time, and afterwards to Pembroke College, where his name alone
was a recommendation.
In 1689 Wren finished building the College of Physicians in Warwick
Lane; as far as the confined space would admit, the front was handsome,
but the dome and its ornament provoked the satire of Garth in the
opening lines of his 'Dispensary':[203]
Not far from that most celebrated place,[204]
Where angry justice shows her awful face,
Where little villains must submit to fate
That great ones may enjoy the world in state;
There stands a dome majestic to the sight,
And sumptuous arches bear its oval height;
A golden globe, placed high with artful skill
Seems, to the distant sight, a gilded pill.
Whatever its exterior defects may have been, the theatre within was
arranged with masterly skill so as to enable all the students to see and
hear during the lectures and demonstration. The difficult science of
acoustics was one to which Wren gave much attention, and his churches
are, in this respect, very successful. The Physicians retained the
college Wren built for them until very recent times, when they moved
into the present building which does not adorn Trafalgar Square.
Not all the Halls belonging to the City Companies perished by the fire,
though many suffered severely. Wren, and Jarman, the City Architect,
rebuilt and repaired some seventy-nine of them.[205]
Of these, a large number have been altered or pulled down, but a few may
be mentioned.
The Mercers' Hall in Cheapside; the Grocers', a portion of which was
long used by the Bank of England; the Haberdashers', where the rich
ceiling was its great ornament; the Tallow Chandlers', with its interior
colonnade and its fountain; the Apothecaries', one of the largest in the
City; the Stationers'; and, last but not least, the Alderman's Court
adjoining Guildhall, rebuilt almost immediately after the fire; a very
handsome room, rich in carving, and finely proportioned.
S. Edmund the King, in Lombard Street, was finished this year. The
necessities of the site caused Wren to build it north and south, the
altar being at the north end. The front to Lombard Street, the only part
of the outside visible, is of stone and very picturesque with its belfry
and little domed spire. The interior has been lately re-arranged with a
wise treatment of the old work and carving. The 'marble font possesses,
like that of S. Mary Abchurch, a very beautiful canopied cover; it is in
two stages, the lower being domed, and above are four seated figures of
the Cardinal Virtues; it is railed in and is on the west side of the
church.'[206]
S. Margaret's, Lothbury, belongs to the same date, and was rebuilt of
stone. Some years later Wren bestowed much rich wood carving on the
interior. He chose the Corinthian style for this building and handled it
with considerable skill.
[_HAMPTON COURT._]
Queen Mary, who had the Stuart love for genius, was invariably gracious
and even friendly to Wren, with whom she held many a conversation on
matters of art and science. He considered her to be very well versed in
all these subjects and enjoyed discussing them freely with her. Queen
Mary was much charmed with the situation of Cardinal Wolsey's old palace
of Hampton Court, and engaged Wren to make alterations there. The old
buildings were accordingly in part pulled down and two sets of royal
apartments built; Queen Mary, though she amused herself with planning
the gardens and making suggestions, had yet the wisdom to defer to
Wren's better taste and knowledge. Her husband, with characteristic
obstinacy, insisted on his own ideas, thereby dwarfing the cloisters and
marring much of the architecture. It is, however, fair to say that King
William always owned that the defects[207] were his, the merits, Wren's;
and these merits are very great, as anyone who knows the fine old palace
with its rich red brick, its arcades, and the quaint formal gardens will
readily allow. He built, at about the same time, the Pavilion and
Ranger's House in Bushey Park.
Kensington Palace was also under Wren's hands. It had been the property
of Lord Chancellor Finch, and was sold by his son to William III. Wren
added another story to the old house, which forms the north front of the
palace, and also built the south front. The defect of the building as
seen at the end of the long avenue of Kensington Gardens is its want of
height, but on a nearer approach this fault is much diminished. King
William was in the midst of his Irish campaign while the work went on,
but found time to send back repeated inquiries as to its progress, and
complaints when that did not answer his expectations. There, five years
later, Queen Mary died, to the regret of all her subjects, and even of
her cold-hearted husband.
[_GREENWICH AS A HOSPITAL._]
Nor were these the only palaces which Wren contrived for Queen Mary.
That of Greenwich had been begun by Inigo Jones for Henrietta Maria, and
a wing had been built for Charles II., but it had been left unfinished.
Wren, who knew Greenwich well from his visits to the Observatory, and
who took a great interest in sailors, observing the entire lack of any
refuge for them in illness, proposed to Queen Mary the magnificent plan
of making the palace into a seaman's hospital. The Queen willingly
entered into the idea, and proposed to add to the Queen's House, as it
was called, so as to make it a dwelling for herself, at the same time.
Evelyn, Sir Stephen Fox and others, came readily into the scheme and
contributed liberally. Wren's contribution, though not in money, was a
liberal one also; for he gave his time, labour, skill and
superintendence, despite his innumerable other works.
The plans were prepared and money collected, but nothing was actually
done until some years later.
Wren's eldest son had in the meantime finished his Eton and Cambridge
career and had obtained, by his father's interest, the post, which must
surely have been a sinecure! of Assistant Deputy Engrosser. He does not
seem to have inherited any of the brilliant genius of his father, though
apparently of very fair abilities and with much taste for antiquities.
Far more like Sir Christopher was his daughter Jane, who shared his
tastes and studies and took a vivid interest in his work. She added to
her other accomplishments that of being a very skilful musician. She was
never married, but remained all her life her father's affectionate
companion.
Wren's old friend, Dr. Bathurst of Trinity College, Oxford, appealed to
him, in the spring of 1692, for help in the buildings which were still
going on there.
'Worthy Sir,--When I sent Mr. Phips (the surveyor of the buildings)
to wait on you with a scheme of our new building, he told me how
kindly you was pleased to express your remembrance of me, and that
you would send me your thoughts concerning our design; and
particularly of the pinnacles, the which as they were superadded to
our first draught, so I must confess I would be well content to
have omitted with your approbation. The season for our falling to
work again will now speedily come on; which makes me the more
hasten to entreat from you the trouble of two or three lines in
relation to the promises whereby you will farther oblige,
'Sir, your old friend, and ever faithful servant,
'R. BATHURST.'
Wren's answer comes promptly, and shows his generous readiness to help
the schemes of others, no matter how pressing his own work was.
[_HE SENDS HIS THOUGHTS._]
'Sir,--I am extremely glad to hear of your good health, and, what
is more, that you are vigorous and active, and employed in
building. I considered the design you sent me of your Chapel which
in the main is very well, and I believe your work is too far
advanced to admit of any advice: however, I have sent my thoughts,
which will be of use to the mason to form his mouldings.
'He will find two sorts of cornice; he may use either. I did not
well comprehend how the tower would have good bearing upon that
side where the stairs rise. I have ventured a change of the stairs,
to leave the wall next the porch of sufficient scantling to bear
that part which rises above the roofs adjoining.
'There is no necessity for pinnacles, and those expressed in the
printed design are much too slender.
'I have given another way to the rail and baluster, which will
admit of a vase that will stand properly upon the pilaster.[208]
'Sir, I wish you success and health and long life, with all the
affection that is due from,
'Your obliged, faithful friend, and humble servant,
'CHRISTOPHER WREN.
'P.S. A little deal box, with a drawing in it, is sent by Thomas
Moore, Oxford carrier.'
In the same year the Church of S. Andrew by the Wardrobe[209] was
finished; recent alterations in the city have benefited this building;
it now stands well above a flight of steps, with its square tower, and
the red brick which contrives to be red and not black, and stone
dressings.
Two years later Wren rebuilt All Hallows, Lombard Street, on an ancient
foundation: outside it is one of his plainest and most solid churches,
inside he spent upon it much rich work and curious carving both in stone
and wood.
S. Michael Royal, College Hill, belongs to this same date, and was built
under Wren's directions by Edward Strong, his master-mason. It is a
well-lit, handsome church with a tower at one corner, and contains an
altar-piece of singular beauty, carved by Grinling Gibbons in 'right
wainscot oak.' The old church was founded and made a collegiate church
of S. Spiritus and S. Mary by no less a person than Sir Richard
Whittington, three times Lord Mayor of London (1397, 1406, 1419), whose
fame, with that of his cat, survives in the well-known story. He founded
also another college, known as the Whittington College, and endowed it
with a divinity lecture 'for ever.' Edward VI., however, suppressed both
the colleges and the lecture, though the Whittington College was allowed
partially to survive as almshouses for poor men. Whittington[210] was
buried in this church, but his monument perished in the Fire.
In the following year Wren added a well-proportioned, peculiar steeple,
the gift of the parishioners, to the little stone Church of S.
Vedast[211] in Foster Lane, a church to which a painful interest now
attaches from the recent persecution and imprisonment of its rector, the
Rev. T. P. Dale.
The church was decorated, as was Wren's custom, with fret-work, carving,
and stucco, but is not otherwise remarkable.
S. Mary's, Somerset, or Somers'hithe, was likewise finished in this
year: a stone church with two aisles surmounted by a handsome cornice
and balustrade; its great feature was the beautiful pinnacled tower,
which, though the church is gone, still stands a perpetual memorial of
that reckless disregard of God's honour, which has counted any common
want, any farthing of money, of more importance than the claims of His
service, or than gifts solemnly offered to Him.[212]
[_CLIPT WINGS._]
[_A GRAND DESIGN._]
The Cathedral meanwhile grew slowly, though many a hindrance annoyed its
architect. The Parliament took part of the fabric money and applied it
to the expenses of King William's wars, so that, as Sir Christopher
complained, his wings were clipt and the Church was deprived of its
ornaments.[213] The organ was another annoyance. Sir Christopher's wish
and intention was to place the organ where it now is, on either side of
the choir, in order to leave the vista clear from the west door to the
altar, which in his design stood grandly raised under a handsome canopy.
This was overruled, and the organ was to be placed in a gallery cutting
right across the entrance of the choir. With his wonted philosophy, Wren
bent his mind to reducing as much as possible the injury to the
architectural effect, by keeping the pipes as low as he could. But in
the builder of the organ, Bernard Smith, or 'Father' Smith, as he is
called, Wren had a difficult person to deal with. Far from lowering the
pipes, Smith made them higher than in his estimate, so that the case and
ornaments had to be enlarged, and Sir Christopher complained bitterly
that the Cathedral 'was spoilt by that box of whistles.' The rival organ
builder, Renatus Harris, if indeed he was the author of an anonymous
paper, called 'Queries about the S. Paul's Organ,[214] was not sparing
in his criticisms. One query asks
'Whether Sir C. Wren wou'd not have been well pleas'd to have
receiv'd such a proposal from the organ builder of S. Paul's, as
shou'd have erected an organ, so as to have separated twenty foot
in the middle, as low as the gallery, and thereby a full and airy
prospect of the whole length of the church, and six fronts with
towers as high as requisite?'
This question is easy enough to answer, and fortunately Wren's wishes
have been at last fulfilled by that division of the organ, which now
leaves the desired clear view from the great western doors to the altar.
Harris, in 1712, proposed to erect a great organ over the west doors of
the Cathedral,
'study'd to be in all respects made the most artful, costly and
magnificent piece of organ-work that ever has hitherto been
invented. The use of it will be for the reception of the Queen, on
all publick occasions of thanksgivings for the good effect of peace
or war, upon all state days, S. Cecilia's Day, the entertainment of
foreigners of quality, and artists, and on all times of greatest
concourse etc., and by the advice and assistance of Sir C. Wren,
the external figure and ornaments may be contrived so
proportionable to the order of the building, as to be a decoration
to that part of the edifice and no obstruction to any of the
rest.... Sir Christopher Wren approves it.'
Alas! at that time Wren's approval was enough to determine the majority
of the commission to reject any plan thus sanctioned, and Renatus
Harris's grand design survives on paper alone.
FOOTNOTES:
[199] The name is often supposed to originate in the patten-makers
who are said to have lived near, but its origin is more
probably 'S. Margaret _with the Paten_.'
[200] 'Not,' says Evelyn (_Diary_, May 18, 1688), 'that they were
averse to the publisheing of it for want of due tendernesse
towards Dissenters ... but that the Declaration being founded
on such a dispensing power as might at pleasure set aside all
laws ecclesiastical, it appeared to them illegal and ... a
point of such consequence that they could not so far make
themselves parties to it as the reading of it in church during
the time of Divine Service would have done.' They were sent to
the Tower June 8, for refusing to give bail for their
appearance. They refused on the ground that to do so would
have prejudiced their peerage. The bishops were Francis Turner
of Ely, William Lloyd of S. Asaph, Thomas Ken of Bath and
Wells, John Lake of Chichester, Sir Jonathan Trelawney of
Bristol, Thomas White of Peterborough, and William Sancroft,
Archbishop of Canterbury.
[201] The mechanical part is done by the women convicts of Woking
Gaol.
[202] _New View of London_, vol. ii. p. 423.
[203] Canto i. Samuel Garth, a physician of some fame, who provided
for Dryden's funeral in Westminster Abbey. Died 1718.
[204] Newgate.
[205] See Appendix ii.
[206] R. I. B. A. Sessional Papers, 1876-7, p. 162.
[207] Horace Walpole says that Wren's descendant assured him that
Sir C. Wren had prepared a far better design for Hampton Court
which Queen Mary preferred, but it was overruled by William
III. This may only mean the cloisters, as Walpole is not
accurate.--_Anec._, vol. iii.
[208] This plan was adopted. Dr. Bathurst died in May 1704 at the
age of 86.
[209] So called from being in the street where formerly was a strong
tower where several kings, and Queen Philippa, Edward the
Third's wife, lodged, also called the Queen's Wardrobe, as the
building near S. Andrew's was the King's Wardrobe.--_New
View_, vol. ii. p. 427.
[210] 'The said Sir R. Whittington, as he was three times Lord
Mayor, was as often buried in this church; first, by his
executors under a fine monument; second, by the avaricious
parson for the riches he hoped to find; and a third time by
his friends, to interr him in lead under his monument as at
first.'--_New View_, p. 428.
[211] 'S. Vedast was Bishop of Arras, A.D. 484, a man of great
holiness and charity. Once he met with a cruel bear prowling
in the ruins of an old Christian church; at his command the
bear departed into the wilderness and never returned there
again. S. Vedast is usually pictured with a
bear.'--_Repertorium_, Newcourt, vol. i. p. 563.
[212] Fourteen churches (eleven of which were built by Wren) have
been destroyed since 1781; during which time the increase of
the City population has been by hundreds of thousands. The
only attempt at an apology for this destruction has been based
on the fact that on _Sundays_ the City is empty. On so poor a
plea as this the churches have been closely shut throughout
the other days of the week, their incumbents have lived far
away, leaving their parishioners uncared for; and then, when a
grudgingly given Sunday service has been poorly attended, have
hastened first to close and then to help in destroying the
buildings which reproached them; and have called it 'thinning
the City churches.'--See on this subject, _Sessional Papers_,
1876-7, R. I. B. A.
[213] _Three Cathedrals_, Longman, p. 151.
[214] _Documents illustrating the History of S. Paul's_, p. 165-72.